Finding my way back...

I had heard a long time ago that Bruce Lee once said that before you study a martial art, a punch is merely a punch. Then after you start to study the mechanics of it, it becomes something else; a system of logic, a process, an intellectual journey into the heart of one's own soul, but that after that- after years and years of training, all that knowledge, all that growth, all that personal development simply becomes reintegrated into who and what you are, and once again, a punch simply becomes a punch again- albiet faster, stronger, and more effecient.

As with a lot of the things he, and other great martial arts masters have said (my own included), I can't help but think that the process he was speaking of is more than just a literal observation, but a metaphysical analogy as well. In pondering it, I can see how this pattern relates to a lot of different things. In the subatomic realm, I had read that the introduction of a new particle into a subatomic system causes it to go through a period of 'questioning' or chaos, (which provided it doesn't destroy it), causes the system to reallign in a way that incorporates the new particle to make it stronger that it was before. This also seems to be consistent with what I've read about how our mind works; While we sleep our brain takes any newly acquired skill or knowledge, picks it apart, re-organizes it, and reintegrates it back into 'the system' so that the next day, we can actually learn more effeciently (thus the root of the expression, "Sleep on it.", quite possibly why we dream, and why you can learn something two or three times faster the second day if you get a good night sleep after the first day).

But more than anything however, I can see how this pattern fits into the process of finding one's way to success (see "Success and Relaxation", in the Opinionated Traveler Blog) and the how it relates to my own personal journey.

A little while ago, I had my second filming of the "Phat English Corner" on a Japanese TV show called "Hollypop". The director and producers have left the content almost entirely up to me, which gives me a freedom that I haven't felt I've had since I came: The freedom to just be me.


Looking back on the past 5 years of struggling to get both myself and my business to the point that it is right now, I've played all kinds of roles. I've been a bodyguard, a model, a fighter, and an action movie bad guy, but none of them were really me. Looking at all of the modeling pics I've had taken over the past few years, I'm not smiling in a single one of them. That's not me. As a businessman, I've learned to be both as aggressive and as callous as necessary, but that isn't really me either. By nature, what I am is a big kid. Granted, a big kid who happens to be smart enough to outscore 96% of all the recipients on a recently taken online intelligence test, but a big kid nonetheless. And before I could find my way to success, I've come to realize that I needed to find my way back to that.

If the analogy of punching as a metaphor to life holds true, then I've come to realize that there's also another gem of knowledge from martial arts that is applicable as well. Power can only come as a function of relaxation. And in life, I think, complete relaxation can only come from being one's self. You can't relax if you're trying to be something that you're not. So now that my 'fist' has become relaxed, I hope that the coming year will allow me to show everyone in Japan, Korea, and back home in the states just how hard I can hit.

ps. On a sidenote, before I left Korea in January, I ran across a machine that gauges the amount of power one can deliver with a kick or punch. I hadn't seen one in years...so I put in the Korean equivalent to 50 cents, and it gave me three tries. And by that third time, I'd beaten it's all-time high score for the amount of force delivered from a single hit.