Knowledge in my Mind

At  Quest Martial Arts November first marks the beginning of the last full six week training cycle until after the Christmas break. This month, we as instructors want to make sure that you understand these four important lessons so that you are finishing strong rather than looking to coast into the finish line. Start by using this lesson first:

Six by six goal setting – This is adapted from Bill Hybels a Senior Pastor of Willow Creek, who runs a Leadership Summit every year.  This is picking six small goals that you will achieve in six weeks or sooner. They have got to be SMART, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic for you and time oriented. Could you lose 5 -10 unwanted pounds by Christmas? What about measuring your centre split and improving by an inch or two. Just 6 small improvements will be the best gifts you can give your self. The confidence this will give you will start your 2013 training with a roar.

Eat the frog – Do the thing that feels the worst for you to do first. This means if you ate a giant frog first thing in the morning everything else would be easy. What’s the first thing you need to get done?

Know these numbers – 168, 24, and 1440. They stand for 168 hours in a week.  24 hours in a day and one thousand four hundred and forty minutes in each day they are for you to use as you please. But once they are gone, they are gone forever. We ask our students for 2 hours a week out of the 168 to work on themselves.  The saying Do it now, do it right and do it all, applies here!

We can only take our memories – No amount of material wealth can buy an extension on life. No matter the amount of money in the bank on the day you pass to whatever you believe is next; you’ll be leaving it all. In this respect the passing of a king or an animal is the same. Live life for this day, treat every person you meet with the respect that they deserve. You will be creating great memories which are the real treasure you will have for the rest of your life.

Respectfully, 

Chris Rowe

2012 Trail Championships

      This past weekend Quest Martial Arts took a group of players down to Trail BC for the 2nd Annual Trail Championships hosted by Trail Martial Arts and sanctioned by TKDI Canada.  In Attendance was Master Dan Zaleski 8th Dan Black Belt and President of TKDI Canada, along with schools from Camrose, Calgary, Cranbrook, Chilliwack, Kamloops and of course Kelowna.

      It is a great tournament that allows players and parents to learn about tournaments without being over whelming.  These types of tournaments are always fun and very safe for the players.  It featured, Individual Sparring, Patterns, Team Sparring and the Flying Side Kick.

    Quest Martial Arts was represented by a strong group of 17 players many of whom were double medal winners, and in the case of Aaron Graham a triple medal winner finishing tied for first in the Flying Side kick. Also Carson Benedict won 4 Gold Medals, in Colour belt patterns, Sparring, Team Sparring as well as Black belt light weight sparring although he is not yet ranked a black belt.  Carson is one of 2 competitors from this weekend who will be travelling to Cracow Poland to compete in the Taekwondo International European Championships on October 26th.  The other being Jon Zaleksi who won gold in Black Belt patterns and Heavywieght Sparring as well as silver for Team Sparring.  Mr. Zaleski is looking forward to having another shot at Steve Miller from the USA in Cracow.  Mr Miller holds two victories over Mr. Zaleksi in the past 2 meetings.

5 P's for Success

Watched a great video from Les Brown this morning, and in this video he talked about the 5 P’s.

Purpose – Why are you here?  What is your real purpose, not the surface stuff but really why do you want to do what you do?  Drill down and continue to ask what else?  The last thing any of us want to is reach the end of the race and know we could have done more.  So that you don’t leave this planet with any “I wish I could have…”

Persistence – Daily habits towards your goal, you have to keep striving for your higher purpose. To do that read 10-15 pages of positive material a day, listen to positive speakers while you do other things, every day!

                I will assume you have heard of MacDonald’s, Subway, or Pizza hut…they know you have heard about them yet they continue to advertise so that they affect your thinking.  It is the same way with positive and motivational material.  Let it permeate your day.  I was at breakfast with some friends and we started talking about time, there is not enough in a day.  We often say that as we sit in front of the TV for the 4^th episode of Big Bang Theory, or while staying in bed pressing the snooze button for the 4^th time.  As I write this I am listening to Anthony Robins speak on TED.com…love this stuff!

Passion – Share your passion with others, don’t hold it in and hide it like a candle under cover.  Let that light shine and fill the room, because I believe that is part of what we are called to do.  I love listening to people who are just on fire for their belief, or goal or company.  It is awesome!  Have you ever gone to a seminar and the key note speak motivated you to get out of the room?  I challenge you to listen to Les Brown or Anthony Robins and not want to go and walk on fire!

People – Who is the greatest Hockey player on the planet right now? Or the greatest golfer?  These great athletes still surround themselves with people who will help them to achieve their goal of being the best at their craft. “You don’t climb the high mountain alone.” – Master Zaleksi, and it is always more fun at a party that has more than 1 person.  Surround yourself with people that love and care about you, but also people who will tell you what you NEED to hear not just WANT to hear.

Perseverance – Les Brown’s famous line sums it all up “if you get knocked down try and land on your back, because if you can look up you can get up.”  However too many of allow the hard times create fear, which then over runs our desire to achieve our goal. 

                                                                                Respectfully,

                                                                                                Chris Rowe ~ Quest Martial Arts

The Higher Faculties of the Mind

Higher Faculties of the Mind     

At Quest Martial Arts we talk about the five senses sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste as our antennas or receptors for getting information that we perceive from our world.  There are also other senses that masters’ use called higher faculties of the mind. 

The word “Education” comes from the Latin word “Educo” which means to educe, develop or to draw from within. An educated person is a person who has so developed the faculties of their mind that they can acquire anything they want or its equivalent without violating the rights of others.

The first of the higher faculties is Perception- This gives us our point of view.  It is conditioned by the way you have been taught in life and which you believe to be the truth.  The incredible thing about perception is we can alter it by choice and our whole world can change for the better. 

Second is Reason- it is the power to use our conscious mind to choose what we believe.  We become what we think about.

 Third is The Will - willpower is the ability to hold on to one positive idea without becoming distracted by a negative thought or distraction. We use this to stay mentally focused on our goal regardless of our current circumstance or situation.

The fourth faculty is Memory- Have you ever heard or said “I have a bad memory?” I think most of us would admit having said or heard that at least once in our lives.  The truth is that there are no bad memories just untrained ones. Work your memory like any other muscle. You use it or lose it.

The fifth faculty is Imagination- As little children we used this all the time until one day some well meaning adult or significant teacher in our lives told us to stop daydreaming.  It seems that the older we get the more we filter incoming words and ignore the 90% or more of unspoken communication.  When you put creative thought to work in your mind and become an imaginer you can create your dream life in your mind.  Hold on to that thought with willpower and manifest what you want into your material life.

4 week Self Defence Program

You can Protect Yourself!

Quest Martial Arts will be running a COVAR Defense program.  This will be a 4 week program which will allow the student to continue to improve not only their physical skills, but also their ability to process and deal with the emotional stress brought on during a self defence situation.

This program is a highly specialized self-defense program that teaches participants to successfully defend against an assailant of any size.  It is based on the idea that learning is best accomplished by “doing” . In all of our programs, you’ll work with a highly instructors who will create safe, yet powerful scenarios and role plays designed to help you  experience the “rush” of self-defense and personal power without the danger or the consequence.

All courses are taught by train instructors who know how to deal with the physical and emotional process of an escalating confrontation.

You are worthy of defending

Learn simple, effective self-defense and prevention skills through C.O.V.A.R.  Defense program.  These are techniques any person, regardless of age or fitness level, can learn.

Practice in a safe environment.  The instructor teaches and demonstrates all the techniques and coaches students while they practice.  For classes involving strikes, the instructors wear padded armour and are trained to allow you to hit and kick with full force.

What will I learn?

     The step-by-step process of developing skills and confidence.  By the end of the course, students have repeatedly used their skills to assess danger, set boundaries, and respond effectively to verbal and physical attacks.

What Canvas

     Every September when the kids go back to school, as a parent there is a sense of a new beginning, an empty canvas, a clean slate, unlimited potential for the future for what they can do this coming year.  Despite what may have happened last year, the lessons learned the trouble that was encountered.  This year can be something amazing.

               

     It is the same for us as adults, whenever we choose to make it a new season we just have to first decide, and then take action.  We need to decide what we want to change and then also why we want to change it.  Without a strong “Why” the “What” will almost always stay the same.  There will not be enough excitement or enthusiasm to overcome the challenges that we will be faced with along this new path.

     A couple of key things to remember when undergoing any sort of change are that;

     You are meant to be great!  Whether we think you were created that way or evolved to be driven towards greatness is neither here nor there, the fact of the matter is You are great, and have unlimited potential to have, be or create so many amazing things.

   You have all of the tools right inside you! There is nothing outside of yourself that is required to be great, you have it all, you just need to unleash the desire.  It all begins with the one step followed by another.

     You have unlimited potential to learn! Often times people will say (myself included) “There is not enough time!” As the sleep in another 30 minutes, watch another episode of The Big Bang Theory, or yet another run of the Sports highlights to see if there was anything different that happened during the game you just finished watching.  Apply more energy on what you really want and it will come to you.

     

     These ideas are not new, and I am sure that you are saying to yourself, “I know that”…but let me say this…It is not what you know, but what you do with what you know.

     

     At Quest Martial Arts we talk about these ideas during every class.  It is what we affectionately call “The Mat Chat” and it is applied to our Little Ninjas (4-7 years of age) and Adults students alike. 

   If you would like more information please give us a call 250-869-0111

   Respectfully, 

   Chris Rowe

Mindset for mastery in Tae Kwon-Do and Life.

      Everything that you are about to read and learn is based on timeless principles. Please know that I respect your intelligence to much too just tell you that these principles work and then just expect you to believe me. The only proof that they work will be the results you will receive if you use them.

     The first principle to understand is that the universe is an abundant place that works whether we are aware of these principles or not. These principles can be used for good if you become consciously aware of them or may work against you if you are ignorant of them. For example think of universal Ki energy like a river that flows continuously, you may use a boat to flow down the river to where you want to go very quickly and safely or you may just jump in and drown. The “river” doesn’t care if you are a positive person or a negative thinker if you ignore the rule of water and don’t float or swim you will go under. It just is… “It’s not what we know, but what we do with what we know” that counts.

     The second principle is that our own beliefs become our limitations. These principles work even if you think you are too young or to old, to thin or to fat, your religion or nationality holds you back or whether you are a male or a female. The principles are neutral and we direct them through our own minds…”If it is to be it is up to me.”

     The third principle is to know the difference of right thinking, positive thinking and negative thinking. Right thinking is based on truth and not illusion, positive and negative thinking is filtered through your belief system. Right thinking is being aware of the reality and truth of any situation.

     The forth principle is that the truth sets us free. It’s not a matter of being positive or negative, but of simply just being yourself. Which means you are allowing your higher self to reveal the truth in every situation that you are involved with to resolve it self perfectly. This may sound magical, but I can assure you that it is only the principle law of cause and effect in action.

     All of the great master’s since the beginning of time have tried to awaken us to the fact that we create our own reality. More importantly, that we are responsible for everything that happens in our lives. This includes the good, the bad and the ugly. When you understand that your outer world is a reproduction of your inner 

world it will cause you to look at yourself in new ways.

     Just know that no amount of determination, will power, inspiration or motivation will solve our problems if we look outside of our selves for the answer.