New Year Focus - Making the Obstacle the Way.

Let’s try this… New Year New Me… Done to death and seldom works.

Not for lack of motivation in the beginning, but for lack of discipline to follow through.

My Sensei used to talk about having the focus and will to see something through to the end.

Seeing the cut of the sword through, the punch passed the target, the job finished.

It is a lot harder than it seems.

In life we encounter many different variables that seem, at first glance, to be aligned against us, to ensure we do not succeed in completing what we set out to do.

Our perspective seems to zero in on this ‘me versus whatever is in my way.’

We view these things as Obstacles… We set the stage for our own downfall.

We are the obstacle to our own betterment, to the very completion of each task.

We also lose sight of the target, the goal in the process and, subsequently we may even start to perform at a sub par level, never seeking to perform at higher levels of quality.

The Budoka might only see a black belt around their opponent’s waiste and, if they are a Brown Belt, they become fixated and end up fighting the Belt rather than the person.

A person might be tired after hours of working out, or just plain work, they become fixated on their exhausted state, they allow it to dominate them and, thus, fail to perform even at sub par levels, never mind attempting to remain consistent or shoot for a higher bar.

A parent might come home after a long day at work and flip on the TV hoping to relax and become frustrated when things do not go their way… They lash out to try to make the external world conform because of their fixation, they have allowed their mind and being to be dominated.

We have the power within us to turn things around.

We can choose how to respond, we can choose to dominate rather than be dominated in whatever we face… We can choose to be disciplined and see things through to the end.

Easier said than done, yes, but all things that have actual worth are difficult to attain, once attained we become more than we were before.

We just have to decide to step up rather than step aside.

To be present. To have faith and focus. To know what drives us and what we are shooting for.

Furthermore… We have to realize the end is not automatic, we actually have to take those steps, to walk that path, to be consistent.

Ryan Holiday wrote a book based on something Marcus Aurelius said… The Obstacle is the Way.

We have to make the Obstacle the Way, like lifting weights, adding more and more, yet becoming stronger because we flip the script and work it.

Every Day, new me… It has nothing to do with a specific date.