86,400. This is the number of seconds in a single day of your life. There are only two choices you can make within every second: make progress or make excuses. Having studied Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) for a number of years, I have come to discover the power of intention used in conjunction with the words we select and, ...

The Obstacle is The Path - Zen Proverb

As humans, we often look for that which is easy and, consequently, not challenging. We create life hacks, take short cuts, and shorten things that need to be left alone. This is what distinguishes a martial artist from a non-practitioner of the arts and a success story from a beaten down soldier. If you set out to only accomplish things without putting in the work, you'll never get to the accomplishment and more importantly, you won't experience it on the way. You won't even know why you may want to accomplish the things you set out to do.

Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan karate, emphasized that every practitioner must seek perfection of character. In order to accomplish this, it is essential to obtain a clear focused mind in pursuit of a mental and physical state harnessed for perfection. When learning and practicing karate, particularly as it involves both physical and mental tasks, one must first start with the mindset of discipline. In karate, attending to the work of the mind is a discipline that can be practiced both in and out of the dojo.