Getting Back on Track

The winter break has been good for me. I'm getting back on track and re-energized. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. A little more struggling and schedules will settle down a bit.

I'm looking forward to having time to go to Louisville for training again.

I'm looking forward to having more time to plan for classes.

I'm looking forward to having more energy for classes and special events.

Tough Week.

Emma's been sick, I've been sick, I've gotten off my schedule. I'm going to have to make it up.

That's part of the process though.

Narrow Path

I am trying to remember to be what I want to see in the world. I want to see people striving for personal improvement, working to improve the lives of those around them, and being joyful while doing it all.

This is a challenge. I think I need to research some role models on this.

Re-evaluate

Things are going pretty well so far, I'm getting into a routine and learning a lot about my strengths and weaknesses.

I'm eating pretty well, avoiding a lot of bad for me stuff, but logging my food intake is making me realize I need to focus on making sure I get my veggies.

Balancing all the physical requirements is tough. I think I over estimated the amount I could do in a week, so I've adjusted some goals downward. It is the wise way to go so as to avoid injury.

Racing Thursday, then holiday travels.

Motivation Comes After the First Mile

My wife once said to me when she was getting ready to go out on a run. "I don't feel motivated to do this, but motivation comes after the first mile." What she meant by that was that sometimes you have to get out and get moving even when you aren't feeling any motivation and often once you get going you feel motivated to continue. That is what I've been doing to get motivated with all my training lately. On days when I don't feel motivated, I get up and at it anyway. Sometimes motivation follows, but not always. Even when motivation doesn't come, I at least get my workout in.

Some days it is easy and fun.

Some days it is a chore.

Just get up and train.

Fighting the Slump

One of the purposes of this project, this journey, this challenge, is to help me through this current slump.

I've been through several kung fu slumps, I've let slumps defeat me in other areas, I've seen plenty of others go through kung fu slumps. I've often given advice to people who are in a slump. Most of them quit kung fu during their first slump. Most that make it through the first one quit during the next one.

Having been through several slumps now, I have some bad news for those with less experience. It hasn't gotten easier to break out of them. It takes hard work.

Of course, that's what kung fu means isn't it, "hard work".

So what's the key to getting through the slump? I doubt there is any one key, but what works for me is allowing myself to feel unmotivated without giving myself grief or guilt about it, making a plan for how I will train through my slump, then working hard through the end of the slump.

difficulties

It's been hard so far to get into a routine. Work commitments, family commitments, illnesses. . .

That is, however, what this is all about. I know that I will have difficulties and challenges. I simply must rise to the occasion.

Planning Ahead

I have discovered that to the key to me eating healthy is planning ahead. When I plan ahead I take healthy home cooked food to work for lunch. When I fail to plan ahead, I run to Kroger during the day and get fried chicken.

My first week was sabotaged by sickness. The beauty of it though is that when you have a two year program, there is room to get sick every once in a while then catch up later. I'm almost better, so I'm getting back on the horse.

Day One

Today it begins. OK, that's not true, it began a long time ago. This journey began when I walked in the door of Tom Pardue's Kung Fu School in July 2000. I signed up for classes in August and started training with no particular goals in mind.

The nice thing about those silly colored belts, is there is a built in goal system. A little extra motivator to get a martial arts student training toward a goal even if they don't have one. It works, I've seen it time and time again. So I started working towards a belt test, then another and another. . .

Now, I've been a black sash for 8 years. So I am starting another segment of my journey. I am setting some pretty intense goals for myself because I do not want to get complacent. I believe that if a person stops training after they pass their black sash test, eventually they are no longer a black sash. The way I see it, it's like being a marathon runner. If a person ran a marathon once when they were 22, then never ran another mile for the next ten years, they are no longer a marathon runner.

I'd rather keep my black sash.

So. . .

Over the next two years:

100 hours of kung fu training.

100 hours of strength and conditioning training

2000 miles run.

2000 miles biked.

100 entries on this blog.

Work on my bonsai.

Grow my garden each year.

4 Community projects.

Maintain and improve my diet.

Maintain and improve my sustainability.

Also, journeys are easier with company along the way, so who is willing to jump in and join me?

Your requirements don't have to be the same as mine.

What It's All About

That title covers a lot of ground for this first post. This post is to describe what this blog is about, but also what my journey over the next two years is about.

I talked to my Sifu, Master Tom Pardue, about what the requirements were to receive my next rank, 5th degree black sash. It turned out that other than meeting the minimum time requirement I had pretty much already met all the requirements. I was actually a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the list he gave me was an impressive one, but I didn't like the idea of not needing to do anything else over the next two years. At about the same time, I found myself in a state of low motivation and in need of a challenge. So here comes the challenge I will be setting for myself.

I will be writing about my journey in this blog as a part of the challenge, it will serve as a personal and public accountability tool. It will also be part journal and part portfolio of my training between here and there.

I am working on my requirements for me to complete.

I will be detailing them here.

I'm feeling it already!