How do you revive someones engagement?

Engagement is a funny thing. What is the first thing you do when you do not feel engaged? You stop.

When you have something you value for many years, the more look at it you may find more flaws, more issues. Obviously nothing is perfect. But when you for example look at a circle and see some dents and curves, does it mean it is not a circle? What it means that there is still value in what you do even if it is not perfect.

Some people need a reset, some need a kick in the butt. But it is hard to motivate someone who made their mind to stop. How do you get them to start or continue. How do you make them see the value they saw before?

How do you revive someones engagement?

Lessons Learned

You work, work, work and then it is all done. And then what? Continue to the next thing.
It never ends and we keep chancing after the next goal, the next challenge.
Do you know why? Do you know what is the purpose behind all this?

I'm in Pittsburgh. On Friday we implemented phase 1 of our project. The client is extremely happy as they get to use functionality they never had. So, I made other peoples' work better. I should be happy about that. But I can't help feeling that we could have done better.

How do I carry this over to the future. How do I make it not just a lesson learned but actually change how things are done?

15 Years

Next month it will be 15 years since I moved into Canada and that made me think about a lot of things in the last few weeks.

It was not easy to find work when I moved here and I did the math and my salary today is almost 4 times as much as I made the first year in Canada. Unfortunately it never seems to be enough. Why?

I made some friends since I moved here but it is not the same as life friends (you know - the ones you have known since grade 2). Shouldn't you be able to become good friend with someone in few years?

I looked at photos from 10 years ago. And though I had specific image of what I looked like back then, it was not the right image. I already had excess weight back then.

All these things in my head and all I can think is that it is really depends on what I do. But deciding and planning is not enough. I need to follow through. Hmmm...

Day Off

This week was a hard one. I flew to Pittsburgh on Monday and came back on Wednesday. The days were long. Thursday and Friday were busy too. I was hoping to get some rest over the weekend but like always it was busy.

I should take a day off and tell nobody. Not even myself.

Stop the Hate

Nothing new about this. There is lots of hatred in the world. For centuries people went to wars because of different beliefs, different views, different color, size, shape, ...

Why can't people just accept other people as they are?

On Saturday while participating in the Tiger Challenge, I got a message from my sister asking me if I am OK. There was a shooting incident in Pittsburgh which is where I spend about a week every month. A shooting incident that happened just because someone is hating someone else. Not the individuals that were killed and injured. The shooter did not know them personally. He purely shot them because they were different from what he is.

And I am in the kwoon with people that have different religious beliefs from mine, people from different backgrounds, with different shapes, colors, views - but we are working together and we are not hating or hurting each other. Why can't the whole world be like that??? 

What is important to me?

Every once in a while I go somewhere and see something that makes we wish I had something I do not have...

I am pretty happy with what I have and where I am but once in a while I am looking a the Johnson's. :-(

But wondering what I should have done is worthless. If something is really important to me, I should make a plan to get it and keep working on it. If I am not doing it, then it is not that important.

This is also true in Kung Fu. I am not going to be the same as any other person in Kung Fu. I will work and improve on what is important to me.

Family and sharing what we love

I always enjoyed the fact that Kung Fu allows me to spend time with my family. It started with me spending lots of time with Kobe and then with Sharida and the girls as well. It is still fun to be able to practice together. I always feared from the day one of them will decide to quit but it seems they are too scared at this point to do so... 😏

Now this year I am also enjoying spending time with my kids in other activities they are enrolled in. Kobe started playing basketball lots. It is fun to play with him although he is already better then me. We also enjoy watching NBA games together. Noa also started playing and I enjoy watching her practices and games. The other two, Shira and Aviva, decided to join gymnastics. OK here is my limit - I cannot really practice with them but I do enjoy watching them practice.

I am spending lots more time this year watching them in activities other than Kung Fu. But I think that the time we share at the kwoon allowed us to develop the connection we have today.