Posts Tagged ‘balance’
Finding energy & creating #pathways with #MartialArts
UPDATES 23072018.
1. I spoke with a guy at a business conference recently.
He said that martial arts (krav maga) had changed his life, in terms of confidence.
He had stopped a potential attack by standing tall and warning off the aggressor.
And he had been sufficiently aware of an attack by an animal to push it away before it had jumped on him.
2. Brendan Ingle died recently
Martial arts & purpose
Martial arts can provide a sense of purpose.
It can also provide personal development and a pathway out of crime or bad habits.
Signage
The sign at Brendan Ingle’s well known boxing gym in Sheffield is:
” Boxing can seriously damage your health, but teaches you self-discipline and gets you fit. Smoking, drinking and drugs just damage your health.”
Actor Mickey Rourke
Mickey Rourke is aged 62 and has been associated in the past with drugs and alcohol abuse.
He recently fought an exhibition boxing match against a 29 year old in Moscow and said:
“Boxing is a serious part of my life. It taught me respect and determination, patience and concentration.”
Benefits
For him, some of the benefits are similar to mindfulness and are also about #Looking4Balance.
By the way, boxing is also a metaphor for the #MartialArtsPrinciple – #PlayingToYourStrengths
Image of Mickey Rourke
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Why you should #Look4Balance in conflict, leadership & life & think A and B. not A or B.
Why balance matters
Balance is important to me.
And it should be for you.
Why?
It avoids the fallacy of extreme alternatives. For example:
- Ying or yang?
- Strategy or tactics?
- Big picture or detail?
- Thinking or doing?
- Hard or soft?
- Qualitative or quantitative?
- Black or white? (No jokes about Shades of Grey, please)
In fact, answers depend upon context, circumstances & culture, as the images illustrate.
It is often better to hold two opposing ideas in your mind and then to create another more balanced and better option.
So “and” is generally better than “or”.
Here are some examples, from my personal experience.
1. Conflict and martial arts
* Is it better to be passive or aggressive?
Neither, there are false alternatives.
It’s better to be assertive.
Neither.
Most people will Freeze.
* Personal safety or self defence?
Go for personal safety first – be aware & try to avoid dangers.
Only if that doesn’t work, take action and try self defence.
And if you have to take action, are grappling skills (like wrestling) or striking skills (like boxing or karate) better for self defence?
You need both.
2. Leadership and work
You need both a clock (a metaphor for tactics and action) and a compass (a metaphor for strategy and focus).
And the real trick is the blend the three key ingredients of success – focus, action and mindset.
* Big picture or detail?
Again you need to be able to handle both.
The Economist, 10 February 2018, has this quote about Elon Musk.
He “can be at the macro, see everything that’s highly disruptive, and then zoom all the way down to the micro, down to the door handle.”
The #MartialArtsPrinciple is that a leader needs to #FlowLikeWater between strategy & tactics & big picture & detail.
3. Life
* Few things, apart from computer code, are binary.
* It’s good to look for Win-Win, rather than Win-Lose situations.
This is Habit 4 of Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
* Too much of a good thing can become a bad thing.
Here an example of this idea, called polarities.
I first came across at this at a meeting of EODF.
Finally, three principles:
So.
- Look for balance.
- Think A and B, not A or B. And perhaps C.
- Forget binary. Think Power of Three.
Image: The top image shows me balancing with legs extended on light kettle bells. They wobble. I fell over on the previous attempt. Picture and training by Tony (info@getbodyfit.co.uk). The kicking image is the same source. The other images are by TheHikingArtist.
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Why leadership needs perspective, balance & to #FlowLikeWater
left and right brain roles
The clock & the compass
I previously wrote about why leaders need both a clock and a compass.
My idea was that the compass is about the wood,
It reminds us of direction and the big picture and the need to#Simplify.
Whereas the clock is about the trees.
It reminds us of now and detail.
Left & right brain
I discussed this recently with Carolyn Pilbeam, a leading yoga teacher.
I now realise that the analogy goes wider – the clock is left brain; the compass is right brain.
Perspective
Few leaders have the perspective to be able to effectively apply both the:
- Big picture and the detail; and
- Left brain and right brain thinking.
The #MartialArtsPrinciple is #FlowLikeWater.
Mandela
Caitlin Moran recently suggested that the ultimate legacy of Nelson Mandela was:
“Perspective. A whole load of perspective.”
He had:
- A lawyer’s eye for detail, but could see the big picture; and
- He used direct action, but developed a rapport with his jailers.
- He had perspective and balance.
Mike Barnato 