The quality of people being of sound moral principle and sincerity. In martial arts, one will learn the ways of integrity as he works his way up the belt system. To have a black belt is not to know the system of fighting, but to know all of the ways of a martial artist. To know the martial arts mind, body, and soul, you must study and practice the martial arts every day in at least one of those forms. How a martial artist learns the true art is also by living the art by being virtuous, focused, selfdisciplined, and having honor. By being in the martial arts, you represent an art form of many centuries and should conduct yourself as such. Here are a few ways you might be able to apply some of these tactics to your daily standards.

Be honest: One must be honest to others and especially to oneself. If you would not at least be true to yourself and your goals, how can you be true to anyone else? Do not cheat on your tests or your daily study and exercise goals. You are only cheating yourself, not anyone else. Choosing to do otherwise is only choosing unwisely and will reveal the truth in the end.

Be reliable: When you make a commitment to be somewhere at a designated time, make sure you are. Always follow through with your plans. If some emergency comes up, as sometimes situations are unavoidable, use a cell phone and make your arrangements and let someone know of your absence. This is still being reliable, if done only in an emergency.

Be sincere: This means that one should act the same outwardly as he is thinking on the inside, without deceitfulness. Always act in a genuine manner. Your character will always remain strong and every day will gain strength, and you will find you will have no fear of anyone. The truth has no fear of any questions.

Be earnest: This means to be in a serious and determined mode. Don’t be too playful about your life’s goals, but put your nose to the grindstone and get going. Put your physical and mental workouts first. Don’t let yourself or others down; it is harder to go back and make it up later. Just remember,

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People who spend more time being sedentary, particularly watching television, are more likely to be overweight or obese.

Most people can’t change how much time they spend on the computer for work or school, but you can decrease your screen time during other times of the day and on the weekend.

“Please, put the katana down. Listen to me, my son. First, you must start slowly. It has taken me many, many years to become a great swordsman and warrior. When I was your age, I could barely lift the katana and you are lifting and swinging it over your head! You will become a great warrior my son. You must concentrate on what you are doing, whether it is cleaning or mastering the sword. Do not think of anything else. If you are a warrior fighting, your enemy will kill you when you are not paying attention. When you learn to utilize all of your energy from within each and every second you are fighting, that energy will illuminate making you a great warrior.”

The partial becomes complete; the crooked, straight; the empty, full; the worn out, new.

He whose (desires) are few gets them; he whose (desires) are many goes astray.

Therefore the sage holds in his embrace the one thing (of humility), and manifests it to all the world.

He is free from self- display, and therefore he shines; from self-assertion, and therefore he is distinguished; from self-boasting, and therefore his merit is acknowledged; from self-complacency, and therefore he acquires superiority.

It is because he is thus free from striving that therefore no one in the world is able to strive with him.

That saying of the ancients that ‘the partial becomes complete’ was not vainly spoken:—all real completion is comprehended under it.

A positive attitude is built on two foundations; personality, which is external, and character, internal. Both require discipline for support, for an outgoing, seemingly positive man can quickly become a burden to others if he doesn’t have discipline to follow through with promises. While personality is an outward, obvious component of attitude, character – the description of internal traits – is a subtle expression felt by others, rather than seen. Someone with strong character possesses honesty, integrity and generosity; while weak character exhibits selfishness, dishonesty and irresponsibility.

Master Han was a martial arts teacher who excelled in aerial tactics and flexibility almost to the point of seeming to be double jointed. His classes were tough, but his instruction was always with care and respect for his students.

One of Han’s top students was a young man named Chang, who was simply amazing in the air and with his flexibility, but it hadn’t always been that way. When Chang began his training he was already very strong, so he believed that the martial arts would come very easily, but he had a very difficult time with a beginning stance when he first began his training. 

After class, he asked, “Master Han, I’m not sure I’m ever going to grasp this stance. It’s very painful and I feel unbalanced in it.”

Hard to earn, yet so easy to lose. That’s trust, and it’s the driving force behind instructor/student relationships.

Martial arts instruction is a close-quarter, high impact arena with powerful strikes interacting with both imaginary and real targets. Combine that with a black belt of high degree standing before you, imparting lessons in self-defense, and you can see why trust is so valuable in martial arts.

Anywhere else, this situation would sound perilous. Yet your instructor – who might even simulate the motives of an attacker – is there for your benefit and someone you respect and trust. Have you ever stopped to wonder what factors contributed to the trust you’ve awarded your instructor?

COURTESY and urbanity of manners have been noticed by every foreign tourist as a marked Japanese trait. Politeness is a poor virtue, if it is actuated only by a fear of offending good taste, whereas it should be the outward manifestation of a sympathetic regard for the feelings of others. It also implies a due regard for the fitness of things, therefore due respect to social positions; for these latter express no plutocratic distinctions, but were originally distinctions for actual merit.

In its highest form, politeness almost approaches love. We may reverently say, politeness “suffereth long, and is kind; envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh so not her own, is not easily provoked, taketh not account of evil.” Is it any wonder that Professor Dean, in speaking of the six elements of humanity, accords to politeness an exalted position, inasmuch as it is the ripest fruit of social intercourse?

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Health experts recommend keeping your intake of saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol as low as possible because these nutrients may increase your risk for heart disease. This is where the %DV on the Nutrition Facts Label can be helpful. There is no %DV for trans fat, but you can use the label to find out whether the saturated fat and cholesterol are high or low. When comparing products, look at the total amount of saturated fat plus trans fat to find the one lowest in both of these types of fat.

Many years ago, there were two young students named Icho and Hayo. They both began their martial arts training at a very young age. For the first several years, their training paralleled both in talent and skill level. At a certain point, Hayo began to fall behind. At first it was very subtle, but as time went on it became more and more obvious. While Icho continued to do well, Hayo was becoming frustrated with himself and as a result was falling even farther behind.

Perhaps no virtue is more essential to a life of happiness and fulfillment than courage. Without courage, an individual may struggle to approach new tasks with the focus and confidence required to succeed. With courage, at least one can be assured that firm ground rests beneath their feet and a strong back­bone is in place for support.

Stay Focused on the Big Picture by Harvey Mackay

A reader of this column sent me an email recently, thanking me for a column I had written on getting outside the box. She then told me how she had lost focus for a while, but had turned things around. She encouraged me to write a column on staying focused. I immediately thought of my varsity golfing days at the University of Minnesota many years ago. Back then, The Saint Paul Open was one of the top tournaments on the men’s professional golf circuit. Prior to the tournament, I had a chance to meet Gary Player when he was taking a lesson from our team coach, Les Bolstad. Later that evening I went to dinner with the world’s future #1 player when he was still an unknown.

The following day at The Saint Paul Open, I saw Gary after he teed off the first hole and ran up to him to say hi. I wanted to tell him what a great time I had the night before. His steely eyes remained focused on the fairway ahead and he never broke stride. “Harvey, please don’t talk to me. I must concentrate. I will see you when I’m finished.”

I remember how devastated I felt, but I learned a valuable lesson on focus. Many years later when he was world famous, my wife, Carol Ann, and I ran into Gary and his wife in South Africa. I reintroduced myself and reminded him of what happened on the golf course. Gary’s wife told me, “Don’t feel bad. He doesn’t even talk to me on the golf course.”

That’s the focus that it takes to do your best. If you have the ability to focus fully on the task at hand, and shut out everything else, you can accomplish amazing things.

Arnold Palmer, another golfing legend, recalled a tough lesson he learned about focus in Carol Mann’s book “The 19th Hole”:

“It was the final hole of the 1961 Masters tournament, and I had a one-stroke lead and had just hit a very satisfying tee shot. I felt I was in pretty good shape. As I approached my ball, I saw an old friend standing at the edge of the gallery. He motioned me over, stuck out his hand and said, “Congratulations.” I took his hand and shook it, but as soon as I did, I knew I had lost my focus. On my next two shots, I hit the ball into a sand trap, then put it over the edge of the green. I missed a putt and lost the Masters. You don’t forget a mistake like that; you just learn from it and become determined that you will never do that again.” Trust me, your friends will understand!

A response Babe Ruth once gave to a reporter sticks in my mind. “How is it,” the Babe was asked, “that you always come through in the clutch? How is it you can come up to bat in the bottom of the 9th, in a key game with the score tied, with thousands of fans screaming in the stadium, with millions listening on the radio, the entire game on the line and deliver the game winning hit?” His answer, “I don’t know. I just keep my eye on the ball.”

In other words... Focus.

How many times have you heard an athlete talk about focus? It’s a topic I also hear about frequently in business. The most common complaints?

Too many irons in the fire. Too many projects spinning at one time. Too many interruptions. Too many phone calls. Too many emails. Too many things to do. Too little time.

The late Peter Drucker, management consultant and author, observed, “When you have 186 objectives nothing gets done. I always ask, ‘What’s the one thing you want to do?’ In Mexico they call me Senor Una Cosa.” (translation: one thing)

Decide what’s most important. Make a list every day or every week and prioritize your activities. Scale back the amount of time you spend on meetings; they can be the biggest time-wasters of all. Learn to delegate, and make sure all members of your team follow through on assigned tasks.

Set aside a specific time of day to return phone calls and emails, and keep distractions to a minimum. In other words, set rules about how others use your time. And if you’re not the boss, work with your supervisor to make sure you agree on priorities.

Stay focused as best you can, and don’t let things happen to you - not when you can make things happen.

Mackay’s Moral: The person who is everywhere is nowhere.

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Over the last fifty years, there is probably no one person whose name is more recognizable or more prominent relative to the martial arts than Bruce Lee. When people think of Bruce Lee, they think of the martial arts and vice-versa. Looking past all of the powerful kicks and punches Lee performed, we find the true fuel of his achievements in a tremendous passion from his deep martial arts philosophy.

More than one book has been written about the habits of people who are effective. A notable trait in several of them is the premise of writing a short list each morning of things you want to accomplish. Assert to yourself that you will not begin the second thing until the first is done. Go on down the list in this fashion until each task is accomplished.

Naturally, you will have to balance between your personal life and things like your career, school, martial arts training, etc. Each of these things deserves their proper time in your life, but it is up to you to decide how much time is allotted to them. There will be some things in your life that may be more important but will require less time. Conversely, there will be other things that may be less important, but will require more time to do them properly.

The martial artist steps into the ring. A stack of concrete is supported sturdily before him; as he runs through a mock break, he focuses his energy. The crowd is silent, anticipating an extraordinary maneuver. Letting out a yell, the fighter strikes, and fragments fly in all directions, while spectators chant and shout in appreciation.

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The Great Master Tohei was renowned for his skills of self-defense.Although he was only five feet tall and one hundred and twenty pounds, he could easily defend himself against attackers that were twice his size. He welcomed all who doubted his skill and came to his school to challenge him, and he was never defeated.

Whereas, on the twentysecond day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, towit:

Confucius once said:

“There are three friendships which are advantageous, and three which are injurious.

Friendship with the uplight, friendship with the sincere, and friendship with the man of much observation – these are advantageous. Friendship with the man of specious airs, friendship with the insinuatingly soft, and friendship with the glib-tongued – these are injurious.”