One of my coworkers used to work for Keebler. When people would get all bent out of shape over not-so-significant things as people are wont to do in the corporate world, she would remind them, “Guys, we make cookies and crackers. That’s it.” That was her reminder to them that they were not dealing with life or death situations, regardless of how big (or expensive) the problem seemingly was.
Continue reading “It’s All Cookies and Crackers (or, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff)”
A few days ago I was meeting with one of my coaching clients, a nurse manager at a mid-size hospital. We were joined by a nursing student who was shadowing my client for a business class. My client mentioned a thought provoking question her student had asked:
“What’s your span of control?” My client’s even more thought-provoking answer made me pause.
“I thought about it,” she said with a chuckle, remembering her conversation, “And I said…Nothing! Nothing is really in my control!” She relies on her employees, her boss, physicians, the budget, the executives, the larger healthcare system. She recognized that she didn’t work in a vacuum. I thought that was a very poignant and self-aware answer to a seemingly innocuous question.
“Isn’t that refreshing?” I said with a smile. “You’re only in control of your emotions, your reactions and actions, your thoughts.”
Continue reading “What’s Your Span of Control? The Answer May Surprise You!”
This article was originally a guest post on the website BookMartialArts.com.
Work-related stress has unfortunately become a norm for many adults across the world. Limited resources, long hours, demanding deadlines, job insecurity, and interpersonal conflict can greatly affect one’s emotional and physical health. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, chronic stress can cause headaches, insomnia, and irritability. People under stress are sometimes more susceptible to colds and other viral illnesses. Untreated, long-term stress has also been linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, and depression.
Continue reading “My Guest Post: How Martial Arts Can Reduce Work-Related Stress”
What do we do when our reality is traded for a new one? How do we let go of what we can’t control, influence what we can, and embrace our new normal?
I can’t seem to jump very well anymore. For a while my strength was improving, but recently it seems that I haven’t so much hit a plateau as much as my body has decided to take a different path. I first noticed it when I had to exert a lot more effort to spring myself into the air for box jumps in physical therapy. (At least I can do them. About this time last year when my physical therapist tried to introduce them I was in tears with anxiety.)
Continue reading “A New Normal”
“AH!! What are you doing??” I shrieked as I hopped backwards, narrowly missing a swipe from my chief instructor, who was holding a thin but painful-looking and very solid wooden bat. I was expecting an overhead strike, which I had just practiced defending against, but instead he had swung the bat from side to side.
“What do you mean?” he asked, laughing. “You don’t know what someone is going to do when they’re attacking you.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
Continue reading “When Life Takes a Swing at You”
2016 has been my year of coaching. When I’m not yelling and punching stuff, I’m a leadership development consultant for a large healthcare organization. A large part of my job is coaching clinical and non-clinical leaders and a select group of physicians. I help them set goals, solve problems, guide them through decisions, provide feedback, and most importantly, I help build their confidence.
Continue reading “What I’ve Learned From Coaching Children and Business Leaders”
“Black belts, get up and make a line in the center of the room.”
During sparring class that’s my chief instructor’s cue for us to line up and let the lower ranking students take a stab–or well, I mean punch–at us. For a while he would assign one student per black belt, but lately he’s been assigning two students to each black belt for two-on-one sparring. If I get the little kids, it’s more funny than anything else, and I spend half my time coaching them on how to get me rather than really fighting them.
It becomes more serious when I’m matched with partners my size (or larger, which is often the case since I’m fairly small) or worse, with other black belts. The larger partners have more brute force, and the black belts fight smarter and know how to work together.
Continue reading “Sparring Multiple Partners”
If the opponents in a taekwondo tournament sparring match don’t engage with the first 5 seconds, the referee commands them to “Fight!” After 10 seconds of inactivity one or both of the competitors could receive a penalty.
There could be many reasons for the competitors’ inactivity: fear, lack of experience, or nerves. Other times, though, the competitor may simply be trying to make an informed decision. They may have the feeling they need more time to properly size up their opponent and make a decision about how to attack. They may be running through their mental Rolodex of moves before striking the first blow. While being mindful and strategic can benefit fighters, becoming too entrenched in wondering what to do next and analyzing every choice can stop them in their tracks.
Continue reading “Do Something Already! What to Do When You’re in Analysis Paralysis”
This post is part of The Poomsae Series, which discusses life lessons gained from taekwondo forms or “poomsae.” Forms, typically practiced to hone technique, have also been for me a type of moving meditation that quiets my mind and helps me stay present.
[A Note for Taekwondo Folks: In this post I’m discussing the common first dan black belt form Koryo. In my school we refer to it as “Koryo Two” because we also do a rarely-used, older form at the bo dan level we call “Koryo One.” Bo dan is the final color belt level before first degree black belt. Reader Jon Karlsen was kind enough to post a video of “Koryo One” in the comments of this post. To avoid confusion among readers from different schools, in this post I will refer what my school calls “Koryo Two” by its universal name, Koryo.]
In case I’ve needlessly confused anyone with that introduction, I’m talking about THIS ONE:
Continue reading “The Poomsae Series Part 11: Koryo, or Managing Change Like a Black Belt”
As I was leaving taekwondo practice Monday night I mentioned to my instructor that I liked the sparring drills he added at the end of class. Monday is typically cardio and conditioning night, but lately we’ve been doing some no contact sparring (i.e., we’re not wearing protective gear so we try not to kill each other), reaction drills, and fighting techniques during the latter half of the class. That night we had done a simple drill during which one partner attacked with a roundhouse kick, which is a very typical (and predictable) attack during free sparring, and the defending partner would counter with a low block and a hook kick to the chest. Fun, simple, but surprisingly difficult for some students to do intuitively.
Continue reading “Learning Theory and Hook Kicks…or…Sweat and the 70/20/10 Principle”