THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!

I am now shifting my blogging out to my Google+ account.

To follow me on Goolge or read any of my new posts simply click here - thanks; looking forward to seeing you over on Google+

"I Moved Your Cheese"

Just finished an excellent book called; "I Moved Your Cheese" written by Deepak Malhotra who is a professor at Harvard Business school. The book is climbing quite a bit in the business book popularity category, and is a satisfying response to the original business classic "I Moved Your Cheese". I enjoyed it thoroughly and could really see the obvious connections between this read and the Martial Arts - I kept thinking "Every aspiring Martial Artist should read this!".

When I got to the end I read all of the "Acknowledgments" section. Usually this is a portion I skip over, but I liked the book so much I thought it might be nice to see some of the authors influences. I was pleaseantly suprised to see the mention of Sifu Brown as one of the Professor Malhotra's influences.

Check it out if you get a chance. (Also the book is available at the library both in hard copy and digitally) "I Moved Your Cheese"

Quote

From Drop Box

Very Touching

This article speaks for itself; it's the Ulogy of a man who changed the world and made it a better place. Thank you, Steve Jobs, for everything you created that made our lives a little better and a little happier.

Confidence

Yesterday I talked to the teens about confidence. I believe confidence is an internal knowing; it's a type of mental certainty.

I believe confidence comes from aligning thought and desire. In other words when there is something you want, and you allow no other thought of limitation, or negative belief to grip you - then you will begin to KNOW that your desire is coming.

At the dojo; we use meditation as one of the best tools to eliminate negative belief and therefore allow our natural POWER AND CONFIDENCE to shine through.

Here is a video that to me powerfully gives an example of a person who is a complete state of knowing and confidence. It's pretty amazing to see this joyful, unshakable knowing shine through this contestants words and actions. Enjoy!

(I couldn't embed this one for some reason) but here is the youtube link. Trust me it's worth a watch: http://youtu.be/AeqPJojGqxc

The world is changing right before our eyes.

Isn't it wonderful to see that companies are taking a hard look at the way they do things - and then making ethical choices. Good stuff!

Some of the best Steve Jobs Quotes Ever.

I'm a Google fan. I love Android. Yet I have great appreciation for those who have been the great innovators of all times. Steve Jobs is one of those world changers.

In many of these quotes (not all) but many of these quotes you will find some of the best Martial Arts principles ever recorded. If I were to sum up the best of these in one line I would say this: "Care deeply about what you do - don't work for money alone - work from a sense of passion."

Thank you Steve Jobs for making this a better world.

Enjoy

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/08/24/steve-jobss-best-quotes/

I love these pictures of the mall!

These are some of the original architects drawings of the concept of the Lake District. I love teaching and working out here! (Click them to get a better view.)

From Mall dojo pics

From Mall dojo pics

From Mall dojo pics

From Mall dojo pics

First day of outdoor practice on the Lake

Outdoor practice on the lake - wow it's nice to have pleasant weather!

From Instant Upload

The first day

OK; so it's not the best pic - but it's notable because it's the first picture I took at the new dojo. I was on my way out the door heading to Glendale; I'm glad the move was so fast!

From Instant Upload

New Talk: "Your Place of Power

Enjoy.

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New Talk:"Rabbits and Basketball"

Are you on the right road? When you miss, do you keep on firing?

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Gotta Love Fallen Timbers Mall

People ask me why I love the managment at the Shops at Fallen Timbers so much. Need I say more?

From Mall dojo pics

Latest Talk: "Confidence"

My latest talk on the subject of confidence.

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The End of the World?

With all the recent talk about the "End of the World" I thought this sort of hit the mark for me.

More science about meditation

http://lifehacker.com/5800249/why-meditation-relieves-chronic-pain-and-stress

Inspiration: My Karate teacher - a Lifetime of Practice

Hanchi Robert Bowles; my Karate teacher - and probably my greatest life influence- working kata and bunkai this year. He has over fifty years of practice; and moves and looks the way he did over 30 years ago. What an inspiration!

I truly am blessed.

Tournaments?

I was talking to Sempai the other day and the subject of Karate tournaments came up. A lot of my training days were spent participating in various events, and she was wondering why we don't do a lot of participating these days.

To answer this question I think I first have to tell you why I participated in competition in the first place. Ever since I was 15 years old I always wanted to teach Martial Arts. Competition just didn't appeal to me; in fact I think it's fare to say I'm basically not a competitive person at heart. But since I did want to teach I always thought that by winning various events I'd have the credibility to represent my art and my Sensei as a teacher. (This was mistaken thinking - see my footnote.)

Thinking that I had to accomplish something in order to be a great teacher was really a mistake. While it's true that I wouldn't trade anything for the lessons learned through competing, the reality is none of that was necessary to be a good teacher. All that was and is required is a genuine love for the students you are blessed with; it's that love that makes people of all ages learn - it's also that ability to see the greatness in them that makes them see it in themselves. Behind every Master is someone who knew they would become a Master - someone who believed in them; and that's what all great coaches and teachers have in common.

One coach screams like Bobby Knight, another is soft spoken like Tony Dungey, but no matter what STYLE of coaching, the consistency is they care about their people and see their greatness.

But as for open tournaments, I do NOT recommend open tournaments to our students today. (We do host our own internal dojo events that I DO recommend HIGHLY.) The reason I do not recommend tournaments in the open circuit to most students has to do with the philosophy and atmosphere that we've created at our dojo. The culture of our dojo is a carefully designed ingredient to helping students learn. We have a certain way of treating each other, a certain way that we believe rank should be considered and respected but not lauded, a way we believe that higher ranks should conduct themselves. We also believe that winning is secondary to representing self and art with etiquette and dignity.

We believe that you could spend a lifetime on one segment of one art. We believe that the variety of technique is far less important than one technique performed with excellence. We believe in being flexible and open to change, but change for change sake or out of boredom is a mental and attitudinal problem that can never be fixed with a new technique, form or weapon.

The problem I have with open tournaments is that new - and often unaware - students are exposed to a clash in culture that is not representative of what we believe the Martial Arts are and should be. Sadly they sometimes can bring some of these less than positive attitudes back onto our mats and have a less than positive impact on our culture. Sometimes this can lead to the student getting sidetracked, and losing sight of what matters the most, and losing their way in their own practice.

I realize it may sound self serving to say this, but it's from the heart. I believe we've created something really special in our dojo. We've created something that shouldn't be special because it's the atmosphere that the Martial Arts was designed around; but unfortunately today it IS really special. It's my conviction that open tournaments are seldom helpful in creating a better dojo and better Martial Artists.

Do you still have the urge, just gotta know what it's like? Here is my challenge to you then: spend one year training in our dojo HARD. (no off one week on another) Train hard and fully submerge yourself in the class, the philosophy, and learn to meditate and do it daily. If you've given the dojo one year, then go and watch your first tournament and I bet you you will not be comfortable there. You will feel something is missing, something very important in the practice of the Martial Arts and you will understand my viewpoint.

Is there a place for competition in the Martial Arts world? I believe there is a place for few, and I mean very few, who might be looking for MMA experience to use that experience as sort of a test - a personal rank test - of what it's like to face their fears and challenges head on, and try one of these events. But that is the exception and not the rule, and generally an MMA event is not viewed as a "Martial Arts" event; it's generally viewed as a "sporting" event. Consequently our team members actually have a better chance at influencing the culture of the event rather than the other way around. - I've seen this happen with my own eyes!

Bottom line; train, train harder, meditate and understand the philosophy behind what we do, and don't let anything side track you on your way to becoming the Martial Artist that our ancestors would be proud of.

Just my thoughts today.

This weeks talk: Listen to Me!

I got myself fired up when I gave this talk so I hope it does the same for you!

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“mindpower” is Joseph Hurtsellers podcast. It’s a weekly shot of motivation and inspiration. Joseph Hurtsellers (Sensei Hurtsellers) - as his students call him, is a 30 year veteran of the Martial Arts field. Joe uses his experiences both on and off the mats to create a talk each week that is designed to help you get more of the things you want and less of the things you don't. While many of Joe's talks will help those practicing Martial Arts, these talks are designed for EVERYONE that might be looking for techniques, stories and thoughts designed to inspire, and live a more joyful life.

"Massive thanks go to some of the great influences of these talks: Esther Hicks and teachings of Abraham, Wayne Dyer, Steven Covey, Tony Robbins, and Sifu Robert Brown. A great deal of thanks also go to the students at the Martial Arts Center (www.ohiomartialarts.com) for their constant support and enthusiasm that has made this work possible." - Joe Hurtsellers

It's Up To You - latest talk

What if you could control the way you feel? What if you could learn to practice your way into being happy? What would life be like if no outside force could cause you to feel fear, anger, or resentment?

To find out more, enjoy this weeks talk by pressing the play button below:

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