New Year's Resolutions

I've never been the New Year's resolution type. I guess I figured it would most likely end how most peoples' end, with me not following through. There's no point in lying to myself about what changes I'm going to make. Instead I chose to make decisions throughout the year that I wanted to be permanent. There was no glamour of having a list of changes, just some boring lifestyle change that I never really shared with anyone. My own thing, my own willpower.

I've been thinking a lot since the meeting about how my life has possibly changed since joining the I Ho Chuan. Not just this year, but every year since I came home. I did my first year of the I Ho Chuan while still living in China. From New Years until October I did all of my training and blogging while still in Wudang. At the time I didn't realize how much more difficult the I Ho Chuan would be living at home. More responsibilities and distractions.

While discussing whether or not to continue on next year's team with Sifu Brinker, I had a small moment of realization. Since I finished my training in China, I have been on the team every year. Different levels of participation required of course, but still, I've always had the I Ho Chuan to help guide my transition. I never had a plan for when I came home. I just wanted to open my own school. There. Plan created. I had no steps in mind to make that happen. Just some vague idea of a goal.

So the thing is here that, had I not gotten sick and decided to move, I would have had a ridiculous amount of work ahead. I had no idea where I was going and what I was doing. We talk about incremental progression, that would have been full blown flip over upside down and hang there for a while trying to get my head straight. The I Ho Chuan has provided me a way to set my goals, and to hold myself accountable. Not just to the team, but to myself. It's given me some direction. Especially during my recovery this past year. And now that the progress is less obvious, is when I need it most. I get to choose a lot of my own goals, and they are things that I have decided are valuable, and can help me improve myself and take deliberate steps towards mastery. My goal is still the same. I want to teach. But I've realized that there are many opportunities to teach. Teaching compassion and empathy through my own actions and words. Teaching the value of hard work and discipline through my own experiences and training.



"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry