Kung Fu
| https://youtu.be/QnfNaRagBL4 |
Hi, this is Bill Chan again with The 5 Elements of a Fulfilling Life at 5Element5.com
And tonight, I want to talk to you about Kung Fu.
Last time I mentioned that Kung Fu gave me the self-confidence to achieve many things in my life, academically and later in my workplace.
Today I want to take a deeper dive and reveal more of the other benefits that Kung Fu helps me in my life; one of the key learnings I received from Kung Fu is the art of patience.
Now a Kung Fu form like Tai Chi long form takes 45 minutes to do; it's 120 movements, so just learning that alone takes me six months, so after that, I have to practice day in and day out for years.
I've been at it for 20 years before it becomes second nature to you, and the more you practice, the better it becomes and the smoother as you perform your Arts.
But it takes time to develop, and when you see someone in a tournament or at the movies performing all those beautiful kicks and punches, and they're doing all those fancy forms, guess what? It took thousands of hours of Sweat and Tears before they reached that level.
So it's not easy, it's not an overnight thing, but it helps the students to learn anything worthwhile takes patience to develop, and your body takes time to advance and gets used to all these movements.
Now in a beautiful talk by Simon Sinek's Tedtalk, he mentioned that one of the problems with kids today is that they want instant gratification because of all that social media, all those digital games they grew up with; they don't have the patience to wait until they develop anything worthwhile.
Kids today wanted things to happen yesterday, and you can see this in the workplace with young people; from the minute they graduate from college, they enter the workplace, and after three to six months, they change jobs, and they keep doing this because they want something gratifying right away from the job.
When it doesn't happen, they jump to another job, and this becomes an endless cycle because, in life, they can't get that reward until they pay their dues; they need to develop skills as necessary to do their jobs well and then they can find that gratification, but if they're not willing to put that time in it's not going to happen, so they go to another job, and this could continue for a long, long time.
Now with Kung Fu, we know that it won't happen overnight; it takes time. However, we do see that every day as we practice, our body changes, and we develop new skills gradually, slowly, but it's coming, so in time, you could do any performance like a master as long as you're willing to put the time and effort in.
The other thing that Kung Fu teaches us is how to be focused in life; the minute we go into a dojo, a kung fu school, we meditate a short meditation, which gets us focused on the present moment. We can start doing our forums and punches, which helps us concentrate on what we're doing now.
Multitasking today, teenagers are trying to do so many things simultaneously, leading to unproductivity and unhappiness, which is why there's so much depression right now. Suicide among teenagers is the number two killer in America.
There are a lot of kids having issues psychologically; the other thing that Kung Fu does is it helps students to build Teamwork because if you ever see a lion dance, it takes at least three to four people working together; one on drums and the other on the lion head and another on lion tail, the last one on the gong, the person on the lion head and the lion tail have to work in perfect harmony with each other before they can put together that beautiful performance.
Then you see those Kung Fu form performances, and that takes lots of long hours working together before they can build that perfect coordination; you see everyone doing the same movements at the same time now that teaches children it takes time to do anything well and also not only teamwork but communication skills to network and socialize with each other and building friendships that last the rest of their lives.
Because we're exercising, Kung Fu is building our bodies; when we finish the exercise, we feel happy and have that sense of well-being.
It gives us confidence and hopes that we can attain any level we want if we're willing to put the time and effort in.
We work hard, and we can Master any skill; it also teaches hard work pays off, as Angela Duckworth mentioned in Grid; it is not your talent; it's how much passion you have in what you're doing and how much you're willing to put in Focus effort.
That's what Kung Fu is teaching you; beyond that is also working on the growth mindset because you know that you can improve no matter how good you are; you could be the best master in the world and still improve.
My Tai Chi instructor is one of the best in China, and he still works out after 30 years every day for three hours, at least in the park, working out in the rain or shine; he's out there.
It teaches you how to become humble, and you know that you can still improve so that a growth mindset can be transferred into anything you do.
So if you have kids, one of the best things you can do is put them in a Kung Fu school; it depends on how old you are. You could choose a different form of Kung Fu that will fit you too.
It helps you to develop all those competencies. Beyond that, you can make friends there. It's a great networking opportunity.
Now all those benefits you can achieve by working out in Kung Fu, besides all the physical benefits we mentioned last time, help you with all those chronic issues.
Most of your psychological issues, like depression, anxiety, and stress.
Stress ninety percent of all doctor visits are stress related, so if you can manage your stress, you don't need to visit doctors anymore; go for an annual checkup once a year.
There are so many benefits to working out in Kung Fu; I just want to be serious about this today with all the city violence; we need to learn how to protect ourselves by practicing kung fu.
Kung Fu is also a martial art. You can defend yourself, we're not here to harm anybody, but we are here to protect ourselves and our families, and Kung Fu is one of the best ways to go about it,
Learn how to protect yourself, your property, and your loved ones, and develop excellent health and confidence in whatever you do in life. Thank you!