Year: 2015

We all agree to a simple yet subtle fact, It doesn’t matter how good, how great how clever and ingenious, how resourceful one is life will knock you out cold. Occasionally we all have bad days weeks months even years. The sole reason such things happen is when you let it and choose for it to happen because understand this it’s all in your hands both right  and wrong choices  all you need to do is choose. There are no co- incidences but a cause and effect there is no seconding the fact everything that happens around us is somehow our own doing.

So steel your mind yes you heard it correctly metaphorically speaking it means harden your mind or alternatively and synonymously used for terms such as become thick skinned and various other figurative sense.

Bruce lee was probably one of the best example of the term because he was a pioneer not only in martial arts but also as a teacher. He went through hardships many of us only can imagine and not dare step in his shoes. He was not just a martial artist he was a visionary and a thinker as well his teachings necessarily are not confines to martial artists every day average Joe can understand them. He trained himself in Wing Chun a rare form of Chinese martial arts which later he made his own version like he says to his students “find a way make your own way”.  It’s not about following in someone else’s footsteps or trying to be somebody you’re not.  It’s about unleashing your best version of yourself.  According to Bruce, “Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.”

Here are a few humble observations I made through his book “Bruce Lee Striking Thoughts”: Bruce Lee’s Wisdom for Daily Living (The Bruce Lee library)

Know yourself

Knowing is half the battle applicable for anything in life if you know where you want to be you know what to do when you know what to do you know how to think when you know what to think then you know how to achieve it put it in to action congratulation you have achieved in life.

Absorb what is useful

Not everything in life that you come across is for you. Control your tongue you will be treated as wise control your emotion you will become tolerant control your appetite you will become healthier. So it’s all about controlling yourself temptations are always present it’s like a current in the river the movement you step in you will be floating away without your own control. So understand this you are what you choose to be.

Aim past your target

There is never a target but a ladder you reach it and go beyond it that is applicable in your skills your career your life. As much as it is important to keep your identity and not imitate others you must also think beyond what you see if your good aim to be the best that is the only way you achieve in life.

Focus on growth

No matter how hard things get keep moving forward If it’s meant to be it will be if it’s not it’s not have the courage to follow your heart and answer the calling as it only once you live and live to the fullest.

Master your mind and body

“It’s not enough just to be smart.  It’s not enough just to master your body.  Your body and mind support each other.  Your body helps turn what you think or dream up into results”.  According to Bruce, “As you think, so shall you become.”

Be Single Minded

The fighter is to always be single-minded with one object in view—to fight, looking neither backward nor sideways. He must get rid of obstructions to his forward movement, emotionally, physically or intellectually.

Greatness and success doesn’t not necessarily need be measured, in fact it’s immeasurable and  un-quantifiable in any measures. Trouble what is good to some may be great to others who are deprived of it and what is great for some is only one stop to another. Quality of work we do should be the same it requires undeterred dedication towards what you do and incomparable commitment.

Success is not optional it’s inevitable if you seek betterment whether your efforts are visible or invisible you will receive visible and invisible rewards. But the journey however is unforgiving and tire some only those brave enough and crazy enough will finish the journey, because you either brave enough to persevere or you are crazy enough to improvise.

Here are a few pointers to do great work

Find what you really enjoy doing- Manu greats have told us and I rephrase it, “It is imperative that you find a job or work that gives you purpose in life and never postpone your dreams. You can do great work only when you find something you like to do every day of your life its real freedom and freedom is hard work.

Limit your focus-Having toomany things in the same plate deprives  you from enjoying it but if you can limit the dilemma of choices you can rid yourself of unwanted distractions and focus what needs to be done and look good doing it. When you carefully do a funnel analysis of skillsets and operability with a proper study of the end result you should be able to come on top if you focus the field is yours

Don’t take options utilize opportunities- Choice like they say will always be a problem because our understanding of the chain of things that happen and unravel is limited. So best remedy to it is to anticipate opportunities as present themselves and identifying the ones that go in our favour. .

Value your skills don’t mutualize them- Specific set of skills are really hard to find in current masked Job market and it may take hundreds of filters before we can conclude a set of skills that make any sense. So learn the real value of your skills  know what you are worth and understand where the area of improvement can be made to suit current skill needs and bridge the gap with a little ingenuity so you have the edge. “Simple understanding peace is all about having the bigger stick than your opponent.”

Learning is endless- Learning can be defined as an endless void that only leads you where you start it’s the infinity of sell improvement and endless cycle of permanent change in behaviour. Learning never ends unless you acknowledge the fact that it is improvement is never going to progress. There  is nothing more permanent that change in itself and leaning is permanent change in behaviours once we master in set of skills it’s on to the next one in that sense it is a never ending process of Recognition > Evaluation > Implementation > Corrective action.

Take a movement ask yourself this “what is it you have that you own loosing is not worth greatness?” If you can answer that I would be grateful to you because not all of us are under any kind of obligation to answer that but it’s a choice. Choice as they say is always the problem we are told/convinced by ones around us to choose the path of least resistance leading to a comfortable life and a peaceful one. “Good is the enemy of great”. Everybody wants to sit on a river bed watch the current go by and think of what could have been instead of what he can do. Trying to catch a current and riding the waves well that’s very few are born with it and fewer still know what to do with the drive and the instinct to succeed in life.

Ask yourself why one person of your age your community is more successful than you having the same 24/7 time just because someone wears a Swiss watch he can’t stop time and run back and do things ‘no’ we all have same amount of time. It’s what is done of that time is what matters. The answer is very simple despite your best efforts you are not doing it right or you are not doing the right things. A small fish in a big pond can grow in to a big fish in it but a big fish cannot its better off is a good example.

Constant hunger is what drives the winning crowd because the drive to success is alone enough if you have the will to achieve. The very relentless perusal is what drives the greats. Because they know there is no end to achieving things in life it’s just a “check point” once you reach one it’s on to the next one because if you choose to convince yourself to rest someone else will take the lead.

Drive is why we live a purpose a meaning for our very existence some are driven to race, some are driven to play music, some are driven to achieve at school and some are driven to survive reasons differ but the destinations the same.

Tenacity is a trait not for the faint hearted “Babe Ruth says you can’t beat someone who never gives up” it’s true to every word be it the racing fields or be it chasing your targets as long as you don’t give up you haven’t lost the fight and when you give it your all you will succeed regardless what your score is you win.

Winning like everything else in this world has a price and the price to pay is ruthless relentless hard work and those who risk it all always win what is the most you can lose nothing so stop trying to do it and just do it. Many have a tendency that winning is journey from point a to b but no you have 24 more letters to deal with so it’s a constant improvement programme that has no end but only beginning you goal keeps getting bigger and bigger best we can do is build up an arsenal of skills “particular set of skills” and aim at it. Change is painful it hurts in all its might but when you refuse to you have a lifetime of hurt as though you are suspended in space.

Why do some fight? It’s a classic question it has got everything to do with us.it can only be explained when you watch the first cyclist of the pelotons passes the finish line after sprinting at nearly 100 km/l just to get the few minutes of lead and when he finishes the next stages. Ask a sprinter on a track who just got his 100 meter win ask a sales executive who just made his first big digit pay check, it’s an unexplainable phenomenon they can’t rest they are not satisfied by mediocre results it’s all or nothing.

Why some risk it all? We risk it all because we don’t have anything to lose its something no machine or a few species of animals are capable of doing that’s what sets us apart from being bionic.