The Magic Bullet?

For the last few weeks I have been obsessed with watching sailing videos.  Not sure why as I have never sailed before but something has caught my interest.  Now is the time to laugh as I also find the absolute irony and humour that a land locked Albertan who has no sailing experience has become obsessed with sailing. One video talked about assessing a boat and how if you see one thing wrong, you keep tracing it back to find the real reason for the problem or root cause.  For example, you could clearly see an issue with the propeller, tracing that back further they could see where the drive shaft (if that's the correct terminology) was rubbing on the boat, tracing that back further they found that the motor had lost some of its bolts to secure it.  You could stop there but when they traced that back further, it was because the wood the motor sat on was rotting due to leak not properly patched.  So how does this relate to our everyday life?

These last few days my shoulder has been sorer than usual.  This is a very frustrating feeling and it makes me wonder why now?  What has aggravated more than usual?  What did I do and how long will it take to recover?  But instead of looking for the specific activity that caused this, I need to look deeper to find the root cause.  If I look at my recent activities, I could stop there but if I go back deeper, its because I haven't been doing my physio exercises to build those muscles back up.  Why did I stop doing them?  Maybe that is the real root cause.  I just need to keep digging and in the meantime pick up my physio bands and start doing the exercises while I wonder why I stopped them in the first place.

Root cause analysis and accountability are two things that I pride myself in at work but if I look at my KungFu training, those are two areas that I need to work harder at.  What I have found is that it is much easier to do these when you are on the outside looking in, but when you are personally involved it is harder to be objective and disciplined.  It is easier to try to find the quick fix, the smoother path, the magic bullet.  We live in a society where we want the magic bullet or instant gratification.  KungFu is teaching me that it really is just hard work that will carry me forward in all aspects of my life and that there is no magic bullet.

See you on the mats!