Nate's Blogs

 Moving into these next couple of weeks I will be finding myself with many changes in my schedule. I have the next couple months off at school and I have been looking for a job for the past week. Now with all of this extra time that I have, Ive been finding myself at a loss of what to do. Sure I have been training more but the amount of training I do doesn’t last all day. I have all day to do anything. I’ve been thinking about how I can best spend this time and there is so many options. I can volunteer, I can take different programs. The choices are unlimited. My focus for these next few months is to gain experience in the world of work and try as much new things as I can. Everything I do know will directly impact my future and what I want to do so I must be making the right choices. What better place to  start then to volunteer, take a variety of programs and get a job. 

This weekend, the candidates and I had another grading. Sifu Brinker said something that really caught my attention. He mentioned that failing is only a matter of quitting. To me, this spoke volumes. There has been many times in my kung fu journey that I have had the mindset of failure but I now realize that I didn’t fail. I simply didn’t succeed on my first attempt, which prepared me more for my second attempts and then my third and so on. When you don’t succeed it is important to not rake yourself through the mud with the idea of failure. I’m not saying to just forget about them though. If you simply forget about your first or second attempt, you will never learn from them and you may never succeed. All of this then ties into one of the black belt code of ethics. Accept responsibility for their actions and mistakes, learn from the past, and prepare for the future. If we don’t acknowledge or previous attempts we won’t be able to learn from the past which will make it even harder to pr...

Posture is something that I have been struggling with for most of my year. I’m engaging more shoulders a lot more then I should which is raising my centre. These past couple of weeks I have been tackling this problem at the source, my forms. My forms have lots of shoulder where there should be little shoulder. I am relying on strength and not the 6 harmonies. It has proven pretty troublesome to remove my shoulders but I am seeing some progress. The only way to balance my shoulders with the rest of my body is the magical number of 50,000. Although I’m nowhere near 50,000 I am well on my way and making tons of progress as a progress. Soon I will be able to say goodbye to shoulder forms. 

Sifu Brinker has mentioned many times before, we should take advantage of every opportunity that comes our way or it can be gone forever. This weekend, this has made more sense then ever. My brother, sister and I sadly witnessed the unexpected death of our dog who has been part of our family for 11 years. This was a difficult but very powerful experience that reinforces to never take anything for granted. Rylie was a jack russell terroir that was very healthy and active. We have since learned that it is not uncommon for this breed of dog to go into sudden heart failure. This experience not only reminded  me to take advantage of every opportunity but also how precious and fleeting life can be.  

 Leadership is one of many things that kung fu has taught me to take into everyday life. If you want to get anything done, you have to be a leader. However a good leader doesn’t have to lead. They will give others the chance to lead. Chris Hadfield wrote in a book, “good leadership means leading the way, not hectoring other people to do things your way”. To me, this is a strong message. A leader will show the way, take responsibility, but NEVER tell people that they have to be like them. A leader should be an inspiration to anyone who is following them. It is important to realize that the best way to excel in something is to approach it with the qualities of a leader. 

 A crucial mistake that I have made countless times through my years of being in kung fu was not being prepared. Even at my black belt grading, I didn’t come prepared for everything. However, it is only now that I’m starting to realize that this goes for everything in life. Whether you are studying for a test or going hiking in the woods, you can never be too prepared. Something as easy as creating a list of needed items in any possible scenario can easily mitigate the problem of unpreparedness. That is something I have to start doing. Not only can it be potentially harmful if your not prepared, but you can also miss out on many opportunities that may never be seen again.