Le Schedule: Take One

Over the past few weeks I have come to identify a few things that were not working for me not only in the way I trained, but also in what my day shaped up to be like. First of all, I was lacking structure in my day particularly in my glass art and that overflowed in other areas. Next my training got to be a hamster wheel of excitement. In other words: boring!! Some people do well in day to day routine of doing the same thing day in and day out. That's purgatory for me. The third thing I noticed is that I have my UBBT yearly goals and my daily goals, but no weekly goals. For me, a weekly goal is a better measuring stick of how I am doing. So now that I've identified the issues, what are the solutions?

Solution 1: a weekly week-at-a-glance schedule of my core activities that include Kung Fu classes, I Ho Chuan classes, fitness classes, open training, Hot Yoga Classes, torching (glass art), and appointments. Of course my shows are scheduled in as well. These are the first things that go into my schedule. I have instituted the structure but also left it open enough so that I'm not micro-managing myself.

Solution 2: a color-coded week-at-a-glance schedule much like the class schedule I had when I worked at Nait. The purpose of this schedule is to theme my days. For example: Mondays are Kung Fu and Hot Yoga with the afternoons for the business side of my glass art. When I worked at Nait, I used both types of schedules and it worked really well for me so I'm implementing it here (good thing I still have the template). The beauty of this schedule is that when I wake up in the morning, and realize what day it is, I know what direction my day is going and where I can slot in my daily training.

Solution 3: speaking of daily training, I looked at my yearly goals and broke them down into weekly goals. Then I divided my activities into a daily and specific day schedule with Sunday being a total rest day unless I want to play around with something. Pushups and situps are a daily activity, Monday/Wednesday/Friday I do Kempo, combinations, horse stance, air squats, Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday I have hand and weapon forms, plank, squat thrusts, kicks. Getting back to pushups and situps: I have a weekly goal of 1000 per week, however, that does not mean 150 a day. I have a routine where 240 are done in a day therefor I have just about all of my pushups and situps done in 4 days. So what this looks like is Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday are heavy numbers days. Wednesday is a light day (my chiropractor appointments are on Wednesdays and no training after) and so is Saturday where I can test myself with different positions and try other methods. By setting up my training this way I am giving not only giving variety but also inserting rest periods. I will also do an at-a-glance schedule specifically for training so at the start of my day I know what I have to accomplish.

Solution 4: I noticed a BIG difference when I took a break from Hot Yoga. My shoulders were crawling up to my ears and my hips were crankier. So I have now incorporated Hot Yoga after Kung Fu classes on Mondays and Wednesdays as well as on Fridays. A side note is that my Hot Yoga is before my chiropractor appointment so that should yield good benefit there. The buckets that I sweat during the class leads to fat loss (safer not to argue with me on this one) as well as a toxin flush-out.

I'm quite excited about my new schedule as it gives me direction and structure in my day as well as a guide to see how well my goals are being accomplished. As I see it, the only way to know for sure is to take this on a test drive. Nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Sherri Donohue
Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta

Goals

So I started school again this Monday...it was really, really hard to get out of bed. I am finally taking Animal Health, something I've said I was going to do since I was about 10, although I wonder sometimes about how wise it was to take on 10 courses and my black belt grading at the same time. I was thinking back to some of the goals I had set for myself in the past few years and it was pretty cool actually. I had made a list of 43 things I wanted to do during my first go around of the UBBT and the coming years, this was UBBT 6 so a few years ago. I actually did a lot of them. I got my motorcycle license, got good at kempo 2, did at least one pull up, held my horse stance for 5 minutes, and a lot of my personal goals too.

In the last few years I have gotten a lot done and made big changes in my life. I will give all the credit to being a part of the UBBT. I had never set actual goals for myself, always vague things I thought I might do someday. I have learned how to set a goal and follow through and in doing so I have gotten a lot less afraid of failure- I can't say I enjoy it but I have learned that failing isn't the worst thing that can happen. I have really learned to put myself out there and fail over and over and publicly too. It's been good for me.

Looking over my goals of 3 years ago was really good for me, sometimes I feel like I haven't progressed in my training or personal life and it was fun to see how many things I have accomplished and the ways I've changed and taken another path. Happy training everyone.

Andrea Prince

Back to School!

Tomorrow is the first day back to school for many of our students, and I am sure it wrought with both anxiety and excitement. It’s nice that the kwoon is closed this week for the kids (and their parents) to prepare. Not to mention our annual renos.

The Advanced Black Dragons had their last class of the summer outside at Rotary Park. It was fantastic weather wise, and the kids had a blast. I did too. I do it for the kids, and for myself - as both an end to summer, and a kick off to the new year.

This week is a nice break as an instructor in two ways. One, to regroup and refresh myself. And two, to be able to put some sweat and blood into the kwoon.

So, until classes start in September - Don’t forget to keep practicing!!!!!!!

Am I serving kungfu or is it serving me?

With a 2 weeks of vacation under my belt, and now a week off of training, it seems a good time to reevaluate my training and how I feel about it. I have noticed I cyle in and out of enthusiasm; but that aside, I do feel a distinct lack of enthusiasm lately, and I wonder. Am I serving my kungfu or it me? What were my goals way back when, and have they been met, or have I strayed? Am I bored of kungfu or am I bored with how I do my art? Not easy questions and the answers arent forthcoming either.
Can I turn my training upside down and do something completely different with it? Do I walk away from almost 5 years of work? Can I stop stressing about my training long enough to step back and enjoy it for the art it is?
Time to let the subconscious step in and guide for awhile....

Forms and Training Balance

For the last 2 weeks I have been very committed to increasing my conditioning level and the results are great.  Last night I decided to switch to forms, which I have neglected for the most part for the last 2 weeks, and the effects were devastating.  I have lost so much in 2 weeks in forms. 

Forms will be a priority this week, and every day up to grading, and I am confident they will recover.  My learning is to practice forms every day and surround this activity with conditioning, techniques, cirriculum review, and my 5 individual techniques.  The key will be to balance my training in all areas including some family time.

Have a great training week!

Allan Gamble

Mastery

Do you ever wonder why people go through life in an unhappy state? Why do they accept mediocrity? I have been working towards improving me and how I live my life for enough time that I am not really sure how not to be. I have a hard time imagining being dissatisfied for a long time and not doing anything about it. I know that when negative thoughts start creeping into my head that I need to figure out how they are getting in and rectify the problem. I can't begin to imagine what my life would be like if I accepted mediocrity and didn't strive to improve myself and the world around me. I am not saying that my life is perfect and that I don't make mistakes, I am saying that I am not going to accept everything as it presents itself in my world. I am going to question, explore, investigate, and change all that needs to be in order to achieve mastery.

"Correction is essential to power and mastery. You see, we are all ordinary. But a master, rather than condemning himself for his ordinariness, he embraces his ordinariness and uses it as a foundation for building the extraordinary. Instead of giving up, like ordinary people do, a master will use his ordinariness to correct his errors, which is essential in the process of attaining mastery. You must be able to correct yourself without condemning or invalidating yourself, accept results and improve upon them."

This quote is from Mastery by Stuwart Emery and these words have been helping me create the direction in my life for a while now. It has not been easy, especially the accepting part, well, and not condemning has been a bit challenging, and maybe the embracing part. Okay, so it has been challenging and sometimes down right hard. I am determined to achieve my mastery in every corner of my life, I will succeed.

Until next week, work hard and have fun.

Uncensored Wanting

A statement that has been repeatedly coming up in my personal development books, courses, interviews, and what not has been to "focus on what you want." Focus on what you want instead of what you don't want. However the question that has kept cycling back to me is "what do I want?" Good question and not so easy of an answer.

During our drive back from our weekend camping trip Dennis and I decided to play a game that I invented (okay, I decided and he played along). The game was called "Uncensored Wanting" where we ask each other what we want and we would answer back with the freedom of a 6 year old with the new edition of the Sears Christmas Wish Book. Sounds like an easy game full of frivolity, well hold the frivolity and it wasn't so easy. I found myself playing the game "safe" and the censorship was rearing its head. Excuses such as "my studio isn't set up for something that big", "I really don't need that", "I can do with something smaller", "I should ask for this first", " I want this because of these reasons" and so on. Oh yes and the "be careful for what you wish for" kept chiming in as well. (Who invented that damned saying anyway??!!) I also found myself silently seeking approval for what I wanted.

What an eye-opener this game was for both of us! Talk about some blocks! How can I focus on what I when I either don't know what I want or I talk myself out of what I want? Yeesh! So now I have decided that I need practice in this game (as uncomfy as it is) and to practice frequently either by saying out loud what I want or by writing a list. Also, make some outrageous requests just to flex and stretch that asking "muscle".

So Sherri, what do you want? The only rule of the game is that you cannot censor your answers. Let's begin..... what do you want? P.S. Don't forget to breathe.

Sherri Donohue
Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta