You win, I win, we All win

     One of my personal requirements this year is to increase the amount that I read. To be exact, I have twelve titles that I am going to read over the next twelve months. I have always had issues reading. Not that I can't read, but it is more the fact of having difficulty narrowing my focus enough to concentrate on reading. This requirement for me is dual purpose. The titles that were chosen are ones that will also help me develop, both in my personal life and in business.
     The book that I am currently reading is "Tongue Fu" which they paraphrase as being the Kung Fu of language. Seems like a legitimate title for a Kung Fu challenge. This book was recommended in a class that I attended a few years ago at NAIT while taking Project Management. There was a guest teacher at the time from one of the software companies in Edmonton, BioWare. He was a very charismatic person and I thought "I need to read that book". That Christmas "Tongue Fu" magically appeared under the tree. For the next couple of years it bounced from bookshelf to bookshelf but I never made the time to actually sit and read it. One of the awesome things about setting goals for yourself, and making a commitment to achieve those goals, is that you actually do some of the things that you maybe didn't before.
     The premise of the book is that by altering the way you react in certain discussions you increase the chances of finding resolution instead confrontation. I am only part way through but have found so many lessons to be learned. One, that has a direct link to one of our other requirements, came from a quote that is in one of the chapters.

"Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves"

     Every time you take a second to do something nice for someone else, it also makes you feel a little bit better. In an argument there is no winner, there are just a couple of people who can't believe that the other can't see their side of things. Changing the way that you converse with someone, especially in an argument, you can show them that you are listening to them. This doesn't mean that you have to agree with them but showing that you care enough to listen gives you the opportunity to transform a possible argument into a constructive conversation.
     In accepting the commitment of reading I have found myself not only reading the titles that were submitted but also lots of other blogs, bios and other material I find. I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of I Ho Chuan. In pursuing the goals established at the start of the year I have already experienced more change than I expected.

PS Can someone remind me next year that I need to make sleeping one of my goals?

People think I'm CRAZY

     Yesterday at the Kwoon someone asked me how much weight I had lost. My initial response was "since when?" 

     Later I started thinking about this a lot more. I started at Silent River just over two years ago. When I first started, it was at the time when oil started to crash. Working at a business that was fairly dependant on capital expenditures from companies that relied on income from oil field companies, things started getting tough quick. I missed most of my classes for the first four months as I had to do some restructuring that included terminating about 45% of the staff at the time. I was at work six or seven days a week and generally late enough that I would miss the beginner classes on Monday and Wednesday nights. In February of 2015 I knew that some changes were required. At this point I was approximately 390 pounds of mostly fat.
     The first change that I made was to start attending the morning class so that there would be no reason to miss class. The next was to join the fitness class on Saturdays. This was a struggle for sure and anyone who regularly attends this class will know what i am talking about. A few months in, I had a bit of a set back. I remember the weekend well as it was the Saturday that we were doing 500 round house kicks, which went better than I thought (minus some missing skin on the top of my feet). That night I started having some pains on my side and by Monday I was having my appendix removed. Two weeks later, I was able to walk and helped out at the Pandamonium with the dunk tank. At this point I had lost 50 pounds but was a little concerned that it would start creeping back if I was inactive too long. At the six week mark I was cleared to start doing Kung Fu again and four days later I also started a two month strength-building program at Snap Fitness.
     This was my first experience with a nutritionist and it was an eye opening experience. I had been so focused on just losing weight that I was basically starving myself. Exerting so much energy every week with minimal calorie intake was not doing me any justice. After the consultation, the recommendation for calorie intake was almost three times what I was currently eating. Skeptically, after hours of meal prep, I followed the suggested meal plan. By the end of the first week there was a dramatic increase in the amount of energy that I had. No more fighting to stay awake, no more excuses not to do more. By the end of the two months I hadn't lost much more weight, but managed to increase my lean muscle mass remarkably.
     A few months later came the next set back. This one was a little more profound then the last. Rotator Cuff Surgery - to be more exact a Bankart repair on my right shoulder. When I went for the pre-surgery consult I was at 315 pounds but was eating like a horse because I was working out four days a week, going regularly to Kung Fu classes and still in the fitness class on Saturdays. It takes six months for the cartilage to heal back to the bone and the first three months of that require the joint to be completely stabilised.
     Coming back to classes after being away for six months was a challenge to say the least. I had gained 15 pounds and wasn't really full of ambition. Our family attended the Chinese New Year banquet and I had hoped that it would help recharge the inspiration that I had before the time off, after all, this event is where some of the inspiration that I previously possessed came from in the first place. I moved back in to the night classes for grading but Sifu Brinker had allowed me to continue in the morning classes as well, in order to make up for all of the classes that were missed while I was incapacitated. I was now in classes four days a week and fitness class Saturdays but it still seemed like something was missing.
     With a previous experience at Snap Fitness I thought I would see if they had anything that might fill this "void". In June there was a new class of "Training for Warriors" so without hesitation I signed up for another two months of extreme fitness classes three days a week. It just happened that the classes offset the night Kung Fu classes so all was good. At the end of the two months I had lost another 20 pounds and was full of tenacity.
    Since July, the end of "Training for Warriors", I attended last years boot camp, have joined Snap full-time going to the gym four days a week, joined the I Ho Chaun which has a class every week plus the other requirements, started doing Tai Chi before the fitness class on Saturdays and have been staying for open training on Saturdays as well. When people find out that I get up at 3:30 in order to go to the gym, they think that I am crazy. The truth is, it is done some what out of fear. I know exactly how easy it is not to do it. To stay in bed, to lay on the couch snacking and watching tv, and I won't let myself go down that road.
     In the first three weeks of the I Ho Chaun I have lost 5 pounds and am on track for reaching my commitment of 275 pounds by July and maintaining for the rest of the year.

     Thank you Sifu for the question yesterday. You sometimes become so focused on the goal, that you forget where you started.

In the beginning

     At first sight, it is the most amazing thing you have ever seen. How is someone even capable of doing these things. Lingering at altitudes that seem to defy gravity. Moving in what seems to be complete harmony with all surroundings. Never faltering in transition from one stance to another responding to every movement with absolute symmetry.

     One of the most important rules of setting goals for yourself, is to ensure that the goal you set inspires and motivates you. Doing this allows you to readily prioritise these goals, thus entrenching the behaviours they create in to your life. As you advance towards your goal, behaviours become habit and the goal doesn't seem like some far off, impossible task but rather something you've incorporated in to everyday life. Not every goal will follow this path, but I would bet the most successful ones will.
     When we initiate the goal setting process there are numerous reasons for the goals we set for ourselves. Whether it be something short term or a goal that continues for a prolonged period of time, at the source, there is a specific rationalism that has lead us to set it. As we set an action plan in to motion, this initial reason may become less important as we begin to reap the benefits of our new behaviours.

I would advocate that this is the purpose of the I Ho Chuan. Not only to help set goals and give you the tools to achieve them, but to help integrate these habits in to your life. We are a couple of weeks in and the fulfilment, both physical and mental, that I have gotten from completing incremental tasks has been incredible. The looming dread of early morning physical requirements has become a welcomed endeavour. This has been made possible by the fact that the reward has outweighed the effort required to perform these tasks. I am not incognizant to the fact that once muscle pain and fatigue set in that this feeling may dissipate, but right now I feel AWESOME!

Not Always That Easy

Sometimes the tasks that you believe to be the easiest, turn out out to be the toughest once actually set in to motion.

     This year has been full of change so far. Over the Christmas break we moved in to town from an acreage, huge change. I have moved from the beginner class, at 6:30, to the intermediate class, at 8:30, another big change. And the most recent of changes, beginning my journey with the I Ho Chuan team.
     For a little history, about a year and a half ago I received my Green Belt in Six Sigma. I love  change. Having the ability to monitor progress, alter the process and increase productivity. These are the things that I strive for every day and have lots of fun doing it. I know from having to deal with my employees everyday that not everyone feels the same and it is always good to have a little conflict to ensure that everyone is kept in check. 
     The first week has been great. I have managed to alter my routine enough in this short period to handle the physical requirements. Initially I was concerned that the physical portion added to what I was already doing was going to be too much. Oddly enough on Friday, generally my hardest, I was out of bed as soon as the alarm went off. Sounds easy enough but mine goes off at 3:30am and it is off to the gym for me.
     I remember talking to Sifu Brinker about the requirements. The one that was the most concerning at the time was the 1609km. I have been in the fitness class for a while and feared the days that we were going running. 4km a day how is that even possible? After a few discussions with people who were currently in the I Ho Chuan, I felt a little better about this requirement but it was gnawing at me a little. For Christmas I received a Fitbit and all of these concerns melted away. It seems that on a regular day I travel about 4.5 miles, one less distraction.
     On the other hand there were requirements that I didn't even think twice about. Acts of kindness, I do lots of things every day. Or at least I thought I did. Up until Thursday morning my AOK column was just about blank. Am I really that bad of a person? Haven't I managed to alter a single moment with a kind act? Until this point I had believed fairly strongly that for the most part I had put other peoples needs before my own. Surely there must be something, my mind was drawing blanks. Thursday morning was the same as others. I woke up, made scrambled egg whites, sat at the table to eat phone in hand. Another change that I had made, which seemed somewhat insignificant was to alter the content in the morning. Instead of Facebook, it is now reading I Ho Chaun blogs and then through some random blogs from others or a pod cast or two. The pod casts are handy and lend themselves well to the treadmill. 
     On Thursday I stumbled across a post about a trucker who came across a presumably drunk person swerving from lane to lane on the highway. As he approached the car he noticed an elderly man shaking behind the wheel. The truck driver noticed that the car had a two way antenna and started trying to reach the other driver on the radio. He asked the man to pull over and to his surprise the car pulled over to the side of the road immediately. The trucker stopped behind the car, he then exited the truck and walked up to the drive side of the car. He talked with the older gentleman for a few minutes and learned that he had just come from the hospital where doctors had told him that they would be removing his daughter from life support that night..... as the first tear rolled off of the end of my nose in to my egg whites, I realised that there was probably some compassion in there somewhere... The truck driver followed the man to his exit talking to him constantly on the radio. As he said good bye he heard another driver comment that he would continue following him. 
     With all of the negativity that gets promoted in the media, it is sometimes hard to see all of the good things that are happening. Even if those things are directly in front of you. I think that it more important now than ever to find the good and promote it as much as possible. Sometimes the slightest shift in perspective is all that it takes to be able to recognise not only the good that is happening around you but the impact that you personally have on it.