Sunday Story...Why?

When we are small we accept nothing.
Why is the sky blue?
Why is the grass green?
Why do frogs jump?
Why, why, why…closely followed by what if!


In our innocence we need and want answers for everything. We take nothing at face value, nothing as true until it is explained and we experience it for ourselves. We put our fingers in the fire to see if it is hot. When we get burned we know, through direct experience, that fire is hot. We might also learn to listen to the adult who warned us a little more closely as well. Or not.
As we age we start accepting things as true without testing them out, without gaining the actual experiential knowledge. And let us be clear, experiential knowledge may not always be the best way to gain knowledge. On the other hand we really should do some investigation before we accept things as right and true.


Just because I say it does not make it true. You don’t know how I came by the knowledge. You are trusting that I did the groundwork, the due diligence ensure that my facts are on target. And maybe I have done that. But there are lots of things we accept as true that are “common wisdom” or the opinions of experts (which is not the same as scientific proof by the way).
Don’t accept things just because I or someone else said so. Investigate these things yourself. Do some research. Experiment (if you can) on yourself. Just because I say wheat is the worst thing you can put in your body does not make it true. You can read the reports. You can stop eating it and then re-introduce it and see what happens. Don’t just take my word for it or anyone else’s for that matter. You are smart enough to figure this stuff out. And you are smart enough to do the research and make an informed opinion.


There is way too much of this sort of thing going on in the world today…a world where opinions are passed off as facts. A world where government policy is taken as scientific proof, where some talking head spouts off loudly and strongly that these are the facts, this is the absolute truth; only to find out later that maybe it wasn’t quite so absolute.


In this day and age we have access to so much information, it can be overwhelming to wade through and distinguish fact from fiction. But it is out there. You can do it. You can experiment and be your own best proof. Don’t be another sheep listening to the wolves sharpen their teeth on the lies they are feeding you.


Accept nothing, question everything.


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

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Sunday Story...Time Out

Not. There is no time out. The clock is relentless. It doesn’t stop, it doesn’t slow down, and it doesn’t rest. There is no respite from its continuing crawl.

You can be standing there, your tongue hanging out, every muscle on fire, and not another lift left in your bank and the clock is not going to stop and let you rest. This is reality. This is the truth of the matter. The clock never rests. It just keeps on ticking.

This is what makes what I (and so many others like me do)…there is no calling “time out”. The clock continues until it is done. Whether the time is done in 17 minutes, 7 minutes, or 70 minutes it is not going to stop for me. When we go the other way, in other word when I am doing x for time that timer doesn’t stop until I finish. It doesn’t stop when I am tired, it doesn’t stop when I fall down, it doesn’t stop because I fail, that timer goes until I finish. I don’t stop because I am tired, I stop because I am finished…I have completed the task set in front of me. There is no time out, no rest period, and no halftime break, there is only the task and the time set before me.

This is a microcosm of life. Your life is on a timer. Your life has no time out, no halftime show. The clock is running. It will stop when time is up. In the meantime you have the work, the task in front of you. Hurt? Tired? Sick? Beaten up? Feeling Defeated? No one loves you? I’m sorry but the clock is still running. The clock is an unforgiving task master.

You and I don’t know how much time is left on really big clock of your life. This, however, I will guarantee you…you got up this morning with 24 hours in front of you. Just like you did yesterday, and with a bit of grace the same as you will get tomorrow. That clock is going to run out later tonight. Are you going to finish? Or are you going to put up a DNF (did not finish) in today’s score card?

There are times when I am wheezing, out of breath, my breakfast in my throat, sweat rolling off my head and the last thing I want to do is one more and I look up at the horrible mistress, the Clock, and I won’t let her win. I am not going to stop before she rings the bell. I will until…
Maybe I should attack every day, every 24 hours that way, maybe even every 60 minutes, or 60 seconds. What would happen if I drove myself in life the way I drive myself in every workout? Would the result be a better, happier person? Would the result be an increase in income, an increase in productivity, an increase in happiness? I guess we won’t know until we give it a go and most of us never will. We aren’t willing to attack our day like this was the clock running on, like the sands in the hourglass were running out.

The sands are running out. Every day is one day closer to the bell sounding. What are you going to do about it today? Tomorrow? Next week? Next year? Don’t be so presumptuous as to think that clock is going to run forever. It isn’t and deep down you know it.

Reach down, do it right now and give it one more shot. Decide what you want your life to look like and get moving. Don’t let the clock own you.

No Time Outs.

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

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Sunday Story...Someday

Someday in the future…
You will lift that weight.
You will be faster.
You will be more coordinated, more agile
You will know more.
You will have the body you are working for today.
You will love more.
You will have more.
You will be more.

Someday is coming. Someday is coming and it may be here sooner than you realize. Yesterday, and the day before that, and the one before that and all the days before have brought you to this day. This day where all the practice and preparation pay off.

Someday is right around the corner. It may already be here. But that doesn’t mean we get to relax or stop striving to get to where we want to be someday. The joy and the pain are in the struggle, the effort, the journey to get where you want to get. We talk of the agony of defeat and the thrill of victory. These things go together like a soup and a sandwich. The journey is the destination. You are going to get there. Just don’t expect it, don’t take it for granted. If you do that it will slip away, slip through your fingers like sand. You will stop walking the path, stop efforting, and stop driving toward the destination.

That person isn’t you. You are not going to stop, you are not going to accept almost, or close or a partial rep or a 9 out of 10 rounds. You are going to get exactly what you want, exactly what you need, exactly what you work for.

Someday. In the mean time you will continue to fight. You will continue to strive, to work, to crawl your way forward. You won’t be like the others. The ones who gave up, the ones that lost that glint in their eyes, that passion for excellence and improvement. You will be a better you. You will be stronger, faster, fitter, healthier, more accomplished.

The key is in the work…the day to day strife that moves us inexorably toward our goal. The joy is in the journey. The pursuit of the thing is what matters. Even if you achieved your biggest goal ever yesterday, today is a new day. Got your best seller done? Start another! Pulled your biggest dead lift? Set a new goal for a bigger one. Graduated from college, grad school, and med school? Figure out what is next. You cannot sit back and rest on your laurels. You are not that person.

Put the laurels up on a shelf next to all the rest of your trophies and get back into the trenches where the work happens. Today and what you have today is the culmination of all your work on all your yesterdays. Same thing for tomorrow. All your todays are adding up to tomorrow.

Someday is today. Get started on someday today.

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

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Sunday Story…Reasons

I talk to a lot of people every week. And most of what I talk about is change. Change your diet, change how you move, change what you put into your mind, and change what comes out of your mouth…change. And yet, even in the face of credible, honest, fact checked information I hear why someone can’t make the change.

They know it is good for them.
They know their life will be better…healthier, easier, less stressed.
They know it is the right thing to do.
They know there is little to no downside to making the change.
Everyone has lots of reasons (excuses) for not doing what they know (deep inside) they should be doing. All of those reasons can be distilled down to just 2.
#1 Reason
Inability
You are unable to stop drinking soda. The thought of stopping creates a rush of fear like the fear of death. The idea of never eating another French fry is so abhorrent that you get physically ill when you even think of it. You have a panic attack when someone suggests that you cut down on smoking.
This is a sad state of affairs. This is you being bested by a cigarette, a soda, a cold shower, a French fried potato. This is you being beaten by an inanimate object. This is you being owned by your easy choice. This is you living in fear.
How you do one thing is how you do everything.
If you allow this one thing to beat you, pretty soon life is going to beat you. This one choice, this inability to do the right thing is going to permeate your entire life…your work, your relationship, your morality. Your overarching desire to take the easy way, the relaxed way is going to prevent you from living the full life you richly deserve. All because you didn’t want to do something a little scary. Do something every day that scares you just a little even if it’s a cold shower.

#2 Reason
Arrogance
This is the most common and most dangerous of the two reasons. People say…
It won’t work for me.
It’s stupid.
I’m the exception to the rule.
I heard there was some expert somewhere who said all the other experts are wrong.
You are full of it (the personal attack).
None of these things are true by the way.
Whatever all of that stuff is the bottom line is this:
You don’t want to be uncomfortable. You don’t want to take the first step out of your comfort zone because it going to be slightly, maybe, sort of, you think, uncomfortable or difficult or maybe even hard. The fact is none of us want to be uncomfortable. Everyone wants a nice warm house, a body that is physical fit (and looks good naked), the ability to eat anything and everything, clean air and water, well mannered children, youthful good looks and on and on and on…without doing anything about it. This is not any reality I have ever seen.


Anything worth having is worth working for and worth being uncomfortable for some period of time. Maybe having a headache for 3 days while you quit your 2 pots of coffee a day habit (I couldn’t do that! How will I ever wake up! I like my coffee!) is an improvement over the addiction. You never know how bad you felt until you find out how good you feel. Cutting the sugar from your diet is worth the discomfort of the withdrawals for a week or two when faced with a life time of diabetes, obesity, and hypertension and all the pills and potions that go along with that (but it won’t happen to me!). The bottom line is that in order to get what you have never gotten you are going to have to do what you have never done. It is that simple. You are not the exception to the rule. You are the same as all the rest of us naked apes. Embrace it and embrace the uncomfortable.



So if you haven’t taken the plunge into the change you know you need to do…no matter what your reason …whether you are crippled by your addiction to comfort or your attitude of arrogance, I just ask one thing:
Try it for 30 days. One day at a time. Just do it tomorrow. Just do it for the next 5 minutes. Try a little discomfort on for size. You might find it to be just the right size.

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

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