November 2001 Newsletter
BROWN
AND BLACK BELTS WHO WISH TO HELP THE TRAINING SESSION WITH MY
DAUGHTER’S ARMY RESERVE UNIT ON NOVEMBER 4TH LET ME KNOW
ASAP . . . BASE PASSES MUST BE MADE.
Think
about why we at times start to do something or go some place and we end
up doing something else or we end at a place we did not intend to reach.
Having conceived of our purpose, we should mentally mark
a straight pathway to the achievement of our desired end, looking
neither to the right nor left. This single sightedness is called the
focus.
A
focus is the one reason
that most of us do not accomplish more.
We establish great goals. We
write them on paper as the experts encourage.
We enthusiastically start taking action, we can feel the power
and the energy, we know that this time we are on the right track, this
time is going to be different from all those other times.
Then it happens . . . Life
gets in the way!
What
is this thing called life? Each
of us can make a list. It
may be a personal or family illness; or things get turned upside down at
school, work, our daily lives or play.
Maybe it is an unexpected financial crisis. This interruption
consumes us. Before we know
it - our once bright and shining goals that were in front of us, are now
just a tarnished and painful memory of what we could do if such and such
had not happened. Life gets
in the way of everybody, but the successful people have a way of keeping
their focus in spite of life.
Several months ago I saw a passage by James Allen in "The
Mastery of Destiny.”
It is one of my all‑time favorites on the power of
FOCUS:"All successful people
are people of purpose. They
hold fast to an idea, a project, a
plan, and will not let it go; they cherish it, brood upon it, tend and
develop it; and when
assailed by difficulties, they refuse to be beguiled into surrender;
indeed, the intensity of the purpose increases with the growing magnitude
of the obstacles encountered."
The last part of the thought
is the true secret, " . . . indeed, the intensity of the purpose
increases with the growing magnitude of the obstacles encountered."
Motivated, goal oriented, people accept and cherish a challenge
and rise to the occasion.
Gary
Ryan Blair writing "The
Ten Commandments of Goal Setting" says:
"We're all vulnerable it's easy to lose
focus. Accept the fact that we must repeatedly recover our focus.
A brief loss of focus is a minor derailment, but, if not regained
rapidly, loss of focus becomes a wholesale wreck. Focus, readjust, and
realign."
Life
will continue to get in the way if we permit it to do so. People will bother us if we permit it. Stress comes from within each of us. The way we handle life’s stresses shows what kind of people
we are.
Remember, today's action creates tomorrow's future.
Focus
stresses the essential elements of life and karate. The execution of a focused response at the proper moment in a
karate block or attack may mean the difference between victory and defeat.
The proper response to
another person, event or idea may become more important to our lives than
executing a good karate technique.
As we look at the important areas of our lives; family, education,
work, socialization and recreation, proper balance and focus are
necessary.
"What
we think, or what we know, or what we believe, is in the end, of little
consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do!”
John
Ruskin From "Timeless Wisdom" |
