Whoa!!

Whoa! i woke up this morning and realized. I'm behind on stances!!!

No wonder i had nightmares.

Patience

I have been finding myself short on patience.

Not unable to find patience with others, but patience with myself.

I've been feeling rushed, and when I stop to sit still, in need of stimulation.

I'm working through it, remembering to breathe, trying to slow down.

It isn't easy, but I've learned to be patient with myself, I've learned that little things over long time periods yield big results.

whooooohooooo, i have complete all my sparring!!!
with a lot to spare.

Similarities

Because I teach writing and usually leave the topic choices wide open for my students, I end up reading lots of odd material. An evening of grading papers has me wading through arguments about advertising, child care, drinking age, deaf ear implants, etc. (You'd think that would give me lots to think about, but usually I get numb.)

But I ran across a paragraph in an article on gene selection that struck me. So, I logged onto Google to share:

• Our major competitors for just about everything in life are
  other people, so we are fine-tuned by evolution to be highly
  sensitive to the minute differences among us. All people might
  look pretty much the same to a space alien or a mosquito - or
  an evolutionary biologist - but not to a coach trying to build a
  winning sports team or to someone looking for a mate.

Meanings can run many ways and, of course, this is taken out of context in some respects, but I thought about how closely we examine ourselves in martial arts, how narrowly we watch our sparring partners, and how, though we are NOT competing against others, we use them to reflect off of anyway.

Art of Peace #34

Foster and polish
The warrior spirit
While serving in the world;
Illuminate the path
According to your inner light.

Tom Callos posted this to his UBBT guys.

A MESSAGE FROM COACH TOM TO MEMBERS OF THE UBBT 6

SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 2009 AT 11:13AM

(Note to the general public / non-ubbt readers of this journal): The UBBT's journals have brought a kind of "transparency" to the testing process --you get to see, in part, just how real black belts apply themselves to their test -and their lives ---to see the cognizance they can muster, to see how they deal with the hardships, with the ideas (and/or you can see just how someone who says "I will stand up as an example of "the ultimate black belt" --does not follow thru....like, I would guess, so many people who start the martial arts but don't continue).

Through the journals you get to see just how smart and creative and resourceful these black belt teachers are --or are not. What do they think about? How do they view their "test." How do they deal with failure? What are they reading and watching? What are they doing for others? Who inspires them?

In the UBBT 6, as in a few of the past tests, we have a number of our team who are failing to show up, here, in the most important part of this process --in the only part of the UBBT we can all observe. In the following letter, I reach out to non-participating master teachers --to remind them of why they are here and the importance of doing as they want their students to do.

Coach Tom

-----------

To Team 6:

We seek to honor our teachers, our interests, our life's work, the martial arts
and --maybe, even "life" --------by honoring the way we apply ourselves to our
martial arts journey, our "black belt test."

If not to this, then to what? Oh yes, of course, our families! Those are equally,
if not far more, important.

But let's say we honor our loved ones by acting with honor as martial arts
"people." Let's say that the UBBT is about asking more of ourselves in areas
where we have not asked enough of ourselves in the past.

And let's say we do this all, for ourselves -and our families, and at the same
time lead 1000 + other people (and most likely, a LOT more) to a NEW
way to use their martial arts to teach, to make change, and to engage the
world?

Please re-look at your journey and your commitment to this little project of
ours. From a big-picture perspective, this year's going to come and go....it's
going to slip by and hardly be remembered. I'd like to suggest that you
not only start treating the here and now with more awareness --but use these
soon to be forgotten moments / days to make a statement.

By not journaling after committing yourself to the project weakens the power
we have, it weakens what you can say about being a black belt, it weakens our ability to
say, "THIS, is being a martial artist and a black belt" ----because "this" becomes
our failure to be here -now.

We stand a chance to be very powerful, a very positive influence on a LOT of people and
maybe even an entire "industry" and/or "the martial arts world." Because of our/your
influence we are making acts of kindness a force in people's lives, via martial art
instruction. Add to that diabetes education, more dialog about peace, anger control as
a part of martial arts training....

We are promoting business honesty, transparency, and sustainable method of
business management.

We are bringing a much more aggressive form of community activism and humanitarianism
to hundreds -and maybe 1000's of schools. All because of our journaling --the journal entries
about how you're putting these ideas to work and what you're learning from it.

You are, believe it our not, leading an "intellectual" revolution in our little "world." I've worked all
my life to be here, right here and now, and this is my world-champion try out. Fortunately (or
unfortunately) I am dependent on all of you to help bring the soul, the sensibility, the wisdom, and
the heart to the "business" of teaching the martial arts -----that I think it should have.

In fact, I don't think I can make a difference without your help.

So here I am, asking you to simply turn on your computer and talk to the world about
what it is to be a life-long practitioner of the martial arts. To talk about you "ultimate" vision
of your life and how you're pursuing it.

Please team, look at what you're doing --and do your best.

Tom

Getting Ahead/Behind

Tammy pointed out to me how acutely aware I become when I get behind on my ten tigers work commitment, whereas I barely notice getting ahead. It has set me thinking about how we more quickly recognize our failures than our successes.

Part of this program is a year long log of our successes.

So far this year, I have done 15,616 push ups and situps, I've spent close to 5 hours in stance training, I've spent over 10 hours sparring, and I've done at least 245 acts of kindness.

Something to think about ain't it?