Winner Or Loser?

So many people just don’t get it.

If you want to be a winner, you have to learn to win more than you lose.

Firstly you have to decide who and what you want to be.

If you want to be a good traditional martial artist then you have to do more work in that direction than in any other.

It’s your choice. Draw a line in your life and call it ‘Zero’. Every moment you are mindful, in good posture, breathing properly, caring, polite, courteous, determined, resolute, courageous and working with emotional intelligence  you are in the + zone, every moment you are doing the opposite, you are in the – zone. at the end of the day, how many hours did you spend in which zone?

Obvious really.

People tell me they want to be good at Tai Chi, then I see them working on how they look to others, worrying about how others perceive them, becoming arrogant and boastful, doing exercises and techniques that stiffen their body and require aggressive, external, muscular force, and when they come to see me, they’ve got worse not better, they’ve done more work in the – zone than in the +. It’s all a question of balance and direction.

Tai Chi requires good posture, breathing and the right ‘Taoist’ attitude toward life and others, this is developed by constantly working with neigong (inner work) with meditation and standing postures and then development of the neural system, bodycore, spinal flexibility, open joints and myofascia, this is developed through the qigong (energy work) these skills are the underlying principles that are preparation for the dynamics and strategies that are then expressed through the techniques using kung fu (time and effort) with persistent practice in the + zone.

A Tai Chi body and mind is unique and cannot be trained in any other way than the prescribed method unless you want to become something else. So few people ever get around to learning the whole system.

Private, personal study is essential and this needs enough mentoring from someone that is able to pass the complete perspective along. If you don’t have sufficient ‘corrections’ to keep you on the right path, your training will degenerate without you realising. It’s too easy to miss those vital mentoring sessions because life gets in the way and there are always financial, business and family pressures, but the price of not taking them is also very, very, expensive and good mentors are very few and far between, have pressures of their own and are not there forever. Lose one and for the rest of your life you’d wish you made those sessions.

So every day be mindful of staying in the + zone, understand that this will determine your success or failure. The term ‘Buddha’ means ‘one who is awake’ – you need to become  your own Buddha and stay awake and in the + zone and never drop into the – one. Every night before you lay your head on the pillow, ask yourself the question and count the hours of + and – and the answer as to why you are or are not successful will be self evident.

It’s simple, but simple is not always easy.