Always Training

This past July I have been on holidays with my family near Falkland, British Columbia.  During this time I am obviously away from the kwoon and my training mates.  There is comfort and support within the kwoon that makes training easier to look forward to.  However when I am away from the kwoon training is much more difficult.  It is not that the actual physical training is harder but it is harder to discipline one’s self to actually find the time to train.  There are many distractions during holidays that need to be overcome including different surroundings, different time zones and spending time with the family doing things they want to do.

I find that the discipline that I have gained through my training is helping me find the time to train.  I see the value in my training and I have come to find that making the time to train is becoming easier and easier.  I have been getting up early to get my hour of training in and once it is behind me I feel so much better mentally and physically.

The other part of “always training” is the training that we don’t necessarily count as training.  On Tuesday my family and I hiked to the top of a mountain that had a wildfire burn through the previous year.  The hike up was extremely tough as the incline was steep and the air was getting thinner than I was used to.  I took the opportunity to run up parts of the mountain to get some extra training in and also to test my cardio.  I was very pleased that I was not overly winded and I recovered quite quickly.

There is more to training that just our hour or two that we spend in the kwoon.  If we look around our selves and are disciplined we can always be training.

Ian Repay

Student Member UBBT8

Silent River Kung Fu

Choices

                     

The greatest thing about being human is the ability to choose and more importantly the ability to reason and then choose.  What an incredible gift we have been given that most of us take for granted every day.  Recently my wife I were at a cross roads with a very difficult decision.  We pondered on what we should do for some considerable length of time before making our decision.  We thought about all the different things and people that could be affected by the decision that we make.  When you stop and think about the ripple effect that we have in the world when we make decisions, it is amazing how far the ripples go…

During my time at Silent River Kung Fu and through this UBBT 8, I have been faced with so many decisions.  Should I go to class today, should I take part in the upcoming demo, should I help with the Kwoon renovations?  All of these decisions will have an impact not only on my training but also on the lives of everybody that I touched during these times.  What an amazing thing when you stop and reflect on this.  Wow, I had a positive effective on a training partner because I showed up at class today.  I am sure most of us will never know the impacts of our decisions, but we have to do our best to make the very best decisions we can.  That what’s makes us so special, we have the ability to choose…  Now we have to go out every day, trying our best to make the right decisions so that we can positively affect those people around us.

Ian Repay

Student of Silent River Kung Fu

Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada

UBBT 8 student member.

Father

Fathers

This past week was father’s day and I took some time to reflect on how my father has influenced my life.

 My dad is a great man who worked hard all of his life to provide for our family a better life than he had.  He grew up in the trades and due to a physical injury could no longer practice his trade.  I remember that I was only about 3 or 4 years old at the time so my memories are a little fuzzy.  I do remember my dad in a full body cast and that was something quite scary for someone as young as I was back then.  My dad recovered and perceived as he has always done and finished his career in the same job these past 25 years  (how many of us can stay in the same job that long?).  What I have learnt from my father is hard work and honesty is some of the very most important virtues you can carry with yourself through life.  I really don’t know how you can go wrong in life living by these virtues?

I played a lot of sports growing up with hockey in the winter and baseball in the summer.  Most of these years my dad was the team coach which was tough on me because he never wanted to show favoritism.  I usually ended up working harder than most of the other kids just because I wanted to prove that I made it based on my own skills Vs having my dad as the team’s coach.  One thing that I was always respected my dad for is that he pushed me hard but never made me do it.  I am not sure if I am explaining this right but he knew how to push me and how far to go.  I remember that I didn’t have the same appreciation of this back then as I do now!

During this past year in the UBBT 8 program I reflected on this journey and how my father has indirectly influenced it.  The UBBT is so not a sprint but a marathon that takes a huge amount of commitment an dedication.  The lesson's learned from my father have helped me along this journey.  I have fallen an stumbled and I have also flown so high at times during UBBT 8 and it is only half done.  I know that I would not have bee able to get where I am with out the lessons learnt from my father.

Dad, you were tough at times and I am sure that I deserved that kick in the pants to keep me on the right track.  You were a role model that I looked up to and you never let me down.  You are a big part of who I am right now.

Thanks Dad and happy Father’s day!

Ian Repay

Student member of UBBT 8

Silent River Kung Fu

Stony Plain, Alberta

What level are you performing at?

What level are you performing at?

I have set goals for myself like very one of my team mates have done.  These goals have limits like 50 000 pushups and 50 000 sit ups etc.  However there is no limit to how hard I push myself to reach these goals.  To me it is not about reaching these goals but how I reach them is so much more important to me.  I would not be disappointed with myself if I didn’t reach say 50 000 pushups as long as I had performed at a level 10 trying to reach that goal.  We all know that we can’t perform at a level 10 every minute of every day as that would be impossible.  However I do know that most of us are not performing at a level 10 and we don’t do much to change it.  It is much easier to perform at a 5 or a 6 and we think we are performing enough…..but are we?  I don’t think so!  This road (UBBT 8) has me reflecting not only on my Kung Fu training but also on how I am living my life.  Do I perform at a level 10 when I am at the Kwoon?  I try very hard to but there are times that I may be at a 7 or 8.  Now do I perform at a level 10 in life outside of the Kwoon?  However, now that I have grasped this concept I am starting the ramp up my level in life just by being mindful of where I am and what I am doing.

So I leave you with this question, “What level are you performing at right now”?

Mr. Repay

Student of Silent River Kung Fu

Student Member of UBBT 8

Martial Arts

Martial Arts

Over this past year I have been very involved in my Kung Fu.  I joined martial arts because I wanted to know more about the spiritual side of the art.  I first tried TKD and I found that it was a good art but it was not the style I wanted to learn no was the school what I was looking for.  Don’t get me wrong here, TKD is a great MA just the school didn’t teach the “spiritual” side of the MA that I was so looking for.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a new business owner that was trying to understand his customers and to a smaller extent his business.  He has a new equestrian business that he and his family started 2 years ago.  They were very successful dairy farmers for over 30 years and decided to take their business in a new direction.  After about 15 minutes of conversation we both came to realize the same thing.  You need a complete package if you are going to have a successful business.  Without the right facilities, the right trainer and owners that truly care their business is not going to flourish.  If you have one or two of these pieces your business may run and you may pay the bills but you are not going to reach your businesses full potential.

This brings me back to my Kung Fu training.  I believe the school where I train has all three pieces.  We have a great Kwoon, with great Sifu’s that are very skilled and more importantly they are very approachable.  Finally we have an owner (Sifu Brinker) that really does care about not only the health of his business but the overall health of his students.  I have found what I was looking for in a MA school not only in the style of the MA but in the family that is there helping me grow.

Ian Repay

Student of Silent River Kung Fu

Student member of UBBT 8

"Do not criticize any of the other martial arts. Speak ill of others and it surely comes back to you.
The mountain does not laugh at the river because it is lowly, nor does the river speak ill of the mountain because it cannot move about."

 -Master Morihei Uyeshiba

FUNK...

FUNK…

What else can I say to describe how I have felt these past 6 to 8 weeks other than I have been in a “funk”?  Over these past 6 to 8 weeks there has been a tremendous amount of change in my life. 

I had one of my Baba’s (Ukrainian for grandmother) and our family’s matriarch pass away.  This was a great loss as my Baba was a wonderful lady and a person who has shaped a large part of who I am today.  My Baba was a very religious person who lived a simple but very rewarding life.  She was a person who always had faith in the lord and that never wavered but only got stronger with the more adversity she faced.  She would always pray for us and she made sure that we always understood the importance of prayer.  I am going to miss her so very much as I know she loved us with so much of who she was.

During this sad time we were blessed with the purchase of a new home for our family.  We had been renting our acreage since we moved to Alberta 9 years ago.  We had owned our own home back in Saskatchewan and we dearly wanted to get back to that in Alberta.  However, the prices here are significantly more that back in Sask so it took a little longer to realize our dream.  We are so very happy and blessed that we have been able to realize this dream and if it weren’t for the help of Kristy’s parents and my parents we could not have made this happen.

Now here is where the “funk” happens.  I guess for the past many years there was little major upheaval in my life.  I got into a routine and things seemed to flow from day to day releativly easily.  However the start of or 2011 had a few major changes that we could not have envisioned.  People have said the two most stressful things that one can go through in life are the following.

1.      The death of a close family member

2.      Moving from one house to another.

I totally agree with this and I had to deal with both in less than a three week span.  My routine was completely thrown out of the window and I found it very difficult to cope.  I did my best to continue with my Kung Fu training as it was something that I found to be a stress reliever.  However this routine of training was also impacted and I could not keep up with everything that was happening in my life.  During these past weeks I have not been a very nice person to live with.  I have been very short fused and irritable with family.  I have not smiled much and finding things to make me laugh were few and far between.  I spent too much time “sweating the little things” and lost focus on the bigger picture that was in front of me.  I am have apologized to my family and I am working on improving this area of my life.  What I have come to realize is that I realized what my problem was.  I think that realization is the first step in dealing with the issue.  The second thing was to apologize for my actions and take steps to improve upon this so that the next time this happens I will have put processes in place to deal with this.

I have missed a lot of classes lately and this has really not helped with my training both physically or mentally.  However it was the mental side that I really missed.  I missed my friends and I really missed the positive energy at the Kwoon.  I really didn’t realize how this positive energy could affect me….  I can say that I left the kwoon today with a totally new outlook on life and I am re energized and ready to go again.  My UBBT goals numbers have suffered but I am going to get back on track and get things going again.

To my family – I am very sorry for my poor attitude these past weeks.  I promise that I will be much easier to live with!

To my UBBT team members – Sorry for not pulling my weight these past weeks.  I am back on track and I EXPECT you all to come and kick my but the next time you see me =)

Ian Repay

Student of Silent River Kung Fu

UBBT 8 student team member

Food Journaling....

Food Journaling……

First off this is a month long effort by the UBBT 8 students of Silent River Kung Fu of which I am one of.

I just had to write about this as this is something I have never done before and I am not sure if I am looking forward to it…  What concerns me the most is putting myself (and what I eat) out there for everyone to look at.  I don’t have anything to hide and for the most part I think I eat fairly healthy.  I love to cook for my family and because I am a baker by trade I obviously bake many sweet treats (homemade devils food cupcakes with a Swiss style choc butter cream on top) for my family.  I am strong believer in eating a balanced meal at often as possible in the hectic society that we live in today.  I don’t think you need to really cut out anything (DON’T TAKE MY BACON!!) you just have to eat everything in moderation is our family’s motto.

The other thing about this challenge is that I think you are very mindful as a result.  Once you start writing things down you start to realize exactly what you have eaten or perhaps what you haven’t eaten which could almost be worse…  I am going to embrace this challenge and put myself and what I eat out there for everyone to read!

Mr. Repay

P.s We are going to try and make this a family effort and have everyone do some food journaling for the month of March.