Time

(As explained by Sifu Jeff Brinker, November 6, 2024)

There seems to be some frustrations surrounding time. The phrase “I don’t have enough time” is becoming more and more common. How can anyone else possibly make a judgement, they know nothing about what I’m going through!

We have to disagree.

You absolutely do have enough time. You have the same amount as anyone else. 24 hours in a day.

What you don’t have is the same priorities. This is a different conversation.

If Kung Fu is not a priority, that does not mean that you don’t have enough time. You are spending your time on your priorities.

Stop complaining about your lack of time. No one has the ability to give you anymore. You have to decide what is important. At the beginning of the year, you had told us you decided that the I Ho Chuan was important. So, you are being held accountable, as we promised you. You had decided this is what you wanted and that you would make it work.

You do have enough time for this, just as much as anyone else has.

So stop complaining.

Start talking about your priorities, because that is where you are spending your time. Start talking about your priorities so that we are not wasting our time trying to help you with something that isn’t a priority to you, at the expense of something that is.

This is why mindful living is so important; so you are aware of your true priorities. So you know how you are spending your time.

Kung Fu will not work for you if you do not invest in it. Nothing pays dividends until you invest in it. So take care of your requirements. Don’t say they’re not serving you if you are not fulfilling your promise to do them. Of course they won’t serve you if you don’t do them.

So do them. Do them properly, to the spirit, one hundred percent. Then, at the end of a year tell us if they work for you.

Honesty and Time

This is not a new concept. We live in a culture who does not seem to value time. But in fact, it feels more like a system where our time is assigned a value based on what we are filling it with.

Herein lies the problem. We all are guilty of using the excuse that we do not have the time. I don’t have the time to finish the blanket I started to crochet three years ago, and so it sits incomplete, waiting for the day that I “find the time”.

Interesting thought, isn’t it? That time is something that I may just happen across? Find, like a lost sock under the bed?

I have less time now than I have ever had in my life. Not because I’m busy, have more chores or more responsibilities, but simply because one day I will die and every day that I live I am closer to my death.

That is the only point at which I will not have the time.

But until then, I do have the time for anything I wish. I have the time to travel Europe. I have the time to finish my blanket or read a book or pet the cat. I have time to spend with my family, type this article to you, or put my body to use practicing the skills I want to master in my Kung Fu.

I have the time for anything, I just have to decide what I will do.

Of course, I will have to decide what I want to do right now, since right now is all I have to work with. If I’m too busy with the dishes or gaming or mending fences or running a business… that’s not too busy, that is what I have decided to fill my time with. And yes, I DECIDED. It was a decision that was made. A choice.

You may say I HAVE to do these things. But in reality, how many times have you thought, I’ll do the dishes tomorrow? Well, that was a choice as well.

Of course, we need to make choices that will support our goals in life. If I always decide to not do the dishes then my house will become a mess, my family will suffer from the clutter, fruit flies will become our constant companion.

But it is still a choice, healthy or otherwise.

And I do not want an unclean home.

That’s what it comes down to. What do you want?

Because that is what drives our decisions when it comes to how we spend our time. I do not want to do the dishes, but I want a clean home. So I do the dishes. Or rather, I must decide to do the dishes to support what I claim I want.

What do you want?

If you want mastery in your life, then you must make decisions that will support mastery in your life. If you want to earn your black belt then you must make decision that will help you earn your black belt.

If you decide to spend your time in front of a gaming console or in a night club, then you are choosing to stall your progress on what you claim you want.

If you want to play video games, then play video games. But be honest, you are choosing to use the time you have playing video games.

If you want horses, have horses. But be honest, your decisions on how to spend your time will revolve around your horses.

Which is fine. That is your choice.

BUT, understand that just because you want something doesn’t mean that speaking the words “this is something I want, this is important to me” will get you any closer to it.

You may want it, but if you are not putting the time into acquiring it then you simply don’t want it as much as something else, whatever is filling your time.

I want to go to Europe. But I want to be with my family and build my life here more. And so here, with my family, is where my time is spent.

Saying I want to go to Europe and then wondering why I’m not in Europe is foolish.

Saying I want Kung Fu in my life but not taking the time to have Kung Fu in my life and then wondering why isn’t Kung Fu in my life is foolish.

Or worse, resenting that I don’t have Kung Fu in my life, and resenting those who do. Those who spent the time to acquire it.

It is that simple.

Be honest about what you want, and about what you want more. Spend your time as you see fit, but do not say “I don’t have the time”.