Year of the Rabbit

Sitting here now trying to force my self to get a final post out, before the year of the rabbit is concluded is bringing up a lot of conflicting emotions. Every time I finally sit down to write a blog I have to first get past my guilt. Guilt because its been too long since the last one but also because there were countless things on my mind these last two month, some breakthroughs but also quite a few frustrations that I now wish there was a record of. But there is also the continues problem of posting my numbers.

I hate starting my blog with apologies and explanations of why I did not do well but it seems a necessary step before I'm able to allow myself to acknowledge all the things I'm proud of and there are a lot to!😁

Just like probably most of us who finished their first year in the IHC, I'm super proud because this has been by far the most active year of my almost 44 years of life.

While I won’t be able to give any kind of accurate numbers on my requirements, I know how much work I put in but also when I struggled with motivation.

(On that note I'm patting myself on my shoulder for having accurately recorded my numbers since the beginning of January.)

Since my numbers can't speak for them self's I'm trying to describe my experience of this year in words. 

Like everyone else I started the year highly motivated and my numbers for the first couple of month were very close to being on track. By the time spring got into full swing I felt it becoming harder to stay on track but I held on to it and made sure to keep going even though my repetitions definitely declined.

Summer was the hardest season on my Kung fu and I know I'll have to find strategies to deal with this because this will be a pattern in the future.

I have a million explanations for why this is, for one its the weather and long days outside, I hate being too hot, its the increase of competing areas of focus (it's high season for my business, farm but also for all things recreation) which means higher usage of my energy and time. Jason is home more often in summer resulting in constantly changing daily rhythms and of course there is the natural "half way fatigue" that most of us probably struggle through.

So it's safe to say my Kung fu in summer was often holding on to a thin thread and there were many, many days without form repetitions, push ups and sparing.

For the most part I still managed at the very least 100 sit ups daily as I was pretty successful in making this a solid morning habit.(yay)

All of that being said, I still achieved a lot  last summer, mainly because I made a lot of my family, business and farm goals my personal requirements. While I wasn't thinking about this when I made my list, I have learned this is an excellent way to actually stay engaged with requirements and kung fu in general. Forming this artificial connection between all these other areas of my life to Kung fu helped me more than ones to pull myself out of the hole when I felt like beating myself up.

In fall I started being more regular again, although it was a slow up hill trajectory. I made sure to cover more areas of my kung fu again even if the numbers were low. I tried to make sure to not drop the ball completely on anything and I felt at times spread very thin.

Winter made my kung fu motivation come back full force and I don't have to explain much why its simply the opposite of summer!

But of course it's also the added motivation of the Chinese new year banquette coming and the start of 2024 sparking momentum for good habits.

The conclution:

my first year in the IHC and how have I changed?

I am a lot stronger!

I am a year older!

I am closer and more connected with my fellow kung fu family!

I am a blue belt!

I have left my comfort zone 

and I stand a bit taller!

I know this was the easiest year to be able to say all these things. From now on I will have to compare myself to this already stronger version of myself. And if I want to improve more and feel a similar sense of satisfaction Ill have to try harder.

Comparing myself to the year before will be next to impossible as I have little exact recording of my efforts and as if it wasn't clear from the start it hits home now big time.

So going into the year of the dragon I feel comfort in knowing what things on my list will be manageable with more ease, like my km, AOK, sit ups, push ups and form reps.

But I have also learned what areas I struggle in most. 

My bottom 3:

1. recording my numbers

2. writing my blogs

3. sparring

While I'm motivated to improve in all areas I want to suck a lot less in my bottom 3, in a year from now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How will I do this?

Well help showed up from the other room! 

From now on I will have a fellow team mate living under the same roof.

Not only do I have an accountablity partner in the house but it also happens to be my son. 

As a martial artist I want to improve myself but as a mother I want my son to succeed more than anything!

And I believe, just like sifu Brinker told us in his story of bringing his students to this workshop/retreat this will be my most powerful tool to tackle my requirements this coming year.

As for recognizing my anual cycle of motivation, energy and success, I now have a baseline that will help me to anticipate and plan for my highs and lows to come.

Jan 1.- Feb 8.

PU:  3510

SU:  5870

KM: 187

AOK:  146

Sparring: 26

Weapon f: 262

Hand f: 34