As the New Year begins, I find myself reflecting on the past year and all that it has brought me. It’s been a long journey filled with hard work, dedication, and perseverance, but it has all been worth it. The past year has been filled with countless hours of training, sweat, sore muscles, and aching […]
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – Martin Luther King Timely and poignant, isn’t it? Next week we celebrate and honor an amazing man whose legacy, his memory, is a critical part of our collective history. The struggle he confronted head-on, the perseverance he demonstrated and actioned in his […]
Written by David Brezinski
Depleted energy levels? Eat, sleep and drink! There are times in the day when I just feel “meh.” Normally early afternoon, my energy level seem to drop a bit. Doing some pushups will often help, but sometimes increases the feeling of fatigue & low-energy. I have often resorted to coffee (caffeine) as a quick pick […]
Written by David Brezinski
A New Year of New Challenges & Opportunities Hard to believe, it’s 2023! Looking back at ’22, it was most certainly a challenging year, my black belt training and work to meet requirements top of list. Yet, this has culminated in positive growth; mentally, spiritually and physically. As we enter ’23, I am eager to […]
Written by David Brezinski
Support and encouragement makes a huge difference! Over the past year I have shared with friends, family and co-workers some details about my personal goal of achieving Shodan (1st degree black belt). I shared because of my own excitement and also to foster a network of people that could help to hold me accountable by […]
Written by David Brezinski
Meditation in micro-doses One of our Black Belt requirements is 15 minutes of daily meditation. Finding or making a contiguous 15 minutes of time with family, job (and early AM calls), karate class & training and other personal obligations has and continues to be a challenge for me. Of course, one must be disciplined and […]
Written by David Brezinski
Another night of blackout The last big storm that whipped through Sacramento caused a lot of power outages. Fallen trees and limbs plus overhead power lines do not make for a good combination. We lost power for 2.5 days but in the grand scheme of things it was merely an inconvenience rather than a hardship. […]
Written by David Brezinski
1,000 Acts of Kindness (3.5 acts per day ~13 months), black belt requirement When I first reviewed this black belt requirement with Sensei Oliver, I thought to myself, “How will I achieve that? How does one measure an act of kindness?” I believe it really comes down to a few key principles (and practices)–kind thoughts, […]
Written by David Brezinski
I started my test on the 1st of December 2022. Over the next year, just like Lucas, Dirk, and David, my goals are to do 50,000 pushups and situps, 1,000 rounds of sparring, and 1000 reps of a kata. December was a journey, I was very very sore from doing pushups and situps but it […]
Written by Cooper Riegel
The end of the year is always a busy time, especially if you work in logistics like I do. It’s physical inventory time, which means long days and long hours of counting, sorting, and organizing. And to make matters even more challenging, I have to spend a lot of time in the freezer (-20 Celsius!) […]
Written by Dirk Herfurth