Sunday, November 10, 2013
WHICH MARTIAL ART IS BEST?
It seems that one of the most frequently asked questions on the budo forums is "Which martial art is best?" or "Which martial art is best for me?"
The truth is, there's no single best martial art. The one you should study is the one that that most suits your goals. Want to compete? Choose judo or a karate style that promotes competition. Want to develop intense focus? Choose iaido (swordsmanship) or kyudo (archery). Want to do really high kicks? Choose tae kwon do.
Whatever you do, find a school and get started. There's no better way to understand what martial arts practice is like than to practice martial arts. Or, as Randy Dauphin Sensei says, "There's only one way to know what it's like to get hit! Want to know what it is?"
But seriously, if you're in or near Ann Arbor, stop in to JMAC to watch a class or visit our website today!
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Judo Camp - Ann Arbor Martial Arts - Japanese Martial Arts Center
Ann Arbor Martial Arts
Japanese Martial Arts Center
Judo camp - Saturday July 20, 2013 - 11 am - 2 pm
1. Core movements
2. Relevance of core movements to curriculum techniques
3. Application of core movements in free practice
No cost for JMAC students.
Japanese Martial Arts Center Ann Arbor
Judo • Jujitsu • Iaido • Kids Karate
We believe in your potential!
Japanese Martial Arts Center
Judo camp - Saturday July 20, 2013 - 11 am - 2 pm
1. Core movements
2. Relevance of core movements to curriculum techniques
3. Application of core movements in free practice
No cost for JMAC students.
Japanese Martial Arts Center Ann Arbor
Judo • Jujitsu • Iaido • Kids Karate
We believe in your potential!
Monday, April 8, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
Sunday, March 3, 2013
When the young upstart Bob Santoni challenges his drinking ability, the old master, Russell Aldridge, agrees to a contest that will last for six months and end up completely changing both their lives. Filled with "fish stories," social commentary, and wry humor, THE DRINKING GAME is a character study of a man born in an age long past, when honor and dignity were valued and mastery was a way of life.
Destined to become a New York Times Bestseller?
Purchase on Amazon.com.
Visit the webpage.
Visit the Facebook page.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
The Martial Arts Social Contract (Reprise)
By popular demand, we're re-posting this with a few tweaks. Thanks for asking!
Between the martial arts teachers at the Japanese Martial Arts Center in Ann Arbor and their students, there exists a social contract. The contract - mostly implied, sometimes written down - goes something like this:
As the teacher, I agree to give you, the student, the absolute best training opportunity I can give you, be it in judo, jujutsu, or iaido. I promise to offer you the complete martial art I know, including all its best aspects: physical techniques, theories of physical power, mental strategies, cultural aspects, and any spiritual benefits that are part of the art. I promise not to deceive you with martial arts mumbo-jumbo, and I promise not to try to falsely build up your self-esteem without providing any basis in real martial arts skill. I promise not to ask you to pay absurd dues rates, but will ask you to pay a fair rate in keeping with the expenses of the dojo and my need to earn a modest living. I won't give you a black belt unless you deserve it, but at the same time, I won't unnecessarily prolong your journey to black belt by making the standards impossible. I will try my best to help you develop yourself - mind, body, and spirit - so that you can excel in the dojo and in life.
As the student, you agree to attend classes as often as you can, putting forth all your effort, and practicing with energy and a positive attitude. You promise to consider the teachings I put forth, taking time outside of class to think about the relationship between my words and the techniques of your martial art. You promise to respectfully raise any issues you may have with your training, and give real consideration for my answers to your questions. You agree to practice safely to help prevent injury to yourself and other students. You agree to pay your dues on time, and agree not to take advantage of our policies to help you avoid paying a fair dues rate. You agree to work hard to learn your art, and to trust my decisions about when you are ready for promotions. You agree to commit yourself to the learning process, and to pass on the positive lessons you learn while at the Japanese Martial Arts Center.
Occasionally, a few students will come along who wish to learn what the teacher is teaching without honoring their side of the social contract. Such students may wish to learn to fight without taking part in the character development aspects of the martial art. They may train selfishly, failing to give due consideration to the needs of other students. They may try to trick the dues system by taking strategic leaves of absence, hoping to save a few dollars but still desiring all that the teacher has to offer.
We are happy to say that the vast majority of the students who have trained at the Japanese martial arts center are diligent, serious, generous, and sincere. They are quick to recognize that their teachers have given a huge portion of their time and treasure to try to master their martial arts, and are supportive in a variety of ways (offering to help with dojo events, helping newer students learn, paying their dues on time, and recommending the dojo to potential new students).
Generally, the closer students adhere to the social contract, the less formal their written contract needs to be. Those who find their dojo implementing strict written policies may consider blaming their dojo-mates who have failed to honor the implied contract.
As the teacher, I agree to give you, the student, the absolute best training opportunity I can give you, be it in judo, jujutsu, or iaido. I promise to offer you the complete martial art I know, including all its best aspects: physical techniques, theories of physical power, mental strategies, cultural aspects, and any spiritual benefits that are part of the art. I promise not to deceive you with martial arts mumbo-jumbo, and I promise not to try to falsely build up your self-esteem without providing any basis in real martial arts skill. I promise not to ask you to pay absurd dues rates, but will ask you to pay a fair rate in keeping with the expenses of the dojo and my need to earn a modest living. I won't give you a black belt unless you deserve it, but at the same time, I won't unnecessarily prolong your journey to black belt by making the standards impossible. I will try my best to help you develop yourself - mind, body, and spirit - so that you can excel in the dojo and in life.
As the student, you agree to attend classes as often as you can, putting forth all your effort, and practicing with energy and a positive attitude. You promise to consider the teachings I put forth, taking time outside of class to think about the relationship between my words and the techniques of your martial art. You promise to respectfully raise any issues you may have with your training, and give real consideration for my answers to your questions. You agree to practice safely to help prevent injury to yourself and other students. You agree to pay your dues on time, and agree not to take advantage of our policies to help you avoid paying a fair dues rate. You agree to work hard to learn your art, and to trust my decisions about when you are ready for promotions. You agree to commit yourself to the learning process, and to pass on the positive lessons you learn while at the Japanese Martial Arts Center.
Occasionally, a few students will come along who wish to learn what the teacher is teaching without honoring their side of the social contract. Such students may wish to learn to fight without taking part in the character development aspects of the martial art. They may train selfishly, failing to give due consideration to the needs of other students. They may try to trick the dues system by taking strategic leaves of absence, hoping to save a few dollars but still desiring all that the teacher has to offer.
We are happy to say that the vast majority of the students who have trained at the Japanese martial arts center are diligent, serious, generous, and sincere. They are quick to recognize that their teachers have given a huge portion of their time and treasure to try to master their martial arts, and are supportive in a variety of ways (offering to help with dojo events, helping newer students learn, paying their dues on time, and recommending the dojo to potential new students).
Generally, the closer students adhere to the social contract, the less formal their written contract needs to be. Those who find their dojo implementing strict written policies may consider blaming their dojo-mates who have failed to honor the implied contract.
Monday, July 23, 2012
SATO TADAYUKI & JOHN B. GAGE U.S. SEMINAR
(Reprinted from the Journal of the Shudokan Martial
Arts Association, Volume 17 #2)
On August 17, 18, and 19 Nicklaus Suino Sensei, SMAA
Judo Division Director, will be offering a special seminar at his Michigan dojo
featuring budo experts Sato Tadayuki Sensei and John B. Gage Sensei. Both
teachers are coming direct from Tokyo to the U.S., and they’ll be offering
instruction in three important Japanese martial arts:
•The Kodokan judo of Kano Jigoro Sensei
•The Shodokan aikido of Tomiki Kenji Sensei
•The Nihon jujutsu of Sato Shizuya Sensei
Sato Tadayuki Sensei - Direct Student of Tomiki Kenji
Sato Tadayuki Sensei is one of the world’s leading
Shodokan aikido experts. He was taught by Tomiki Kenji Sensei, founder of
Shodokan aikido, in the living room of his house every Sunday before tea, and
so he has an in-depth knowledge of Tomiki Sensei’s aikido system. He is also an
accomplished judoka. Sato Sensei, sixth dan, was granted the position of Shihan
of Waseda University Aikido club in 2007. This position has been vacant since
Professor Tomiki’s death in 1979. He is an expert in his field, and in
particular, the link between Kodokan judo and Tomiki-style aikido. He also
teaches aikido at the Japan Police University, and he lives in Tokyo.
John Gage Sensei - Direct Student of Sato Shizuya
Sensei
John Gage Sensei has been studying and teaching
Japanese martial arts in Tokyo since 1986 when he joined the American Embassy
Judo Club, which was lead by the late Sato Shizuya Sensei. Following the death
of Sato Sensei, he became the leader of this well-established dojo, and he has
been a member of the Kodokan Judo Institute since 1991. He has earned a seventh
dan in Sato Sensei’s system of modern jujutsu, and he has a fifth dan in judo.
He has taught seminars in judo and jujutsu in Belgium, Denmark, France,
Germany, Hungary, Romania, the U.K., and the USA.
Outstanding Opportunity
Contact Suino Sensei soon to get more details about
this world-class training in world-class judo, aikido, and jujutsu. He can be
reached at info@japanesemartialartscenter.com
or (734) 645-6441.
Monday, July 9, 2012
The Endlessness of the Way
There is one transcending level [of study], and this is the most excellent level of all. This person is aware of the endlessness of entering deeply into a certain Way and never thinks of himself as having finished. He truly knows his own insufficiencies and never in his whole life thinks that he has succeeded. He has no thoughts of pride but with self-abasement knows the Way to the end. It is said that Master Yagyu once remarked, "I do not know the way to defeat others, but the way to defeat myself."
Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today. This is never ending. - from Hagakure.
Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today. This is never ending. - from Hagakure.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Do your (martial arts) thing!
Wouldn't you agree that fear of failure is one of the biggest
obstacles to staying on track to greatness? And that patience (or a lack
of it) is a close second? I think that's why a lot of people stop
trying - they're not sure all the effort is going to be worth it if
there's no payoff, and real success can take a really, really long time.
I've read two books lately that really help sort out these two issues
in a way that may help get your ass kicked back into gear.
The first is The Slight Edge, by Jeff Olson. Olson points out how most real success is the result of small, relatively easy actions done consistently over a long period of time. The payoff for those tiny actions is so distant (and invisible at the time they are done) that it's easy not to do them. There are dozens of useful insights in the book, but one point I took from it is that it's possible to study past success, figure out what those small correct actions are, and to stay on track with them even though the benefit is not easily apparent. Keep that perspective helps with all the daily jobs that may not be exciting or highly motivating.
The other book is Talent is Overrated, by Geoff Colvin. Colvin's point is that most extraordinary achievement can be explained by lengthy, concentrated work rather than by the miracle of genius. He advocates a very specific type of practice for virtually any activity that can lead to success. If the overall sequence is done correctly, incredible gains are virtually guaranteed if you keep at it long enough.
We're well into a century of achievement science, and the research is starting to stack up. The best of us are far more accomplished and our skills far more developed than most people were 100 years ago. One reason is that we understand much better how to achieve. Do your thing, do it well, do it often, and do it for a long, long time!
The first is The Slight Edge, by Jeff Olson. Olson points out how most real success is the result of small, relatively easy actions done consistently over a long period of time. The payoff for those tiny actions is so distant (and invisible at the time they are done) that it's easy not to do them. There are dozens of useful insights in the book, but one point I took from it is that it's possible to study past success, figure out what those small correct actions are, and to stay on track with them even though the benefit is not easily apparent. Keep that perspective helps with all the daily jobs that may not be exciting or highly motivating.
The other book is Talent is Overrated, by Geoff Colvin. Colvin's point is that most extraordinary achievement can be explained by lengthy, concentrated work rather than by the miracle of genius. He advocates a very specific type of practice for virtually any activity that can lead to success. If the overall sequence is done correctly, incredible gains are virtually guaranteed if you keep at it long enough.
We're well into a century of achievement science, and the research is starting to stack up. The best of us are far more accomplished and our skills far more developed than most people were 100 years ago. One reason is that we understand much better how to achieve. Do your thing, do it well, do it often, and do it for a long, long time!
Monday, June 25, 2012
Nihon Jujutsu • Renaissance Judo • Tomiki Aikido
Do you know about the seminar we're hosting at JMAC in August? This is the one martial arts event of 2012 that you absolutely should not miss! You can get more info by visiting our seminar page.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Awesome Kata! - Goshin Ho II
Congratulations, Andrea on your promotion to brown belt! OUTSTANDING work!
Monday, February 13, 2012
Seminar - The Five Realms of the Martial Arts
Saturday, Feb 25, 2012
Time: 10am - 2 pm
Location: Japanese Martial Arts Center
09:30 - 10:00 am - Sign In
10:00 – 10:45 am - Jodo (4-Foot Staff) - Long Distance
10:50 – 11:35 am - Bokken (Wooden Sword) - Long/Middle Distance
11:40 – 12:35 pm - Filipino Knife - Middle/Close Distance
12:40 – 01:15 pm - San Chuan Dao (Chinese percussive striking) -Middle/Close Distance
01:20 – 02:00 pm - No gi takedowns - zero distance
$40 JMAC Students
$50 AOTKD, OHANA, KSK, ITAMA, SMAA Members
$60 General Public
16 years and older
Space is limited - visit us at Japanese Martial Arts Center - or call to reserve your spot today!
Time: 10am - 2 pm
Location: Japanese Martial Arts Center
09:30 - 10:00 am - Sign In
10:00 – 10:45 am - Jodo (4-Foot Staff) - Long Distance
10:50 – 11:35 am - Bokken (Wooden Sword) - Long/Middle Distance
11:40 – 12:35 pm - Filipino Knife - Middle/Close Distance
12:40 – 01:15 pm - San Chuan Dao (Chinese percussive striking) -Middle/Close Distance
01:20 – 02:00 pm - No gi takedowns - zero distance
$40 JMAC Students
$50 AOTKD, OHANA, KSK, ITAMA, SMAA Members
$60 General Public
16 years and older
Space is limited - visit us at Japanese Martial Arts Center - or call to reserve your spot today!
Monday, December 19, 2011
101 Ideas to Kick Your Ass into Gear
The latest numbers suggest that the average person spends sixty hours or more a week using their butt as a base of operations. That makes the objective of this book - unplanting your patootie - that much more difficult. How are we supposed to "kick your ass into gear" if you're SITTING ON IT?
Lighthearted but heartfelt, flip but functional, 101 Ideas to Kick Your Ass Into Gear is no garden variety motivational book serving up hackneyed self help ideas. Its tight and punchy chapters are perfect for reading on the plane, on the throne, or at your desk. We provide the ideas, the rest is up to you.
So what are you waiting for? Pick a chapter and put some dare in your derrière, some juice in your caboose, some whoosh in your toosh! After you’ve done a dozen or so of these activities, you’ll look back and wonder how you ever managed to spend so much time parked on your posterior. Check Out 101 Ideas to Kick Your Ass into Gear
Lighthearted but heartfelt, flip but functional, 101 Ideas to Kick Your Ass Into Gear is no garden variety motivational book serving up hackneyed self help ideas. Its tight and punchy chapters are perfect for reading on the plane, on the throne, or at your desk. We provide the ideas, the rest is up to you.
So what are you waiting for? Pick a chapter and put some dare in your derrière, some juice in your caboose, some whoosh in your toosh! After you’ve done a dozen or so of these activities, you’ll look back and wonder how you ever managed to spend so much time parked on your posterior. Check Out 101 Ideas to Kick Your Ass into Gear
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
The Success Triangle - Skills, Attitude, Effort
Today a client asked me, “how can you run a law practice and an SEO business, teach at your martial arts dojo, consult for businesses, write for several blogs, and still get any sleep?” My answer? I don’t get any sleep!
But seriously, doing that many things without a coherent system would be exhausting. Trying to do that many things well without organizing principles would be insane. So what I want to share with you today is the common vision that helps organize my approach to business. Hopefully you’ll find that this idea helps you carry out your personal mission or missions more effectively.
The vision is this – to be successful at just about anything, you have to have all three corners of what I call the “Triangle of Success” – skills, effort, and attitude. If you’re missing any one of these, it can be a lot harder to reach your goals.
Skills are the special products or services that you offer the world. If you’re a doctor – a spine surgeon for example – your skills are the abilities to diagnose and surgically treat problems with the spine. In my SEO business, my skills include the ability to diagnose websites, blogs, and social media for their effectiveness, and to recommend or take actions to make them more effective.
Effort is how hard you try to when you provide your skill to other people. Over the years, I’ve learned to be really good at looking at businesses and finding the things that are holding them back, but if I never tell anybody I can do it, I’m not making much effort. If I were to just look at a few aspects of a business that hired me and mumble some suggestions, I’d be making more effort, but nowhere near enough to be great at it.
Attitude is your belief that you can succeed and how well you can instill that belief in others. Being able to get a class of martial artists energized and sweating is not too hard. On the other hand, it takes strong conviction to convince groups of people, day in and day out, that what they are sweating for will truly change their lives for the better.
I believe three things are true about the Triangle of Success: (1) each corner is connected to the other two; (2) an equilateral triangle is the best recipe for success; and (3) taking a “learning” approach to building your triangle will really help you succeed!
When I say that each corner is connected to the other two, I mean it’s almost impossible to maintain or improve one aspect of success without employing the other two. Your skills will only improve if you make an effort to improve them, and you’ll have a lot more energy to make that effort if you believe success is both possible and desirable. Your efforts to bring your product or service to other people will be a lot more effective if your skills are obviously good and if your positive attitude shows. Your attitude will be better if you feel good about your skills and your efforts yield results.
When I say that an equilateral triangle is best, I mean your best results will come when you give similar amounts of attention to all three corners. A highly skilled salesman who is lazy and negative will never prosper. A tireless carpenter who can’t make a square joint and who swears at his customers won’t build many houses. The most positive motivational speaker in the world who goes mute in front of a crowd and doesn’t learn to control her stage fright is unlikely to reach many people. On the other hand, a slightly skilled person who gives 100% effort and has a great attitude will usually become very successful.
And finally, when I say that taking a learning approach will get you far, I’m talking about using each corner of the triangle to help improve the other corners. When you make the effort to provide the best possible service (business analysis, for example), it will become obvious when you’re lacking a skill that you need to get the job done. Use the information to go out and improve your skills, or hire someone who knows how to do the thing you don’t. Ask yourself if you have any beliefs that could hinder your ability to build business relationships, and if you do, find a way to discard them and your efforts will be far more efficient. Keep your mind open to learning and positive change, and your triangle will grow in height, width, and weight.
Now remember, don’t just go out and do something, DO SOMETHING!
But seriously, doing that many things without a coherent system would be exhausting. Trying to do that many things well without organizing principles would be insane. So what I want to share with you today is the common vision that helps organize my approach to business. Hopefully you’ll find that this idea helps you carry out your personal mission or missions more effectively.
The vision is this – to be successful at just about anything, you have to have all three corners of what I call the “Triangle of Success” – skills, effort, and attitude. If you’re missing any one of these, it can be a lot harder to reach your goals.
Skills are the special products or services that you offer the world. If you’re a doctor – a spine surgeon for example – your skills are the abilities to diagnose and surgically treat problems with the spine. In my SEO business, my skills include the ability to diagnose websites, blogs, and social media for their effectiveness, and to recommend or take actions to make them more effective.
Effort is how hard you try to when you provide your skill to other people. Over the years, I’ve learned to be really good at looking at businesses and finding the things that are holding them back, but if I never tell anybody I can do it, I’m not making much effort. If I were to just look at a few aspects of a business that hired me and mumble some suggestions, I’d be making more effort, but nowhere near enough to be great at it.
Attitude is your belief that you can succeed and how well you can instill that belief in others. Being able to get a class of martial artists energized and sweating is not too hard. On the other hand, it takes strong conviction to convince groups of people, day in and day out, that what they are sweating for will truly change their lives for the better.
I believe three things are true about the Triangle of Success: (1) each corner is connected to the other two; (2) an equilateral triangle is the best recipe for success; and (3) taking a “learning” approach to building your triangle will really help you succeed!
When I say that each corner is connected to the other two, I mean it’s almost impossible to maintain or improve one aspect of success without employing the other two. Your skills will only improve if you make an effort to improve them, and you’ll have a lot more energy to make that effort if you believe success is both possible and desirable. Your efforts to bring your product or service to other people will be a lot more effective if your skills are obviously good and if your positive attitude shows. Your attitude will be better if you feel good about your skills and your efforts yield results.
When I say that an equilateral triangle is best, I mean your best results will come when you give similar amounts of attention to all three corners. A highly skilled salesman who is lazy and negative will never prosper. A tireless carpenter who can’t make a square joint and who swears at his customers won’t build many houses. The most positive motivational speaker in the world who goes mute in front of a crowd and doesn’t learn to control her stage fright is unlikely to reach many people. On the other hand, a slightly skilled person who gives 100% effort and has a great attitude will usually become very successful.
And finally, when I say that taking a learning approach will get you far, I’m talking about using each corner of the triangle to help improve the other corners. When you make the effort to provide the best possible service (business analysis, for example), it will become obvious when you’re lacking a skill that you need to get the job done. Use the information to go out and improve your skills, or hire someone who knows how to do the thing you don’t. Ask yourself if you have any beliefs that could hinder your ability to build business relationships, and if you do, find a way to discard them and your efforts will be far more efficient. Keep your mind open to learning and positive change, and your triangle will grow in height, width, and weight.
Now remember, don’t just go out and do something, DO SOMETHING!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
You Don't Drown by Falling in the Water, You Drown by Not Learning To Swim!
Have you ever heard the saying: “You don’t drown by falling in water, you only drown if you stay there.” As far as I can figure out, it was first coined by Edwin Louis Cole, founder of the Christian Men’s Network. By the way, if you like sayings that can amuse or motivate you, check out the Ed Cole Video Library. Even if you’re not into religion, I’m sure you’ll find a few lines that’ll put a smile on your face.
People all over the world have picked up on Cole’s saying. It’s the title of a lot of blogs and personal development talks. Zig Ziglar used the saying in his motivational speeches, and you can find it in his books. One I think you ought to read, if you’re into personal development, is Embrace the Struggle: Living Life on Life’s Terms. The point of the saying is that, when life gets you down, you shouldn’t stay down. You’ve probably heard, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!” In the martial arts world we say, “Fall down seven times, get up eight.”
Anyway, with all due respect to these very accomplished guys, I don’t think the saying goes far enough. If you’ve spent as much time as I have studying the science of self-improvement, you probably realize that learning to recover from adversity is only the first step. If you want to become truly outstanding, you’ve got find a way to build personal evolution into your DNA.
So I’d change the saying to: “You don’t drown by falling in water, you drown by not getting out and learning to swim!”
Ups and downs are not just part of life, they are life. Once you’ve figured out a mindset or strategy for moving through adversity, like picking yourself up after you get by hard times, then you can start working on real accomplishment. And you don’t get it by doing the same things over and over. Like falling in the water and pulling yourself out! If you do, you’ll find yourself in the same situations over and over, and I don’t think that’s the formula for real personal achievement.
You see, every challenge has built into it the germ or seed of its own solution. “Hey,” you say, “last time I fell in the water I got out, and here I am, doing great!” But there’s an aspect of dealing with challenges that’s even more important, more profound, and probably far more life changing than just figuring out how to solve life’s immediate problems. If we think about it, each challenge can teach us the lessons we need for real, meaningful, lasting personal change.
The truth is, most of us ignore these lessons. It’s like we deliberately tune out the most profound lessons that life teaches us, virtually all the time. We suffer through some crisis, get our lives more or less back to normal, sit back and say, “whew, I’m glad that’s over,” and forget to change the fundamental behaviors or attitudes that got us into the crisis in the first place.
Now, that might be because taking the action called for by lesson is difficult, or involves some sacrifice, hard work, or change in our thinking, but it’s almost never impossible. I know this because there are always people out there who have learned the lesson we were supposed to learn. Let me give you an example.
After you fall into the water and pull yourself out a few times, even if you’re darn proud of figuring out how not to drown, you’re probably thinking, “darn it, isn’t there some other way to handle this?” And that little voice in your head might say, “hey, dummy! Stay out of the water.” And if you do that, you’re not going to fall in anymore.
But what if the water is where you really need to be? Maybe all the most exciting things are happening in the water. That’s where you learn the most, get the biggest reward, meet the coolest people. So you have a lot of motivation to get back in the water, you’re just tired of hauling yourself out. And if you look around next time you fall in, just before you pull yourself out, you pay attention to what all the other people are doing in there. They seem to be having a good time, you know, getting a lot done, making friends, learning a ton by staying in there for so long. So, you ask yourself, “what are they doing that I’m not doing?” And darn it, that voice in your head answers you again. “Hey slowpoke, they’re swimming!”
So, the point is, don’t just keep pulling yourself out, learn to swim! If you find something you absolutely, positively need to do, but you keep doing belly flops when you try it, don’t you think it’s time to do more than just pull yourself out? Look around and figure out what the really successful people are doing. Learn to do what they’re doing. And the surprising thing is, most of them are happy to give you some tips. And when you get good at swimming, you can go in the water anytime you want, and get all kinds of work done there.
Visualize your goal, plan your mission, and don’t just do something, DO SOMETHING!
People all over the world have picked up on Cole’s saying. It’s the title of a lot of blogs and personal development talks. Zig Ziglar used the saying in his motivational speeches, and you can find it in his books. One I think you ought to read, if you’re into personal development, is Embrace the Struggle: Living Life on Life’s Terms. The point of the saying is that, when life gets you down, you shouldn’t stay down. You’ve probably heard, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!” In the martial arts world we say, “Fall down seven times, get up eight.”
Anyway, with all due respect to these very accomplished guys, I don’t think the saying goes far enough. If you’ve spent as much time as I have studying the science of self-improvement, you probably realize that learning to recover from adversity is only the first step. If you want to become truly outstanding, you’ve got find a way to build personal evolution into your DNA.
So I’d change the saying to: “You don’t drown by falling in water, you drown by not getting out and learning to swim!”
Ups and downs are not just part of life, they are life. Once you’ve figured out a mindset or strategy for moving through adversity, like picking yourself up after you get by hard times, then you can start working on real accomplishment. And you don’t get it by doing the same things over and over. Like falling in the water and pulling yourself out! If you do, you’ll find yourself in the same situations over and over, and I don’t think that’s the formula for real personal achievement.
You see, every challenge has built into it the germ or seed of its own solution. “Hey,” you say, “last time I fell in the water I got out, and here I am, doing great!” But there’s an aspect of dealing with challenges that’s even more important, more profound, and probably far more life changing than just figuring out how to solve life’s immediate problems. If we think about it, each challenge can teach us the lessons we need for real, meaningful, lasting personal change.
The truth is, most of us ignore these lessons. It’s like we deliberately tune out the most profound lessons that life teaches us, virtually all the time. We suffer through some crisis, get our lives more or less back to normal, sit back and say, “whew, I’m glad that’s over,” and forget to change the fundamental behaviors or attitudes that got us into the crisis in the first place.
Now, that might be because taking the action called for by lesson is difficult, or involves some sacrifice, hard work, or change in our thinking, but it’s almost never impossible. I know this because there are always people out there who have learned the lesson we were supposed to learn. Let me give you an example.
After you fall into the water and pull yourself out a few times, even if you’re darn proud of figuring out how not to drown, you’re probably thinking, “darn it, isn’t there some other way to handle this?” And that little voice in your head might say, “hey, dummy! Stay out of the water.” And if you do that, you’re not going to fall in anymore.
But what if the water is where you really need to be? Maybe all the most exciting things are happening in the water. That’s where you learn the most, get the biggest reward, meet the coolest people. So you have a lot of motivation to get back in the water, you’re just tired of hauling yourself out. And if you look around next time you fall in, just before you pull yourself out, you pay attention to what all the other people are doing in there. They seem to be having a good time, you know, getting a lot done, making friends, learning a ton by staying in there for so long. So, you ask yourself, “what are they doing that I’m not doing?” And darn it, that voice in your head answers you again. “Hey slowpoke, they’re swimming!”
So, the point is, don’t just keep pulling yourself out, learn to swim! If you find something you absolutely, positively need to do, but you keep doing belly flops when you try it, don’t you think it’s time to do more than just pull yourself out? Look around and figure out what the really successful people are doing. Learn to do what they’re doing. And the surprising thing is, most of them are happy to give you some tips. And when you get good at swimming, you can go in the water anytime you want, and get all kinds of work done there.
Visualize your goal, plan your mission, and don’t just do something, DO SOMETHING!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Friends of JMAC!
We've heard that a friend will lend you their pickup truck, but a real friend will show up to help you move. If that's true, JMAC has some OUTSTANDING friends! Thank you! For effort above and beyond the call of duty, special shout out to The Carbon Unit, Spengular, Mike K., Pat G., and Kerns, the guys who have been there day in and day out and who really made our move possible. That's budo spirit at work.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Everything DOESN'T Happen for a Reason!
Hi, Suino Sensei here! I want to talk to you for a few minutes about a saying I’m sure you’ve heard many times. Maybe you even use it yourself from time to time. I just heard a guy say it in an interview on NPR, and it struck me that what you think when you say it can make a huge difference in your approach to life.
The saying is “everything happens for a reason.”
People say it when something bad happens to them. Keith Miller was the guy being interviewed on NPR. He’d been a professional football player, and he’s now actually a very successful opera singer! That’s an extreme change, right? He had played for five years in the European and the Arena Football leagues, both of which no longer exist. When the leagues went out of business, he found himself without a job. He was a fan of opera, and he went on to study it and is now one of most celebrated bass-baritones on stage. He’s singing Madame Butterfly with the Washington National Opera.
When he said “everything happens for a reason,” he meant basically the same thing we mean when we say “when one door closes, another opens.” If we’re wired for success, we should re-write both of these phrases to get them out of the passive voice. We should say them this way:
“Everything doesn’t happen for a reason, I choose the reason.”
and:
“When one door closes, I open another.”
If we’re really going to excel in life, we need to stop thinking in terms of when something is going to happen to us, and start thinking in terms of making things happen. Which mindset you choose can make a gigantic difference to what you get in life. It made a difference of epic proportions in Keith Miller’s life, and that’s because he chose to make things happen. Here’s what he said, and if you get chance to read the whole interview, I recommend it, because he’s a very articulate guy and his story is a fascinating one. The show is in the NPR archives for March 2, 2011. Anyway, here’s what he said:
“It’s the one thing I’ve learned, is everything always happens for a reason You know, the biggest losses that we’ve suffered, I mean, in personal life, professional football, you know, when you lose something, you have to go back and diagnose. You’re more apt to go back and diagnose the things that you did wrong, what you can improve upon. And when things go well, you don’t really at the end of the night you know, you just say, oh well, you know, thanks, that was great. You don’t take the time to really evaluate.
“So you really need to have speed bumps in your life to kind of say, hey, what – you know, make some adjustments, fine tune things or just, you know, change the transmission completely.”
I don’t know if he’s studied success systems, but that’s a great way to explain the benefit of adversity in our lives. When bad things happen, we should reflect on what happened, consider whether we could have done something better or could do something better in the future, and then make adjustments to our actions. The adjustments may just be fine tuning, or we may need to completely change the transmission! It’s as though he’s been reading my journals. Look at steps three through seven from my last talk “Don’t Just Do Something, DO SOMETHING!”
3. Do something!
4. Pay attention to your results
5. Multiply your successes
6. Modify or discard your failures
7. Do something else!
The people who fail, who don’t grow, are often people who, when they experience a failure, either keep doing the same things that caused the failure or simply stop trying. That leads to paralysis. Soon they feel like they can’t do anything, and that can lead to a pretty miserable life.
The people who succeed recognize that, as Zig Ziglar says, “failure is an event, not a person.” And how they think about that event makes all the difference in the world. They recognize that they can learn from failures.
When you try to do something great – that’s step three: Do something! – and you don’t succeed, you can “go back and diagnose the things you did wrong” – that’s step four: Pay attention to your results. Steps five and six are what Keith called making “some adjustments, fine tune things or just …. change the transmission completely.”
What a great lesson! No wonder people who do really well say that it’s not about winning and losing. It’s about doing! If you DO SOMETHING with your goal clearly in mind, then the failures will be lessons clearly written out for you to modify your actions in the future. If we could go through life enthusiastically doing things without worrying about whether we instantly succeed or fail, think how much we could learn! What a great mindset to teach our children. “When one door closes, I open another.”
You know what, I’m going to go share this idea with my daughter right now. Everything doesn’t happen for a reason, you choose the reason. And if the reason is to teach you what you need to do to succeed, you can be as wildly successful as any human being can ever hope to be.
The saying is “everything happens for a reason.”
People say it when something bad happens to them. Keith Miller was the guy being interviewed on NPR. He’d been a professional football player, and he’s now actually a very successful opera singer! That’s an extreme change, right? He had played for five years in the European and the Arena Football leagues, both of which no longer exist. When the leagues went out of business, he found himself without a job. He was a fan of opera, and he went on to study it and is now one of most celebrated bass-baritones on stage. He’s singing Madame Butterfly with the Washington National Opera.
When he said “everything happens for a reason,” he meant basically the same thing we mean when we say “when one door closes, another opens.” If we’re wired for success, we should re-write both of these phrases to get them out of the passive voice. We should say them this way:
“Everything doesn’t happen for a reason, I choose the reason.”
and:
“When one door closes, I open another.”
If we’re really going to excel in life, we need to stop thinking in terms of when something is going to happen to us, and start thinking in terms of making things happen. Which mindset you choose can make a gigantic difference to what you get in life. It made a difference of epic proportions in Keith Miller’s life, and that’s because he chose to make things happen. Here’s what he said, and if you get chance to read the whole interview, I recommend it, because he’s a very articulate guy and his story is a fascinating one. The show is in the NPR archives for March 2, 2011. Anyway, here’s what he said:
“It’s the one thing I’ve learned, is everything always happens for a reason You know, the biggest losses that we’ve suffered, I mean, in personal life, professional football, you know, when you lose something, you have to go back and diagnose. You’re more apt to go back and diagnose the things that you did wrong, what you can improve upon. And when things go well, you don’t really at the end of the night you know, you just say, oh well, you know, thanks, that was great. You don’t take the time to really evaluate.
“So you really need to have speed bumps in your life to kind of say, hey, what – you know, make some adjustments, fine tune things or just, you know, change the transmission completely.”
I don’t know if he’s studied success systems, but that’s a great way to explain the benefit of adversity in our lives. When bad things happen, we should reflect on what happened, consider whether we could have done something better or could do something better in the future, and then make adjustments to our actions. The adjustments may just be fine tuning, or we may need to completely change the transmission! It’s as though he’s been reading my journals. Look at steps three through seven from my last talk “Don’t Just Do Something, DO SOMETHING!”
3. Do something!
4. Pay attention to your results
5. Multiply your successes
6. Modify or discard your failures
7. Do something else!
The people who fail, who don’t grow, are often people who, when they experience a failure, either keep doing the same things that caused the failure or simply stop trying. That leads to paralysis. Soon they feel like they can’t do anything, and that can lead to a pretty miserable life.
The people who succeed recognize that, as Zig Ziglar says, “failure is an event, not a person.” And how they think about that event makes all the difference in the world. They recognize that they can learn from failures.
When you try to do something great – that’s step three: Do something! – and you don’t succeed, you can “go back and diagnose the things you did wrong” – that’s step four: Pay attention to your results. Steps five and six are what Keith called making “some adjustments, fine tune things or just …. change the transmission completely.”
What a great lesson! No wonder people who do really well say that it’s not about winning and losing. It’s about doing! If you DO SOMETHING with your goal clearly in mind, then the failures will be lessons clearly written out for you to modify your actions in the future. If we could go through life enthusiastically doing things without worrying about whether we instantly succeed or fail, think how much we could learn! What a great mindset to teach our children. “When one door closes, I open another.”
You know what, I’m going to go share this idea with my daughter right now. Everything doesn’t happen for a reason, you choose the reason. And if the reason is to teach you what you need to do to succeed, you can be as wildly successful as any human being can ever hope to be.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Don't Just Do Something, DO SOMETHING!
The other day I was having coffee with my friend Ian, and we were talking about what each of us could do to help people become more effective. I was telling him that one thing I can do is help people get in the right state of mind to take action. That’s something I’d love to talk more about, but he pressed me to list some of the key principles of achievement.
Now, before I share my ideas of how you can achieve success, I want to tell you a little about Ian. He’s a true friend of mine, and we’ve known each other for over 30 years. I get a little emotional talking about it, because we’ve been through some extraordinary experiences together. At one point, we formed a band together and wrote some really amazing songs. I remember getting some real interest from recording agencies. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look how our futures developed, Ian and I and the other members of the band had a lot of growing to do at that time, and the band basically self-destructed.
Anyway, the reason I’m going on about Ian is that he’s one of greatest facilitators I know. What I mean is that he has a gift for bringing out the most creative, powerful parts of your personality. This gift comes from a life lived through a lot of adversity. He’s got a profound energy that has to be experienced to be appreciated, and if you ever get a chance to talk with him, I encourage you to do it!
So, back to our conversation about the key principles of achievement. I was very inspired by Ian’s leading questions, so I rattled off seven of them. Here’s what they were:
1. Clearly identify your goal
2. Learn the path others have taken to reach similar goals
3. Do something!
4. Pay attention to your results
5. Multiply your successes
6. Modify or discard your failures
7. Do something else!
If you follow success systems at all, you’re going to hear a lot of echoes in my talks of the big players in success coaching, like Napoleon Hill, Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Deepak Chopra, and others like them. That’s because over the past ten years, I’ve consumed their writings and teachings. I’ve compared them to the wisdom of the ancient teachers of Asia, and found that they have a LOT in common. If you can afford it, I encourage you to go to seminars taught by these great motivators. If you can’t afford it, go anyway!
So, after that long digression, let me get back to the one thing I really want to share with you today. I’m sure you’ve heard to the old expression, “Don’t just stand there, do something!” If you study leadership at all, you’ve probably heard of the book by Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff called Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There! My suggestion to you is a little different. If you want to real a goal, don’t just do something, DO SOMETHING! What I mean by that is that when you have a powerful idea, the most effective way to bring it into existence in the real world is to take action, take big action, and take it now!
Small results are hard to measure. If you do something right, but it’s very, very small, you may need a microscope to figure out if it helped you get closer to your goal. But if you do something big, you’re going to know if it worked or not. And if it didn’t, you’ll be able to see what didn’t work about it.
Now, I’m not saying you should just willy nilly do something huge and crazy just to be doing something! You have to clearly identify your goal and learn what the path is that will take you there. I’ll share a lot more about these two steps in the future. But the point I want you to take away from today is that if you’ve clearly identified your goal and figured out the major steps needed to get there, you can work out some action to take to get you started. That’s the “something big” I encourage you to take on.
And, finally, do it now! Ideas have a shelf life, and you don’t want yours to spoil because they’ve festered too long! Take the first opportunity to act, before doubts creep in, before technology leaves your idea behind, or before you get too caught up in your everyday life to work hard on the one thing that is really important to you.
So, don’t just do something, get out there and DO SOMETHING!
Now, before I share my ideas of how you can achieve success, I want to tell you a little about Ian. He’s a true friend of mine, and we’ve known each other for over 30 years. I get a little emotional talking about it, because we’ve been through some extraordinary experiences together. At one point, we formed a band together and wrote some really amazing songs. I remember getting some real interest from recording agencies. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look how our futures developed, Ian and I and the other members of the band had a lot of growing to do at that time, and the band basically self-destructed.
Anyway, the reason I’m going on about Ian is that he’s one of greatest facilitators I know. What I mean is that he has a gift for bringing out the most creative, powerful parts of your personality. This gift comes from a life lived through a lot of adversity. He’s got a profound energy that has to be experienced to be appreciated, and if you ever get a chance to talk with him, I encourage you to do it!
So, back to our conversation about the key principles of achievement. I was very inspired by Ian’s leading questions, so I rattled off seven of them. Here’s what they were:
1. Clearly identify your goal
2. Learn the path others have taken to reach similar goals
3. Do something!
4. Pay attention to your results
5. Multiply your successes
6. Modify or discard your failures
7. Do something else!
If you follow success systems at all, you’re going to hear a lot of echoes in my talks of the big players in success coaching, like Napoleon Hill, Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Deepak Chopra, and others like them. That’s because over the past ten years, I’ve consumed their writings and teachings. I’ve compared them to the wisdom of the ancient teachers of Asia, and found that they have a LOT in common. If you can afford it, I encourage you to go to seminars taught by these great motivators. If you can’t afford it, go anyway!
So, after that long digression, let me get back to the one thing I really want to share with you today. I’m sure you’ve heard to the old expression, “Don’t just stand there, do something!” If you study leadership at all, you’ve probably heard of the book by Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff called Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There! My suggestion to you is a little different. If you want to real a goal, don’t just do something, DO SOMETHING! What I mean by that is that when you have a powerful idea, the most effective way to bring it into existence in the real world is to take action, take big action, and take it now!
Small results are hard to measure. If you do something right, but it’s very, very small, you may need a microscope to figure out if it helped you get closer to your goal. But if you do something big, you’re going to know if it worked or not. And if it didn’t, you’ll be able to see what didn’t work about it.
Now, I’m not saying you should just willy nilly do something huge and crazy just to be doing something! You have to clearly identify your goal and learn what the path is that will take you there. I’ll share a lot more about these two steps in the future. But the point I want you to take away from today is that if you’ve clearly identified your goal and figured out the major steps needed to get there, you can work out some action to take to get you started. That’s the “something big” I encourage you to take on.
And, finally, do it now! Ideas have a shelf life, and you don’t want yours to spoil because they’ve festered too long! Take the first opportunity to act, before doubts creep in, before technology leaves your idea behind, or before you get too caught up in your everyday life to work hard on the one thing that is really important to you.
So, don’t just do something, get out there and DO SOMETHING!
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