One day I showed up in the practice room with a new
goal. It was not simply to win this tournament or beat my next
opponent. It was a combination of beating someone as well as
being willing to practice a specific move 10,000 times.
An odd goal – you might think – but not if you understand
that success is a journey – and the key to greatness is
combining your creative imagination with practice, practice
and … more practice.
Even when you think you KNOW something extraordinarly well –
then it is time for MORE practice. It’s no longer ONLY about
being good. It’s a matter of learning to love the journey toward
greatness.
Practice is and always will be the name of the game – yet so few
understand this. They think that getting a surface understanding of
something is a complete understanding, but it’s not.
I believe that once you commit your mind and spirit into what you are
practicing, then there can be no such thing as “boring” and that is when
the real learning takes place. Every time I exercise, even when doing the
same exercises like Hindu Squats, Hindu Pushups, bridging, the Farmer
Burns Stomach Flattener and so on … I learn more about the exercise
and more about myself while doing the exercise. I learn how to better
regulate my mind, my breathing, my awareness, focus, attitude and
more.
When doing repetitions of any exercise, if you focus your awareness
on your breath and you get inside the muscle you are training – you’ll
find an entirely different Universe to explore – and it is NEVER boring.
When training, never think only in terms of “be here now.” Think
in terms of “be here now” AND “be there now.” Do both simultaneously.
For example, if you’re doing Hindu Squats you pay attention
to your form. You observe your breathing. You make sure
your back is straight and your body is in balance. And while
you pay attention to your body you think about what you want
this exercise to do for you.
Yesterday I was teaching my son, Frank, the power of mental pictures.
This was before having him work on the monkey bars.
“When you’re up there,” I said, “and you’ve got a hold of the bars,
picture going to the next bar. See a snapshot of yourself successfully
grabbing each rung before you do it. See yourself easily going from
one end of the bars to the other.”
Frank did this and he looked like a primate moving from branch to branch.
He made it look easy when he was struggling earlier. This shows the
importance your mind plays in all you do.
Later on I challenged myself to do more of a handstand exercise
than I had ever previously done. I took a moment to picture the
number of reps I wanted to do. I saw myself doing them to
completion. Then, once focused, I jumped into position and cranked
out the new record number.
There is no such thing as doing the same exercise over and over – even
if you have a goal to do 10,000 or 1,000,000 of them. An exercise is
never the same if you choose to bring an increased awareness to each
repetition along with your desire for something more.
You could walk the same path each day for an entire year – but it is
never the same walk if you take the time to think and imagine; if you
take the time to experience what lies within you.
Today, when you do your Combat Conditioning exercises – put more of
yourself into what you’re doing and you’ll discover an entire world of the
“possible” that you didn’t realize was sitting there, waiting for you.
Kick butt – take names,