way too many commas

We always hear the sentiment: beginning is the hardest part; once you have momentum in your actions it becomes easier to make positive choices. And the other day I had a moment in my training where this idea was concretely demonstrated, and the clarity of it made me want to document it to refer back to in the future. For the last little while I have been focusing on rebuilding consistency in my training/routine. It has been going well and for a while I was at a point where thinking about skipping a day didn't ever register as a possible choice. But one night I was so tired that that little voice of mediocrity in my head started whispering you could just skip today and do it tomorrow instead, it's your rest day anyway so just switch them and take a break tonight but because I had been doing things right on track up until that point I had almost 3 weeks worth of momentum behind my choice, I miss this one day, that whole streak disappears, all those other days where I did choose t...

If you are reading this then it is at least Tuesday night, which means that I have broken my rule of posting at least one blog by Monday night. On the one hand I have broken my promise which means I allowed mediocrity to slip its way into my life. I should have looked at my plans for the week, realized that I would likely be out late with friends on Monday, meaning I should have written the blog sooner in the week to make up for that fact. On the other hand I know I can't always plan ahead for these sort of disruptions. The fact that I am writing this as soon as I possibly can, allowing myself a little wiggle room because we always say it's about looking for opportunities, not sticking to a rigid schedule; I hope I am not allowing mediocrity to dig its roots too deep into my original promise while still being realistic with myself. Timeline aside to talk about my training for this week (and a day) I have been taking a hard look at my numbers. With the end of the year so quickl...

A few days ago at open training I got some feedback from some of the people who were my sparring partners, "you're leaving your face wide open" "your whole left side under your guard is completely open" and I thought really? I hadn't noticed at all, you'd think I would have some inkling that I have neon signs flashing at where I have targets wide open on my body... but I guess not  Looking back you'd think a glaring hole in my defenses would be pretty easy to feel but I wasn't aware at all until my partner pointed it out to me (thank you Shira!)  I'm realizing that I have a long way to go in developing my eye for detail in sparring. That passive eye-for-detail that is always listening underneath every form, technique, or stance, waiting to sound the alarm once I feel something is not quite right, is almost completely absent as soon as I put in my mouthguard. Everything happens so quickly and often I am so focused on the other persons body, lo...

Okay, time starts now: Here is my first weekly training blog (as per my last blog), and I know this 10 minutes is going to go fast so I want to get right into things. Earlier in the week I moved! For the first time in my life, so the whole thing was quite a process. And I knew the whole thing was going to be a major disruption to my training routine, but it's turning out to be a positive disruption! It is giving me a chance to erase some of the bad habits and attitudes that have crept up in my training in the past few months. Working on rebuilding consistency in my pushups and sit ups, reshaping that attitude of "I'm not going to sleep until everything is done" and actually making more consistent steps towards that 50 000. I'm still working on integrating my forms into my new routine, as I have lost access to a large enough room to do my forms with intensity and true footwork, so my numbers are not doing so stellar there but I am hoping that with some creativity I...

I was one of the people who put their hand up tonight when Sifu said "who didn't blog this week". I have had a couple blog ideas floating around in the back of my mind, but i haven't made* the time to actually write any of them out. (* I wanted to write "haven't had  the time" but I know that I am choosing to prioritize my time else where; no matter how busy I am I know I can make time to write a blog) Between the changing of my work schedule from week to week, to the busyness of the holiday season to some other things throwing wrenches into my schedule, it has been hard for me to find a way to consistently write blogs. I had been trying to write them on my days off, whenever they fell in the week, but often those days would fill up with all the other things I needed to catch up on during my work days and unfortunately "blog" tended to fall near the bottom of my to-do list. But tonight Noa said something when Sifu Brinker prompted them, that g...