Meditations on God

Accomplish More By Slowing Down
Hurry, slowly.

‘Broken Machine’ by Ana

There is a tendency when overwhelmed with too many tasks, demands, or responsibilities to speed up in order to catch up or get ahead. An increase in quantity of output tends to lead to a lower quality result. When we rush, we make mistakes.

Mistakes have a tendency to double our workload. We already did the job once, but now, as the result of our haste, we have to start over and redo or repair the work we thought was in the past.

In a world where it is nearly impossible to simply reduce the frontend day-to-day demands placed on us by our jobs, family, and life in general, we must find a way to minimize our need to repeat tasks unnecessarily on the backend. We must do quality work that does not cause us more work down the road.

When we feel rushed by outside forces, we must hurry up while also slowing down. Instead of being reactionary, which is itself a chaotic state, we should instead take a deep breath, assess the situation, create a plan of attack, and then execute that plan in a calm, organized manner. In the long run, calm and organized is always faster than hurried and confused.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

-Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body, Severna Park’s Holistic Chamber of Commerce, and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Share this:
X
Facebook
Like Loading…
September 3, 2019

accomplishments, efficiency, haste, hurry up, life, productivity, slow down, slow is smooth, smooth is fast, take your time
The Struggle and the Journey Are One In The Same
The journey itself, the discovery process, that is the hard part, but it is also where the greatest rewards are found.

‘The Butterfly’ by Ana

Doing something new or creative is like going on a journey into uncharted territory. It is difficult. It is scary. At times it feels lonely and hopeless.

If the work you are doing is at all worth pursuing, there is no way to get where you are going without also going through this struggle. Keep in mind, however, that this struggle is part of the journey.

The journey is not meant to be easy. That is why so few even start. Fewer still keep going.

Stay the course long enough to overcome these difficulties and you will find that these experiences begin to define your character and outlook on life for the better. What’s more, they become tools for overcoming what is ahead and for guiding others down a better path than you yourself took.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

-Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body, Severna Park’s Holistic Chamber of Commerce, and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Share this:
X
Facebook
Like Loading…
September 2, 2019

difficulty, journey, path, struggle, suffering
Being Wrong is Part of the Process
If more successful people talked about how many times they thought about quitting or were forced to pivot, we’d have more successful people.

‘Frosting’ by Ana

Not everyone is meant to lead the charge into unfamiliar territory. Most people need to follow someone who has already been to the other side, someone who can tell them how to get there safely and what dangers and pitfalls to avoid, someone with a roadmap.

A map is essentially a success story. It shows us what worked. What we don’t see are all of the wrong turns, dead ends, and attempted short cuts that went into that success. We don’t see the failure and the mistakes, all of the paths attempted that did not work out. We don’t see the journey.

There are many times along the way that you will want to cut your losses and turn back, many times you will want to settle down and go no farther, and many times when you will have to change course after a lot of time and effort spent moving in the wrong direction. Success is simply the result of having the will to keep going anyway.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

-Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body, Severna Park’s Holistic Chamber of Commerce, and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Share this:
X
Facebook
Like Loading…
September 1, 2019

entrepreneurship, failure, leadership, pivoting, success
Find Your Way Back to the Familiar
If you are stuck in a position you do not know how to get out of, find your way back to a position you do know how to get out of and escape from there.

Relson Gracie teaching how to get back to guard from back mount at Kogen Dojo. Photo by Mike Oswald Photography

I received a call from one of my lead technicians the other day with a question about how to remove a part, a transformer, from a piece of equipment we work on. The way that this particular model was manufactured had both him and the technician on site stumped.

The technician called the manufacturer who told him he would have to cut another part out to remove the transformer that had failed. This was quite unusual, not to mention time consuming, and the lead technician asked me if I had any other ideas.

As we talked, I remembered having removed the same part before, but it was the right side transformer, whereas the technician in this instance was struggling to remove the left side transformer, something none of us had done before. Just then, I remembered a lesson I learned in Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ).

Doing BJJ over the years, I discovered that when I found myself stuck in a position I was unfamiliar with or could not work my way out of, instead of fighting my way through an impossible task, I could work my way to a more familiar position and then escape from there.

For example, I am better at passing guard than I am at escaping back mount. So, if I am rolling and someone takes my back, I will try to work my way back to the person’s guard, knowing that from guard I have a much better chance of getting to a dominant position than from back mount.

We already knew how to remove the right transformer. What if the technician slid the left transformer to the right transformer’s position and then removed it from there?

He did and it worked.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

-Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body, Severna Park’s Holistic Chamber of Commerce, and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

39.073857 -76.547111
Share this:
X
Facebook
Like Loading…
August 30, 2019

bjj, brazilian jiu-jitsu, budo, equipment repair, escape, gracie jiu-jitsu, life, postition, submission grappling, unfamiliar
Running Blind With Fear
As much as we feel as if we are chasing what we value, more often than not we are simply running away from what we fear.

‘Orange Peel’ by Ana

Fear is a much more powerful motivator than hope. The fear of not having security, status, health, wealth, or love, not to mention food, water, clothing, and shelter, drives us to do more, to accumulate more, and to achieve more. We fear running out, having less than others, or not having enough for ourselves. Many of our hopes and dreams are really just fears turned into positive emotion or even action.

Fear clouds our judgement. It blinds us to everything that is not perceived as a means of relief. It is impossible to see clearly when we are afraid. So, we run. Often, we even run away from what matters most, from the work or the relationships that would bring us the deepest satisfaction and would result in the change in the world we are truly meant to make.

Once we understand our fears, it becomes much easier to clearly define our motivations and our goals. If we can admit what we are afraid of, we can determine if that fear is legitimate or if it is shallow and self-centered. Some things are worth being afraid of. Most are not. The things that are not, once we face and rid ourselves of them, free us up to do great work, to fulfill our deeper purposes. Fear, after all, is more than just a thief of joy. It is also a deceiver of the will.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

-Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body, Severna Park’s Holistic Chamber of Commerce, and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Share this:
X
Facebook
Like Loading…
August 30, 2019

achievement, aspirations, courage, dreams, fear, hopes, motivation, motives

Accomplish More By Slowing Down

Share this:

The Struggle and the Journey Are One In The Same

Share this:

Being Wrong is Part of the Process

Share this:

Find Your Way Back to the Familiar

Share this:

Running Blind With Fear

Share this: