Happy New Year's Eve

Well, folks, we made it. What do you think? The year went by whether or not we wanted it to! This year this core group spent more time together than ever and I, for one, enjoyed it immensely. We may never be so close again -- or we may -- who can tell? Even as I write this, the present becomes the past, and the future remains unrecorded ...

So now, in the present, moving to the past so fast that I can't comprehend it, I want to thank each of you for making this such a fine year, with wonderful experiences and life-changing goals all wrapped up into our time together.

We need, perhaps, one more event, and some group pictures from that event, so that we can use the pictures to commemorate our time. When I'm 80 or so, I'd like to be able to look back through a photo album and re-live some of our adventures ...

Happy New Year, Everybody.

What I learned.

I learned many things the first of which is that it's hard to eat and do stances at the same time. No but seriously it has made me more aware, like don't wait to do the stuff until midnight to do the stuff but now I'm almost done with it 1 min. of staces to go.

What I learned.

What I learned in ten tigers was discipline, I could not do 20 pushups in a row before this program and I can now do 50.
I could not do 20 minutes of stances, now I can.
So many things that I can do that I could not do before.

My Confession

OK Ten Tigers Team, I have a confession to make.

The 35,000 pushups wasn't really about doing pushups. It wasn't even about physical fitness. It was about setting a goal that seemed overwhelming and pushing through to achieve it. It was about finding the discipline and tenacity required to complete it. It was about finding a way to organize your life around a goal.

The pushups could be replaced with anything, kettlebell swings, sprints, pages read of inspirational books, acts of charity. . .

The pushups and the resulting fitness were just side effects of the real goal.

Personally I learned a lot from it.

Only 325 of them left to do.

Almost Done

Only

1455 pushups and situps left
51 forms left
82 cardio rounds left
123 minutes of stance left (2 hours)

What Ten Tigers has done for me

I used to think that life would slow down, and that -- finally, then -- I could go about doing the things that mattered to me. Only it never slows down. It's taken me decades to realize that this headlong pace is simply a factor of a full, rich life. So the things that matter have to be fit into that headlong pace.

The Ten Tigers' daily requirements have taught me that each day I must give some space to myself, not just when it's convenient. When I signed the contract to complete the annual tasks, it was a contract with more than myself. I found out that, while I may be willing to cheat myself in weak moments, the group support kept me from it. Using that support as a crutch made it easier to get into a routine of taking care of myself each day so that it has become a habit. Nearly automatically now, I plan my day or review it to see where I need to pay attention and divert some of the outside traffic away from my own tasks of self-maintenance. I say "nearly automatically" because I think one year out of 46 isn't quite enough to overcome the previous habits, but it's a start, it's definitely a start.

Without Ten Tigers, I would not have recognized the many, many gaps in my self-care and self-development. Other things in life schedule themselves: bills come each month and if I don't take care of them, things stop working (like electricity or cell phones); jobs get done because a boss of some sort decrees when I must be there; housework gets done when there's nothing left to wear in the mornings.

But self-care? When does that get done? Why wait until an emotional breakdown looms, or a good relationship falls apart, or a wall is faced that cannot be scaled? The time-out it takes to complete 10 minutes of stances per day, 3 forms, 100 push/situps, 1 mile of travel, and so forth, creates the space to think, to review, to experience. When I find, for instance, that I cannot take the time to complete a form, then I have left off contact with myself for too long. When I resent the time any of these tasks take, then I have let the headlong pace of everyday life mow me down ... again.

Now I know how to stop, take notice of myself and my condition, and take care. Each day.
That is what Ten Tigers has done for me.

Fasting is Hard

I washed some dishes and left the kitchen only to discover an apple. . . IN MY HAND. "How did that get there?" I made pancakes for my daughter and couldn't lick the syrup off my fingers. The leftover porkchop in the refrigerator is LAUGHING. My daughter is now eating a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich while I watch. My wife said, "I don't think I can make it through my final if I don't get a candy bar first."

That apple is still in there, singing out, "I don't really count as food, I'm just one little apple."

This is difficult. 5 hours and 15 minutes to go.

What have I learned and accomplished?

So very much! This year has been a very eventful year for me. It has been filled with mountains and valleys. Dreams have been realized, revelations, both good and bad, have been revealed. I have made major changes in attitude, self-discipline, outlook, and even my lifestyle. I eat healthier, I have lowered my cholesterol, completed a degree in Business Management as well as a class in project management, and finally acquired a sailboat and even taken a vacation for the first time in many years. I no longer feel like a workaholic. I have learned new ways of dealing with adversity in both my personal and professional life.

Martial arts, and the Ten Tigers program in particular, underlies these accomplishments in a way I find difficult to put into words. While reviewing my blogs earlier I came across a statement I made that remains true for me even now. "The great thing is, we are all learning lessons in ways we didn't expect and from sources unimagined". Who would think that dealing with negativity could be learned by standing in a low horse stance until your leg muscles give out? Yet standing in horse stance for any length of time takes focus, determination, and patience. All of these attributes helps me to keep my temper, consider my words, and above all to stay calm and think. Learning Hung Gar has definitely improved my ability to defend myself in a crisis, but more importantly, it has, and still is, improving the fundamental ideals that make me who I am.

Closer than I thought

After carefully deciding which tasks needed to be done and which events may have to be put off, I decided to miss class tonight in order to catch up on my blogs. This is has been the most difficult requirement for me to complete. I went through the entire year, tallied up the number of blogs (both blogs and comments) and found that I am 5 entries (4 now) short of what I need. I have dedicated tonight to correcting this.

Empathy

There are just 16 days left and I still have to do my empathy training.

I'd better think of something . . . FAST.

Wait, that's it, I'll fast. Tomorrow.

Aren't you all glad that I am doing it on a day in which my grumpiness will affect the fewest people?

Why oh why did I get behind?

I didn't get far behind, but behind enough that I can't really afford to take breaks now. My body is tired, my arms are sore, but I'm just putting my head down and plowing forward my goals are in sight. I'm almost there.

Almost to the end/beginning

So the year and the first edition of Ten Tigers is coming to a close.

I would like all the Ten Tigers member to post a reflection on what they have learned and accomplished in this program.

10,001

10,001 -- pushups/situps completed for the "lite" program. Now I wonder how many more I can fit into the year? The habit was hard to form -- I don't want to lose it.

Teaching

A concern about teaching (teachers of all sorts) occurred to me very strongly as I labor through (apparently) endless freshman papers. If we always and only teach those who know considerably less than we do, the tendency may be to think we know it all, or to get overconfident. Overconfident people are among my least favorite folks to be around -- and I sure don't want to fall into that category. I try to remember the path I walked to get what I know. I have to remember that "walked" cannot be just past tense -- I keep wandering along it. Thoreau calls it "sauntering." Memory helps me realize that the path is not straight or clear, and knowledge, or understanding, is all along it (even when retracing steps).

I was thinking, too, that a key in defense against overconfidence, and maybe a main one, is to keep company with those who simply love teaching and learning - those who see the cyclical nature of the pattern - those who are not afraid to admit they don't know - those who never answer the questions I ask in quite the way I expect.

Inspiration

I've been meaning to put this out here for a while now. There are days when I find myself lacking motivation to complete my TT requirements and need a little inspiration. Often I find myself thinking about a TT member whose workday is at least as strenuous as a TT day, who almost always stays caught up or ahead of his TT program and still excels in class every week.

Dean, I'm not sure how you do it, but thanks for the example set.

Giving Thanks

In the past few years, there have been sacrifices my family has had to make to try to get East West Kung Fu off the ground. Operating in a small town, and opening up at the beginning of a recession has meant we had to cut back on non-essentials, work part time jobs, and struggle financially.

I thought that considering the recent holiday I would take a little time to give thanks for all the help we have received from people who apparently believe very strongly in what we do.

In the past few years, people have bought my family countless dinners, I was given a brand new bicycle, and so was my stepdaughter, my car repairs were paid for, people donated housekeeping supplies for the kung fu school, I was given transformers toys, I was given dvd's, people have given me loans to keep the kwoon in business, people have given me money outright to keep the kwoon in business, and the list goes on and on.

It is easy to forget how good we have it sometimes. It is easy to get distracted by all the struggle. So I wanted to take a moment to be greatful to all who have helped us through the struggle.

I hope that you will take a moment to do the same.