Only YOU can answer this one.

What kind of shadow would appear if light could cast your true self on the wall?

Would you see a shadow of a 10 foot giant towering from your relatively small frame revealing your level of tenacity and determination showing everyone around you that, like Mark Twain once said:

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."

Would it reveal the true silhouette you wish you had, one of strength, health, and confidence?

or worse...

Would the shadow cast from a seemingly youthful man or woman that seems "together" physically and emotionally reveal them living on their knees when they should be experiencing life to the very fullest with no self-imposed limitations?

Maybe the shadow is unwavering, unflexible, unable to adapt, stuck in the past?

Someone else might see 2 shadows, the old you and the new you but fear is standing in your way, stopping you from implementing the necessary steps and habits to make the change "stick".

One's shadow might be drifting all over the place, jumping from one idea to the next, unable to see it through, to finish what you start.

What if there's no shadow?

Maybe you stand for nothing, maybe you haven't found your true self, maybe you're not contributing enough, maybe the vision you have for yourself isn't clear enough.

If you had to take one good hard look at your shadow, what would it reveal?

Only YOU can answer that one.

One thing I can do, is help you shape it though. I can cast some light on you (via these blog posts) but YOU have to stand up to see what shadow is cast by the light.

Start developing yourself from the inside out, start martial arts, or learn something new, find something of interest in our product section.

Master Yourself,

Sifu Martin

A good kick in the pants

Sometimes all we need is a good kick in the pants. If you're reading this off of my blog on the Fang Shen Do website, like the saying goes: "A picture is worth a thousand words"

Nothing is ever easy.

EVER.

No matter who you are.

If you're very lucky you have someone close to you who doesn't hold back and shakes your tree so to speak when you need it or the ideal situation is that YOU are able to kick your own butt to get yourself to take action.

I suspect there might be a pre-conceived idea that it's easier for me to get myself to train, read, learn, improve, and stay motivated.

If you think that, you're wrong.

I just learned and apply one thing: "In order to defeat procrastination you need to get in the habit of taking immediate action"

Don't wait. Don't think. Don't question.

Whatever it is you're after: fitness, martial art skill, confidence, success, peace, flexibility, or respect, you need to attack your goals.

Attack?

Yeah, ATTACK.

If you think of it in that term you'll be less willing to give up on your goals.

If you LAND your strikes, i.e: take action, follow through, act in spite of fear, take a chance, or stay consistent you're going to win.

If you TAKE a hit, i.e: procrastinate, quit, complain, lose focus, or miss the big picture all together you're gonna lose.

How ironic is it that the greatest opponent you'll ever face is YOURSELF.

The only difference is some fights last 5 to 12 rounds, this one will last you a life time.

Equip yourself with the right knowledge, the right training, the right information so you're ready for your fight.

I suggest you start here.

Master Yourself,

Sifu Martin

Missing piece of the Fitness Puzzle

Warm weather this weekend gave us a small preview of what's to come.

The spring brings a breath of fresh air, but more important than spring is that actual BREATH of fresh air!

In martial art training your breath really IS your power.

Everything you do in MA relates to your breath.

If you're breathing correctly it can help you stretch your body further during certain exercises.

Holding your breath can help stiffen your body to squeeze out a few extra seconds when holding a strength position.

Exhaling your breath when attempting any dynamic movement like punching, kicking, sprawling, tackling will add great power to your movement.

Concentrating on the vibration of your breath at the end of a class or a workout will get you in a very calm state in no time flat.

Visualizing your breath in movement and feeling it reach every cell of the body, in turn helping activate your lymph system, helping your body eliminate toxins, is very therapeutic.

Understanding breathing patterns will help you increase mental focus and alertness.

Recent studies show that engaging in proper forced breathing alone can help you lose weight.
And the list goes on.

Breathing is so easy and simple, you're doing it right now automatically without thinking about it but just letting your subconscious take care of the breathing for you isn't enough to yield the kind of results you're looking for.

Learning to force the breath in specific ways is an important key to getting faster results in your martial art training, any other physical activity or to simply increase your overall health.

The quickest way to learn how to use breathing is to first start by incorporating it with your stretching routines. Once that is in place everything else will be that much easier to acquire.

I can show you exactly what I mean here.

Master Yourself,

Sifu Martin

P.S. I'll be letting you know shortly how you can get involved in our 30 year anniversary celebrations. It all starts March 28 th.

It's Louse Time! Are you Dead or Alive?

If you're new to my list of focused, motivated, self- starters, Welcome.

(if you're not new jump right away to today's lesson below)

Every day I communicate to you the best ways to train and the kind of mindset it takes to get results either in your physical fitness or martial art training.

Friday is always what I call: "Louse Time". Modeled after Bruce Lee's strategy in Enter the Dragon.

You know that part where he's having tea with the government agent but he's disturbed by one of his students and Bruce Lee tells the agent: It's Louse Time! The agent replies with his British accent: "yes of course".

Since I'm 6 years old that scene has always stuck with me and I'll be using that same strategy with YOU every week.

Friday is where I share with you Life Lessons and Direction given to me by my dad (and Sifu) every Friday.

Today's lesson is: Are you Dead or Alive?

I try to be smooother in my approach in my other e-mails during the week but on Friday I feel like I can cut right to the chase. After all, it is Louse Time.

If you remember my original posts about the meaning of "louse time" it means to deliberately insult somebody's behavior and attitude.

Insult is a strong word, I would say the purpose of Louse Time is to shake your beliefs, get you to take action, break a bad habit, bring awareness to a disempowering behavior, or to force you to take massive action.

So I ask you the question again: Are you Dead or Alive?

As you might of noticed there are many dead people walking around among us.

Here's how I've been taught to categorize if someone is Dead:

-Someone who purposely stays in a dead end job, complacently stuck in a routine rut and doesn't create values.
-Someone who doesn't realize there is more to us than the physical chores of: eating, drinking, going to the bathroom, and sleeping.
-Someone who does not DO what they love, what they were born to do.
-Someone who doesn't read and continually educate himself/herself.
-Someone who allows external authorities to control their life, failing to make their own decisions.
-Someone who accepts mediocrity.
-Someone who fails to ask the question: "There has to be a better way" and misses the importance of making self-improvement a top priority.
-Someone who's too afraid of stepping out of their comfort zone.
-Someone who's given up on their childhood dream.

It all boils down to what kind of existence do you want?

Are you just going through the motions?

Are you continually postponing some of your dreams?

Be careful not to wait too long, waking up one day and saying: "I should of done this" and "I wish I could go back and do things differently".

No one should have to live with regret.

Choose to be Alive, take a chance and follow your heart.

Aim Higher,

Sifu Martin

P.S Without a doubt martial arts training can stir things up for you, get an edge, learn how to become a martial artist, here's a great book to get you started:

10 Secrets

48 hour extension

I've been getting alot of questions coming in asking if it was too late to order a DVD copy of the Shaolin Seminar we did a few weeks ago.


It's rare to have access to something like this and I understand it's easy to get side tracked. You maybe had the best of intentions to actually get it and then life happens and you forgot all about it.


I'll make the DVDs available for the next 48 hours. If you really want a copy for your private video library and you want to own a little piece of Shaolin Memorabilia, now would be a good time to order them.


Shaolin DVD


Master Yourself,


Sifu Martin

P.S. Tune in tomorrow for my weekly: "Louse Time", where I share with you life lessons and advice given to me by my Sifu and mentor.

The Body serves the Mind

A picture of Raf, my Neigong instructor, at a recent seminar held at our private training pagoda.

The old masters believed that: "External Martial Art Training without the Internal Development was a waste of time".

Interesting point.

Even believing if you had great physical skill you would quickly hit a plateau in your development, even hitting a point of stagnation.

The wise practitioner who would merge both, external and internal training would benefit from unlimited progression and a constant expansion of skill.

I'm all for that.

I'm one to believe you should put all the chances on your side to win.

Winning for you might be to get in the best possible shape.

Winning could also possibly mean you feel totally confident you could defend yourself when you walk down the street at night.

Winning for someone who's never finished what they started might mean finally following through on the goals they've set for themselves.

For others Winning might mean to be proficient in their martial art expression.

"Martial Art Expression" you might ask?

Yes.

Whenever you practice martial arts you reveal a part of yourself to yourself or to your partner.

You reveal bits and pieces of your character.

If you pay attention close enough you can actually learn from every training session.

That's what I like about my Neigong Training.

When you listen, you hear some of your internal dialogue, sometimes you're distracted by something that's bothering you which makes you lose your count, or you get to see how you react to a little bit of uncomfortable muscle pain.

That's where you see who's in charge?

Your body or your mind?

I like to believe the mind controls the body. The mind will tell the body what to do and the body will be a good servant and follow the orders.

But for many that is not how it works, it's the complete opposite. Once the body shows the slightest sign of weakness or soreness the mind gives in and offers a... Break.

Remember: "The body serves the mind" and not the other way around.

Well, at least that's how it's supposed to be.

This is one of the biggest benefits I've gained from the Neigong Training.

I'm able to hold and squeeze my body through difficult postures and positions, as well as repeat any number of reps I ask of it in various exercises without giving in to my "lazy" body.

If you wish to feel what I feel when sharing the above experiences with you, and if you want to master your body and mind, I seriously think you should join me in my Neigong Training.

If you're just starting out here's where you can take the perfect first step:

Begin Neigong Training

Master Yourself,

Sifu Martin

If they can't have it, then neither can you?

Every one of us is reaching for success in at least one area of our life.

Right?

And if you're like me and my family you're aiming for excellence in all areas of your life.

How do you feel when you see someone close to you make the climb up the ladder of success?

Happiness or Envy?

This reminds me of the Crab bucket story. You know this story?

If you don't, listen up. If you do, best to hear it again to make sure it sinks in.

A son and father are walking down the beach when the son sees a fisherman close to the boardwalk selling some of the day's catch.

The son sees a crab bucket next to the man and it doesn't have a lid on it. The son turns to his dad and asks why the crabs were not able to escape.

The father said, "If there was only one crab in the bucket it would certainly escape. However, when there is more than one crab in the bucket, if one tries to crawl out, the other crabs would grab hold and pull it back down so that it would share the same fate as the rest of them."

"You must ignore the crabs if you want to be a success in life."

This is true with people. If you attempt to better yourself, other people might attempt to drag you back down to share their fate.

Do you know crab people? Have you attempted to better yourself only to have family and friends to discourage you?

Surprisingly, in our line of work, even some competing martial art school owners engage in this kind of crab behavior. You would think that this thinking would be non existent in the martial art industry.

We are supposed to work together in a common goal of helping people reach their goals through the wonders of martial art training. Still, some would prefer to try to tarnish our image or attempt to destroy what we've spent the past 30 years building just because they might be less successful than we are or because we don't hold the same credentials as they do, maybe even just because we practice a different style all together.

The crab schools can stay together in the bucket. We made it out of there a long time ago.

You might share the same experience in your life. Some people around you might have the mentality that: "If they can't have it, then neither can you"

You can be slim, toned, strong, confident and happy.

You can be the most successful person in your field.

You can be in a relationship, madly in love and enjoying every minute of it.

You can have the nicest house on the block.

Aim for excellence in all areas of your life and watch out for the crab syndrome, it's contagious.

If you're on my list I'm gathering you're an independent self-starter, motivated and ready to jump out of the bucket?

Let me warn you, you must be physically fit to do so. Those crabs are clingy little suckers.

Let me suggest you start with our Basic Fitness System to get you started on your ascension.

Master Yourself,

Sifu Martin