Sunday Story...Burn the Ships

Sunday Story…Burn the Ships

I have heard this story so many times and to be honest I have no idea if it is true or not but it does serve to illustrate the point of today’s missal: Hernando Cortez, in 1519, after landing on the Yucatan peninsula in what is now Mexico commanded his men to “Burn the ships.” This decision sealed the fate of the Aztec people and their empire and probably altered the course of history throughout South and Central America. His army was stunned and one man asked “how will we get back home to our families?” Cortez said, “We will conquer the Aztec army and sail home in their ships.” Simply put…Cortez created a point of no return. Win or Die.

Cortez crossed the Rubicon...the River of no return. Once I have crossed the Rubicon, I can’t turn back. I can’t decide this is a bad idea. I can’t turn around. This is a commitment rarely seen in today’s world. Yet we love the people who represent this ideal. It is the Jobs and Wozniak in their garage creating Apple Computer having dropped out of college. The image of Michael Jordan, after being cut from his freshman basketball team shooting free throw after free throw to create what, arguably, became the greatest basketball player to play the game. Remember our founding fathers? They all knew that failure was going to result in their own deaths, imprisonment or enslavement of their families and continued tyranny for their countrymen. Over and over we hear these stories of dedication, drive, and determination and we get inspired. It brings tears to our eyes.

In the movie “Facing the Giants” there is a scene where one player, after buying into a defeatist attitude carries another player on his back for 100 yards…a seemingly impossible feat. Failure was not an option. He was not given a choice he was only given the option of moving forward. If you aren’t giving your absolute best you aren’t giving enough. It you want to see the clip go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0dLpQPVjh8&feature=related
What is your Rubicon? What is your river of no return? When are you going to decide to cross it? When are you going to burn your ships?

There is always a point of no return. The place where you have gone so far that turning around is no longer an option. There is only forward. There is only through to the end. You might have to alter the route, alter the plan but there is no longer the ability to stop and go back. There is no re-set button. There is no Plan B…there is only success.

Too often we want a Plan B. We want a way out if Plan A doesn’t work. But how often do you really have a Plan B? Plan B is almost always some ill-conceived vague notion of doing something else if what we really want doesn’t work. Just imagine walking into a dark room and taking 3 steps forward when someone behind you pulls the door shut. You don’t know how to go forward and you can’t go back. The ships are burnt. It is a little late for Plan B. You better find a way out, through or get to the light switch or prepare to be stuck in that dark room for a while…until someone rescues you or you succeed. Is that your Plan B? Wait to get rescued? Is your mama going to show up and pull you out of trouble? Bad Plan. How about this one…Succeed or die trying. When I want to succeed as much as I want to breathe I will be successful.

Plan B is an excuse to fail. I mean if you have a Plan B and it is so good why don’t you just do Plan B? Maybe Plan B should be Plan A! What’s your Plan B if you wake up and you aren’t breathing? There isn’t one right? You aren’t breathing. I am not doing what I should be doing. When I want to succeed as much as I want my next breath I will be successful. What do you want as much as you want your next breath? Do you even know?

Therein lays the problem. You don’t even know where your Rubicon is. You have no idea. Losing some weight sounds like a good idea. Getting in shape sounds like a good idea. Living a healthy life style sounds like a good idea. The world is full of good ideas. The world has good ideas by the bushel. What the world needs is for you to decide that your weight loss, your physical condition, your mental or emotional state, your substance addiction, your poor relationship with your (pick one—spouse, child, parent) is so important, so critical, so integral to your being that you would rather die than fail, you would rather stop breathing than not be successful. At that point “Burn the Ships” is a reality. There is no Plan B. There is only the Plan and there is only the execution of the plan.

Maybe you need to hire a trainer, a nutritionist, a counselor, a confidante, a something to get you up and off the cabana chair to burn those boats. Maybe you need to make a wager, tell the world in a public declaration or make some grand gesture that will prove to yourself that your journey is one so highly committed, so dedicated that failure is off the table.

I don’t know what will get you that committed. I do know that without crossing the Rubicon ultimate success will elude you and me. It is in the act of crossing the river, burning the ships, creating a do or die mentality that truly amazing and powerful things will come into being.

Go ahead…Burn the Ships…end a life of putting one toe in and pulling out…Burn the Ships

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...My House

Sunday Story…My House

is a very nice house. I have been building it for years. I know where everything is because I put it there. I built the places to put things in and the rooms for them to go into. It is my house.

I also populated it with people. The people living in my house are there because I let them be there. I asked them in, or I at least allowed them to stay for a while. Some of them are not very good house guests; others are great to have around. And still others are in hiding. They are hiding in places I have forgotten or don’t want to go into any longer.

I built this house. I created it to look the way I wanted it to look. I did it. Now way too often I was just building something without knowing what it was that I was building. It may have started out one way but then I changed my mind in mid-build and turned the garage into a bathroom or vice versa. When I look around my house it feels pretty good…after all I have been living here for my entire life.

You might look at my house and see some sort of M.C. Escher-esque creation but it doesn’t look that way to me. See it functions for me no matter what you think of it. Maybe it doesn’t quite work that way I would really like but I built and it is good enough.

You might ask, however, “what about all those rooms that you built and sealed off? What about the people living in those rooms …the ones you have forgotten about?” You might also wonder about the stairs that go nowhere, the garage that is too small for a car or the bathroom big enough for a tank. It just doesn’t appear to have much rhyme or reason.

So…the people living in all the rooms of my house are all me. After all it is my house and I am the only one living in it. There are parts of me that I tucked away for various reasons. Maybe when I was little I needed to hide and be kept safe. So I crawled into the closet under that stairs that don’t go anywhere and stayed there. The rest of me grew up and that little guy stayed in that closet, forgotten for all this time. This is especially easy to do when I don’t have to walk up those stairs and wonder what is in that closet.

That little guy in that closet got left behind. He is still there, he is still safe. But he can’t come out until I go and get him. I have to re-discover that part of the house…the part I built and then left for a variety of reasons. Then I have to coax him out of hiding. And it isn’t going to be easy. It isn’t just open the door and out he jumps. He has been in there a very long time. He doesn’t trust me or anyone else. So I am going to have to convince him it is time to come out and it is safe to come out, that I am going to take care of him now because I can and it is my adult job to do it.

This is not an easy process. It requires a huge amount of work on your interior landscape. A huge shift in the way you are building your house for the future. It is also going to require some remodeling of what you have already built. After all, how many closets did you build and then forget? How many pieces of yourself have you left behind in those little rooms?

When we speak of integration this is what we are talking about…the process of bringing the pieces of you home to live in the main house with the rest of the family. This is a life of integrity…to live in a way that is whole and in alignment with who you are today and with the vision of who you are going to be tomorrow.

What does your house look like? I am sure it is a very nice house but how many blind hallways are there? How many staircases that lead nowhere? How many rooms are there that no longer serve any purpose. How many people have you left behind to keep them safe and secure? Do you have any idea at all? Have you ever tried to step out of your house and looked back at it to see what the casual viewer from the street might see?

I know it is easy not to do this. I know that even thinking of this stuff might make your brain hurt. I know you think you have done your “work”. I know you think you are OK, that you have “worked through all your stuff”. But are you really? Or did you just close off that wing of your house. Why go down those hallways that lead nowhere anyway?

Why, indeed. It is very simple really…your life is incomplete. It is missing vital pieces that will enrich and create an integrated person driven with purpose and vision. This is the work that will inspire you and your people to become the powerful and amazing humans you were created to be.

Or you can just leave it alone and hope those doors never get opened. That those people hiding in those closets never get stirred up and decide to start making trouble in those funny little rooms. That is when life gets way past a little funky. That is when the house starts falling down on its own and has us wondering why and what did I do to deserve this and why is it happening to me.

Because you didn’t do your work. You didn’t finish your work. I know I haven’t. I keep at it. I keep finding those rooms and fixing them up, re-claiming those parts that I tucked away so long ago knowing I get back to them someday when I have better tools to get the job done.

The time is now. You and I have the tools. Let’s go to work. It is time now.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...Good Things

Sunday Story…Good Things

Come to those who wait. Delayed gratification is a skill and virtue over looked in our modern world. We are so conditioned to getting everything right now that when we have to wait, or worse yet we have to plan to wait that the idea is as foreign as eating insects.

I get my email (which is immediate) on my cell phone which is even more immediate. I get messages on my phone and the phone tells me right now. I no longer have to wait to get home and check the “answering machine”. If I want a cherry pie at 2AM in January I am probably only 10 or 20 minutes away from one. Strawberries in February? Mangoes and bananas so far from the tropics? We are conditioned to want things and conditioned to get them now.

It wasn’t always this way. It used to be we ate the food that was in season. If asparagus wasn’t being picked nearby we weren’t getting any and certainly not out of season. If we wanted to buy something we saved the money for it…we didn’t buy it today and pay for it tomorrow.

The smell of garlic cooking permeated my house last night. The tomatoes were roasting in the oven with copious amounts of garlic, basil, zucchini and eggplant. All the ingredients (except the garlic) had been harvested from the garden in the back yard. There will be so much that the freezer will be accepting some and next spring we will celebrate our 4th fundraiser by enjoying it with our friends and loved ones.

This meal was nearly 3 years in the making. Not literally but metaphorically. Some 3 years ago the germination of an idea began. The idea that we could grow food in a back yard and have enough to feed lots of people maybe even a community. When I moved into the house the back yard was non-existent. Weeds, weeds and more weeds, a non-functional watering system 10+ years old and a broken down fence. It was a blank slate waiting for a vision.

The vision was simple…a community garden run by the people who would benefit from it. No government interference, no strange rules governing the who, what, where and when, just people who saw the vision, aligned with the vision and were willing to work to see the vision come to life.
Frankly it hasn’t happened quite that way. The vision was to have people who are “food insecure” learn how to grow food in the garden and take that knowledge with them as well as fresh produce they helped to produce. They would begin to understand the concept of reaping what you sow, planning for the future, and setting goals and working toward them in small incremental steps. Has not come to pass.

But what has come to pass is pretty cool. The vision has modified and shifted somewhat and has become what may be a more workable model, at least for me. What has transpired is a small community of people…a core of 4 or 5, a number of other willing volunteers (10 or 20), and a interested host of observers…have dedicated hours of labor in the heat and the cold, have donated money to pay for seeds, plants, water and supplies, and have built a 2800’ foot garden in the middle of a town. A garden where the gate is open to anyone. A garden that has produced over the last 3 years almost 2000 pounds of food. A garden that has donated almost all that food to community members without regard to need or participation. A garden that has given wheel barrows of food to the food pantry.

Here may be the most special part…it is a garden where over 2 dozen children have learned how to handle tools, how plants grow, how to appreciate bugs, bees, and spiders, where soil comes from, and the value of work for the sake of work. These kids have sweated, laughed, killed bugs, burnt stuff, figured out how things work and just generally got some lessons you can only get in a garden. They have inspired the people around them to try new things (okra, eggplant), plant their own gardens and be more connected to the earth. And yesterday they expressed gratitude for the bounty they took with them.

From this single garden at least 3 new gardens are here that were not around 2 years ago. From this single garden a group of children now understand that you have to plan things if you want stuff in the future. From this single garden the awareness of eating healthy, natural food is now in the front of over 100 people minds where before it was in the rear. From this single garden hundreds of people have gotten physical sustenance, emotional nurturing and spiritual inspiration.

We sow then we reap. It doesn’t work the other way around. When we find a vision, set a goal, make a plan, and take action, good things happen. Look at all the good that happened…was the original vision fulfilled? Not yet. But having the flexibility to go with the vision that was shifting and changing, staying in action and being open to what the universe was creating in the absence of rigidity and judgment allowed a huge shift, a massive transformation to take place.

The number of people who need to be thanked for seeing the craziness through to this point is myriad. Each of you knows who you are. This amazing project could never have become real in the world without your freely given time, energy and money. I have so much gratitude for each of you and I have learned so much about this process in our work together that I am unable to express properly my gratitude. So I will just say, deeply, and with appreciation:
THANK YOU.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...Wasting Away

Sunday Story…Wasting away


Are you wasting your life away? Like Jimmy Buffet sang? Wasting away in Margaritaville? Did you wake up this morning in an alcohol induce haze; grab some greasy food in an attempt to stave off the effects of the hangover? Or did you get up and get your rear to the gym, on the road for a little quick run or ride, or a nice long stretch and mobility workout?


Did you spend last week worrying over your increasing waistline? It’s not going to get any better if you don’t take action. You are going to get fatter and fatter and more de-conditioned as you get older. You can’t stop the getting older thing. You have been doing that since the day you took your first breath. You can do something about the rest of it though.


Yes you can. No matter where you are, no matter how bad you think it is you can do something about it.


You can be Great.
You can be everything you want to be.
You can be part of the 5%. The 5% that is great, the 5% that lives life the way it was meant to be lived.

You can’t do it from the couch though.
You can’t do it sitting at your desk.
You can’t do it by talking about doing it.

You have to get up, stand up, and get going.
You have to decide you are going to be great, that you are going to join the 5% of the world that is eating right, working out their physical bodies, exercising their minds, expanding their spirituality, growing their compassion.
You have the power to do this.


Or not. Let’s be brutally honest…95% of the people in the world are never going to do anything. They are fat dumb and happy. Like the cows in a feedlot, contentedly chewing their cuds waiting for the day they are led to the killing room to be whacked between the eyes on the way to becoming just another piece of hamburger. No consciousness, no awareness of something better, no desire, no discipline, no desire for anything but comfort and ease.


Really? Is that who you want to be? Shall we just give you the remote, a crappy cheap beer and some generic chips, sit your butt in front of the 50” big screen and fatten you up for the slaughter big pharma and the crappy food industry are going to lead you into?

If you are reading this (still) you are not that person. Well, maybe you were 10 minutes ago. This is the clarion call to get off your butt and do something. What you have been doing is not working…unless you are already in the 5%. And if you are in the 5% maybe you should work toward the 3%. Or get into the 5% in ALL areas of your life. I know I am not in all areas of my life. BUT I am doing something about it.


Decide. Today. Now. At least if you aren’t going to get to doing the work then make a conscious choice to be in the 95% that is just waiting to be sacrificed at the altar. Yep, John, that’s me…no shut up and leave me to my mediocre existence. I’m happy here, I like being fat, dumb, and happy. I want the blue pill. The red pill is just too hard; it looks like work, struggle, suffering and sacrifice.


The red pill is going to require you change. It is going to require you do lung burning, stomach heaving, and body suffering workouts…daily, weekly, and stretching into the rest of your life. It is going to hurt sometimes. It is going to be painful. It is going to be glorious when you can do things you couldn’t do last week, last month or maybe never in your life. It is going to be amazing when you walk by a mirror and do a double take while you are wondering whose body you are looking at in the mirror. You are going to be stronger, fitter, and healthier.


The red pill is going to change your eating habits. Your taste buds are going to awaken. You are going to learn about new vegetables and how to cook them. You are going to find joy in food again. The unmitigated delight of fresh food prepared simply with love and care. You are going to learn your way around the kitchen. Your bodily functions are going to improve. You mind is going to clear. Clarity and focus and thought are found in the kitchen.


The red pill is going to force you to stretch your intellect. Learning didn’t stop when you left school. Your brain is going to hurt. Your mind is going to suffer with new information overloads. Your intellect is going to grow and be more powerful. You are going to stave off aging diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s. You are going to learn the things you have always wanted to learn…Geometry, Spanish, Art History. You are going to discover the joy to be found in a well written book, the mystery of a poem penned with care.


The red pill is going to create consciousness you thought was the province of saints and saddhus. Your world is going to grow larger. You are going to be the person we have all been waiting for. Yes you…complete, whole, integrated, compassionate, passionate, understanding and connected. Your beliefs are going to be even greater than yesterday as you begin to understand the true mysteries that exist underneath the thin veneer we all think reality is.


Decide to embrace self discipline. Decide to join the 5% of the world who are really up to something. Decide to be the physical specimen you are meant to be. Decide to be the intellectual power you were supposed to be. Decide to join the world of connectivity and spirituality.


Decide then act. Then keep on acting…in the face of ridicule, in the face of difficulty, in the face of being different, in the face of weakness and fear, in the face of base instincts and craven desires. You are Great. You are Powerful beyond imagining. You are the one we have been waiting for. You. Now get off your butt and go do it.


Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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