“Don’t seek for a balanced life. Seek for a balanced day. (over and over again).” As we are now a couple weeks into 2022, I have been contemplating meaningful and purposeful areas for improvement. I have decided to strive for more balance across my time & energy allocations and output relative to family, work/career, mental […]
Happy New Year, everybody. First month of black belt challenge is over, just another 12 more to go. As for my personal goal I decided to go back to university and do some further education. I signed up at the University of Denver to get a certificate in Supply Chain Management. It will take roughly […]
Written by Dirk Herfurth
“It’s the end of the year as we know it, and I feel fine!” (borrowed and modified from REM – ‘End Of The World’) Happy New Year! Bye bye 2021 and Hello 2022! It has been a nice holiday period thus far having some time with family we had not seen in over a year, […]
Written by David Brezinski
Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays. Is it the 4th week already? Time is running! My first weeks of my journey went by superfast. Meanwhile I made it to Germany to spend some quality time with my family over there. I have not been back in the fatherland since October 2019. Covid threw quite the […]
Written by Dirk Herfurth
Mountain Meditation Fresh snow and the Sierra so close; I could no longer resist as the mountains were calling. After working this past Monday and going into the dojo solo Monday evening to finish my daily pushups and crunches, get some kata practice and perform some bag work in lieu of sparring, I decided to […]
Written by David Brezinski
Only through practice and more practice, until you can do something without conscious effort. Joe Hyams, Zen in the Martial Arts You know what is difficult? Meditation. I have to admit, my first thoughts were that how hard can it be to sit down, close your eyes, and relax breath for 15 minutes? Well, it […]
Written by Dirk Herfurth
OK, that first week went by fast. I am on track with most of my numbers, even with the Acts of Kindness. Still, I think this can be the most challenging. How do I get three Good Deeds done per day while sitting in the home office most of the time? Well, some good tips […]
Written by Dirk Herfurth
The bar is very high but I am feeling confident after a couple good training and sparring sessions this past weekend with Dirk-San, Geneva-San and Elijah-San (who joined us for sparring). I had dinner with a good friend of mine last night who was in Sacramento (he lives in Oregon) for the evening; he also […]
Written by David Brezinski
“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” Joshua J. Marine One day at a time…I have to remind myself. Our Black Belt requirements are daunting; not for the weak-minded and only the strong (heart, mind, body & spirit) need apply. Over a 1-year period, 50k pushups and crunches, […]
Written by David Brezinski
A lot of firsts It’s the first week of December 2021. The Elf is on the shelf again, Christmas calendars are out, and the weather is getting cooler. It is also my first week of doing 50k pushups, 50k sit ups, 1000 miles, 1000 katas, and 1000 acts of kindness – oh boy! I am […]
Written by Dirk Herfurth