It was a Good Friday

/in /by

Good Friday was a very interesting evening for me.  Normally, I would be at work, during this busy period, with my guys and assisting the Greek Easter street parades but having your leg in a cast has taken a turn on things for me this weekend. Instead, I picked up my very good friends, Richard Norton and his wife, Judy Green, from the Airport who have been invited by A young James Taylor and a young Richard NortonJames Taylor for his concert tour in the Hunter Valley.  My intention, just a cup of coffee, and then head back home.  I met with some very wonderful people, including the famous James Taylor.  I knew my queue when to leave but they insisted I stay for dinner.  However, my mind was made up and I walked (with crutches) back to my car, with Richard and Judy behind me, insisting I stay.  It took several goes before I changed my mind.  I returned only to be given the ‘welcome back’ treatment by these wonderful people. 

I was extremely impressed with the company.  Richard was James’s bodyguard in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s and has been a friend ever since.  It was interesting to hear James Taylor talk about the martial arts (apart from many other things) of how Richard used to train him whilst on tour.  He talked about his son doing Karate and Kung Fu for a number of years and now immersed into BJJ with Renzo Gracie in New York. 

The drummer of the band, by the name of Russell, was a wondeful human being.  He insisted on walking back with me to my vehicle where we had a one on one conversation.  Russ been great friends with Richard for a a very long time and he said, “If you are friend of Richard’s, then you are friend of mine.”  I told him he stood out from the rest of the crowd.  He said the same about me.  I replied, “I have no doubt” pointing to my foot (lol)!  He waited so he can tip the carpark attendant who brought over my vehicle.  I hope to cross paths with this man again. 

This might not mean much but what a lot of good I experienced that evening.  This is the same goodness I often come across in the martial arts.  I told James Taylor I am going to make him more famous by including him in my blog.
GA

Who’s Got Time?

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We always complain about time that there is no time.  That’s true when you consider the many things we have to do and the time constraints which we live by.  But living is also about doing the things we want to do.  It’s too easy to use excuses to put aside the things we love to indulge in but how many of us care to admit how much time we waste on the things that give us nothing in return?

The other evening, I spoke to one of our young Brown Belts, Ibrahim, and his father about how he needs to put in a lot of work in his education but I would like to see the same dedication to his martial arts training.  That energy should go hand in hand because if we learn to concentrate and focus through our martial arts training then that should be channeled in other areas such as study. 

If time is your biggest concern then you will miss out on the things you always wanted to do.  If you fight time, it will be eventually become your enemy so work with it, by managing it.  How many times have we heard people working (or have worked) 2 or 3 jobs?  In my case I was also teaching 4 martial arts classes a week.  I didn’t even give it a second thought.  I just didn’t waste the time, that’s how I did it. 

But there are so many dedicated people out there in the martial arts and I can tell you their life style and time constraints would be no different to anybody else’s.  These are the people who understand and have their lives in order setting aside special time for their personal interest.  Sometimes, we work too much just to impress our leaders/managers or a means to make more money.  Impressing someone does not last a lifetime and making extra money only means you are going to spend more of it if you get the chance to do that in the little spare time you have, anyway.

At the end of the day, you need to juggle between job, family/social life and special interest.  How successful will depend if you start weeding out excuses and realise not everything you do should be dominated by one thing.
GA