"Have a Positive Mental Attitude!"
"...Your feelings and emotions play a large role in what you manifest or fail to manifest. If you think of your thoughts as seeds, think of our emotional environment as soil. Therefore, your positive seeds must be sown in positive soil to grow and flourish. Together, your positive thought and feelings create a positive mental attitude...Your attitude has everything to do with what you are capable of achieving." Dr. Tae Yun Kim, 'Seven Steps to Inner Power'
When ever I have a tough day, I remind myself to keep a positive mental attitude about what ever is going on. I may not be able to control what happens, but I do 100% have control over how I react to it.
Maybe its one of those days where everything seemed to go wrong. You know, one of those where you wake up late, spill juice on your white shirt, get stuck in traffic, and then your computer crashes just it is saving changes to an important file your boss wants half an hour ago..
I can't control the traffic, or stop the computer from crashing, but I can control how I react to it. If I let myself get all stressed out and let my blood pressure rise until I'm all set to snap at the first person who asks me something - that's MY choice. It might not be a particularly good choice, but it is a choice, and a choice I could make. If I instead stop and tell myself to breath, calm down, and detach from the stress, that's MY choice too.
The more I keep a positive mental attitude as I go through the day, the more I find that things that could otherwise build up and cause me stress, don't stress me out. If I can keep a slightly detached view of all that happens to me, and not get emotionally wrapped up in it, I find it is much easier to get through any stressful situation. Instead of being like a leaf blown about in the wind, as each new stressful thing comes up, if I keep a positive mental attitude, I can be like a leaf blower instead - and be in control of blowing the leaves (i.e. stress) away.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Learn From Your Mistakes!
Jung SuWon Martial Arts Academy just had a testing cycle and belt ceremony - watching it I was struck by something.
One of the tenets of Jung SuWon are Great Grandmaster Dr Tae Yun Kim's 5 Principles of Mental Conduct, including, "Learn from your mistakes".
On the surface "Learn from your Mistakes" might seem an obvious thing to do - who would not want to learn from their mistakes? But how do you REALLY go about doing that?
During testing I watched some students fail to break their boards on their first attempt. Just like life, one of the first things you need to do, is to allow yourself to make a mistake. Let it be OK that you made a mistake. Let it be OK you didn't break that board the first time. That is not always easy, though. How much have we decided we have to be 'perfect' in everything we do? How much do we (in error) decide that making a mistake is failing to be the 'perfect' student or employee or family member?
Watching testing I saw too how important it is to not become attached to a mistake. Don't hold on to it. Don't beat yourself up emotionally over your mistakes.
During testing I watched a color belt strike at a board and fail to break it. Not once, but several times. Watching him, it was pretty easy to see the student's mistakes. He was physically strong, but he was not twisting his waist enough. During another miss, you could see he was stopping at the board instead of visualizing and striking all the way through it.
At that moment he could have given in to feeling embarrassed that he was in front of an audience and missing his break, or he could have beaten himself up emotionally over how could he miss, when he's broken boards before, or, after a few more misses, he could have started to give into self doubt and start to believe that maybe he would just never break this board.
But he didn't. Each time he missed he didn't seem to let emotions get to him, instead he just re-gathered himself and tried again. And again. And again.
Finally he broke it!
Wow!
How he faced his 'mistake' (his unbroken board) until he over came it, left a huge impression on me. I thought of all the times I've made a mistake, or failed at something. My first reaction is usually to give into my emotions. Internally I beat myself up - How could I do that? How could I be so stupid? What was I thinking? etc.
Watching this student fail and then successfully break his board, I saw that there is no way I can learn from a mistake until I first let my attachment and emotions go.
But when you do - when you face a mistake or situation, when you keep the attitude that you are ready to try again, and ready to try until you succeed or accomplish your goal, you truly learn from the mistake and truly succeed.
One of the tenets of Jung SuWon are Great Grandmaster Dr Tae Yun Kim's 5 Principles of Mental Conduct, including, "Learn from your mistakes".
On the surface "Learn from your Mistakes" might seem an obvious thing to do - who would not want to learn from their mistakes? But how do you REALLY go about doing that?
During testing I watched some students fail to break their boards on their first attempt. Just like life, one of the first things you need to do, is to allow yourself to make a mistake. Let it be OK that you made a mistake. Let it be OK you didn't break that board the first time. That is not always easy, though. How much have we decided we have to be 'perfect' in everything we do? How much do we (in error) decide that making a mistake is failing to be the 'perfect' student or employee or family member?
Watching testing I saw too how important it is to not become attached to a mistake. Don't hold on to it. Don't beat yourself up emotionally over your mistakes.
During testing I watched a color belt strike at a board and fail to break it. Not once, but several times. Watching him, it was pretty easy to see the student's mistakes. He was physically strong, but he was not twisting his waist enough. During another miss, you could see he was stopping at the board instead of visualizing and striking all the way through it.
At that moment he could have given in to feeling embarrassed that he was in front of an audience and missing his break, or he could have beaten himself up emotionally over how could he miss, when he's broken boards before, or, after a few more misses, he could have started to give into self doubt and start to believe that maybe he would just never break this board.
But he didn't. Each time he missed he didn't seem to let emotions get to him, instead he just re-gathered himself and tried again. And again. And again.
Finally he broke it!
Wow!
How he faced his 'mistake' (his unbroken board) until he over came it, left a huge impression on me. I thought of all the times I've made a mistake, or failed at something. My first reaction is usually to give into my emotions. Internally I beat myself up - How could I do that? How could I be so stupid? What was I thinking? etc.
Watching this student fail and then successfully break his board, I saw that there is no way I can learn from a mistake until I first let my attachment and emotions go.
But when you do - when you face a mistake or situation, when you keep the attitude that you are ready to try again, and ready to try until you succeed or accomplish your goal, you truly learn from the mistake and truly succeed.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
WHO AM I
Favorite Passage of the day:
'WHO AM I?'
(from "Seven Steps to Inner Power" By Great Grandmaster Dr Tae Yun Kim)
'A quick answer may bring the response: "I am an engineer." Or, "I am a person who likes people; I am full of stress and axiety; I am a mother; I am a nobody; I am athletic; I am intellectual; I am shy..." Note how often we tend to describe ourselves with positive or negative perssonality characteristics that we've developed or acquired over the years an accepted as being 'us'. Most of us do not look much deeper than that...'
Before I started training at Jung SuWon, I was 24 years old and I thought, "Of course you should know who you are. You know what your name is? Right?" Well --- not necessarily... and maybe you do not really know yourself or your abiltiies at all. Maybe you have not really met yourself yet.
For instance, before I started training in a martial art, I was an extremely un-physical person. Before training the most physical thing I really did was turn the pages of books. I never, ever in a thousand years would have thought I would ever train in a martial art - let alone discover I alone love training in martial arts.
When I look back now, I see that if I'd never started training at Jung SuWon, I would have missed learning so much about myself. I might never have learned I can be disciplined and focused physically and mentally. If I had never started training, I would never have learned I can grow physically stronger, discover the joy and accomplishment of focusing on a goal and then breaking a board or a brick with my hand or foot, and feel the resulting self confidence in both my home life and at my work.
'WHO AM I?'
(from "Seven Steps to Inner Power" By Great Grandmaster Dr Tae Yun Kim)
'A quick answer may bring the response: "I am an engineer." Or, "I am a person who likes people; I am full of stress and axiety; I am a mother; I am a nobody; I am athletic; I am intellectual; I am shy..." Note how often we tend to describe ourselves with positive or negative perssonality characteristics that we've developed or acquired over the years an accepted as being 'us'. Most of us do not look much deeper than that...'
Before I started training at Jung SuWon, I was 24 years old and I thought, "Of course you should know who you are. You know what your name is? Right?" Well --- not necessarily... and maybe you do not really know yourself or your abiltiies at all. Maybe you have not really met yourself yet.
For instance, before I started training in a martial art, I was an extremely un-physical person. Before training the most physical thing I really did was turn the pages of books. I never, ever in a thousand years would have thought I would ever train in a martial art - let alone discover I alone love training in martial arts.
When I look back now, I see that if I'd never started training at Jung SuWon, I would have missed learning so much about myself. I might never have learned I can be disciplined and focused physically and mentally. If I had never started training, I would never have learned I can grow physically stronger, discover the joy and accomplishment of focusing on a goal and then breaking a board or a brick with my hand or foot, and feel the resulting self confidence in both my home life and at my work.
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