This weeks test; setting up for the rest of the plan

I had spoken to my boss about being local for the months of December and January to help with my commitments for the "Chinese New Years" celebration. But as it's now past I realize that it's my turn to go out of town for my share of the workload. I had in years and months past blown my training commitments as I can get caught up in my workload and somehow tell myself that I'll catch up later, as soon as I get back I'll double up my actions and I truly believe it when I tell myself this and truly know I won't do it at the same time. So this week there I was standing in front of my old behaviour pattern and this time said "NO". I found the gym, I did pushups and sit ups in-between paperwork, left the hotel television off, basically doing what I could with the travel, work and time left at the end of the day. Being out of town did leave me with a crammed schedule for  Saturday, but most important was to stay with the flow of my training. Back at the office they know that Robert is busy Saturday morning with his "physio" as they've been conditioned to believe, yet I managed to make it to fitness, pick up my motorcycle from the shop, do laundry, take in date night, head out the next day for work and keep my numbers near where I wanted. I did get in late on Sunday and felt that blogging then wouldn't be from the heart, so I switched it to this morning.  Enough patting myself on the back,..........this isn't about me, it's about "being of service to others". When I am so "selfish" that it's going to be about me in every aspect of my life, I crash and burn, over and over. But when I'm selfish to build me in such a way that my experience will help/inspire/motivate others, the benefits are beyond anything I could imagine and at times comprehend. Earlier in the week the opportunity came to share my experience with several classmates on their journey and belt level and I was able to look back and through my journey pass along my experiences to help them move forward, to let them know they are not alone in this. "Date night", provided me a chance to sit beside an 11 year old boy at a hockey game that I had never met until that moment, I shared some of my wisdom and he some of his. When the game was over and it was time to say goodnight I asked him what were 3 things that he got out of our conversation; 1) always save something, never give your money to someone called a "Broker", 2) If you think education is expensive, try stupidity, 3) the "cool" kids will someday up size your fries(I told him to ask his Dad about this on the way home). The next day I spent an hour in the middle of nowhere at the end of my workday talking to a friend about career choices and helped unload some of the frustrations he was experiencing with choices when you can't see into the future, but with 35 years in the workforce, I offered what I could to help lighten the load. That's it for today, Robert.

Week two totals;
Pushups- 1377 (2882)
Sit ups- 730 (1760)
Forms- 20 (37)
Jacobs Ladder  1:20
Horse Stance 1:30
Gym-2 (5)

Looking back to look ahead

I've been doing a lot of reflecting as of late, registering and evaluating what and where my mistakes have been over the last few years and what I have done to facilitate the failures. At this weeks I Ho Chuan meeting, the question was asked "Who's grading this year"? It was the first time publicly (or, in front of my folk) knowing the demands and the responsibly that it will bring, where I raised my hand announcing my intentions . Especially over the last year, I have spoken with several Black Belts, asked about their succeses and failures and found there is a common path in all their stories and it parallels to where I have developed or crashed. Why am I not a Black Belt, simple, "I'm not acting like one"! This was the first "work week" for me where I stopped following the negative self talk, listening to the procrastination committee; I had to stop following my thoughts and instead do what I'm supposed to. The one thing that sticks out for me is "reaching out and asking"; I asked a White Belt classmate to practice Da Mu Sing with me, so I could learn and teach, I asked an Orange Belt to teach me a weapon form that he has started, I jumped in with a Blue Belt classmate when she was practicing stick and came away with correcting a huge chunk of "my" form, I jumped at the chance to fill in for an instructor in the Lil' Leopards class and faked it for 30 minutes, pretendimg that I actually knew how to be around these little ones; then it was made more possible when one of the little guys grabbed my thumb and did laps with me,........at least "he" knew what to do, one more time I just followed. I guess this is just a long winded version of "whatever you did before, don't do it again"! I've found out as of late, "no matter how, who, when, where or why" I ask, there is always someone to help or point me in the right direction. But in conclusion, "If you have to sign a waiver, it's probably worth it", Robert.

We were also asked to list our additional I Ho Chuan goals:
1) Hike the Inca Trail in Peru,
2) Prepare and run in "The Great Canadian Death Race",
3) Volunteer at the Edmonton Institution in Addiction Recovery,
4) Continue with "Date Night" once a week,
5) 30 hours of cooking classes,
6) 5 continuous minutes on "Jacobs Ladder",
7) Hit the gym 3 times per week,
8) NO-processed red meat,
9) NO-candy
10) NO-french fries or potato chips,
11) NO-use of plastic bags,
12) NO-television.

TOTALS-WEEK 1
Push-ups - 1505
Sit-ups - 1030
Forms - 17
Jacobs Ladder -1 minute
Gym - 3
Horse Stance (done properly) 1 minute

one more thing to the list

I don't know if you've ever made a grocery list, went shopping, came home and forgot that one important item that was staring you in the face the whole time. So I guess there's one more thing to add to my I Ho Chuan goals; "NO TELEVISION". I disconnected my cable about 12 or 13 years ago as I found it to be one of the most useless mediums I had in my life; it was time consuming, distracting, left me craving for more and feeling "full of less".  For most people, I would imagine that you could pick a few favorite shows, keep an interest, sit down, rest your body and find it an ok activity. For me It's not like that; it was pointed out this weekend that I get distracted easily, but I love "doing nothing and feeling great" and television does that for me, "for a time". I'm the guy with the remote that watches all 52 channels 4 seconds at a time, I'm the guy searching for something to give me a better rush than the previous program, I'm the guy that will tune you out while this is all happening, making a feeble attempt to pay attention. It culminated this weekend when I ran out of justification and looked at the moment. I had picked Sunday morning as my rest and down time to recharge and catch up on my reading/s, sat down at 10:00 looked at the clock and is was 17:00. I became so focused on the nothingness I was watching, that the world around me wasn't there. People were being ignored, nothing was being accomplished, that itchy scratchy feeling on the inside was there and I couldn't ignore it. I reached over, punched "off" on the remote, looked over at Ms. Mental Health (my girlfriend) and looking her straight in the eye, I said, "this is done, this is ruining everything and yet, there's nothing more I want to do than to turn this thing back on". The withdrawl over the next day was like any drug you withdrawl from, the symptoms were there, but it was enough. So to adding to my list is to really getting rid of something, which I think can be a good thing. Robert.
I Ho Chuan start;
Day 1
Pushups 180
Sit ups 180
Forms 2