When Did My Screwdriver Turn Into a Hammer?

I have not written a blog in quite some time. Not counting the lion building post (which I really only posted as a blog for ease of access), or a numbers update blog, the last true blog I wrote was September 8th?! Over a month and a half ago and it simply slipped my mind. "I'm too busy this week" "I'll do it my next day off when I can really write a proper one" "it hasn't been that long and I've wrote plenty of extras this year right?" "I've got lots of ideas, so it's basically half written right?" So many excuses some old and familiar, some new, but none of them valid, because I forgot something foundational to the blogging requirement. 

It is not only about writing deep meaningful and insightful entries cataloging the year. The blogging requirement is a powerful tool that teaches us about consistency in our effort, and accountability to our team. Somewhere along the way I had warped it in my mind and (as it was put in our last meeting) started using the screwdriver as a hammer, and started thinking "well what can I expect? They give me a hammer and wonder why all these screws still aren't screwed in properly?" 

Instead of waiting for the right ratio of time, inspiration, and available effort, to put out a blog, I should be doing them every week no matter what. Even if it turns out being one of those "I am still here, I'm tired and not training as much as I would like, but I am still here." type of blogs. 

It could be argued that most of the other requirements have less of a timeline, yes it is recommended to make small progress for each everyday, but it is technically possible to have an ebb and flow in terms of progression through the year, and still make it to your final numbers, but for blogging as it is outlined in our requirements "Maintain a public journal that is updated at least once a week." Regardless of if I put out 52 interesting and important blogs in the year, if I am not doing them on a weekly basis, I have not completed the true spirit of this requirement. (I want to be careful here making sure I am not twisting this in the opposite direction in my mind, so that it becomes purely about the numbers "as long as I write something, anything once a week, I can check it off," No. I still want to aim to write what I think are important blogs to my journey, but I also don't want to allow myself to skip a week because of things like the excuses I mentioned in the beginning of this blog) 

When used properly my blogging should show me the importance of consistent action, even if I feel like it's not up to my standard, even if I don't feel like doing it, I will just. do. it. The blogs that come out as sub-standard, can be a call to action, for myself, and to the rest of the team that something needs to change, that some action needs to be taken before I start to slip even further. With the new requirement of adding your numbers tally to the end, this consistency and accountability become even more powerful, so from here on out I want to follow the true spirit of one of our best tools more closely.


















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Or can I...?

Between it floating around in the back of my mind for almost a week, reading sifu Brinker's blog post about it today, and sifu Rybek encouraging us to write a blog after tonight's meeting, I think all three created the mental conditions that were just right for me to have a lightbulb moment about the knifehand-long punch-open roundhouse/(dragons whip)-spinning back kick section in da mu hsing II, and I'm very excited about it, I mean, jumping up and down punching the air excited.  My initial question about this sequence that kind of kickstarted this whole thing was that I was having trouble feeling any flow or power from that spinning back kick at the end of the sequence. When sifu Brinker explained that the energy flows just like it does in the knifehand-punch 1) it blew my mind that the spinning back kick was meant to be connected like that!! and 2) I thought I had an answer to my question and all it would take would be to practice with that intent in mind.  However as I ...
Read more

I don't want to write this blog

 I don't want to write this blog. Which is exactly the reason I'm forcing myself to write it. It's only the second month and I've already started to fall behind on my monthly goals (which is one of my personal) requirements for this year. I thought I would have made it a bit farther into the year before something like this happened, but lo and behold all it took was the switch from one month to another and it started to crumble. For the whole first week of March I didn't even have it on my radar until I went to input my numbers for the week and realized I made zero progress. Swallowing my disappointment, I resolved to do better next week. Still no change and another bout of shock when I put in my numbers for the week. On the 12th I wrote in my spreadsheet where the hours should have gone "doing absolute terrible with this one need to address it in a blog ASAP" next week, no hours logged, no blog and just like that mediocrity swiftly snapped it's jaws c...
Read more

Could a Robot Do Kung Fu?

During one of our discussions in the second degree brown belt class last Saturday my brain threw a question completely out of left field at me. Sifu Brinker was describing how flow and power does not come from executing a technique with overly specific instructions (i.e. "ok I'm going to move my arm 98 degrees to the left then extend my elbow in 3.5 seconds then...") and my brain grabbed that idea and ran with it, almost immediately asking "COULD YOU TEACH A ROBOT KUNG FU?????" I made a note of it then left the idea alone because I knew as soon as I started to think about it there is no way I would be able to refocus on the actual discussion (which I very much wanted to hear). Once I allowed myself to think about it my first answer was:  probably , and it would most likely be better than us at it because you could measure out the timing and distancing, all things we have to constantly adjust and practice, to a microscopic level, and the robot would be able to ex...
Read more