I have written this as I climb my mountain of awareness and intuition, where I listen and practise with my whole body. I am learning to become that which is deep inside, a practise long left idle by modern day life. To listen and be with my mind, my heart,my eyes,my emotions and my witnessing. I use this now as a visualization meditation. To witness the true art of archery with all my senses. I hope you enjoy the peace and the calmness that it brings.

Practise well and practise much grasshopper.

The master archer

The sun is low in the sky. It has been a pleasant day. He has been at the target field for many hours, practising his skill. Arrow after arrow has left his bow to strike the target, sometimes a bull's-eye, sometimes not. He is starting to tire, but is not done yet. He is never done, for the Master Archer is always searching for excellence. In his mind winning competitions, trophies, Olympic selection, are all irrelevant, but searching for improvement, that one arrow that he can connect with, think it to the bull's-eye. To be the arrow itself are all that matters.

When he began this journey to become a Master Archer, improvements came quickly, with big steps, but over time these improvements became smaller, and smaller, and more subtle in nature. He would learn that this is the price you pay for constant improvement. Out of that though, you learn patience, commitment, dedication, and what excellence is all about. It is only a place in time.

His last shot was disappointing. He draws another arrow out of his quiver and inspects it as watchmaker inspects the intricate workings of a watch, closely noting any imperfection. It is a good arrow.

With his bow in one hand, the arrow in the other, he lowers his head and breathes deeply in and out, intently aware of the motion of his lungs, and the feeling of the air moving back and forth within his body. The cool invigorating air filling his lungs with life, and energy and calmness. As he breathes out, he feels the tension leaving his neck, shoulders, and arms helping them reach a state of relaxation.

In this state of relaxation, he closes his eyes and utters the words "slow is smooth, smooth is fast" and begins the visualization of his next shot. With his eyes still closed he raises his head, and visualizes every aspect of the technique of preparation, sighting, and release. He has developed this into a fine art over many hours of practice, and sometimes he cannot tell if he is visualizing or actually doing it. It seems to him now that the world has stopped and all are waiting and watching. There is only the Master Archer, his bow, and arrow.

He takes one more deep breath in and as he lets it out he slowly opens his eyes and with a "soft gaze" he sees the target some distance down range. All is calm around him, and he is calm. There are no other thoughts except what is necessary for the task at hand.

The time has come. He feels the inevitability of the task. He clips his arrow into the bowstring and notices the bright colours of the feathers that stabilize the arrow through flight. As he takes another breath as he raises the bow and sights the target, at the same time drawing the arrow back, so that the bowstring is touching his lips. He lets his breath out slowly and feels a slight breeze on his left cheek. He must adjust his trajectory and angle to cope. The degrees of shift inside his mind, the result of thousands of hours of practice. His gaze turns from a "soft gaze" to his "spirit eyes" there is nothing else. He breathes in. He feels his heart rate slow. His left arm is straight and strong, holding the bow with Zen-like stillness. His right arm and shoulder under full tension, holding the arrow back, ready for flight. The bull's-eye of the target is clear and steady in his sights. His adjustments have been made. The stillness and calmness are deafening.

The decision is made. The arrow is sent on its way. He feels the bowstring slap against his arm protector. The bow remains still and has not moved, pointing to the target after release.

The arrow is hurtling towards its destination. The Master Archer visualizes, and becomes the arrow. He sees in his peripheral vision, shapes and colours  flashing by. He sees the target looming, and the previous arrows that have been shot. He sees that his adjustments for the slight crosswind have been effective. As he nears the target he hears the splintering of wood as he dissects the previous arrow in the bull's-eye circle. The speed and power keep the arrow straight as it breaks the other arrow in half, and finally embeds itself home, dead centre of the bull's-eye.

The Master Archer is back on his mark, looking at the target and realizing what has just happened. This is a rare occasion, that you can split an arrow in half. He closes his eyes and smiles. He feels the last rays of the sun on his back and realizes that the bar of expectations has just risen slightly. To be able to split a previous arrow with a new one. It will have to become the new level of excellence. Can it be achieved? Only as any task, searching for excellence is achieved. Through continual improvement that is thought of as a journey in and of itself with no destination. And as this realization dawns on him, he draws another arrow out of his quiver.................

The true art of archery is emtying the mind to become one with the arrow. The changes you seek are not with modern technology of the modern bow, but changes within your heart and mind.

FAILURE – WHAT IS IT REALLY.

A blog about failure. Wow we all really love reading about that! And I nearly failed to write about it. Self-perpetuating!!

I cannot think of another word in our language that conjures up so much tension and anxiety. It can freeze you into inaction. The fear of failing can cloud good judgment  and decisions, and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

Failure has huge negative connotations. You can hauled over the "coals" at work, embarrassed in front of workmates. Managers can tear "strips of meat off you". There is no end to the list of people who will tell you that you "stuffed up", or failed at this or did not do this the right way. All negative and all done the wrong way. I am also very guilty of all the above as I am not known for having a lot of patience. Getting better every day though and that is always a step forward, on the path to excellence that is a goal with no destination.

So how can we turn this negative word around.

Now that I have my dog Courage beside me these days I am reorienting  myself in the world. One of the projects in my Academy Course was looking at my emotional states, and with the tools that we were taught to use,  examine aspects of my life that were holding back my development, to move forward with confidence and positivity, and the main one was my fear of failing. In dealing with this inability to see myself in a positive state, I ended up finding my dog Courage and I make sure he is with me every day in whatever I do. My other dog Fear, who has been with me for a large part of my life is now in the background. He still follows but at a distance that he has no effect on my thinking. I am aware of him, and I look back at him now and again with compassion because Fear is just who he is, and I accept and respect him for that. But I know and so does he that he has no part in my life.

The next part of this assignment was to really focus on that word failure, and turn it into a totally positive experience so I am not afraid of it.

At Seal  Academy we have recently had a lecture on this very topic. The main point Cmdr Divine was trying to get across was that failure is not an option, it is an imperative for learning. If you fear failure then you will never take a jump, make a commitment, or back yourself and the decisions that you make. You will freeze and stay in your comfort zone you will only be half committed ,and that guarantees the failure that inevitably will come with no learning experience.

So think for a moment, when do we learn and improve? It is when we fall short or "fail" at something. We do not learn much when we succeed other than the confirmation that our decision was the right one and that happiness is a celebration of that decision. Failure, on the other hand is where we learn, if we view it in the right context, and that is the key to the door.

Even though I view failure now as a learning experience, I still stumble over that word, because of the reaction it elicits from others. Again I am guilty of betraying the negativity of failure in others, and we all seem to love criticising each other, and pointing out each other's failures. It is all so negative, and brings on stress that is not needed in an already unsustainably stressful life. So I wanted to in my own mind at least,  turn this experience into a positive one, one that I looked forward to, because it would be a place to learn, where I can make myself a better person. So with my" Toolbox" what could I use to achieve this process.

First of all was the awareness of my BOO (Background of Obviousness). All the things that have happened to me in my past that "colours" or orientate's my view of the world and my interactions in it and with those in it. You really need to have this conscious awareness of those experiences to use the 2nd tool which is the  OODA Loop. The OODA Loop is a decision making process that is taught to a lot of military operational personnel. The acronym stands for Observe, Orientate, Decide, Act, the loop is the re-enactment of that acronym around and around, so it becomes a process of deciding and then refining.

The 2nd "O" in OODA is to Orientate yourself to the observations and research that you have undertaken in the 1st "O" which is Observe. This is where your Background of Obviousness has the most impact on the 3rd part of the loop which is "D",  Decision. How much information, and how you perceive that information all depends on your past experiences. Getting all the information you can, and your ability to perceive it in a neutral light by being aware of your own perceptions is the key to making that good decision. If you gave two people the same information they would possibly end up with 2 different decisions, and actions because their background of obviousness is different, same information but different perceptions. The tools of choice to neutralise your background of obviousness, and to help cultivate a neutral perception are meditation, and yoga, where you reset the orientation button to neutral, calmness, breath mastery, and the beautiful calming flow of yoga. It brings you to a state of "looking at nothing, but seeing everything". So instead of focusing on one thing in the process it is looking at the whole picture. Use whatever suits you. Some like to do it as a mental exercise, I personally like to write things down, like this article, to orientate myself to the big picture facts, and the information I have gathered. The choice is yours but if you follow this paradigm you will be on the way to excellence. Not perfection.

So I set myself a task. I needed to get rid of the word failure, basically because it gave me the "shits"!! I researched through a lot of websites about alternative words for failure that would bring me  at least a feeling of positivity, but I could not find any. I tried different languages but no words seemed to click there  either. Then came phrases and that one came up a big "0" as well. I sat at the computer for a number of nights just looking through different sites with no luck. Then I am out training one afternoon, just running along, minding my own business, not even thinking about all this and all of a sudden from "God only knows" comes this "an unexpected outcome" and the light went on inside, Bingo! It felt just right. Are not words powerful tools.

When I got home, I needed to justify this with my tools. The OODA Loop is a continuous line of thought about gathering, deciding, acting then gathering the new information as a result of your previous decision, seeing whether that decision actually achieved what you wanted and if not then re-deciding and then reacting, a process of "refinement", a pathway to excellence.

An unexpected outcome is really self explanatory. You collected your information, you perceived that information as best you could, then you decided what to do and then you did it. Some people might see that as failure. These days it is now an unexpected outcome and so the learning begins. Where could I have improved on that process to actually achieve the goal that I set myself. So I did not fail but I ended up in a place or at a point that I had not expected and so what do I have to do to get myself on to that path?. Did you need more information? Or different information? Or did you need to change the "WAY" you perceived that information to make a better decision; notice better here not right. What has just happened here with this process is that it is going around and around and around and each time you are refining that process getting closer and closer to where you want to be, and that is the path of excellence. YOU ARE IN A LEARNING EXPERIENCE. And it is enjoyable. It is actually fun to do, because it is you that is doing it. I often wonder why people do not learn well when told something. A simple phrase we were told when we were kids was "do not touch that it is hot". Then how many of us touched something hot when told not to, most of us I bet. We needed that experience to make a connection between the sensation and the word. I bet most of us learnt pretty quickly. And so it is the same here, we need those unexpected outcomes to make better connections between the process and the end result, and if we get rid of the words perfection, perfect, and the right decision, and change it to excellence, and better, we will be continually in a learning experience and that is when we grow. Learning to embrace these unexpected outcomes as our teacher keeps us as the Captain's chair of our bodies, our minds, and our spirit.

So there you have it. The result of my journaling, meditation, yoga, physical practice                                              AN UNEXPECTED OUTCOME = LEARNING EXPERIENCE = GROWTH = EXCELLENCE. How cool is that! I am going to end with a famous paragraph from Theodore Roosevelt's speech about the Citizen of the Republic. I have renamed this paragraph  the "CREED OF THE WARRIOR".

THE CREED OF THE WARRIOR

It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena. Whose face is marred by dust, sweat, and blood. Who strives valiantly. Who errs and comes up short again, and again. Because there is no effort without  error, or shortcoming. But who knows the great  enthusiasms. The great devotions. Who spends himself  for a worthy cause. Who, at best, knows, in the end, the triumphant of high achievement. Who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory or defeat.

The Story of 2 Dogs

A STORY OF 2 DOGS

I have 2 dogs, both Alaskan Husky's. To me they are the most intelligent looking dogs I have ever come across. They are part of my spirit world. They are not fantasies, they are very real, they have made their appearance known to me through the SEAL Academy course on mental strength. Kokoro-Unbeatable Mind

One of my dogs is named Fear, and the other Courage. I have gone so far as to have a picture of Courage in my wallet to remind me of the mindset that I need to take with me every day into my life. But it has only been like that recently.

My other dog Fear has been standing by my side for most of my life. There is no doubt about him, he is one tough dog, and we have done a lot of things together. But his, and so my decisions have been based on the fear of failure. Yep, I will have a go at most things, but I am always driven in my preparation and training in the mindset of that fear of failing. Fear of failure can be a real "drive", a motivation. I wanted to succeed, so I would not be a failure.

I have been a driven person all my life, but none more so than after we had to leave dairy farming for good after 25 years, when the drought of the decade finally got us during the late 1990s – 2000s. Lots of reasons and comments were bandied about. Most were not positive, and some were downright unhelpful. Basically I saw myself every day as a failure, and up until recently I would get the whip out and beat myself up with it as a "penance". So when I had the opportunity for a new career I threw myself into it like a driven animal, and yes the fear was primal. Fear was talking to me now, saying you know what it is like to fail, so do not fail again. It drove me way beyond my limits, but I was so afraid of failing, and guess what happened I failed again. That episode cost me my health over a time, it cost me my personality, it cost me my perspective, and it cost be my chance of being in the top group in my age group racing Ironman triathlons, marathons and ultra marathon's. In the end I failed again and out came the whip. I was literally thrashing around like a bull bogged in a dam. The more I thrashed the more bogged I became. I was on a one-way road to God knows where, but I knew it was not good. And that motivation of fear always fuelled my attempts to get back. It was not going to happen. My dog Fear was always there. Yes okay you want to do this to prove you are not a failure. Well okay, but do not let us fail again and then after it happened he would comment, see you failed again. I told you not to fail. I was getting more than a little tired of it all, and I really was quite morose over it all.

So I decided I was going to turn my hobby of athletics into my job. So a personal trainer I became. My sport is running and triathlons, so I got certified in both as well as Kettlebells and Strength and Conditioning training. I also gained my certification as a Nutritionalist. It was while I was doing my Strength and Conditioning studies that my course leader mentioned he was going to do a Kokoro Challenge with the SEAL Fit Academy. Of course this pricked my curiosity. He gave me the website details, and so began a fascinating journey that continues to this day. Kokoro Camp is a 50 hour non-stop challenge of being cold, wet, and weary beyond belief, as well as getting an earful from a Navy SEAL instructor. Part of the SEAL Academy course is a 2 year course on mental toughness. I naturally thought of "Tim the Tool Man" tough, macho tough, the bigger the better. Well that could not have been more further from the truth, and this is where I realised that I had another dog in my spirit world. His name is Courage. If I had have spent some time looking behind me, I would have seen him, patient, waiting for an opportunity to become my protector, and encouraging me on to a different path, but I had not seen him and now I was in a bad spot.

One of the lectures talked about "What Dog are you Feeding" and this is where I realised that in the distance there he was, head up, chest out, looking right back at me with those searing, wolflike eyes, and he knew that I had seen him, finally. He waited for my call, and when it came, he came up and stood there. I patted him on the head and he just accepted it. He knew before he took his place at my side that I had to do some hard things, and that was to tell Fear that he had to go. That meant a lot of struggling on my part, as we had been together for a long, long time and i had to be forceful in the end, and I had to stand up to him. He finally left at the finish line of my 18th Ironman triathlon. It was the most disciplined, and happiest race that I have had. It proved to me that Courage could take me a lot further than Fear ever did. He moved up alongside of me in my preparations and asked me to give him a chance, and I did. He wanted me to trust him, and I eventually did. Now I am not afraid or fearful. He taught me that fear is my teacher, and not a stick to beat myself up with, that it is okay to make mistakes and learn from them in a positive, constructive way. He taught me about not the fear of failure, but about the fear of being a success, that I was afraid of becoming successful. About being the best that I could be. He taught me about compassion, and patience,  about soft gazing, about yoga and meditation, about looking deeply into myself, and owning and dealing with the walls and fears that would stop my success. He also taught me about the concept of positive actions. The use of mantras, of breath mastery for the ultimate mastery of oneself. These things are now in my toolbox. There is no room for fear. It is healthy to be cautious at times and not to be" gung ho" all the time. Any projects that I now undertake, whether it be in my career, or my athletic life, I use the SMEAC model for the development of my plan and then use the OODA Loop to execute it. Do I use these tools all the time. Nope, but I am getting better at it. It takes time to make them part of your conscious thinking. It takes discipline, and daily practice, and patience, not when you feel like it, or if you just have a spare moment. These things need to be taken seriously if you want to progress.

Courage and I are now on the pursuit of excellence, not perfection, because none of us are perfect. There will always be something we can improve. The pursuit of excellence is about getting better every day. To be the best you can be today, knowing that with effort and courage you will be better tomorrow.

Courage will always be with me. He has shown me a path that in time will open up my potential to be the person that I was meant to be. But I have to do remind myself that this will take time, which is the rest of my life.

Where is Fear these days. He still follows, but these days he knows his place, far enough away that he has no influence. I turn back and look at him everynow and then with compassion, something that Courage has taught me. Fear is just the way he is and I have to be respectful of that.

COURAGE

How ever dark the night. How ever deep and black the pit, know that with courage and persistence we will overcome.

 What dog am I feeding?  Courage my spirit dog.

FEAR

                                                                                                                                                

S.M.E.A.C. Mission / Project Planning

SMEAC

The SMEAC system is yet another acronym borrowed from our mighty Military [they do a pretty good job, so we may as well learn something from them!] and is short for:

S Situation

M Mission

E Execution

A Administration and Logistics

C Command and communications

The Military use the SMEAC system to document their orders and instructions for field operations, so that they can pass this information on to their troops.

While you probably don’t have a personal army at your disposal, there are times I’m sure when you need to give a colleague, team member, training group, instructions or directions for a task or project – and this system is ideal!

Situation This is the background to your task, or a description of what has happened. What were the events leading up to where you are now? ( for years I've been inactive and let myself go physically and mentally)

Again, consider the 5WH of the situation. What has happened? Why is it a problem? Who else is involved? When did it happen/ sequence of events? Where did it happen? How did it happen?

The point of this part of the process is to provide a snapshot or background to the following set of instructions.

Mission So now we know what has happened, the mission is what we need to do about it. The mission should be a short, clear and concise statement of what you want to achieve ( I want to journey towards better health and fitness physically and mentally. At this stage, there’s no need to include any detail – because that’s what the EA&C is for.

Execution Execution is the “how” part of the plan – how you are going to achieve your mission.

Detail the steps required, and again 5WH applies.

What are you going to do? Why? When? Where? Who is involved? How? I have highlighted the WHY because if it is not convincing enough your mission will fail when things get tough and issues come up that are hard to deal with.

The execution part of the process is usually the longest and should provide sufficient information to allow you [or your team] to go and do the job.

Administration The military term is actually “Administration and Logistics” and is about what resources you need to do the job, and how these resources are to be coordinated. Join a gym, use a P/T, join a running or cycling group. New clothing and or shoes.

Command and Communications This is the who’s who of the job – who’s in charge, who do you report to, and how you communicate with each other. Sometimes you need someone else other than yourself to report to. Look for accountability and objectivity.Have a look at the following link for a visual.

 http://youtu.be/vx-8BGAdops

S.M.E.A.C.– for documenting instructions

Situation (what has happened, background
Mission (what you need to do about it)
Execution (how are you going to do it)
Administration (and logistics what do you need to do it)

OODA Loops

                                  Understanding the Decision Cycle

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Has it ever struck you just how many military terms have become everyday terms in business-speak? As well as "fighting off threats" or "engaging in a price war," we talk about "gathering intelligence," "making a pre-emptive strike," and even trying to "out-maneuver" the competition.

War and business are often compared and contrasted. And it's fun to read books like The Art of War, written in 6th Century China by Sun Tzu, and to think about how these can be applied to business strategy!

So, when former US Air Force Colonel John Boyd developed his model for decision-making in air combat, its potential application to business soon became apparent.

Boyd developed his model after analyzing the success of the American F-86 fighter plane compared with that of the Soviet MIG-15. Although the MIG could climb and turn better, the American plane won more battles because, according to Boyd, the pilot's field of vision was far superior.

This improved field of vision gave the pilot a clear competitive advantage, as it meant he could assess the situation better and faster than his opponent. As a result, he could out-maneuver the enemy pilot, who would be put off-balance, wouldn't know what to expect, and would start making mistakes.

Success in business often comes from being one step ahead of the competition and, at the same time, being prepared to react to what they do. With global, real-time communication, ongoing rapid improvements in information technology, and economic turbulence, we all need to keep updating and revising our strategies to keep pace with a changing environment.

See the similarities with Boyd's observations? Brought together in his model, they can hold a useful lesson for modern business.

This tool is very important not only in business but our daily lives. It helps us become better at decisions in our daily life. It is a logical process to follow so you gather the right information to make a good decision for anything. It is slow at 1st untill you get the hang of it and becomes imbedded in your thought processes and then like the fighter pilots it becomes "real time" fast  but it takes work and thoughtful practice.If one of your weak areas involves poor and or slow decision making ,then this is a practical tool to change that into a strength.

Understanding the Tool

Called the OODA Loop, the model outlines a four-point decision loop that supports quick, effective and proactive decision-making. The four stages are:

1.      Observe – collect current information from as many sources as practically possible.

2.      Orient – analyze this information, and use it to update your current reality.

3.      Decide – determine a course of action.

4.      Act – follow through on your decision.

You continue to cycle through the OODA Loop (see figure 1, below) by observing the results of your actions, seeing whether you've achieved the results you intended, reviewing and revising your initial decision, and moving to your next action.

Figure 1 – The OODA Loop Sequence

Observing and orienting correctly are key to a successful decision. If these steps are flawed, they'll lead you to a flawed decision, and a flawed subsequent action. So while speed is important, so too is improving your analytical skills and being able to see what's really happening.

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Let's look more closely at what each stage involves:

Stage 1: Observe

At this initial point in the loop, you should be on the look-out for new information, and need to be aware of unfolding circumstances. The more information you can take in here, the more accurate your perception will be. Like an F-86 pilot with a wide field of vision, you want to capture as much incoming data as possible. The kind of questions you need to be asking are:

·         What's happening in the environment that directly affects me?

·         What's happening that indirectly affects me?

·         What's happening that may have residual affects later on?

·         Were my predictions accurate?

·         Are there any areas where prediction and reality differ significantly?

Stage 2: Orient

One of the main problems with decision-making comes at the Orient stage: we all view events in a way that's filtered through our own experiences and perceptions. Boyd identified five main influences:

·         Cultural traditions.

·         Genetic heritage.

·         The ability to analyze and synthesize.

·         Previous experience.

·         New information coming in.

Orientation is essentially how you interpret a situation. This then leads directly to your decision.

The argument here is that by becoming more aware of your perceptions, and by speeding up your ability to orient to reality, you can move through the decision loop quickly and effectively. The quicker you understand what's going on, the better. And if you can make sense of the situation and the environment around you faster than your competition, you'll have an advantage.

And it's important to remember that you're constantly re-orienting. As new information comes in at the Observe stage, you need to process it quickly and revise your orientation accordingly.

Stage 3: Decide

Decisions are really your best guesses, based on the observations you've made and the orientation you're using. As such, they should be considered to be fluid works-in-progress. As you keep on cycling through the OODA Loop, and new suggestions keep arriving, these can trigger changes to your decisions and subsequent actions – essentially, you're learning as you continue to cycle through the steps. The results of your learning are brought in during the Orient phase, which in turn influences the rest of the decision making process.

Stage 4: Act

The Act stage is where you implement your decision. You then cycle back to the Observe stage, as you judge the effects of your action. This is where actions influence the rest of the cycle, and it's important to keep learning from what you, and your opponents, are doing.

Using the Model

The OODA Loop isn't meant to be a static, linear "do this, then this, then this" type model: it needs to be a smoother, more continual process. With this approach, the faster you can move through each stage the better. In fact, if you were to sit down and map out each step, your decisions would likely slow down instead of speed up.

The goal of the model is to increase the speed with which you orient and reorient based on new information coming in. You want to be able to make a smooth and direct transition between what you observe, how you interpret it, and what you do about it.

When you make these transitions rapidly, you're in a position to be proactive, and you can take advantage of opportunities your competition isn't even aware of yet. Boyd calls this "operating within your opponent's OODA Loop." Here, your competitor is moving too slowly and simply reacting to environmental changes. By contrast, you're working on the offensive, making strikes and forcing them to react to you. 

Tip:
Be careful with this emphasis on speed. In some situations, you genuinely need it. In others, a more cautious, deliberate approach is appropriate. This is likely to be affected by things like the length of product cycle times, the rate of change in your industry, and the consequences of a poor decision.

Key Points

Whether it's looking out for the next big opportunity, making a move before your competitors do, or assessing the current state of affairs, you often need to be sharp-sighted and decisive. The OODA Loop gives you a great way to maintain this vigilance, and be proactive in a rapidly changing world.

By using the OODA Loop, you can be nimble in your decision-making, and make changes to your decisions and strategy quickly and decisivel

http://youtu.be/JIVWM0ldJ6w. Have a look at this video and apply the steps to your daily desicion making. It is very practical tool in all desicion processes, not just business and warfare.

Reflections

I must be getting on in years I think. I am in my 59th year and I seem to be spending a lot more of my time reflecting on what has been going on in my life. The lessons I have learnt, and the lessons that I have been given, but have not learnt from. How I have played my cards when met with success, and non-success. I do not think we fail at anything if we find victory where it's at because you learn a lot from both sides of the coin, and sometimes how you deal and play your cards after success or the achievement of your goals can put you back 10 steps in your overall development. And I am not talking only about physical effort.

Careers seem to be a very important part of people's lives these days and physical effort and practice can be a great playground for the development of skills to deal effectively with the challenges of day to day lives where the stakes can be a bit higher, and how effective you are can change your life and those that are around you, i.e. family, friends, co-workers. By being  the role model, and leader. By living your life and taking the lessons that you learn through your physical practice out into the rest of your world as it is.

One of the aspects of my physical effort is now how I see my fellow competitors. When I was younger all I wanted to do was to beat the person in front of me or my clubmates. I felt this aggressive feeling that they had to be beaten at all costs. Now I look at those people around me during a race and their best efforts, and to use the effort of those athletes or co-workers to draw out the best of myself, it is replacing the "it is all about me" and substituting it with a bigger picture of" we", to draw from their best efforts in a very caring and compassionate environment, and do the same for myself to draw out my best efforts by the inspiration that others around me give. In this way we become integral in that we are all connected.

To be able to do this we need to be comfortable with ourselves. To be grateful for all that we have, and to reframe our small world in a positive way. How we look after ourselves spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, and nutritionally all play a large part in how we see ourselves, and how we can reframe our world in a positive way. Very hard to do on little sleep, poor diet, little or no exercise and the wrong type of activity, and I am sorry but a 20 minute walk the dog while he stops at every 2nd tree for a scent party is not exercise or physical practice. Each day you need the discipline to set aside time to reflect on how you went to-day. How did you improve today and how did you help others to improve themselves. Use the breathing  tools, arousal visualisation, and the mantra that I find very helpful these days is "slow is smooth, smooth is fast". Slow down your thought processes before you act. Develop the skill set to look at yourself in "real time" and how you are going and whether your decisions are reflecting  on yourself and others in a positive or negative way . If things are not going so well, tough times at work, missing your daily physical practice, yoga, and meditation, you need to stop, and spend a few hours in a self imposed retreat to redirect yourself on a subconscious and conscious level, so you can regain your effectiveness. Your physical practice gives you all the physical bodily benefits of achievement but it also refuels your emotional and spiritual parts of yourself to put you "into the right frame of mind" to be able to settle down to a time of contemplation and be able to redirect yourself with decisions based on what values you hold in high regard and the practice of breath mastery, visualisation, and physical decision-making models such as the OODA  loop the SECMAC models which I will have a closer look at in my next blog.

Get back on track having used your tools to make a good plan. Now you need the courage to come forward and give your spirit the nourishment it needs to put your plan into action. The OODA loop was developed by the U.S. Navy fighter pilots to help them think in such a way that they are continuously orientating  themselves in their situation, making a decision, putting that plan into action, and then reviewing that plan, and so the loop goes around again, orientation, decision-making, putting the plan into action, and then reviewing that plan. They get so good at this, that this is the thought process they use flying at quite often supersonic speeds during warfare simulations and the real thing. Your plan may not be perfect but your mission now is moving along getting better every time you complete the loop. Use all your positive tools to feed your dog of courage. Again breath control, visualisation, mantras, posturing, and displaying a Kokoro spirit of never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, giving up. Self mastery is a path to a better life that not a lot of people take on these days. It is a very effective way to be true to yourself and to be a model for others to follow. It does not happen overnight but it will happen with patience, time, and practice to be the master of your own destiny. In mastering yourself you are able to help those that are part of your world down the same path.

" People look at me and laugh because I am different. I look at them and laugh because they all look the same."