Making more time for Martial Arts

[jks9199]

I do hate my job. but the only job that I am not going to hate, is one doing something I enjoy. I can't do that til I start getting better at something I enjoy. Unless I am gonna get paid to play video games.. my plan is to open a school and to supplement it with some other "enjoyable" job using one of my many talents.. just gotta put the games down for long enough to work on them.

Interestingly enough, a student of mine is having a similar conflict in his life. I'll share the observation or advice I gave him with you.

There are two basic ways to approach work. Some people work at something they love and enjoy. Other people work so that they can do what they love and enjoy. At the moment, you're clearly in the second camp -- and the fact is that you may never be able to go to the first camp. Find a job that you get enough personal satisfaction from that you can tolerate it, while still having the time to do what you love.

 

[hogstooth]

I understand that you enjoy playing and it is admirable that you recognize that it is a problem and commend you on that.
If you are really serious about openning up your own school I would suggest maybe putting in a few more hours or get a part time job and save. Openning a school takes front money until you become established. The first couple of years will feel like a roller coaster with students coming and going. Bills pilling up. You need to be able to ride through those ruff times until you get a base of steady students and even then it is still hard.
Your priorities are family, work and MA. Your hobby is WoW. Prioritize.
I got the wife interested in training thus taking care of two things at once. Well until the kid came along. The point is you need to sit down and formulate a game plan. Put it down on paper. Are you renting, buying, how much a month, what steps do you need to take to accomplish your goal. This puts things in perspective. Writing things out and coming up with a game plan tends to make you do something toward those ends. Before you know it you will not have time for WoW because you will be doing the things that it takes to accomplish your goal.
But remember there is nothing wrong with doing something that you enjoy. Everyone needs a little "me" time. Just make sure it doesn't interfear with the important things in life. If you accomplish your goal you will probably find out you have more time for other things since work and MA will be one and the same.
Good luck and God Bless.

 

[Sylo]

I understand that you enjoy playing and it is admirable that you recognize that it is a problem and commend you on that.
If you are really serious about openning up your own school I would suggest maybe putting in a few more hours or get a part time job and save. Openning a school takes front money until you become established. The first couple of years will feel like a roller coaster with students coming and going. Bills pilling up. You need to be able to ride through those ruff times until you get a base of steady students and even then it is still hard.
Your priorities are family, work and MA. Your hobby is WoW. Prioritize.
I got the wife interested in training thus taking care of two things at once. Well until the kid came along. The point is you need to sit down and formulate a game plan. Put it down on paper. Are you renting, buying, how much a month, what steps do you need to take to accomplish your goal. This puts things in perspective. Writing things out and coming up with a game plan tends to make you do something toward those ends. Before you know it you will not have time for WoW because you will be doing the things that it takes to accomplish your goal.
But remember there is nothing wrong with doing something that you enjoy. Everyone needs a little "me" time. Just make sure it doesn't interfear with the important things in life. If you accomplish your goal you will probably find out you have more time for other things since work and MA will be one and the same.
Good luck and God Bless.

On that note..

Last night was WoW free!

I went to class, helped my wife cook, watched karate kid (haven't seen it in a while), stretched/did some crunches, looked up some stuff online for a few minutes, and spent about 20 minutes on the 360 playing some first person shooter.. and went to bed!

 

[chrispillertkd]

On that note..

Last night was WoW free!

I went to class, helped my wife cook, watched karate kid (haven't seen it in a while), stretched/did some crunches, looked up some stuff online for a few minutes, and spent about 20 minutes on the 360 playing some first person shooter.. and went to bed!

Sounds like a good day to me.

If there's one thing I can suggest as someone who is married and has two children: make time for your bride and your kids.

Someone suggested getting up early and going to bed with (or at least near the time) that your wife does. Excellent advice. Get up with her in the morning, have breakfast together, spend time talking together, make a point of doing things together as a family at least every week. If your wife has no interest in martial arts (like mine) make doubly sure you spend time with her every day. I don't know how old your son is but I have slowly introduced my kids to Taekwon-Do. My daughter is now 5 and when she sees me training will come in and demonstrate for me. Hopefully this will be the ground work for more serious training when she's older. Bing both a parent and instructor is tough, but having at least a shared interest in martial arts with your children can help foster a close relationship with them.

Personally speaking, if I didn't tell my wife and children that I love them every day and pray for them every day I'd feel like it I had failed that day at being a husband and father.

I heartily agree with limiting time spent with the television and computer games. They are no substitute for real interpersonal interactions. Cultivate relationships with the people you work with and the people you train with. You already have at least something in common with them whether it's your job or your love of martial arts.

Pax,

Chris

 

[Sylo]

Sounds like a good day to me.

If there's one thing I can suggest as someone who is married and has two children: make time for your bride and your kids.

Someone suggested getting up early and going to bed with (or at least near the time) that your wife does. Excellent advice. Get up with her in the morning, have breakfast together, spend time talking together, make a point of doing things together as a family at least every week. If your wife has no interest in martial arts (like mine) make doubly sure you spend time with her every day. I don't know how old your son is but I have slowly introduced my kids to Taekwon-Do. My daughter is now 5 and when she sees me training will come in and demonstrate for me. Hopefully this will be the ground work for more serious training when she's older. Bing both a parent and instructor is tough, but having at least a shared interest in martial arts with your children can help foster a close relationship with them.

Personally speaking, if I didn't tell my wife and children that I love them every day and pray for them every day I'd feel like it I had failed that day at being a husband and father.

I heartily agree with limiting time spent with the television and computer games. They are no substitute for real interpersonal interactions. Cultivate relationships with the people you work with and the people you train with. You already have at least something in common with them whether it's your job or your love of martial arts.

Pax,

Chris

Yeah, my wife isn't a huge martial arts fan. But she will watch the movies with me and go to the tournaments and such and cheer me on. I guess I can't ask for much more. She watched karate kid with me last night. By the way. I'm close to cancelling my WoW account today.. I'm still going to play games, and still play online games.. but warcrack will hopefully not be one of them.

 

[hogstooth]

On that note..

Last night was WoW free!

I went to class, helped my wife cook, watched karate kid (haven't seen it in a while), stretched/did some crunches, looked up some stuff online for a few minutes, and spent about 20 minutes on the 360 playing some first person shooter.. and went to bed!

Thats great. I wish you all the luck in the world on accomplishing your goal. God Bless.

 

[Flying Crane]

Try this: for one week, turn off the TV, limit your movies to something small like 2 per week, and don't play any games. Limit your web surfing to something very small, like maybe 30 minutes a day. Be brutally strict about adhering to this. You'll find a lot of time, and you can spend that training. See how it goes for one week.

At the end of the week, decide if you want to do it for another week. Then another week.

If you aren't careful, you just might never turn on the TV again, or play any more games...

 

[zDom]

Yea .. the problem with gaming is that its SO fun But you can't let it eat up your life.

Remind yourself that martial arts is something you may not be able to do forever. Enjoy it while you can!

Video games, on the other hand, are likely to only get better and better: someday when we are too old to work out, we can spend our entire days video gaming in retirement homes when our bodies won't let us do much of anything else

That's how I got myself to finally look forward to getting old. That and sponge baths by hot nurses.

 

[MJS]

let me expand a little further..


Monday
------
7 am - 3pm = Work
3pm - 4pm = ride home
4pm - 4:45pm = shower/eat/surf the net/feed dogs/etc.
4:45-5:15pm = ride to class
5:30 - 6:30pm = TKD class
6:45 - 7:30pm = eat, bathe son, help son get to sleep if applicable
8:00pm - 9:00pm = watch tv/movie with wife (if movie.. stetch to 10 pm.. she normally goes to bed at 9)
9pm - midnight = gaming/wow/martial arts net surfing/stretching etc.

somewhere in the 9-12 timeframe is "my time" to do what I want..

I've got to figure out how to give more time to my martial arts and other activities and less to gaming.

Split the 3hrs up a bit. Ex: 1hr. martial arts, 2hrs gaming. Or 1 1/2 hrs for MAs and the same amount for gaming.

 

[dancingalone]

I do hate my job. but the only job that I am not going to hate, is one doing something I enjoy. I can't do that til I start getting better at something I enjoy. Unless I am gonna get paid to play video games.. my plan is to open a school and to supplement it with some other "enjoyable" job using one of my many talents.. just gotta put the games down for long enough to work on them.

You sound like a creative type who may not like a 9-5 job. I recommend reading the book, What Color is Your Parachute. It will help you identify your likes and dislikes and hopefully get you started on a career plan that will bring more satisfaction to you.

 

[Deaf Smith]

How to train efficiently while keeping a family as #1.

I work out quite often. I shoot quite often. I reload the ammo to! But I have plenty of time for the family.

Here is how:

Either get a membership to a gym thats open 7/24 or get a set of weights. Get the membership at a place that is right on the way home from work.

Gym time! Workout right after getting off work. I mean drive right there and do the workout. Take 1 hr. as max for the workout.

Except when absolutly necessary, schedule your marital arts formal class workouts as early after work as you can.

Have a theme! Have an idea as to what you want to practice and how you want to practice that day. Otherwise you can waste most of the time.

Then go home to your family.

If you shoot, reload. When a TV commercial is on, go pump out 10 rounds. By the end of the night you have 50 or so rounds. By weekend you have 250! Plenty to practice with.

Won't hurt to get a life membership to a gun range if you shoot alot.

Have a practice gun that you don't care to clean till it does not work right (then clean it!) That saves time.

If at all possible, on weekends when your wife is busy or wants you out of the house, go train! Either martial arts or gun range.

Always have time for the family. That is a must. But look for free time to train. Be flexable. You might train one Wednesday at 5 PM, the next Wednesday at 6. Be flexiable on your time and train as much as you can.

Deaf

 

[girlbug2]

Sounds like a good day to me.

If there's one thing I can suggest as someone who is married and has two children: make time for your bride and your kids.

Someone suggested getting up early and going to bed with (or at least near the time) that your wife does. Excellent advice. Get up with her in the morning, have breakfast together, spend time talking together, make a point of doing things together as a family at least every week. If your wife has no interest in martial arts (like mine) make doubly sure you spend time with her every day. I don't know how old your son is but I have slowly introduced my kids to Taekwon-Do. My daughter is now 5 and when she sees me training will come in and demonstrate for me. Hopefully this will be the ground work for more serious training when she's older. Bing both a parent and instructor is tough, but having at least a shared interest in martial arts with your children can help foster a close relationship with them.

Personally speaking, if I didn't tell my wife and children that I love them every day and pray for them every day I'd feel like it I had failed that day at being a husband and father.

I heartily agree with limiting time spent with the television and computer games. They are no substitute for real interpersonal interactions. Cultivate relationships with the people you work with and the people you train with. You already have at least something in common with them whether it's your job or your love of martial arts.

Pax,

Chris

Yes! Give the man a cigar.

On their death beds, most people do not say they wished they'd spent more time gaming.

(hint: it's usually something to do with families)

 

[Brian King]

FWIW,
I had an acquaintance back in the mid 1990’s that had a tough time with whiskey and driving. After his second or third DUI he was placed on deferred prosecution meaning that if he kept out of trouble for a year the charge would go away. The plan that he came up with was instead of drinking whiskey he would only drink beer. He was still a drunk no matter his choice of alcohol but he was able to stay out of trouble for 364 days (more luck than being a saint LOL). On the last day of his deferment he celebrated and on his way home stopped by a Jack in the Box fast food place and while in the drive thru passed out and was awakened by a county sheriff and given another DUI. This one blew his plan so that now he faced prosecution for the others plus this one. His new plan was to say WTF and to drink while he could. In the next month he collected two additional DUI’s cause “the cops were out to get him” and he disappeared soon after. I and others assumed that he was in the hoosegow but never found out for sure and to be honest no one really cared to find out.

I quit working the bar scene after finally being disgusted at how the system (both the bars and casinos and the city, county and state) preys on people with problems. I have no idea of the number of gamblers I watched become drunks and drunks turn to gambling and both turning to drugs as they switched one addiction for another.

Rather than switching one addiction (whether it is drug, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, work, sex, porn, texting, gambling or any of the other addictions that can plague us) for another, in my opinion, it is often very much more productive but also much more difficult to do the work needed to deal with the cause of the addiction(s) rather than merely the symptom.

All I am saying is it is something to think about.
Wonder if you are suffering from an addiction? Give up the activity for a month and keep track of any withdrawal symptoms you experience if any.

Regards
Brian King