The Purpose of Hopes And Dreams

I've heard it said many times that people without talent create their destinies with unrelenting will and perseverance.  With hard work they make their dreams come true and they make it big.  I'm just envious that they know what the hell their dream is in the first place.  I have had the drive in me to be the best that I can be since I was a small kid.  I have had many dreams over the years and have mostly made most of them come true.  As I get older the problem seems to be what the dreams are anymore.

I was thinking about this problem again today and trying to determine what the destination should be for my future.  This is when I began to realize that the achievement of the goals isn't the destination but merely milestones in the direction of travel.

Hopes and dreams, by this way of thinking, are nothing more than dangled carrots.  Your spirit is just teasing you forward in the direction you need to go.  The carrot isn't the goal.  The dream isn't the goal.  Moving up is the goal.

To illustrate this, imagine you have a horse and carriage and you are in New York City.   You have to get the carriage to Boston.  You know the way but the horse does not.  There are no reigns on the horse and all you can do is whisper to him or dangle carrots to keep him moving.  Now the journey from New York to Boston is a long way on a horse.  Dangling a carrot will probably only work for a while before the horse will realize that he isn't going to get the carrot will stop trying.  At this point you will need to give him the carrot and temp him with another.  If you give him the carrot without a proper amount of movement he will become entitled and will do less and less expecting the carrot.

This seems very frustrating and must be how God feels on a daily basis.  Now imagine that the horse realized that somehow that going to Boston was a good thing and decided to just walk there on his own watching you for guidance of which direction to turn. He could eliminate the frustration of chasing the carrot followed by the high of getting it followed by the desire for another. He could just enjoy eating the carrots when they were given to him.  And perhaps the carrots would come more frequently because they are no longer needed for bait.  The horse would get closer and closer to Boston with peace in his heart and carrots in his belly.

My favorite metaphor for life is of the mountain.  The purpose of life it to reach higher elevations in an attempt to become closer to God.  At the top of the mountain you will be above the tree line and can see life for exactly what it is about as well as the true magnificence of the heavens.  Most people spend their lives trapped in the fog and the smog down in the valley.  Dreams and goal have a very specific way of separating the crowd into those with the ambition to climb the mountain and those content with the fog.  Some dreams are way up the mountain and bring the climber a great way up while some just might get them a few feet in the right direction.  Regardless of where on the mountain the goal lives the point isn't to just reach that goal or milestone.  The goal is to get past it to the top of the mountain.

Even if you are so deep in the fog that you have no idea which way to go, start moving.  If you feel it is taking you higher then keep going.  If you are heading down hill then stop, turn around and go the other way.  

One final note on this.  Don't wait for those around you to come with you.  You may think that you are being selfish by leaving them behind but the best thing you can do for those you are close to is to show them that there is a path up this mountain and that it can be climbed.  Keep climbing. 

Life Reboot

I have this foundation to my life that I call Black Belt Mentality.  In a nutshell this means that I try to find the small mistakes that I am making in every part of my life and adjust to a version that I think is better.  This comes from teaching students and having to correct the same thing over and over.  I would tell them that they have permission and the duty to find these little mistakes before I walk around and have to point them out.

I try to apply this to the big parts of life the most like diet, exercise and personal behavior.  I keep trying to perfect the foods and portions that I eat to maximize my weight and energy while bringing as much pleasure from what I eat as possible.  If I didn't do this and just ate whatever was available in portions that seem American I would feel like crap and would blow up.

Exercise takes the same attention.  As my body gets older I have to keep from pushing it too hard in something I am not used to while also maintaining a level of fitness that will help me avoid hurting myself in my day to day job.  Oh, and trying to make it interesting and rewarding at the same time.

Behavior is a much broader area if we take into account the many side paths that my brain keeps trying to take.  I need to remember to put God first and stop thinking I am fighting alone.  I need to keep my mind at a state of peace while feeling like I am moving forward and growing.  One of my frequent statements to myself is that "this is not the me I want to be".  My goal is to live my life in peace with a smile.  To do this I need to keep the negative things away and spend as much time with the good as possible. 

Then life happens.  The holidays come and the diet gets a little out of wack.  Then the exercise slows down and stops and the bills have your head spinning.  So now today is a reboot.  I generally discourage making too many changes at once because it is very likely that you will be overwhelmed and fail.   In this case I am just getting back to the schedule that I was on before.  It can be inspiring to just hit the brakes and start fresh.

What Does Survival Mean To You?

The English language is very broad with the definitions of words.  There are some words that are spelled the same and mean different things and there are some words that are spelled different but still mean the same.  What makes this even more confusing is the experience of the reader and what a word means to them personally.  Example, if I asked you "are you happy"?  What does happy mean to you?
What does righteous mean to you?  What does wrong mean?  All of these things are subject to your own personal experiences.
I have another word for you that is even worse than that.  What does martial arts mean to you?

Right now you may be thinking mixed martial arts, kung fu, Karate Kid or a thousand different things, but what does it mean to you?  Imagine you had to fight for your life.  What skills do you have to fight?  That ultimately is your version of the martial arts.  Now, how can you train to more effective?  This is controlled by what threats you are likely to face or have already faced.  This is also controlled by your own physical and mental condition. 

The martial arts now has two meanings for you, the initial one that you thought of when I asked about what it means and the new version of reality that you have. 

Lets look at Survival with the filter of above and lets assume that there is two versions of the definition.  Version number one is probably based on shows you have seem on television or videos from the internet.  But there is another reality that is your life and how survival applies to you.  Lets see if we can identify this a little better.

Threat Assessment.  Simply, what threats are you facing?  Or, what threats might you be facing in the future based on the direction that the world is going?  Now if you are some head in the sand kind of person that just believes that everything is going to be the same as it is today then perhaps you just look at the threats that face you today.  The rest of us who can see the placement of the dominoes of life and the way they are leaning can use that to identify possible outcomes that might affect our survival.

Risk Assessment.  What can you do to about the situation and what will it cost you?  Remember that the cost isn't always money.  If you live in the city and rely on public transportation and you believe that the safest thing to do is get out of the city you have to weigh your options.  Do you buy a car and put yourself in financial crisis or do you buy some better shoes and get in shape.  One option is really good for you and the other might set you up for failure.

The martial arts are designed around the development of the mind, the body and the spirit.  In Survival Martial Arts I believe that your survival is based on your will, your skill and your gear.  In those six things, where are you the weakest? 

Survival is just another confusing word in the English language but it has a very specific meaning to you.  So today I challenge you to evaluate the threats that you face and take stock of where you are in terms of Mind, Body, Spirit, Will, Skill and Gear.

A Solar Flare that Resets The World

I am a huge fan of post apocalyptic fiction that deals with the end of the world as we know it or at least a global reset.  There are lots of stories out there that talk about and EMP strike that fries our electronics and takes down the power grid.  The hitch in these stories is that someone has to detonate this for it to happen and who is dumb enough to try that?  The EMP is localized to the area of the blast so it would involve the country but not much more than that.  I huge inconvenience to be sure but not too long after that we would be right back where we were before.

The big brother of the EMP is the Solar Flare or CME.  A CME large enough to cause major damage to us hasn't happened since the 1859 Carrington Event.  The thing about these events is that they last for a long time which as the world turns exposes the entire planet to its effects.  This would be catastrophic to the world but I have though of one better.  Imagine this; the solar flare has an awful side effect that causes magnetism to stop.  Imagine all your pictures falling off your refrigerator at the same time.  But beyond that try to think about all the things that wouldn't work anymore. Now I heard something once that said a solar flare could reverse the poles of the planet and maybe this ties into that but if you want a one way ticket back to the medieval period then this is it.

For those of you who don't know how this would effect us here is a brief list:

1. No more power grid.  Most power plants run with turbines that are just big versions of the alternator in your car.
2. No more vehicles.  All vehicles require spark which is generated in a coil which at is core is magnets
3. transformers and electronics rely on magnets to work
4. refrigeration, mostly, uses electrical motors in the compressor which work because of magnets.
5. gas pumps and wells. done!
6. Speakers wouldn't work
7. Computers, no more

The good news is that solar panels would still give us electricity but the charge controllers wouldn't work anymore.  We could charge batteries and use simple circuits for lights and cooking.  

I'm curious about what else you think would be effected.  Try to wrap you head around this for a bit.  

Integrity

When I was in high school I had a naval instructor for junior rotc that made us tell him the definition of integrity at least weekly after someone demonstrated a violation to his code.  It stuck hard in my head and I have made it stick in the heads of my children.

With integrity you can't allow yourself to take the easy path all the time. You are forced to see what your values are and make a choice.  You will be letting yourself down before you let anyone else down if you don't do what you know is right.

The decisions can be simple like; Should I workout today or not? or Should I eat that piece of cake?.
The decisions might be more lasting like deciding to cheat on your spouse or steal something you didn't pay for.

The first part of this is defining what is right and wrong.  You have to find the answer to that for yourself based on your own personal values.  As a word of warning, don't rely on popular culture to define this for you.  Our popular culture is shaped by companies and corporations that are trying to sell product and stay profitable.  They want you to believe that what they are selling you is good for you and actually going to make you popular.

Sometimes it is helpful to see the decision in the hands of someone you respect.  You've seen the bumper stickers, WWJD.  What would Jesus do? This is the concept even if you aren't a Christian you can still use this example.  Knowing Jesus was supposed to be God among and did not sin, then picture the decision you are about to make and imagine what He would do.

Make good decisions today.

Dreams of teotwawki

The last few days I have been toying with the idea of going in a different direction.  Rather than focusing on creating courses to help people get better prepared for life in an unknown future I was going to focus my efforts on fitness coaching.  Last night I had some crazy dreams where I was stranded hundreds of miles from home when the country was attacked by multiple nuclear bombs.  I wasn't worried about radiation so they must have been EMP attacks.  I woke up five minutes before my alarm at 4:40 am.

I could still smell the grass on the side of the road where I was walking to find a way to get back home. I cleared my head and headed down stairs to start my day.  As I was making the coffee this feeling of dread came over me as I realized how hard something like that will be to live through.

In the dream I remember smiling as I was walking because I think deep down inside I knew it was coming.  That was when I tried to calculate how long it was going to take for me to get home.  Crap!

I really don't know what the future is going to bring.  I don't know if growth is going to continue and we will somehow figure it out as we go.  I don't know if there will be an "event" that causes a sudden stop and set back.  It might just be many small things that happen together that causes major change in our way of living.  We enter a recession that turns into a full depression and possible complete economic collapse.  This brings aid from around the world that has to stop with all the violence at the distribution sites.  Eventually small communities would band together for mutual assistance but would have to produce their own food while providing adequate protection to keep it from being stolen while praying for help to come before a large enough group of evil does.

I don't think that there will be a quick turn around to any of these situations.  There never is for anything massive in scale.  Growth in the future is contingent on many resources staying unchanged or growing to meet the needs of a growing population.  The food we have comes from so far away brought to us with fuel that comes from the ground in politically challenged area paid for with money that we just print at will as we need it based on "our good name".  Poke any of those dominoes and the whole thing comes down.

If the economy collapses the value of the dollar will never have the same value again with nothing to back it.  If the fuel gets disrupted so goes the dollar.  If something happens with the food supply (like the power grid going down and having no refrigeration) we will starve before help comes in most places.

Any of these will challenge the salt of those who try to survive it.  They will need lots of salt because there is no reason to believe that there will be anyone coming to save the day.  We may be on our own for years unless we relocate to a place where resources are being brought in.  I'm not sure how that plays out in the end but I don't think that is a sustainable concept.

If we are going to make it on our own we are going to need a specific skill set to survive.  That is what my programs have always been about.  Planning a way to deal with threats, navigating around in troubled times, communicating with others, feeding yourself and your family, having clean, safe water to drink, being able to defend yourself and do medical treatment if need be and understanding the importance of a team and how to build it.

I may focus on fitness and nutrition a little more than before but I can't put this on hold.  I need it. You need it.  I will continue to write posts as often as I can about these topics and issues that I can pull together into more courses in the future.  My question to you is; what do you think is coming?

Looking In The Mirror

Looking In The Mirror

One of my favorite expressions is “if you don’t like who you see when you look in the mirror, then change who you see.”  This doesn’t mean the what version of you but more the who version of you.  When you look into the mirror can you see the who and not the what?  You can’t look at the who in the mirror without using some form of comparison to someone else as a reference point.  It isn’t a fair comparison to use someone else to compare yourself to.  Take a moment and think about the ideal person you are capable of being.  Picture yourself in your greatest form.  Think about the qualities that you would have and the people you would be surrounded by.  Picture the clothes that you are wearing as well as the house you are living in.  Picture the car that you drive and the job that you have.  This is dream time so dream big. 

When you can see yourself in your greatest form compare that to what you see today.

                So now when you look into the mirror you can see two versions of you.  The person you want to be and person you are right now.  I want you to forget everything material at first.  Forget about the house, car, job and clothes and picture yourself just as the who again.  The qualities of that best version of you is what will bring you to the quantities that you want in the future.  Does this ideal version of you have qualities that are easy to like?  Are you influential to others?  Are you kind, compassionate, loving, patient and respected?  Are you a take charge motivated person who gets things done and is proud of your accomplishments?  Now look at the you today.  Do you see the same person? 

Wake up every day and look into that mirror.  See yourself as the best version of you and decide to be that person today.  Completely forget about the other version of yourself and focus only on the best who that is there.  You may not have the power, wealth and influence that you see in that imaginary mirror, but if you continue to look every day it will come.  Every day that you look in that mirror and you see yourself as the best version of you the closer you will move in that direction.  You will start to behave like the version of you that you want to be.  You will see yourself clearer when you do something that is outside the character of who you want to be and you will change it.  It is these subtle changes that you make every day that will put you in the position to receive all the material parts that you saw in your best version reflection.

When you were a child you did lots of things that your parents knew weren’t part of the person they wanted you to be.  If you behaved badly they corrected you.  If you were rude to someone they would talk to you about it and make you apologize.  If they didn’t like the tone of your voice they would quickly correct it.  So now you get to play parent to yourself.  You have the vision of yourself that you want to be and when you recognize that you are not behaving up to that standard it is your responsibility to correct it or make yourself apologize.  So many people go through life without this vision of their best version and they don’t have that standard of comparison to make themselves better.

When I was ten years old my Grandmother signed me and my brother up for a Tae Kwon Do class.  She was always trying to find ways of getting us more active instead of sitting around the house.  My mother was a pretty heavy alcoholic back then and I was exposed to a less than ideal childhood.  In this class I realized that I seemed to have a knack for kicking and sparring.  After only the first couple weeks I was moved up from the beginner class to the more advanced class.  My brother quit at this point so now it was just one kid being transported to class twice a week.  This quickly became a burden and I was taken out of the class but the seed had been planted.  I created my own dojo in the dirt floored basement of our apartment house and I trained myself.  I read magazines and watched every martial arts movie that I could.  Chuck Norris became my hero.  I loved how he always came the rescue of those is need and saved the day.  It was then with that example that I created the image in my head of the person that I wanted to be.  I created the Sensei in the mirror that I tried to be every day.  I developed strong ideals and a strong character based on that image I saw in the mirror. 

Over the years I have had times in my life where I forgot to look into that mirror.  I went through life and let it just pull me along.  The problem is that our society has more negative examples of how to life than positive and I developed some bad habits.  After finding that mirror again and dusting it off I have found that the best version of me is a little different than it was back then but the majority is still the same.  I was pretty surprised to find that when looking back over the years I stayed fairly true to my goal of becoming that Sensei.  I remind myself much more than once a day about who I expect myself to be.  I keep that image in my mind all the time and I correct myself when I make a bad choice.

If you don’t like who you are right now, then find that person in your mirror and see yourself as them.  Keep doing this every day until you are one and the same.

 Thanks again,

Sensei Keith