WEEKLY COACHING TIP #135

A MESSAGE FROM BRUCE LEE

I have to tell you I AM INSPIRED!  Why?  Because I watched a film last night called “The Life of Bruce Lee”.  I don’t think there’s many people who haven’t heard of him through the Kung Fu films although, officially, his form of martial arts was called Jeet Kune Do

It hasn’t inspired me to want to take up this form of martial arts (even though I have indulged in a few fantasies seeing myself as the female Bruce Lee).  What it has done though, is re-inforce, once again, the absolute need for focus, if we are to achieve certain goals in our life and to face the fears straight on.

Bruce Lee’s life was quite extraordinary for many reasons, not least of which, was overcoming racial prejudice and a serious back injury, that left him paralysed (the doctors said he would never practice martial arts again). After a year of rehabilitation during which he wrote a book, he went on to make international movies, in which he did all his own extraordinary stunts and start a school for Jeet Kune Do.

I was so mesmerised by this man’s focus and self belief that I looked up some information on him.  Today I want to share with you some of his personal quotes.  Some of his philosophies are very enlightened as you would expect from a master of any kind. Even though he is talking about martial arts they apply to many areas of life. Read them and see which ones resonate the most with you.

1. “Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own”.
2. “Knowing is not enough; we must apply.  Willing is not enough, we must do”.
3. “Simplicity is the last step of art”.
4. “A good teacher is never a giver of truth – he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself.  A good teacher is merely a catalyst.”
5. “Empty your mind.  Become formless and shapeless like water. When water is poured into a cup, it becomes the cup. When water is poured into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Be water, my friend.”
6. To know oneself is to study oneself in action another person. If you want to understand the truth in martial arts, to see any opponent clearly, you must throw away the notion of styles or schools, prejudices, likes and dislikes, and so forth. Then, your mind will cease all conflict and come to rest. In this silence, you will see totally and freshly.”
7. “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
8. “The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.”
9. “Don’t think, feel! It is like a finger pointing away to the moon.  Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.”
10. “A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.”
11. “I don’t believe in different ways of fighting now, I mean, unless human beings have 3 arms and 3 legs. Then we will have a different way of fighting.  But basically we all have two arms and two legs so that is why I believe there should be only one way of fighting and that is no way”.

My 2 particular favourites are number 5 and number 9.  Number 5 is an eastern philosophy which is something many of us strive for.  Whenever we have moments of being able to empty our minds, (and they usually are moments in my case) everything becomes fantastically clear and peaceful.  Many sports people, when they are in ‘the zone’, say that the game they were playing was so easy and wonderful it felt as if the game were being played ‘through’ them.

Number 9 is something I use more and more in my own life and with clients.  If you work from feelings everything seems to become aligned much faster.  The only trouble is we are so used to working from a conscious place that we’ve lost trust in our feelings. 

I find it quite amusing that I watched this film this weekend, as all week I’ve been doing an exercise to become more focused on my feelings in my body at random times throughout the day. What amazed me was how much tension and anxiety I was carrying around with me (and it hasn’t even been a stressful week!)

This week you may want to try to re-connect with your feelings and work from that place:

1. Write ‘scan my body’ reminders on Post-it and put them in your kitchen/bathroom (you can even set one on your computer)
2. Every time you come across it (e.g. every 15 minutes):
   1. Stop what you are doing
   2. Scan your body and notice what is going on inside
   3. If it’s not a comfortable feeling like love, then it’s some kind of fear, and that’s all right.
   4. Acknowledge the feeling, look at it straight in the face; this in itself takes some of the power away from those fearful feelings.
   5. Begin to observe the feeling and let it go, don’t force it, just consciously let go and decide how you’d like to feel.

When you do this you are becoming much more intuitive because prana/chi can flow through you without blockages and you get accustomed to listening to your body not you mind, this really accelerates your intuition.  Another spin off is it’s so much healthier for you.

I really believe more and more coaches in the future will be working in this manner. Once you ‘get it’, it becomes so blindingly obvious and the results speak for themselves.

Until next week Onwards and Upwards!

© 2005 INSPIRIT & Denise Bosque All Rights Reserved