Nothing will go exactly how you want or expect it to.
Change, therefore, should be part of your plan.
That way, you will be less disappointed when you are forced to pivot.
Success will come to you much easier when you are willing to adapt to life as it is, as opposed to insisting that it conforms to your expectations and demands.
Remain flexible and open-minded, and you will find that, even when you face challenges and difficulties, your journey is far more interesting and enjoyable.
The details are filled in by life’s circumstances.
We can try to mitigate all risk and cover all contingencies, but we cannot account for every possible variable, especially variables that are impossible to predict.
Our success is determined by our ability to adapt to the reality we face once we begin taking action.
If we have planned well, we have left ourselves room to adjust.
If we have planned well, pivoting is part of our plan.
Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.
As important as momentum is to progress, momentum in the wrong direction or in too many directions at once is counterproductive.
We need to break free from the things that are holding us back, whether these are fear, procrastination, distraction, or some other form of internal or external resistance, and get moving in the direction of our personal, occupational, relational, or creative goals.
That is to say, progress requires momentum.
The more momentum we have, the more progress we seem to make and, the more progress we make, the more momentum we seem to have.
This can result in the misguided tendency to conflate the two, but momentum and progress are not the one-in-the-same.
The fact is that momentum, alone, does not necessarily give us the kind of progress we want or need.
While momentum is a powerful tool for change, if not properly informed, focused, and balanced, the change it creates can be be chaotic or even destructive.
It is far better to make slower, steadier, and more careful steps in the right direction than it is to make great leaps in the wrong direction or in too many directions at once.
By focusing on small, incremental progress, we give ourselves room to pivot, to alter or reverse our position and direction if we realize we have made a mistake or that our goals or environment has changed.
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 & Bodyand Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh unless otherwise noted.
Move forward decisively and purposefully, but leave room to pivot.
Whether in relationships, business, fitness, or martial arts, once we know where we want to go and we have a plan to get there, it is important to begin moving in that direction without haste and to stick with the plan as best we can. No plan is perfect, however, nor can it account for every contingency, variable, or obstacle we may face along the way. This fact should not stop us from planning or from acting on our plans, though.
If we want to make any progress in our lives, toward our goals and aspirations, we have to assume that there is a path forward in whatever direction we choose to go, or we have to make a plan to create the path we need. This requires a kind of progressive optimism. It requires a mindset that tells us, regardless of the fact that we may, no, that we will run into difficulty along the way, that we will not stop until we get where we are going.
Sometimes, in spite of our will to progress, in spite our optimism, and in spite of our best planning, we come face-to-face with a challenge that we simply have no way to overcome with the tools at our disposal. If the obstacle in our path is truly insurmountable, we must choose whether to keep moving forward, crashing into it to the bitter end, to quit and go back to from where we came, or to humble ourselves, look for creative solutions in other directions, and pivot. In the end, the true path forward requires us to be both open-minded and agile.
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 and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh (artist unknown, unless otherwise noted).
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If we do not first commit to a relationship, we cannot pivot within that relationship and be taken seriously.
In aikido, there are two fundamental concepts of movement. In the most general terms, the first is entering (irimi) and the second is pivoting or flanking (tenkan). Irimi is the act of moving in, on and through the line of resistance. Tenkan, often misunderstood as turning or moving around resistance, is actually the act of pivoting on the line of resistance, once it is established that the way forward is blocked.
Irimi is the act of committing ourselves to a path. It is the principle of entering into a relationship with confidence, certainty, and integrity. It is a straight line in, eschewing our fears, being present, aware, and powerful. Irimi is belief in ourselves, our purpose, and our ability to carry out our mission.
Sometimes, however, we meet an insurmountable resistance when we move in and we must take a different angle. When we have fully committed ourselves into something worth doing, with all of our essence and all of our being, but it is simply not working because there is too much resistance on the other end, or perhaps because we took the wrong approach from the start, we must pivot. This is tenkan, but, more accurately, this is irimi-tenkan.
There is no pivoting without commitment. There is no new angle for us to take without first moving forward. There is no adjustment of our position if we do not have one in the first place. We cannot simply move around the periphery of our relationships and expect them to have depth and meaning. In fact, we cannot even be in a relationship, in the truest sense of the word, without first putting ourselves on the line.
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 and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
If you found this post helpful or meaningful in some way, please feel free to Share, Comment, and Subscribe below.
Meditations on God 