Friday, September 30, 2016

Reflection

I have spent the past couple of days reflecting on where I am at not only in Kung Fu but in my personal life as well. I have talked about some of the stresses in my life over the past couple of blogs but there are a lot of positives as well.

1) I am in much better shape physically than when I started this year.

2) I have 2 forms for my bench and that is more forms than I had in the last 3 years of the I Ho Chuan.

3) My home life is strong and I have a supportive family to help me through.

4) I have the support of Silent River Kung Fu especially the I Ho Chuan team.

All in all, I am pretty lucky and I am happy to be able to realize that.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

The Internal Struggle

This week has had me struggling with myself in trying to play out scenarios in my mind. If this happens I could do this or maybe this. If that happens then this wont be possible so then what do I do. After a few days of this, I have come to the conclusion there are a million different possibilities but I have no control over a lot of the aspects that will affect this.

Worrying about work and your career, can be very stressful and does not help your mindset our your situation. I have switched my thinking to being prepared for what may happen and have started to make a plan which accounts for 3 or 4 possibilities. When you analyze things, you can usually group similar things into the same category. this makes planning for the different possibilities a lot easier.

There has been no changes as of yet, but I know they are coming but I do feel a lot more prepared now than I did last week.

Monday, September 19, 2016

Stress Level 11

I have been feeling a lot more stressed in life this last month or so. I have tried to smile and just go with the flow but it has been getting harder and harder to ignore.

Last November my Wife was laid off from her job due to the economy. She took it pretty hard but also looked at some positives. She was able to get some projects done around the house and her E.I. payments were close to what she was making while working.

She figured that she would have plenty of time to find a new job by the time October came around. That is far from the case now as the job market in Alberta is tough and its hard to find a job that is a career and not just a temporary filler.

We can survive without her working, but my work has undergone more changes in the last couple of months with more to come. This affects me because I am in a specialized position that was created by the old management team. None of those people are in their old management positions anymore and with the economy where its at still, my position is not that secure anymore.

I know that a change is coming, I just don't know what it is. It may be time to change careers or maybe start a new business (just don't know what that would be yet).

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Where I was

At Saturday's meeting, some people were talking about wanting to be where they were years ago. There was also discussion about not comparing yourself to what you used to be like as it can have create negative feelings.

I however do compare myself to where I used to be. Almost three years ago now, I had some serious shoulder issues that forced me to quit lion dancing and severely limited what I could do as far as training went. Today they are still weak compared to what they used to be and doing 30 push-ups is a struggle most days. I could dwell on this but it forced me to change how I do things and I have improved other aspects of my trainig.

Another example of comparing yourself that is important to me is to look at where I was just 6 months ago. I was not in very good shape physically and my conditioning and physical strength were way below what they should have been. I am not sure how it happened but it just did. I decided to make a lifestyle change to get back to where I used to be. This has inspired me to push myself and never give up or quit even though I have felt like doing just that some days. I have used this motivation to exceed even my own goal and it has now become part of my routine and not just doing it to achieve my goal.

So as you can see, I believe it is important to look back at what you used to be able to do and compare yourself to how you were. Our past defines who we are and I try to look at the positives. I know I will never be the same as I was, but I have made some very positive changes in other aspects of my life and I believe I am better for it.