Mainly Void Thoughts

So, I’m likely to be writing things here about the martial art I started training last year. This will likely cause a lot of questions along the way from my friends, who I’ve not had a chance to explain to what this is all about. The following video clip is a trailer for a DVD put together after a Shihan (highly ranked practitioner) visited a dojo in the US. His names is Doug Wilson, and he lives in Japan, so he can study this martial art directly from the grand master. I had the privilege to meet him when he was over in Dublin earlier this year.

Once you’ve seen this short clip, there’s likely a flurry of questions in the back of your head. Do please add them to the comments and I’ll try to answer to the best of my abilities. Yeah, I know, that doesn’t say a lot does it?

I’ve been reading a lot recently. More specifically, what I’ve been reading is advice written up a few thousand years ago. It’s quite interesting advice too, as one can very easily see how society today is blatantly ignoring the most basic things human kind has discovered, a very long time ago. The authors I’ve read of so far are Sun Wu, Zhuge Lange, Liu Ji and Sun Bin. Most people will ask “Who are these guys? Never heard of them.” Well, all of those authors have a common denominator. They were all ancient martialists, Generals of armies. Sun Wu is more commonly known here in the West as Sun Tzu and Sun Bin is actually a direct descendant, sometimes referred to as Sun Tzu II.

An American Martial Arts Sensei has recently made a post as well on this topic : Etchical Leadership Returns to Fashion

How come leaders of the world have abandoned these teachings? There’s a lot of valuable lessons and advice from these Generals, which actually still do apply as readily today as they did over 2000 years ago. All I can surmise is, they have done so, because it is so much easier to get back handers when there is no real sense of loyalty to the people one is ruling. In other words, greed. Looking at how the Irish government has behaved over the last 10 years, this is blatantly obvious. However, no ruler here has been convicted of such things. Nor will they. Back handers and pats on the shoulder, a secret handshake, and you’re off the hook.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t just in Ireland I’m talking about. Have a look at just about any other country in the world, and you’ll see similar patterns. Do you really believe you’ll see President Bush or Prime Minister Blair on a war tribunal for what has been done to Afghanistan and Iraq? Hardly. Most notable pattern you’ll see is, make the rich richer and screw the people who are having a hard time. There’s so many people on this globe, the rulers don’t have to care about them, because if some die of decease new work force will have grown up soon enough. There is absolutely no shortage of work force on this planet. Just look at all the unemployment figures. Yes, even before the economic down turn.

So, leadership to me, when I do step into such roles, is about giving direction and then helping the ones I direct to actually perform their task. It’s about trust and loyalty. It’s about listening at least as much as talking. It’s about compassion as much as it is about control.

Leaders today, on all levels, have this belief that they should command and the ones below them should blindly follow. Try that with an army under fire. If you don’t have their loyalty and their trust, you simply do not have an army. Problem is, a lot of people think “well, at the workplace, I’m not a soldier, I’m a worker”. Sure, what is the real difference? There’s a common goal. There’s specific tasks needing to be done in specific order or at specific times. There’s stress. There’s times of relaxation (read: peace). There’s supply issues. There’s in short a heck of a lot that is in common. Principles for an army works just as well in the workplace.

So, this ancient set of books. These may well set the rules and governing controls for whatever may come along after the current way of ruling teams, companies, armies and countries collapse. Because collapse it surely must. This is inevitable.

So, I’m sitting here, in Andorra. A million miles from home, or so it might feel in a way. Why? Well, I’m missing my training tonight. Missing as in, I’d love to be home to do my training. Don’t get me wrong, this is a really nice place, but my training has started to mean a lot to me. I get a lot out of it. My training isn’t just going to the gym. So, I’m not missing just a physical exercise. That’s not it. It’s actually quite hard to explain, but I’ll give it a go here anyway.

For those of you who have managed to miss it, I train martial arts. And it’s one where you’d actually get hit. What we train isn’t just about fighting. Sure, it is a lot about that, but there’s a whole slew of other things in there too.

Over the course of the last year, since both me and my better half started training this, a lot of things have happened in our lives. The thing here is, I’ve been able to use what I’ve learnt in the dojo outside of it, in everyday situations. No, not punching people in the face (you smart arse). But handling situations, managing contention and conflicts. I’ve started seeing things in a bit of a new light.

I’ve also learnt the value of being able to relax, no matter what is facing you. (It’s the application of it that is hard.) This is a very important lesson I think. Being able to relax in a stressful or even dangerous situation means you can focus on how to get out of it, instead of focusing on that thing which is dangerous to you. Plus, you can then think clearly about what solution fits the current scenario best. Then all you need to do after that is learning to think fast, or simply learn to just react. Whatever you do, don’t freeze up or stop.

You’ll also develop a sense of what is happening around you. Which is also a good thing to know, even in an office setting. It is quite handy to understand how people react to different types of stimuli. Even in an office setting you’ll find “opponents”. Hopefully not of the violent kind, but there’s always different forms of contention in the workplace as well. Just because I mention this together with me studying martial arts doesn’t mean the same concepts can’t be applied in other situations than in a fight.

So, yes, I’ve learnt quite a lot over the course of a year. So, missing training for me is a lot more than just missing going to the gym. And taking a weeks holiday means I’ll miss it more than once, which really does annoy me. Not to mention, the club is getting together this weekend, and I’ll miss that too.