Down with the Sickness

     For the first time in over a year I have found myself being fairly sick this week. In reality I believe that I am probably a little bit sick and probably fairly stressed out. This has affected me both physically and mentally. Another first for me this week, or at least in a long time, was missing a class. I also managed to miss everything on Saturday. Tai Chi, fitness class and open training. I thought for sure that everything was good Saturday; I woke up early, did some push ups and sit ups, had breakfast, did some more sit ups and push ups and then laid down for a few minutes just after 9:00 am. When I finally woke up it was 1:30 pm. 

     For the past year or so, I have been working on a few different implementation projects as well as trying to deal with regular day to day stuff. I have been fortunate in the fact that some Supervisors have been able to step up and take some of the work load off. This past week we finally managed to review financials from the past two months and it has become fairly apparent that the lack of focus on the day to day has been pretty costly. Increased cost of rework, increased warranty, over target climbing, all of the "bad" things happening at once. This is definitely not the norm for me. Over the past couple of years while a lot of companies within Alberta have been crippled with the economic down turn, we have been able to make some amazing things happen. Even having to reduce staff initially in 2014, we have been able to keep almost everyone since. Revenue per hour has increased about 30% so even with 45% less staff than three years ago we are able to do almost the same amount of revenue. In order for this to happen there were some pretty large culture changes that needed to take place. Most people are eager to change, especially if there is instant gratification or immediate signs of improvement. The issue comes when they see that there is a lack of engagement from the people or person driving the change. This usually results in people reverting back to old habits. 

     Mid week there seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel - no, it was not a freight train. We had an extremely time sensitive job, that of course the material was two days late for, hit the floor on Tuesday. When I got to work on Wednesday I went straight out to see that the night shift had not even started it. Me: freaking out. After some less than happy words with the supervisor I headed back to my office to prepare for another few hours of brow beating for the February financials. At the end of the day I was amazed at the progress that was made on this "rush" job. By end of day Thursday they were passed where we had thought they would be and the supervisor was actually in a good mood when he came to see me; this usually means that things are going quite well. On Friday afternoon I started reviewing March and realised that we were not only still on track to complete our revenue numbers for the month but we were actually 5% over for gross profit so far for the month. 

     Looking back, I realise that over the last few months I have let stress build up so much that it has been very visible to the employees. This in turn creates a great deal of stress for them believing that if things are bad enough for me to be this way that they better start worrying too. I can't change the way the current economy is, but I do plan on trying to keep the staff better informed of what is going on in the future. 

     The first step for me will be more interaction with people on the floor. 

Rewiring of an Old Device

     Even thought we are all on different paths, there remains one thing that is constant for all of us, change. Whether it is physical, mental, habitual or countless other things, we are all striving to change something. Over the past couple of years I have gone through some pretty major physical changes. These change are very evident as they can easily be seen by the naked eye. The past week there have been certain changes that are becoming more apparent. They are not changes that can be seen, but they are definitely there.
     After this past Tuesday night, I noticed that I had started seeing things a little differently and in turn started thinking about some things differently as well. In class you constantly repeat motions in order to gain muscle memory so that they become automatic when needed. Once this has started then you put a couple of these movements in to a combination and repeat until the combination becomes muscle memory. One of the issues that presented itself in the past, is the hesitation at the end of those movements when free sparring. For example: Someone is throwing a kick your way and you make the most awesome forearm block. As you are having your own little party in your head celebrating what just happened, you are eating a fist because you have left your guards down. This past Tuesday, while sparring with Sifu Lindstrom, I received a couple of shots to the ribs which changed my way of thinking. Thank you Sifu. I laughed at the time because I knew that I had done something stupid. When the match concluded he said "You have to watch because you are telegraphing your back fist". I knew that it had happened as soon as my head had spun around to see no one there, and felt the fists against my ribs. Hearing the words though seem to make it stick. Sparring then suddenly became chess. That may seem like a bizarre statement to make. The next match I started to fake more, purposely telegraphing an opposing action from what I intended to take. From this, amazing things started to happen. With every fake it was easier to predict where the next punch or kick was going to come from. This made the action of blocking much quicker with less hesitation, equalling less fists to the face, always good. Knowing where a punch or kick is coming from in turn means that you know where there is going to be no guard, you get to land something, even better. Then this turned back to classroom lessons. How can I get someone to kick or punch me in a way that will lead to being able to try out some of the defence moves that we are learning in class? Without thinking about it, I was suddenly planning three moves ahead, or trying to at least. 
     Thanks to one seemingly insignificant moment in time, I started seeing the same situations from a totally different point of view.

The Rule of Thirds

     If you Google the rule of thirds you will find lots of information about photography and how to bring focus to objects you are taking pictures of. What does that have to do with this blog?

Nothing!

     In the eternal search to find greatness, I have been reading and listening to lots media published by people who have "made it". In my travels I came across an interesting take on getting ahead.

The Rule of Thirds

     The idea behind this was that you spend a third of your time mentoring people who are trying to get where you are, a third of the time with people on the same level as you, and a third of your time with someone who is where you are trying to get to. This was a very intriguing notion to me. 
     I have had lots of training on how to deal with employees and creating an atmosphere where they can succeed. With some of this training we were taught that the only true way to move forward with your own career is to promote others to replace you. In other words mentor the people below you to succeed you. Now if you have worked for smaller companies you will know that this goes against most things that go on. In a lot of cases people inside these organisations still have a scarcity mentality where they horde information so that no one can take their job. I know that I have been through that at several places and therefore I am on board with the first third. As a parent you also get the opportunity to spend copious amounts of time with people who are in need of knowledge and wanting to get to where you are. 
     The second set of third is also pretty easy. These are generally all of the like-minded people that you surround yourself with every day. Whether it is in business or your personal life probably most of your time is spent among peers. As you develop throughout your life this group will more than likely change and new peers are established.
     It is the final set of thirds that until recently seemed to be elusive. I have always struggled with having an "end goal". I have tons of daily, weekly, monthly goals which I strive to achieve every day. Having an overall plan though, where do you see yourself ten years from now, I have no idea. So if you have no idea where you plan on going how do you spend thirty percent of your time with people who are already there? Let's presume you did know where you wanted to end up. How would find someone in that position that would be willing to spend that amount of time mentoring you? If your goal is to one day replace your boss you can probably manage to spend that amount of time with them, assuming that they are okay with you replacing them. What about outside of work? Most people work 40 hours a week and there are 168 hours in the week. Even if you sleep 56 of those hours, seven days at eight hours per day, that still leaves 112 hours outside of your work life. It doesn't seem like a good idea to me to focus solely on only bettering one third of your life. For me this is where Silent River Kung Fu comes in. Initially whenever you enter new circumstances you carry with you things that you have encountered in past experiences. This was no different for me when I originally started taking Kung Fu at Silent River. There seemed to be this group of "untouchables", the black belts, who appeared supercilious or at least I had perceived them this way. Knowing now the effort that it takes to advance in this Martial Art I recognise that my perception was incorrect and that even though there is a certain amount of respect that is owed to them, these black belts are not only willing to help, they are actually passionate about doing so. Being a part of Silent River has helped me develop in so many ways in all facets of my life. Being one of the lower belt level members of the I Ho Chuan it has made even more of the top third accessible. 
     In the unquestionably minuscule amount of time that I have been practising Kung Fu, there have already been some incredible paradigm shifts. I can hardly wait to see what lessons the future brings, and would like to thank all of you who have helped thus far.

Lessons can be tough

     This past week our youngest has had to learn some pretty hard lessons. Last weekend the tablet that he received for his birthday ended up with a broken screen. This was the direct result of him not taking proper care of it. He had left it lying on the floor in the basement, and then he and his sister were chasing each other around throwing pillows at each other. Sounds like lots of fun except for somewhere during the running someone had stepped on the tablet. This lead to a discussion about how everyone needed to do a better job of looking after their belongings. That conversation was followed by him being informed that we would not be replacing the tablet as it was only six weeks old. At this point he was doing a lot better than I thought he would at keeping it together.
     The next lesson was a much tougher one. What could be tougher for a kid than losing his electronics? Losing a pet. On Monday, we discovered that our pet tiger salamander, Baker's pet, had died. To fully understand how hard this lesson was I will give you a little background on "Dudley".
     Last spring we were on a mission to clean up our yard, at the time we were living in an acreage subdivision. Underneath an evergreen beside the garage lay what used to be our overhead garage door. The door was removed when we turned our garage in to a gym. While we were loading the pieces in to the trailer Baker and his sisters found this tiny little salamander nestled in the pine needles. They immediately picked the little guy up and brought their new prize to my attention. At this point I was in "trying to get stuff done" mode and said "that's nice put him down and get back to work". Amazingly enough that is exactly what they did. After the load of garage door parts went to the dump we redirected our attention to all of the pine needles that had piled up over the last few years. Raking the needles back to dirt and loading the piles on to the trailer. In the midst of the raking frenzy, in complete astonishment, I found this same little salamander wedged between the prongs of the plastic rake. Baker seeing this dropped everything and ran over to pull him out. At this point there was no saying "no" to "Can we keep him?".

     On Monday a very nervous girl came in to the living room to talk to me. She said that she had gone in to give Dudley some fresh water and that he wasn't moving. She said that she was afraid to tell Baker because she didn't want to get blamed for it. I told her that it wasn't the time to worry about blame, that the fact that Dudley was dead was way more important then what had happened or who's "fault" it was. Adrianna went to find Baker and I went to tell Dawn what had happened. I heard Baker go in to the office. When I went to see how he was doing, he was just standing in front of the terrarium. You could almost see the energy leaving him as he became consumed by sadness. 
     At this point you yearn to have the ability to help, as you are overwhelmed with feelings of empathy.
     For the next few days we had a very quiet little man. He has been dealing with it a little better each day, but it will be a long time before the events of last Monday are forgotten. 
     Sooner or later the electronics will get replaced. The next one may, with any kind of luck, be treated a little better. The death of a pet, although very tragic and somewhat traumatic, emphasises how precious life can be. My take away from this weeks events: sometimes showing someone else compassion is more important than making sure they learn from their misfortune. 

Tuesday Night Sparring

     This past Tuesday was the first night of having a sparring group since the Sanshou class was put on hold. Mr Dyble and I had discussed trying to get some people to meet outside of regular classes, and I had sent a few people a Google+ message about us being able to meet at the Kwoon for sparring. Even though lots of people displayed interest, I had this sinking feeling that there would end up being two or three of us standing there, no black-belts and no one with keys, looking foolish. Thankfully that was not the case.

     There ended up being eleven of us there for sparring. Having an odd number worked out very well as someone was able to rest during the rounds. We made two lines of five people and squared off for two and a half minute rounds with a one minute rest period between rounds. During the rest period everyone rotated clockwise giving everyone the opportunity to face ten different opponents. This was an awesome learning experience. Ten different styles of fighting to read and adapt to. Pure awesome. Some opponents slower and methodically striking with precision. Others slightly more aggressive and somewhat relentless in their attacks. One thing that all of the opponents had in common was the ability to judge where you were at with sparring and adjusting how they sparred accordingly. 

    Most of us got in thirteen two and a half minute rounds, with a couple of people choosing to grapple for the last few rounds. This was not just a night of logging some sparring rounds, there was a lot of education and fun to be had, as well as some extreme cardio. At the end of the night getting undressed I am sure that my jacket was about five pounds heavier than it was at the start of the night. the statement "even my belt is wet" came out in the change room as well. 

     All in all it was a very good night. A night that would not have been possible without the black-belts agreeing to come and of course Sifu Brinker allowing us to meet at the Kwoon. As we currently are only scheduled to be meeting at the Kwoon on Tuesdays until the end of March, I would encourage all IHC members to come out if you are able. 

    Thank you to everyone that came out, and thanks again to Sifu Brinker. Without you none of this would be possible.