DDDP is the answer.  The question is, “Why do so many not live up to their full or even partially full potential?”

Before I go into details I need to make a few suggestions.  Maybe I should call them statements. But first lets see what some of the masters say about this phenomenon:

“Your potential is unlimited in all that you choose to do.” – Neal Donald Walsh.

“The difference between ‘effort’ and ‘struggle’; Life was never meant to be a struggle.” -Stuart Wilde.

“The possession of Knowledge, unless accompanied by a manifestation and expression in Action, is like the hoarding of precious metals-a vain and foolish thing. Knowledge, like wealth, is intended for Use.  The Law of Use is universal, and he who violates it suffers by reason of his conflict with natural forces.” – The Kybalion.

You decide to make a change for the better in your life.  It could be any significant change, but let’s say it involves getting on the path of mastery, or you choose to start a business or maybe follow through on that idea to create something new. You shout it to high heaven and tell your friends all about it. You write down your ideas which really help to reinforce them. You’ve actually made a change and it really works well.  you are feeling great by this time.  You go on that way for a while, then begin to experience a gradual change. You slide backward. Why?

My mentor once told me the most important word in the world consists of just three letters. “WHY.”  I like to add three letters of my own. “HOW!”

Backsliding is a universal experience.  Every one of us resists significant change.  It is caused by something called ‘homeostasis.’  A state of equilibrium obtained when tension or a drive has been reduced or eliminated. This means you do not wish to stay in a newly changed condition because it requires effort. Back and forth is uncomfortable.  And to the mind completely unnecessary.  It’s all mind by the way.

The solution?  DDDP.  Discipline, Direction, Dedication and Practice.

Naturally one needs much Discipline in order to accomplish anything, be it worthwhile or not.  But equally important is Direction. You must move unceasingly in the direction of your goal. Many move toward that goal and end up distracted by seemingly important incidents in their periphery. Ignore the distractions.

Some may call this tunnel vision, I call it Dedication. There is a really great quote by Robert Ryan’s character about  Clark Gable’s character in the movie,”The Tall Men.” He said: “There goes the only man I ever respected. He’s what every boy hopes to be when he grows up; And what every man wishes he had been when he grows old.” Dedication to something worthwhile leads to this type of conviction.  Of course, “worthwhile” is in the eye of the beholder.

Practice is good and necessary. Perfect practice is much better.  Disciplined, dedicated practice, structured into your daily life leads to a successful conclusion and permanently changes your lifestyle.

You become someone different. People notice.

Practice, practice, practice….

Recently there have been several incidents where the proponents declared it to be a teachable moment.  Well I have news for them and depending on the information at hand, I say all situations are teachable moments.  This lovely sounding catch phrase is meant to defuse a given situation and to release one from further embarrassment. For that person who is caught it is not so much a teaching moment as much as it is learning moment.  Again, all are learning situations, are they not?

These problems arise because most people “activate mouth before engaging brain.” Sadly, this also includes many of our political leaders as well.  Are we in that much of a hurry in all endeavors that we don’t or maybe can’t think things through?

Experience is the only true teacher. All other leaders and/or guides merely point the way.  And most do it by very poor example.  In other words, they demonstrate what “not to do” in a given situation.  Which is probably why some of the wise ones made that curious statement, “The sage leaves no track.” The sage walks his path alone and allows you to walk yours. Maybe because he knows his track may influence you one way or another and he chooses not to do that.

If you must make a decision and have no immediate experience to fall back on consider this:

The naive know not their mistakes,

And repeat.

The foolish blame others for their mistakes,

And repeat.

The intelligent profit from their mistakes,

The wise profit from the mistakes of others.

This quote was taken from the 2004 addition of “Stepping Off the Mat.”

Check out my next blog entry. A student requested that it be on the topic of “potential.”

Just because a thing has never been done before does not make it impossible, be it a new thought process or an Aikido technique. Otherwise, how can we progress as human beings?  It’s normally called evolution (slow change) or revolution (quick change).

Students are not possessions.  Is it not the job of the martial arts instructor to foster growth in his or her student, or is it to gain and keep students around forever?

I say all that as a way of explanation for the statement,”former student.”   The person I refer to is one of a few former students now serving in the ministry of GOD. I can’t claim credit for that. I have students in many walks of life but more are lawyers than any other profession.  My point is this: Martial arts training is just a stepping stone in life. Some merely stay a few years longer than others.  But make no doubt about it, all of them  eventually leave. This and all training, martial or otherwise, is a means to an end!

Now, about that predicting the future; you must open your mind.  You can often see what’s down the road if you open yourself up to how the universe truly works. If you look deeply enough, really see and observe universal laws in action, quiet your mind sufficiently, acting rationally and with correct and positive intentions you can predict the future with fairly certain accuracy.

However, to successfully predict the future, one must insert the points I mentioned in the previous paragraph into your past….and add them to  your present.

Do you know for sure that one cannot see the future?  Just because an act has never been scientifically validated is not cause for denial is it?

I’ve written a blog on the hermetic principle, “cause and effect.” I have seen and experienced this most natural law. With the possession of enough facts can one not predict an outcome in certain situations? Consider a close look at the fraternal Rosicrucian Order, or you  may search for it as it is officially known, “AMORC,” or  ”Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis” an international organization which is old, old, old, going back to the old Egyptian empire days.

Anyway, it is in my experience that we set the future by correctly living in the present.  Correct thinking?  My usage of the word “living,” would be synonymous with “being.”  Consider your existence as a human being with the emphasis on the verb,”being,” not the noun, “human.” After living your life this way for several months talk to me about your new experiences.  Then tell me what you are feeling?

Well, the house is still standing and I’ve received much advice and concerns.  For all those concerned, thank you. For the guy who said “nobody likes a quitter,” walk a mile in my shoes before you make that kind of comment. (just kidding)

In response to concerns of my current state of mind consider this: No one knows what the future brings. Or if there is to be a future considering the way many in the present are acting.  Can you predict what will happen in the next day or two?  How about in the next moment?  If you could have back the last three years, what would you change and what would you do differently?

Has your training and your accomplishments been satisfactory?  I can answer both yes and no to the last question.  And I’m in charge of my life, am I not?  Believe me I would like to think I’m in charge.

The truth of the matter is I’ve not been in command as I should be.  I’ve given too much power to others. By that I mean some thoughts drifting into my subconscious during the last few years came from elsewhere and I know that should not be.

I’ve found that when I let up a little, too many random thought-patterns come in, though not necessarily from stronger minds, it’s just too many  minds collectively thinking the same weak, negative thoughts.  Collectively they have the capacity to wear one down in much the same way a large group can overwhelm  one person physically. It just takes many, many more working overtime to do it mentally.

While that is no excuse for my outburst, it is my wakeup call.  The truth of the matter is that I am, as I said in that last blog, responsible for my own happiness and well-being and no one else.  I’m on this path and teaching myself during this journey and invited others to travel with me.  Some travel as students, others as friends, there have even been a couple traveling as adversaries but we are all on the path.  When the time is right for me to step off the path, or maybe I should say hit an intersection and head down a different path I will know it and so will many of you.

In the mean time, train on.

R. B. asked : “Do you have conversations with GOD?”

This is an extremely personal question not usually asked by martial arts students.   While I was a little curious as to where the student was headed, I don’t generally pass up opportunities to teach lessons in unusual  circumstances so this is my response:

Absolutely!  However, these conversations are usually in the form of messages or scenes that my eyes behold.  The beauty  in a flower, a hypnotizing sunset, someone’s commentary, be it a passage written in a book or magazine or the spoken word.  Sometimes it is a “realization” thought which comes to my mind suddenly or maybe gradually;  Watching a child in discovery mode with something in his or her hands and it can be any object like a simple box that a something was mailed in.

Is that what you meant R.B.?

Many years ago my first instructor, Steve McKnight told me that “when you start to dread going to class, that is the indicator.”  He said “when that happens, when you start to feel like that don’t walk, run out the door and quit.  You owe it to your students to give them 100%.”

While I have not fallen to the level of dread going in, the shear joy of  looking forward to going, to reaching that high feeling of accomplishment when a student’s face opens up with a new “understanding” is not happening as it used to.  And while the joy of renewing old friendships at training camp has not diminished the camps themselves no longer excite me.  I know there is a likelihood that it could be my inability to train the way I used to, (the aches,  pains and arthritis of a 70 year old man) I suspect it may be more of a mental thing than physical. Anyway, I no longer look forward to it.

So, when is enough, enough? The difficulty is in the small details.  While I thought I was more advanced than this, the  small quirks of human nature have begun to irritate me. I have always felt that human beings should be more advanced than they are.  People do not consider other people when they decide to do or say some things and my patience has not grown as it should.  So I get irritated.

I’ve always taught that one of the best paths for personal growth is through interactions with others.  Richard Bach said in his book entitled ‘Illusions:’ “We teach best what we most need to learn.” However, it may be time to move in another direction.

The Solution? Maybe to drop out of martial arts completely the way Jim Lahue did. After all, my allegiance ultimately is to myself not any one person or organization.  Considering how I dropped the martial arts organization which I co-founded and walked away from the martial arts school which I founded in the sixties, it would not be too hard to do.

I have not made up my mind just yet.  But it won’t be long.

What a challenge we encountered at 8:30 in the morning.  The new mat material is 2 inches thick, 6 feet wide and 42 feet long and covered with carpet material. In fact, it is a  gymnastics mat.  It came in 4 tightly rolled bundles. We knew when ordered that they would not fit through the door so we were four people strong.  (guest what, not enough people) We had to unroll each mat and snake it through the door, up the stairs to the second floor, around the corner, down the hall, through the dojo door then lay it down with chairs on each end for several hours to get it to lay flat.  Consider that process times four.  Two hours later we were done the bull work.

5pm that afternoon we started the process of fitting the 4 pieces together, cutting them to length and filling in the corners and odd nooks.  The joints are covered and held together with 5 inch wide velcro strips and fit very nice.  Just about the whole dojo joined together to put it down. Nice work, everybody.

Short version, Yes!

Realistically I may not know the exact answer.  However, why concern myself over what I cannot control.  But that calls up another idea.  Do we or do we not draw to us what we agonize over? And is that not an ancillary form of control?

The answer is both yes and no.  The truth is, most things we worry about will never materialize.  That said, consider this: We really do draw to ourselves whatever happens.  As I’ve stated before, most situations we find ourselves in are a result of what we did or did not do. Even though we may have agonized over some supposedly detrimental situation, it usually comes ( if it comes at all) in a manner or form we do not expect.

Getting to the essence of all this stuff requires no more than a simple and practical “thought” equation one must bring into play.

Learn from the past; Prepare for the future; Live in the present!

That’s all there is, there ain’t no more; just the eternal NOW!

We discussed some of our couch-potato friends and their lack of endeavor which seems to have enhanced their weight gain.  There has to  have been hundreds of volumes written on the subject.

What most of my friends don’t seem to understand is I pay very little attention to the prescribed types of food deemed “acceptable” to the so-called experts.  Naturally I don’t go crazy with my diet and there is discipline in what I eat and drink.   But evidently I train hard enough to burn off the effects of my sometimes poor eating habits.  Of course my body dynamics could simply be the result of certain genetics but I don’t think so.

And then there is the mind. But what does that have to do with this lack of fat storage, you ask?  To me, everything.  As we envision, as we believe, and as we perceive, so we receive.  We live in a fundamentally friendly universe  which we create mentally with our belief systems.  We do this collectively, all of us together.  Which is why I’ve begun to direct my consciousness toward peace and contentment.  And as an add-on thinking this way: “thin is in.”  What’s important however is this thought is directed inward, and it definitely is  not  something coming from the outside in.  I don’t work at avoiding outside influences necessarily, I just tend to ignore them. To work at avoidance is to burn energy needlessly.  And in approaching 70 years old in a few months, I can use all the reserve energy I can muster.

Age and conditioning starts in the head.  It starts in the head and finishes in the body.  What do I mean by that?

It also pays to think young!