It's a New Year Already?

Happy New Year everyone! {Insert motivational message here}.The UBBT is now officially started so we’ve got 13 months of hard work ahead. I’m excited and looking forward to some of the goals I have on the list. It should be a blast.

Last week I was browsing the blogs and I read an entry by my fellow Silent River Kung Fu’er Graham Robertson. It’s the entry about his roommates reading his blog. I’ve been thinking about similar stuff lately and I wanted to make a comment. That comment got bigger and bigger and I still wanted to expand on it so I thought I may as well make it a journal entry. So if you’re reading this Graham, you started the gears in my head and some of this entry is a response to your journal.

I've mentioned the UBBT and the public journaling goal to some of my friends but I haven't mentioned my blog. It’s only a matter of time till someone asks me how I’m journaling publicly. I’m trying to decide whether I want to give out the address to anyone outside of Kung Fu. For much the same reasons as you I'm hesitant about it, plus there may be some fairly personal stuff I'll write about that I'm not sure I want them to read.

You wrote about how you see Graham and Sifu Robertson as two different people. I keep my Jesse and Sifu personalities pretty separate too but lately I’ve been questioning whether I should (or how much I should at least). After all my private life and my Kung Fu life ARE the same life and they’re both directly influenced by each other. I used to be super secret about my Kung Fu until after the 100^th time a friend asked how my taekwondo class was going and what I’m doing next Monday .

I’d answer: “KUNG FU class, like every Monday and you should know this because I tell you the same thing every Monday.”

Then I realized that if my friends don’t really know what I’m doing with Kung Fu it’s my fault for not being vocal enough about it. Kung Fu is an incredibly important part of my life, it defines me. I started worrying that a huge part of life was either misunderstood or completely ignored. I get frustrated when meeting someone new and that classic, “So what do you do?” question pops up. I do Kung Fu, and it certainly defines me more than my job does, so do I answer that or will they just think I’m showing off? I think martial arts are mostly misunderstood by the general public.

I’m a lot more vocal about Kung Fu now. I still don’t run around broadcasting my accomplishments and whatnot but I do keep my friends up-to-date with what I’m doing. That includes stuff like the UBBT, choreography, projects and the Silent River Benevolent Foundation. Since I’ve become more vocal, I now have two friends going to the Ging Wu School in Edmonton and I notice people taking interest in ideas like pushup goals.

So my whole point, the big question is, where is the line between doing things quietly or with lots of advertising? Can too much humility be a bad thing? Too much boasting is certainly a bad thing so does it work both ways? When we’re talking about inspiring others and changing the world through our actions, how much should be broadcast our actions? You could be doing great things but if nobody knows about it then it ends with you. By rights if we’re trying to inspire others we should be trying to reach as many people as possible. Walking down the sidewalk doing jump kicks, handing out UBBT brochures and yelling motivational slogans might be a bit much though.

How much do you all talk about martial arts to non martial artists? I’m under the impression that most martial artists are fairly humble and keep their actions to themselves. Lately it seems to me like maybe we should talk more about what we are doing and what we’re trying to accomplish to other people in our lives. If anyone is reading this I’m honestly curious what your opinion is, it’s something I’d like a lot of feedback on.