~Remrie Arrie 3/21/09
Video of Remrie Arrie smashing through a stack of 3 cement blocks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X23z9yvWAVY
Fast forward to 3:50 to skip the talking of the clip. If you get head-tilt blame my friend the camera operator.
I want to tell you something that is happening in the final moments of the video and the process of smashing bricks. Other than me being so utterly bored out of my mind by the end of the lecture (Mind you very interesting stuff) and my legs getting tired there is a when it comes to brick smashing that is surprisingly relevant to real life and our own personal bricks.
"Brick Walls" have you ever heard of them? if you haven't surely you've seen a few both literally and figuratively. The cement slabs I break in that video is the same material used to build the cinder blocks that look like a cubic version of the number 8 when you look through both holes. They are also standard stepping stones used in paving, and sometimes driveways and patios.
I'll try not to put you to sleep with the technical stuff so I'll keep it short. On a scientific level what is happening? Bone can only withstand so much pressure/force before breaking, likewise those cinder blocks do too, but they can take just a little bit more abuse than bone. On a science mathematic measureable level known to humans is the formula that is created when someone hits bone to cement, the difference is it's -FOCUSED-, into a small point with enough precision that it just shatters by default. In a numerical sense, 1 = bone, 2 = cement.
1 - 2 = -1 (cement wins by default)
1 - 6 = -5 (cement wins by default of my video with 3 cement blocks each valued at 2)
You obviously want a positive outcome.
But when you focus your efforts into a single point your number will increase as much as you focus your efforts. The sharper mind, the shaper hand, the shaper strike, the higher the number.
When focused your bone might = 3
3 - 2 = +1 you win
Focus - Focus is the precision we have in our actions. It's how we walk, how we talk, how we smile, how we pose, how we run, how we think, how we behave, how we react, and the lack of focus is predominant in many aspects of our lives as well.
People like to say super man can shoot laser from his eyes, is he really capable of that or is his eyes so focused upon what he looks at that his gaze alone pierces a hole through anything he looks at? Some of us may have experienced such a feeling, especially when people are upset with us. My hero Goku from DBZ (Dragon Ball Z) had the power to create waves of pure energy by focusing the energy of his body into a single point in the universe causing a powerful explosive wave to be shot forth from his hands.
In the real life though how focused are you? What does your day planner look like? What do your notes from schools and presentations look like? What do people think of you? Are you known to be dependable? What does your focus in life get you? This is the efficiency of our lives to be able to quickly and effectively attack a challenge and conqure it in as few tries as possible. Much like my video it might take two tries to do what you want, two tries to finish that report, or two tries to clean your house/room, two tries to make a partnership happen. When you're unfortunate to not have a second chance in life, your focus better be sharp and clear.
What powers focus? Focus is powered by knowledge and education and peers who demonstrate HOW something is to be done. When you improv or do it yourself you just have to make it up on your own. Schools, peers, coaches, mentors, and programs are what teach us focus. In school when they say 'Study study study' or 'pay attention' they're really saying 'focus'. For good reasons, that's what they exist for, but to emphasize focus alone is too little too lazy, too unfocused in reality, and on the most extreme cases of education such as my background in education and peer groups just plain negligent.
I will stand up as the first person to stand by that statement as one of the many reasons why so many individuals lack focus in their life. I was one of them. I was personally so unfocused I didn't see life coming until it knocked me cross-eyed. Just like I did in my personal life as well as physical abilities to break bricks, to build up your focus you must study and study and study. Focus on the things you want to focus on and make it a habit to always focus on it, then you will never lose that focus. That is what got Trump so rich. When he got arrogant, ignorant, he lost focus, and was in a billion dollars in debt. When he regained his focus he has risen back to a plateau even higher than in any other time.
You can only focus if you learn, learn from your mistakes, learn from your idols, learn from people who have actually done it, learn to build the habit of keep learning. When you are focused it will be in your dreams whether you know it or not. According to my roommate I've said 'I want to save everyone' in my sleep, and I recall no dream associated with it.
Focus only goes so far though, there is a limit to human precision on a physical measureable level, but something happens when your pile of bricks gets so tall, it becomes too great for you to consistently beat the brick with just one hand. Where do we go from here?
Will - Will is that driving force of determination and passion that rockets up from the pits of hell to conquer the demons in our lives and free ourselves from restraint. Will is what you need to live every day of your life. The will is the generator of your entire being. People who have lost all their will, all reason to live, have literally withered and die a natural death despite no physical influences or obvious deprivations.
What powers the will? The will to love, the will to be loved, the will to be admired, the will to be appreciated, the will to be looked up to, the will to be thought of as something beneficial and desired, the will to mate, the will to create, the will to expand, the will to grow, the will for food, the will to thrust, the will to experience the positive, the will to avoid the negative, the will to avoid pain, will to get away, the will to flee/run away, the will to not give up, the will to not die.... The will to be in control and prevent being out of control.
The Will to do something and the Focus to do it effectively may be present but it's not what causes the bricks to break. You might as well have the will to become rich and write out every detail, break it down into little steps you can do every day and have a realistic timeline of achieving it. But without the rest of the puzzle it won't happen. Where do we go from here? If you think there isn't a good use for such a thing you're not being creative enough. Some people have come up with great ideas of using such forces to deflect asteroids that would threaten/destroy human existance all together.
What powers motivation? Motivation is driven by our wants and desires. This is nothing but the most basic foundation of behavior; 'response to stimulus'. In animal training we call these positive and negative reinforces, in human training we call this a reward and punishment, with animals it's reward or no reward; no punishment. See why I see animal training as a more powerful tool of motivation which can be applied to humans?
We do it all the time ourselves, our motivations lead to commitment, repeated commitments become our habits and as a result our motivation to do something becomes automatic. It's utterly simplistic, yet pain in the ass concept to adopt that you can have anything you want in life, and get others to do anything you want them to simply by focusing only on positive rewards and not by punishing.
If you are punished through out life by others, by yourself, if you beat yourself up all the time 'Today isn't a nice day, it's raining I stubbed my toe, I'm tired, I need a cigarette, life sucks, the economy tanked," etc. If you beat yourself up you will have no motivation!!! I will tell you that I was the number one victim of my own self abuse before anyone else, and I am someone who has done things that would warrant me ending up on CNN or Nancy Grace. And that form of self sabotage as Anthony Tony Robbins talks about is what will be you greatest enemy.
"I know that I am my own worst enemy, I am my own executioner, I am my own grave digger, I am my own own demon to escort myself into my chamber in hell."
I'm not going to get into my motivational speech on getting into a better mood to give yourself more motivation in life, that would go far off topic, but I will point out just moments ago I was talking to an old friend of mine, sad and depressed we have visited the depths of sorrow hand in hand in the most poetic forms. I eventually chose to leave that state of mind behind and climb to where I am now. When we talked today she asked me how things were going and I said 'It's a wonderful day'.
Her immediate response to that despite not expressing positive or negative emotional states she then replied 'it is not a wonderful day, why do you say it is wonderful?' I replied 'Because I woke up this morning, had I not waken up something bad happened to me or to the entire world'. I then went on cover a list of things that have happened to me just this week (today is Friday). I two classes I love because I was writing a paper, when I didn't show up for that class I made a good friend worry about me, I got physically beat up in martial arts on Monday, punched in the face, kicked in the stomach, I was kneed in the head that TKO'ed me for the rest of the night, and kneed in thigh that went all the way to the femur bone giving me a obvious and painful limp lasting for 4.5 days. I was limping badly Tuesday, had martial arts class on wed with that limp I could barely move, I started getting sick that day too, I also had a unexpected fine to pay at my apartment, Thursday still limping I'm getting sicker, and sicker, and sicker, yet I run som rather undesired errands while limping and sick. Friday I'm still sick, even more so really, my limp is gone for the most part and my sleep cycle is thrown out of wack and yet I have work tomorrow morning.
If there was any valid excuse to say "today and this entire week has been one dreadful week" I think that qualifies. But I told her straight up the reason why it's a good day is because I said so. "Today is wonderful because I said so!" childish I know and I explained it to her in simplistic depth that made her day and impressed her friend and her fiancé as well. And it comes down to that. If you find your motivation in the toilet stop giving a damn about your limps and illness and lack of sleep and declare things to be great, wonderful, superb, and fabulous. And leave room for improvement "Today is spectacular! But I'm improving." Because there always is that room to improve otherwise you deny the existence of infinite human potential and accept the limits you set upon yourself of your own potential.
Commit - Commitment is the by product of motivation, it creates Will, and make sure it fallows suit. From that Will Confidence explodes to throw forth the power of human potential in a Focused blast to destroy all obstacle in one's way.
What powers commitment? - Habit does, but the first time might be a spark of random luck, ingenuity, inspiration, motivation, drive, passion, desire to make something happen that starts up the turbines to power everything to come. At this point a little spark of confidence is all that is needed to throw this bad boy you call your life into overdrive and run down the competition.
Commitment is also a trained learned behavior taught to us to throw ourselves head long into whatever we do and take a beating if we must. This is something generally only taught in select sports like martial arts, football, rugby, etc. It's generally not taught in much of anything, at best business school, but unless the school is in good order it may fail to teach people the important of committing to what they do.
Because when you lack confidence, commitment won't happen, just like when I had no confidence in my ability to smash bricks and would fail again and again and again I would do the task at hand, but it I never committed myself, I never applied myself to doing it effectively, the end result is shoddy performance and inadequate results.
The number one reason why I get the crap kicked out of me in martial arts by the group in Tang Soo Do who do more street fighting like you'd expect on UFC or MMA is because I fail to commit myself to attacking them. For me that just goes one step beyond my rule of ethics I'm not willing to consciously hurt someone by choice. If there is anytime in business I get the crap kicked out of me in the board room I will tell you right now 10 years before it ever happens that it's because of my failure to commit myself to mopping the floor up with their ass. That doesn't mean I don't have the power.
If you are going to do anything in life, even getting out of bed in the morning, you are going to have to commit yourself to having a lovely stack of bricks for breakfast with a nice tall glass of sweat. That's what consists of hard work and it's what creates results. But alone in of itself it is unsustainable. It takes a habit to make it sustainable.
Habit - We're all familiar with this word for better or for worst, we have them and we know it. These little buggers are the things that control our lives whether we like it or not and are created by the subconscious to fulfill the emotional need of the conscious entity.
No matter what we do, nothing can be sustained unless it can become a habit. Once it becomes a habit, it becomes automatic. Like the wind, sun rise, sunset, coming and going tied it becomes a part of our world as if it was with us from birth, and some habits are. Out of habit if you want to go from point A to B you walk rather than crawl or expect to be picked up. But when you're old, crippled and on the last legs of your life when you need to get from point A to B you may out of habit expect the nurse to pick you up and move you to the bed, to the tub, to your chair, take you shopping, etc.
When ever we want anything we have to first do it, then we must make it a habit.
What powers a habit? Repetition, 20 to 30 days is the expected time frame that you must do something in order for it to become a habit but to make it a part of your life may take twice as long. Habits are also powered by likes and dislikes, positives and negatives, pleasure and pain. The term for that is 'response to stimulus' If something good repeatedly happens your body will repeatedly program itself to go towards the positive pleasurable thing. If something bad happens the body will naturally push itself away from that.
In the complexity of the human brain you get radical variations of the fundamentals of the animal kingdom but it all still applies; just don't expect it to be obvious. One of the reasons many people will WANT to kill themselves but don't and/or repeatedly fail is because by subconsciously purposely failing they are likely creating a positive even that brings them what they want. Attention from loved ones when their in the hospital, attention from peers when they walk around with casts, hormone endorphins that flood the converting the sensation of pain into pleasure; particularly predominant in self mutilators. People don't love pain, people love that pain releases endorphins into the blood turning pain into pleasure. Kind of like being tickled in just the right way where it's actually relaxing than excruciating.
The reason why we hit the snooze button is a byproduct of this, so it showing up late to work/school when we know when it starts. Or not doing our homework we associate more pleasure to NOT doing our homework and pain/bad/negativity to actually doing something beneficial to us. Staying up late too is one of them, we may be so focused on today we don't want today to ever get here because we fear tomorrow. Smoking is done to relieve stress, is used as an excuse to get away from others simply because they don't like the other people 'I'm going to go out and smoke', It's used to flood the body with chemicals that the body likes despite horrible health effects, etc. Nobody smokes for health, just like nobody drinks soda or coffee for health, just like nobody eats fattening sweet junk food for health, just like nobody plays video games and watches TV for health.
In some way, shape or form we are self mutilators, and even suicidal because our habits are what are killing us every day of our lives.
To maximize growth and potential we need to build good habits to sustain our development and growth, that can be difficult in a era that tries to program you with every habit under the sun to be a consumer of their products. General rules of thumb for building good habits and reinforcing them....
- Throw out the TV
- Write down the habits you DO want
- Write down the habits you don't want.
- Substitute the habits you don't want with habits you do want and/or equivalent good habit.
- Make a conscious effort for 30 days (I say more just to be sure) to performing the behavior even if you don't want to.
- Ask for help
- Help others
Everything there-after is just formatting for each individual habit depending on what you want to do. Asking for help and helping others is one of the best ways to ensure your habits come to exist because others will hold you accountable and help you, as well as by consciously helping others you are reinforcing your own good habits and on top of that you're just making the world a nicer place.
For me, martial arts is a habit, if I am not up and active then I am miserable I hate sitting around doing nothing and I love sparring. Out of habit I'll start throwing kicks and punches around the house just for fun. The habit of writing down these articles especially long lengthy ones have become a habit to reinforce what I've learned by teaching it to others and repeating it to myself and comprehend it and thus adopt it more and more into my daily life. The habit of commitment and taking action is the one I'm building now to ensure that my future ventures never dry up with my motivation I want it all to last forever... habitually.
In Summary
Focus - Focus your sight and efforts, direct every fiber of your being into a pinpoint location that paints a large bulls-eye on any challenge that dare stands in your way. Write those goals, plans, and steps
Will - Will yourself to great heights of accomplishment by focusing your attentions and efforts onto one challenge and conquer it.
Confidence - Be confident in yourself and your ability to throw forth your Will into the Focus of your attention to smash down any barriers.
Motivate - Motivate yourself by giving yourself the positive words of encouragement and positive association both by self and by others to motivate you to build your confidence, to throw forth your will into your focus in life.
Commit - Commit your actions swift and true to your intentions and practice lessons of how to apply to yourself at the tasks at hand with positive motivation of positive words and positive associations to have confidence in your abilities and will yourself to throw forth yourself into infinity
Habit - Build habits to program yourself to automatically commit to any desired wants with positive motivation of confidence and will to throw forth yourself into the future focused on your goals into the infinity of human potential.
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