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The 6 Most Important Things Martial Arts Taught Me About Life
Breathing Is Everything
How you breathe will dictate everything from the type of athlete you are, to how you sleep, to how your body feels and looks.
At the core of breathing is connecting with our core. Our breath does not originate in our lungs or in our chests, but from deep within.
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Key Ideas
Slow It Down
Being proficient at anything at full speed takes the willingness and patience to first go slowly, literally and figuratively.
Any professional athlete will tell you that the ritualistic nature of slowing down your craft is the key to success in that craft. You have to walk before you can run.
Words Only Have the Power We Give Them
Words inspire, words inform, and words can destroy - if we let them.
The martial arts will teach you not to react to other’s problems, but to pay attention to your own. Learn not to react to words that are meant for harm.
Awareness Is Everything
The ability to be present in a given circumstance means the difference between success and failure and potentially life and death.
Nothing brings you to the present moment quite like a fight, whether it’s a practice fight or a real one. The difference from a practice like meditation where you slow down and find awareness, is that the martial arts not only slows down, it speeds way up.
The Greatest Battles Are Fought Within
Even in actual fights, the greatest obstacle we face is our own fear, our own breath, or our own tension.
Battles will be won when we’re willing to face ourselves.
The Journey Is What Matters
In our culture, we tend to focus on outcomes. Winning versus losing.
In the martial arts, process is growth, regardless of outcome. As we grow old we need not stop growing.
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Self-discovery
By learning to fight, he was able to better understand who he was...
Be like water
Bruce Lee saw life as being in constant change.
Unless we learn to adapt to it, we’re bound to experience tremendous resistance that will entrap us in a constant state of suffering.
Kick dogma out of your life
Bruce didn’t subscribe to a dogma of any kind.
Although he was an avid reader of religion, philosophy, and martial arts, he viewed religious or philosophical ideologies at best only as signposts pointing to the truth, but not as the truth itself.
The truth for him was multi-sided and beyond what words can express.Therefore, it can't be named, packaged, and presented in a certain way without losing its essence.
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Bruce Lee as a philosopher
He studied poetry and philosophy in school. He focused his studies on Asian and Western philosophy, incorporating elements of Jiddu, Buddhism, Taoism, and Krishnamurti.
This helped h...
Bruce Lee's impressive life
- He wasn't a master of any standard form of martial arts. He was closest in mastering Wing Chun.
- He invented his own style of martial arts. He based his style on the teaching of Man and what he learned of Wing Chun. He called his style Jeet Kune Do "the style of no style"
- He starred in 20 films in Hong Kong before the age of 18.
- He popularized the "1 Inch Punch" as seen in Kill Bill Vol. 2
- He was a prolific poet and philosopher. He studied poetry and philosophy in school and was even published several times.
- He was so fast, his moves were often too fast for a camera to catch.
- He only made 5 feature films in the US, his last released posthumously.
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Leave no holes in your game
To qualify to compete in an MMA fight, you need to be “complete.” In the fighting world, that means that no matter where the fight goes, standing up or if the action goes to the gro...
Get used to discomfort
A business, like a fight, will push you beyond your comfort zone. You will eventually venture into unfamiliar territory.
Understand that it’s possible nothing will go your way, and you’ll have to take a vicious beating. But prepare for a fight and swing to win anyway.
Set up your squad
Although MMA fighters are in a cage by themselves, a team of highly specialized professionals -- from massage therapists to sparring partners -- is essential for them to succeed in the ring.
In business, you need a team similar to an MMA outfit -- one comprised of people who can see things you can’t and make you strong where you are weak.