Vision vs. goals

Don’t you find it funny when armchair philosophers espouse some idea beginning with, “ There are two kinds of people in the world…”

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Well, here goes… There are two kinds of people in the world – goals people and vision people. Some very successful people simply do not get into the whole goal-setting thing and for this type of person, the SMART methodology seems unnecessary or alien. There are a couple of problems with this goals-vision dichotomy. First, it can be tough to figure out which group you are in. Sometimes we think we are one way when that is just how we would like to be – how we think the “right” people think. Also, no one person fits wholly into either group. Each of us is a unique blend of goal-oriented and vision-seeking.

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With that disclaimer in mind, you might find it useful to try both methods to see which one you get the most mileage out of. For years now, it has been considered good business practice to devote some time and energy to creating both vision (real vision – not just a vision statement) and goals.

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Paraphrasing one of the vision gurus from the business re-engineering literature, Peter Senge, a vision is some idea of the future that you absolutely, literally cannot live without. Senge’s idea is that if you can create a vivid enough picture of a future that you can’t live without, then hold that vision up beside current reality, the tension or dissonance between the two will naturally and subconsciously drive you to do whatever it takes to bring current reality closer to the vision. The difficulty here is in holding the vision constant without allowing cognitive dissonance to erode the ideal.

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Visions share some of the characteristics of a SMART goal, but are different in other ways.

• Vision should be specific, or vivid. The more vivid you can make your vision the more you will be drawn toward it. What does the ideal future look/sound/smell/taste/feel like?
• Vision is often more subjective, while goals should be objectively measurable. Visions do not have to be measurable as long as you can subjectively or qualitatively tell the difference between current reality and your vision of the ideal.
• Vision can be farther from current reality than SMART goals and the nature of vision makes more distant realities attainable. Even if you cannot pre-plan a way to progress in a stepwise, orderly fashion toward a distant goal, so long as you can envision it, you can move yourself toward it.
• Vision is usually open-ended instead of time-bound. In fact, you want to set your vision so far beyond your most distant reasonable SMART goals that you will never actually get there.

And that’s really the secret to vision – the closer you come to it, the less the cognitive tension driving you to improve. You want to lasso yourself to such a distant ideal that you will always have tension pulling you toward the ideal.
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Don't forget the Call for Submissions for Carnival #5. The theme for this month is related to non-violent resolution of conflict.

"What just happened to me" aikido

Kid's judo with Gavin, Whit, Mason, Knox, and Emma

• ROM, warmup, ukemi
• skipping alternated with a spotter flipping the kids from their knees into a side breakfall
• Crawfishing out of the Referee's position
• osotogari into kesagatame
• a randori-ish exercise where partners move around in a standard grip and any time they turn their side to tori they get osoto gari'd

Aikido with Kel

• Tegatana emphasizing putting feet under center instead of center over feet.
• Hanasu emphasizing getting the releasing feeling, or as Kel calls it, the "what the hell just happened to me?" feeling.
• Standing kokyudosa as a way to start teaching randori.
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Don't forget the Call for Submissions for Carnival #5. The theme for this month is related to non-violent resolution of conflict.

Tai chi for effect

Now this is interesting. This goes back to Formosa Neijia discussion of the reality of the no-touch energy effects which I commented on here. It also goes back to my Tai chi question from a few months ago about the hopping backward thing. This guy is getting much better effect (from what I can tell) than the magical dude in Dave's videos. This type of motion from uke is more like what I would figure involuntary motion would look like. It even resembles to a great degree the aikido offbalances I'm used to seeing - stuff I know you can't reproduce with strength. In fact, you can't even reproduce this quality of motion with a compliant, jumpy partner.

SMART failure

So, we've been talking about SMART goals. What do we do about goals that you fail to make?

Failing to make a goal is frustrating and can be discouraging but having a strategy to deal with setbacks gives hope. If you have a strategy then you have a systematic way of making your situation better. What if we use the SMART goal, itself, as a strategy for dealing with set-backs.

When you miss your goal, try to figure out if your original goal was lacking in one or more of the SMART goal qualities.

• Could your goal have been more specific? Did you get into trouble because you didn’t define what you wanted to do specifically enough? Did you have trouble staying motivated because the goal was someone else’s and not yours?
• Was your goal measurable? If not then there’s no way to know if you made it or not. Pick some variable that you want to change and operationalize it – that is, write down how you plan to increase or decrease the variable (how you will operate on it) and how you will measure it.
• Was your goal challenging-but-attainable or was it simply too large a leap?
• Was your goal based in reality or in fantasy?
• Was your goal properly time-bound? If your goal was too long-term then you might try setting goals to make smaller changes in your operational variable over a shorter time period. If your goal was open-ended then go ahead and set yourself a finish line in time.

Re-set a SMARTer goal, and go again!
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Don't forget the Call for Submissions for Carnival #5. The theme for this month is related to non-violent resolution of conflict.

Time-bound goals

The final criteria for a SMART goal is to make your goals time-bound. It does no good to make a goal that you can easily procrastinate on. With an open-ended goal you can always tell yourself, “I just haven’t accomplished that goal... yet...” and ‘yet’ can stretch on forever.
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Not only should you set a time limit to accomplish your goal, but it may help to periodize your goal. That is, divide it into shorter-term goals. So, if your goal is to improve your diet and increase your fitness in order to drop 30 pounds in a year, then you might set a short-term goal of specific dietary changes to make during the first three months, followed by specific workout changes to make in the second three months, and so on…
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So, remember, when setting goals, try to make them Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound. That’s the SMART thing to do

Missed class

Hey, Mokuren Dojo aikido folks,

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I'm sorry if I missed y'all at class tonight. I had an oral surgery this afternoon and what I thought would be a 45 minute in-and-out became a 90 minute ordeal followed by a prolonged trip to WalMart to get the prescriptions filled. I actually feel fine (though still numb) and would have been up for class, but we just ran out of time.

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We texted Kel and Rob to call off class but we didn't have Patrick M's or Jill's number in the phone that we had with us, so I hope y'all didn't trek out to Magnolia for nothing.

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Hope to see y'all Thursday.

Realistic goals

In general, the advice to make realistic goals means you have to base your goals in reality instead of in fantasy - to work in probabilities instead of possibilities.
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Specifically, it means to make goals that are actually within your control. Things that you have the ability and leverage to change. For instance, if I make the goal to “win my next judo tournament,” then this is not a SMART goal because it is not realistic. I am not the only one that makes the final decision as to whether or not I am the winner of the next tournament. My opponents have a say, the referees have a say, and fate/chance/Providence has a say in it. I simply don’t have the leverage to make that a realistic expectation.
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On the other hand, If I identify uchimata as a weakness of mine that had something to do with me losing the last tournament, then I can do everything in my power to improve my uchimata and hope that that improvement carries over into the next tournament. My performance on a specific thing is something I can control to a great degree.
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SMART, realistic goals are ones that you are in control of.

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Don't forget the Call for Submissions for Carnival #5. The theme for this month is related to non-violent resolution of conflict.

Exclusive Interview: Ed Saenz

8th Degree Black Belt Ed Saenz got his start in martial arts in 1967 as a student of Chuck Norris. Mr. Saenz has spent his entire professional life in the martial arts and fitness business. In his current position as Directior of Operations for Mr. Norris’ KICKSTART program, Mr. Saenz is responsible for instructors, school operations and program development, overseeing more than 6,000 students and more than 40 black belt instructors in 38 programs in 34 middle schools, one high school and one elementary school in the Houston and Dallas areas. Mr. Saenz ability to translate the vision of KICKSTART into real terms is proven by the success of the program. He is a true example of the tenets of the martial arts and the commitment of those involved with KICKSTART.

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Patrick Parker: I was familiar with Chuck Norris’ ‘Kick Drugs’ school programs from years ago. Could you tell us a little bit about the newer KICKSTART program?
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Ed Saenz: I’ll start by telling you what Mr. Norris has to say in our web site on what KickStart the program is, what the mission and goals are and how the martial arts can accomplish this. The overall mission of KICKSTART is to change and save children’s lives. Resiliency is enhanced through the values and philosophies taught through the Martial Arts. Specific goals of the program are to encourage students to resolve conflict productively, avoid participating in gangs, choose drug-free lifestyles, and remain in high school until they graduate. Martial Arts training serve simply as the vehicle to instill the values and skills necessary to combat the drug and gang-related peer pressures. The core philosophy of Martial Arts stresses the vital importance of a healthy mind and body necessary to lead a productive life. The KICKSTART karate program replaces many missing elements of our students' lives including offering a role model, a figure of authority, a chance to set and reach goals, physical and mental conditioning and very importantly, a feeling of hope for the future and belief in themselves.

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Houston and Galveston Independent School District studies show that drug and gang related peer pressure is the worst on the sixth grade level. The goal is to instill protective factors in these children, so that they will have the resiliency to combat these pressures. From Chuck Norris’ vast experience working with children through the Martial Arts, he is confident this program provides the necessary tools for these children.

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On August 16, 1990, the Kick Drugs Out of America Foundation was formed in Washington, D.C. The Foundation received its 501(C)(3) status on March 1, 1991. The headquarters for the Foundation is located in Houston, Texas and also maintains an office in Dallas. Currently, the Foundation has a national board with Chuck Norris serving as Chairman, Houston and Dallas Advisory Boards, an Executive Director, a Director of Operations, two Community and School Relations individuals, a Business Manager and over forty Black Belt instructors. Funding permitting, the Foundation will be expanding on a continual basis. Beginning in 2003, in order to widen the focus of the anti-drugs aspect of the program, and to better represent the core values and philosophy of encouraging every child to lead a productive and healthy life, the Board decided to change the working name of Kick Drugs Out Of America to KICKSTART. The Foundation still maintains its official name as Kick Drugs Out of America Foundation, but now it has added a "dba" (doing business as) KICKSTART.
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Patrick Parker: Some of my readers have told me that you were the most amazing martial artist that they’d ever gotten to personally work with. What do you think are your particular strengths as a martial artist and as a teacher of martial arts?
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Ed Saenz: My experience and association with many respected martial artists such as Chuck Norris Howard Jackson, Pat Johnson, and John Natividad have allowed me to gain tremendous strength in both the knowledge and practice of the martial arts. I started in 1967 when I was 12 years old under a black belt named John Robertson, who was one of Chuck Norris’ earliest students. The experience of having Chuck Norris’ as my mentor has given me exposure to some of the best martial artist in the world and therefore allowed me to gain invaluable strength. In teaching the principals of the martial arts, I teach that a quality technique contains six components.

• Posture
• Lines of power
• Methods of generating Power
• Footwork
• Timing
• Focus

Using these six components I can identify to a student more clearly what is happening when a technique is being executed. It also allows me to layer a movement. This gives the student more control of his body when he is executing the technique. Instructors often tend to use the “Do it like this” method to teach. I feel that this method is not always teaching karate as much as showing karate. A student can be overwhelmed with all that is happening and not understand all that he needs to do and the timing of how it needs to be done.
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Patrick Parker: What aspects of the martial arts (i.e. physical fitness, self-defense, self-improvement, competition, etc…) do you think you emphasize the most in your teaching?
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Ed Saenz: I feel that physical fitness, self-improvement, self defense and competition are all equally important. I feel a Martial Artist should always be working on his physical, mental, and spiritual development. I feel that it is important to concentrate on three areas of practice: the art, the self-defense and the sport. In my opinion the three need to be kept in balance. I have found that when these three are out of balance you become too much of a martial art sport athlete, aggressive and disrespectful, or you have an unrealistic opinion of your skills and abilities. Keeping the three areas of practice in balance, gives a person more respect for others and the inner-strength to always be improving and staying on the path of being a true martial artist.
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Patrick Parker: What was your first experience with martial arts that got you on this path?
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Ed Saenz: My Dad saying to me and my brother, that he just enrolled the three of us in karate. I joke with everyone now that when I first started karate, I didn’t know I was allowed to quit, when your whole family is doing it with you. (Even though, I was the only one who went on to become a black belt)
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Patrick Parker: What do you think most interests your students and keeps them coming to class?
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Ed Saenz: Though my methods of teaching the martial arts, as I described above, they can actually do karate and though executing the martial arts they can be empowered to doing anything. It’s the empowerment of the martial arts that keeps students coming back.
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Patrick Parker: Your involvement with KickStart appears to be a great example of a remarkably successful children’s program on a local (Houston and Dallas) scale. What do you think has to happen to have a successful local grassroots children's program?
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Ed Saenz: A successful program is one that meets the needs of both the parent and child. “Most” parents are not interested in having the toughest or strongest child, but are interested in ensuring their children are provided with the best education and discipline in order for their child to someday become a strong and confident adult. They want a good and safe program that supplements their personal values and goals for their child’s life. Parents want a program that will build a “winners attitude” for life, not just for sport.
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What most children want is a program that is both fun and safe, safe both physically and emotionally. Where it is just as safe to fail, as it is to succeed, where the compliments and encouragement is real not just rah, rah or worst of all hurtful. Children’s programs should have a structured method of teaching to develop the skills necessary to execute correct movements and techniques. Everyone should have the same opportunities to feel the empowerment of being successful at doing martial arts, not just the physically talented and gifted. There also needs to be additional programs, where if the child is physically talented they will still have challenges and not get bored and disappointed with their instructor and fellow students. A school needs to have children’s classes set up by levels (Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced classes) so that material can be layered and your intensity expectations can be taught to each level of maturity. Most of all children want instructors who are fun and exciting, who care about them, and who are proud of each and every one of their students.
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Patrick Parker: How have the martial arts with which you’ve been involved changed over the course of your involvement?
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Ed Saenz: When I started martial arts back in the sixties, there weren’t that many schools like there are now. Now there seems to be one on every corner and a person can get involved with just about any type or style of combat art you can think of. Because of that, schools are becoming more diverse in what they are teaching. This isn’t really anything new; it’s just that during the seventies, eighties and nineties sport karate was so popular that a lot of martial art school taught only a sport style of their martial art, now with the MMA being so popular everyone is returning to the cross training of the martial arts again.
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Patrick Parker: Mr. Norris in his autobiographies talks about doing judo when he was younger and working out in some Brazilian Jiujitsu later on. Have you gotten much chance to cross-train in different martial arts? How important do you think it is to cross-train.
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Ed Saenz: At Mr. Norris’ yearly convention for his martial art of Chun Kuk Do we are always bringing in the top martial artist of the world to present their styles and concepts. In years pass we have had Gene LeBell, Carlos Machado, Frank Shamrock, Fumio Demura, Wally Jay, Richard Norton, Neil Adams and Geoff Thompson to name just a few. We have also brought in David Meyers and John Wills to set up a curriculum up to the blue belt rank in the art of Machado Jiu-jitsu. So as you can see, Mr. Norris and all his instructors and students, definitely believe in the need to cross-train in all the difference skills for self-defense and combat. Mr. Norris style of Chun Kuk Do means The Universal Way.
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Patrick Parker: What does the future of these particular martial arts look like to you?
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Ed Saenz: In my opinion everything goes in cycles; self-defense, sports and self-improvement. I believe schools that teach being a martial artist will always be around and will always be sought after, as compared to those who teach doing martial arts. I feel that these schools tend to come and go with the latest trend or sport.
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Patrick Parker: Over the course of your career in martial arts, who were the 1-2 most amazing martial artists that you ever got to personally work with? What made them so great?
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Ed Saenz: The most amazing martial artist I have ever personally worked with is Chuck Norris. First, as a competitor he was the best of his era. Second, as a teacher, he always stayed a student of the martial arts and what he learned he shared. Third, as a person, he is a very giving and caring person. He is one of a few martial art champions who probably have given back just as much to the martial arts community as he has received.
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Ed, I have thoroughly enjoyed talking with you today. Your great attitude and obvious commitment to using martial arts to help kids is inspirational. You have given us all a great gift in this interview. Thank you.

Naked choke

After posting on jigokujime (the hell strangle) and after Steve posted koshijime (hipchoke or clock choke), I figured I'd go back and pick up hadakajime (the naked choke). This is a pretty decent video of the basic forms of the thing. I figured Steve would enjoy the last variation shown on this vid.

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Don't forget the Call for Submissions for Carnival #5. The theme for this month is related to non-violent resolution of conflict.

Attainable goals

We've all heard the stories about folks paralyzed in accidents who, despite all odds, regained use of their legs.

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Well, I knew a guy several years ago that got his neck broken in a street fight. His legs and lower abs were paralyzed but he retained use of his arms, lungs, and upper abs. He was remarkably lucky to have that sort of function. His therapists set goals for him to strengthen his arms, shoulders, back, and abs, to improve bed mobility and independent transfers to and from from his wheelchair, and to be able to drive his manual wheel chair himself. Those were his therapists' goals for him but his personal goal was to walk again. He didn't care that the doctors told him he could never walk again. He didn't focus on the positive things that he still had going for him. He was fixated on walking.

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One day he came into the clinic and told his therapist, "Look Doc, I can move my legs!" The therapists watched, incredulous but interested, as he sat on a mat table and, using his hand he picked up his leg and dropped it and it bounced several times and quivered. His therapists had to tell him, "Sorry, what you just saw was a muscle reflex caused by stretching your leg muscles suddenly." He wouldn't hear it. He was sure that since he could induce some reflex motion in that leg, then he could relearn to walk. "Sorry," the therapists had to tell him again. "But there is no communication going on between your legs and your brain. You cannot re-teach your brain to control your legs when the wiring between them is destroyed."

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This guy never did very good on the goals that the therapists had set for him because he was focused on an un-attainable goal. His therapists, being pros, had set him realistic, attainable goals but he mostly wasted his time in rehab half-heartedly doing the exercises and fantasizing about walking. He would have done just as much good setting a goal to grow wings and learn to fly.

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When you are setting goals, you want to make sure your goals are attainable. Sure, you don't want to settle for mediocrity, but you also don't want to set goals that are simply impossible to fulfil because that is a waste of your time and a recipe for frustration and disapointment. So, aim high, but don't bet on a miracle.

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Don't forget the Call for Submissions for Carnival #5. The theme for this month is related to non-violent resolution of conflict.

Measurable operational goals

The second part of the SMART acronym for good goalmaking is Measurable. Your objective should be objectively measurable or else you will never know if reach your goal or not. If your goal is tied to a subjective measure you still won't know if you reach your goal or not. For instance, if your goal is to "get better" then your feeling of advancement will subjectively vary from day to day or even hour-to-hour. A better goal would be, "I will compete in two tournaments in 2008." This way, at the end of 2008 you will be able to absolutely figure out if you did or didn't achieve the goal.
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Some people call this an operational variable. That is, you define something you want to change (a variable) in terms of the operations that can be made upon that variable. Operations that you can make on a variable basically include increasing it, decreasing it, and measuring it. So, it is a good idea when you are setting up a goal (to change some variable), give some thought as to how you will try to change that variable and how you will measure the change in that variable.
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In the end, this piece of advice from the business world applies:
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"If you can't measure it, you can't control it."

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Don't forget the Call for Submissions for Carnival #5. The theme for this month is related to non-violent resolution of conflict.

Making specific goals helps you 'know thyself'

I wrote about SMART goals a while back. Good goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound. What does it mean for a goal to be specific? It does not simply mean precisely stated and detailed, but it also means that the goal must be specific to you and your motivations – not someone else’s goal.

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Ask yourself, “Why do I want to achieve this?”

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Then ask yourself, “Why does that matter to me?”

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Then ask yourself, “So what?”

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Keep asking “why” or “so what,” drilling down into your motivations for your goals. When you get to the point that you can’t answer “why” or “so what” anymore because you just stammer around and can only come up with something like, “well… just because…” you have dug as deep as possible into your motivations. You are working at the level of worldview or presuppositions about how the world works. To know thy presuppositions is to know thyself. Take the following dialog as an example...

Socrates: What do you want to accomplish this year, dear friend Ursus?

Ursus: I want to get better at judo.

Socrates: What do you mean, “better?”

Ursus: Well, I want to get better at newaza.

Socrates: Why?

Ursus: Because Rhadi told me that more and more judo guys are studying BJJ to get better ground game.

Socrates: So what?

Ursus: So I want to be able to use Rhadi’s strategies that he taught me to take matches to the ground and win.

Socrates: Why?

Ursus: Because I want to win.

Socrates: Why?

Ursus: Because that makes me the best.

Socrates: So what?

Ursus: So I want to be a winner.

Socrates: Why?

Ursus: Well… because... I just like to win. I think it's fun.

Socrates: Well, it sounds like you know yourself, Ursus. You know, some Chinese guy I met at a philosophy convention told me “know thyself and know thy enemy and you won’t be defeated in a thousand battles,” or something like that…

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Don't forget the Call for Submissions for Carnival #5. The theme for this month is related to non-violent resolution of conflict.

Crazy world

It's a crazy world. Ronda Rousey, one of our US Olympic hopefuls, was attacked by 8 people at a theater a couple of days ago. She managed to defend herself and extract herself and her friends from the situation without even using her superhuman judo skills... and now one of her assailants is threatening to try to ruin her career over this fight. Good grief!

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You know, there's really a pretty good lesson or two buried in here and related to fighting vs. de-escalation. A pretty good discussion of this is in the makings in the comments below and for further reading, check out...

• http://www.mokurendojo.com/2007/05/boys-will-be-boys.html
• http://aikithoughts.wordpress.com/2007/12/06/martial-arts-and-bullying/
• http://formosaneijia.com/2008/review-aikido-in-everyday-life/
• http://www.mokurendojo.com/2006/07/resistant-uke.html
• http://soyouwanttostartaikido.blogspot.com/2007/12/chapter-27-aarrgh-i-hate-it-when-my.html

Don't forget the Call for Submissions for Carnival #5. The theme for this month is also related to non-violent resolution of conflict.

Performance enhancing drugs

Just a quick thought that I had recently. A hint to competitors out there considering steroid use, blood doping, ergogenic drugs, etc...
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People don’t want to see a contest of whose drug is better – otherwise there would be a pharmacokinetics section in the newspaper instead of a sports section. People want to see endurance and the possibility of an underdog doing something phenomenal in the face of adversity. That is what sport is all about anyway.
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So, if you don’t think you will stand a chance without using steroids because everybody else seems to be doing it, don’t bother. If you have to resort to doping to even the odds then you’ll be an even bigger loser no matter the outcome of the match.

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Don't forget the Call for Submissions for Carnival #5.