Hey family, we have this week’s updates ready for you. Unfortunately this week Sije Jamie had some family stuff to take care of, so we where unable to have our weekly Q&A webinar. But that opened up some doors for some other stuff. Earlier I was teaching Mark who trains with Sifu Phu as well as is a family member of Enter Shaolin. He was going through a common struggle we all face in our martial arts. He said that he felt like he we constantly climbing uphill in his training. He has been training for about 3.5 years now.
I chuckled a bit because it still feels like I am climbing uphill in my training and I’ve been training with Sifu Phu for the past 22 years. In fact for the past 2 decades, I have felt like I am climbing uphill and to be honest that’s a good thing. When your training starts to feel easy it means it’s time for you to find new ways to push yourself.
What I can tell you is that a decision to train in martial arts means that you decided to pursue excellence for the rest of your life. Rather than seeking a end point in your training seek to enjoy the journey.
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” – Henry Ford
Before Sije Jamie headed out to take her daughter to her appointment, I had her push hands and play hands with Mark for about 15 minutes. She asked him how much training he gets in and shared like we have often in other weekly updates, webinars, etc., that you can train all the time by implementing the NDN principles intro everything you do. He mentioned he was doing that at his job. The point is he was practicing more than he realized. 😉
Right now he has one private lesson a week with Sifu and he also training for about 10-15 minutes a day, besides applying NDN principles to work. I think Sije Jamie, opened his eyes up to he can truly make each moment an opportunity to train.
A private lesson last 60 minutes. If you trained everyday for 10 minutes you would equal taking 1 private lesson a week. Which is what most private students do. I took this conversation 1 step further and said you can at the very least watch 1 lesson inside the training vault a day. Even if you watched just 1 video a day it would still take you 2.5 years to get through the amount of content we have. And the reality is you would never catch up because that is without us adding anything new in, which we do weekly.
I would rather see you train for 10-15 minutes a day everyday then to train for 2 hours only once a week. A big part of your training is getting the knowledge and skill set embedded into your subconscious mind., so can you imagine the power of being consistent and consistently considering how these new tools and principles apply to your daily life?
Often times people go to their lessons (public or private) and after their lesson they forget their lesson. Sort of like out of sight, out of mind type of thing. When you train everyday you are actually keeping the focus on your martial arts throughout your day. You start thinking about how to move like Sije Jamie does, whether cooking, dancing, walking, driving, exercising or anything that requires movement and/or touch and you will really work on recall and making these principles second nature.
Imagine that for moment, putting in 10 minutes a day everyday for the next 20 years. Also change the way you see training. Apply your martial arts knowledge to every situation in your life…
Putting the time into your training over a long period is like investing in yourself. You won’t be the same person you where when you started if you can stay consistent for the next 20 years.
The way you walk, talk, bend down, play sports, watching movies, getting in arguments etc…. Pretty much everything you do in life see it through the eyes of a martial artist and an opportunity to train and refine you.
Can you see now how easy it can be for you to literally put in 2, 3, or more hours in a day in focused training? I incorporate my martial arts training to practically everything I do, what about you?
Some of my main things are mountain biking, weight lifting, arguing, etc…. Arguing is a great time to practice your martial arts and I don’t mean by fighting. If you find yourself getting upset or angry quickly find your breath and focus on your breathing. Work on managing your breath, your awareness and your emotions.
You will be surprised how quickly you can change your emotional state once you become aware of it. Being able to control your emotional state is very important when it comes to self defense or during a time of great stress.
Always Spend time investing in yourself!
Are you spending time investing in yourself? What are some of the things you do to train every day? What are things that you do now that invest in creating a better you? Do you read, meditate, exercise, etc.? Let us know in the comment section below.
Now on to your training…
Your Free Training Hall Video Of The Week:
(ACCESS LEVEL: ALL)
Women’s Self Defense
What’s New In The Training Hall This Week:
(ACCESS LEVEL: Junior, Senior and Abbot)
C.O.R.E. Training
Ngo Dac Na
Tai Chi
Happy Training,
Sifu Larry Rivera
& The Enter Shaolin Family
1-844-9-KUNGFU
Great post Sifu Larry!!! It really is that simple! I find people tend to focus too much on what they think they should be, or get too caught up in wanting to be better and then “forcing” the training, which leads them to develop bad habits. Most people are guilty of that, myself included. For myself, I’ve realized that if I break it down day-by-day, lesson-by-lesson, then I can focus on improving the lesson at hand instead of carrying the ‘weight of the world’. If we carried this mindset daily we would soon realize how much better we’ve become over time, instead of thinking we should be better than we are at that point in time.
I try to invest in myself as much as I can, and I think ‘self-improvement’ has become somewhat of a habit. Besides training martial arts in the classroom and in home sessions (training on my own), I play guitar, work out, meditate, work on my parenting and husbandry skills, and search out self study courses to expand my knowledge in pretty much anything I can think of. Professionally, I’m always working on improving my business skills and leadership abilities through training and leadership coaching.
It is all about continuous improvement. It doesn’t matter how you begin as long as there a continuous improvement process to be measured.
Happy training!
J
Good stuff Jason! What type of guitar do play?
If you mean what type of genres, then I spent a lot of time playing hard rock/metal, but have recently begun expanding my horizons with classical and some country. But honestly I will play and listen to anything as long as it has musical appeal.
If you mean the actual type of guitar, I have a couple of six-string electric guitars (Ibanez and ESP-LTD), as well as a beat-up six-string acoustic and a Takamine 12-string acoustic-electric (my favorite). I would life to get a classical guitar eventually.
Sweet! I have a Fender Strat, An Ibanez Steve Vai Series electrics. I also have a fender Gemini 2 and a Martin D35 I also have an acoustic/electric 12 string ovation. I’ve been playing guitar since about 11.
I tend to play a lot of different genres as well as well as music from the 40’s up…
Thank you Sifu Larry for your guidance. Very relevant issue. Terry Hall
You’re welcome Terry.
I’m investing in myself by learning how to create and market a digital product.
Awesome Melani!