dehydrated

Last weekend I had a conversation with Mr. Duncan about addictions, I was sharing with him that I also have an addiction. I love food. I love food in any shape or form. I like to experiment food and I like familiar comfort food.

When I am busy, I can go without food but when I am not busy I find myself living in the fridge or in the pantry. If I did not work out as much as I do, I would have been a 300 pounds dude.

After talking to Mr. Duncan, I was thinking about why am I hungry all the time and I came to realization that maybe I'm not hungry. Maybe I'm thirsty and my mind is interpenetrating it as hunger.

Then I was talking to Sifu Regier about it and realized what other affects dehydration might have on my body. I also realize that I need to have an easy access to water in order to drink it. If I have to put an effort into it, I will get juice or something else.

There is no easy way. I just need to drink more (water). I will track my intake daily and keep you posted once in a while on how much I'm drinking. Out of curiosity - I was wondering how much water each one of you drinks everyday???

Good to Great

The biggest enemy of being great is being good.

The book "Good to Great" aims to describe how companies transition from being average companies to great companies and how companies can fail to make the transition.

From my point of view, I want to understand how a martial artist is transforming from a good martial artist into a great martial artist. How to avoid failing making this transition. 

Is it just practicing more? developing a better eye for details? trying new techniques and forms? enforcing the base techniques and forms? mental growth, physical growth? combination of all?
How do we even measure a martial artist and mark them as great? is this subjective? 

I think that if I got my black belt and stopped, I would have been a good martial artist (or maybe even a martial artist). If I keep going with my training and keep progressing, I am becoming a great martial artist. This is why the IHC is such a great program as it is giving you the tools and the opportunities toward mastery, towards being great.

New Year Resolutions?

There are numerous opportunities throughout the year to set "New Year Resolutions". It can be on the start of the new year, the start of a program/project, on your birthday. But if you want to change or get better with something, why wait? Just stat now! Start on any day of the year. Don't wait for some arbitrary date. It is probably more sustainable not to set new year resolutions as they tend to be non-achievable for most people.

Now, we all need to have goals and dreams. So go ahead and set your new years goals. Plan your next IHC goals. But if you think the goal is worthy of you doing it for life - start doing it NOW.

Akesi Farms

We had a pretty busy schedule last few days. Then we fron to our friends farm on Saturday and everything was different. 

Although we were visiting with them I was able to relax an forget about work. Forget about anything that stresses me out. 

The kids are playing outside all the time. We were snow shoeing, tobogganing, boot skating, enjoying the mountain views, playing with the dogs, viewing the chickens. 

What a disconnect. Needed this weekend for a long time. 

How to get better?

The year of the sheep is nearing it's end and while we still have lots to do and prepare this year I'm already thinking of what is going to happen next year - the year of the monkey.

I've ordered a new weapon and received the wrong one... Now I will have 2 different weapons. We will see how that goes. I am finalizing my personal goals.

All that made me think about why I'm signing up again. I want to continue what I started when I joined IHC. To be a better person, parent, martial artist.

When I decide to be part of the IHC team, I know that I am making a decision of prioritizing Kung Fu and the team. I have to stay engaged in order for my year to be successful. It is not easy but this year I will have both my son and my wife in the team. I'm sure there will be lots of weapons flying around the house...

I would like to ask each one of you who signed up for the monkey team to think how can you make it a better year for you? We had a pretty good year but I know we can get even better.

Wasteful Time

We don't have a lot of time to spare. No matter what scale you look at it. Everyday there are so many things that need to be done. Every year there are so many goals that need to be achieved. Our life span is not long enough to all that we wish to.

However there is always wasted and better ways to manage our time. Last week I've been in some meetings at work that felt like we are missing the point and that we just wasting our time. Yesterday I went to buy some doughnuts for Hanukkah and I had to wait 15 minutes in line. Today I planned to do some work and found myself staring at Facebook posts.

How can we get to a level of efficiency without being burnt out too fast? How can I run an efficient day where every minute count and nothing is wasted? I'm going to try to log my day tomorrow and see what is happening throughout the day. It will be an interesting experience.  

Monkey? Bahhh, not yet. I'm still a SHEEP

It is very tempting to look at the next year of IHC and think "what will I be doing?", "what will be my goals?". But at this point I need to see where I am now in this year's of IHC.

I have some personal goals that were not at the top of my to-do list. I've been too busy with other tasks. Important as they are, I still committed to my personal goals and I plan to work on them. I still have time before the end of the year.

I planned to learn how to play the guitar. I borrowed a guitar and got some training apps but the guitar I got is a junior guitar and my fingers are too fat... I need to re-evaluate what I'm going to do. Either I need to purchase an adult guitar or maybe switch to learn how to play the piano... (as we do have one at home).

My second goal was to complete a native art project. I really neglected this and I do hope to pick it up during the holidays season. The big art project I had hoped for might need to wait for the summer (as it is outdoors) but I have some ideas for a project I can do indoors.

Focusing on what I have to do this year and accomplishing it is crucial for me before figuring out what next year will be.