There are times when life seems so complicated and difficult
and you wonder how you’re going to be able to juggle everything and do all the
things that need doing. Then there are other times when life seems to just slow
down and everything seems so simple.
During the tough times, it’s hard to keep things in
perspective. Everything is to the extreme. I don’t know how many times in the
past few months I’ve done nothing because I couldn’t do everything. Doing nothing
starts a pattern of inaction and it gets easier to continue doing nothing. And
there are always reasons to stay on this path. Health problems, working out of
town, time management problems; these are all reasons that may be perfectly
valid, but, I think it’s important to recognize that no matter what happens,
you always have a choice. I know there are times where I’ve felt sorry for
myself when I had health issues and I ended up moping around and generally
being unproductive. This was a choice.
I feel like I’m in a much better place, mentally and
physically, than I have been in a while. This is partially due to external
factors, such as summer finally arriving, my health returning, etc. But the
most important factor was just me deciding that I needed to get back to doing
the things I was doing before. I may not be able to do everything, but
something is always better than nothing.
When I wrote this journal entry I specifically didn’t make
any mention of Kung Fu. The reason is that I think this shows that engagement
and attitude apply to all facets of life. I could have just as easily been
writing about work or life in general but everything that I have written would
still apply. I feel like the catalyst for my change was our Sheep Team meeting
on the 9th. There’s a lesson that Sifu Brinker is always trying to
impart, and that’s to just show up and good things will happen. I believe this
to be true, even if I forget sometimes.
