Sharpen That Ax

Today is a little different blog post. Many people have asked what I do in a day and I'm not really sure where to begin, so I thought I would blog about it. Today is an interested day. I wouldn't say it's a 100% typical because of some unexpected events. Also, I had sort of a mental collapse where I became too saturated with tasks that needed to get taken care of. Nonetheless, it was an outstanding day! See the bottom for the moral lesson.


Tuesday

1:47 am

Closed the laptop, crawled into bed, and practically melted into my pillow.

7:00 am

The alarm is very similar to that of fly at a barbeque that just won't stay away from your burger. You can swat at it, but it just doesn't go away.

7:15 am

The alarm clock won! I remember a statement that Zig Ziglar always used to say, "I can't understand why people call it an alarm clock. Alarm is when there is a fire or some sort of an emergency. I call it an opportunity clock. If you can hear it, you've got an opportunity." Anyhow, the 'opportunity clock' got me up!

7:30 am

Showered up and pumped!

7:45 am

6 scrambled eggs
1 bowl of Shredded Wheat
1 cup of coffee

8:00 am

Cooked another 2 eggs for Rachel and left the coffee on for her

Chased Reese around the kitchen

Chatted with Isaac, Reese & Rachel over breakfast

8:15 am

Kissed everyone then jetted out the door

8:17 am

Popped in a little Eric Clapton
(really I was listening to a business CD, Clapton sounds much cooler though)

8:25 am

Arrived at The Academy of World Taekwondo

8:30 am

Private training client (Amy) arrives

9:00 am

Rachel and her two private training clients arrive (Betsy & Mandy)

9:30 am

Private training client (Pete) arrives
Recall thinking how cool it is working and watching Isaac & Reese play

10:11 am

Pete makes a remark, "I'm not sure you understand what you're getting into by having 3 kids."
Note: Pete has 2 kids

10:30 am

Meet with Bob our Student Relations Manager (that's the person that enables myself and other instructors the ability to communicate with new students, old students, and potential students)

11:00 am

My world collapses-
Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (a good book, but very boring) says to spend your time in 1 of 4 areas of the Time Matrix- The Not Urgent, but Important category. There is also the Urgent/Important, Not Urgent/Not Important, and Urgent/Not Important. With good planning, and self discipline it is easy to stay in the Not Urgent/Important category.

Sometimes... things get away from you and when it rains, it pours! I don't consider myself superman by any means, but I do consider myself mentally tough and a hard egg to crack. Given the right circumstances, even superman breaks down.

I'm not sure what happened between 11:00 am and 1:30 pm, nor do I feel like trying to recollect it. To others, I know I seemed relatively normally, perhaps mildly disconnected.

1:30 pm

I arrive at home and have lunch with my family
Deli style turkey sandwich with mozzarella cheese
Grapes & blueberries
Pulled myself mentally together to manage the rest of the day

1:45 pm

Calls and emails start coming in regarding whether we will have class tonight
I got on the phone and consulted with Mr. Walton, Mrs Krake, and of course Rachel. We decided to cancel all classes.

2:17 pm

Email goes out for cancelled classes
Called Bob to cancel work at Eagle location

2:30 pm-3:30 pm

Voice broadcast recorded, uploaded, and sent to 230 students by the click of a button, a 5 minute task (unfortunately my computer kept crashing and didn't get out until 3:30 pm)

3:30 pm

Head to Boise school to put up sign

4:00 pm

Taught class for students that didn't receive voice broadcast on time (3 students)

6:00 pm

Got home, got hit by a snow ball, then walked straight through the kitchen, up the stairs and right into another hot shower. I refused to think about anything OTHER than waterfalls, jungles, forests, flowers, blue skies and sunshine.

6:15 pm

I'm in my ski git' up and Isaac and I are plowing the driveway in an attempt to collect as much snow as possible to build the biggest snow fort. My batteries are recharged!!!

Isaac and I played outside until Rachel called us in for dinner.

8:00 pm

Isaac and I take out the garbage and recycling

8:15 pm

Eat dinner- Chicken, red beans & rice
Rachel and I chat at the dinner table

9:00 pm

Isaac is in bed
Reese fell asleep while we were outside playing

9:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Rachel and I work in the office in tandem on our computers. Oddly, she worked on my laptop and I worked on her desktop. I'm still confused about this.

11:00 pm-1:30 pm

Rachel calls it a night
I touch base with Nitesh in India regarding our Online Training Academy
I purchased an email response system and setup a merchant service account and gateway (credit card system) so Nitesh can begin integrating this.

1:30-2:18 pm

Trying to recall my day for this Blog post

2:10 pm

Reese has a bad dream


When looking back at my day, the one thing that it was lacking was my therapy sessions (see other blog post) and exercise. Stephen Covey (wow, 2 times in one blog post- he is the time management guru you know) always discusses sharpening the ax. He tells this story- The lumberjack is out in the forest just hacking a way at a tree with his dull ax. The boss comes up to him and says, you ought to sharpen that ax. The lumberjack says, I don't have time. What a predicament we find ourselves in sometimes. We get so easily engrossed in what we're doing, we sometimes forget about the very obvious- the need to sharpen the ax.

People say to me all the time, "I don't know how you do it... Do you ever sleep..? etc., etc.," The answer is quite simple, I keep my ax sharp. I found out today how hard I'm swinging that thing and if I miss one ax sharpening session, I'm toast!

So how do I sharpen my ax?

• Exercise-with my classes or on my own
• Teaching class- In the right frame of my mind, teaching rejuvenates you when you consider the knowledge you're empowering students with
• Therapy- Shoveling the driveway, then playing in the snow
• Meditation- In the form of an evening shower
• Reading nightly- Nonfiction & fiction
• Writing chapters for my first book
• Calling a friend everyday

How do you sharpen your ax?

Duncan Richardson
Chief Master Instructor
The Academy of World Taekwond0
Ph: (208) 381-0587
http://www.freekaratelesson.com/

The Power of Words

Tonight, one of our junior students who is preparing for Black Belt was in class. His Black Belt test is in February and he does not have one of his physical requirements satisfied. This requirement is to hold on the pull up bar for 45 seconds. For a while, he has been stuck at 24 seconds while training on his own. In fact, when he came in tonight, he held for exactly 24 seconds when I watched him.


This young gentleman and I had a quick conversation. He then held for 31 seconds. We spoke just a little bit more, and he held for 38 seconds. Now he is only 7 seconds away from achieving this goal. What changed?


The conversation we had was simple. I taught him to believe. The words were simple, but the change was profound. If words can change someone's determination for success in less than a minute, how would 18 years of this sort of dialogue impact a child.


My point is, words are the most powerful things we own. You can use them to build yourself up or tear yourself down. You can use them the same way on a child, too. Think about the things you say to yourself and decide if they are really productive. Now think about how you are programing your child. Are you programing your child to be insecure or secure, shy or outgoing, etc?


Really, this can be a chapter in a book, but here are some basic things to think about when talking to your children. Always speak to your child in a manner that builds confidence. Use encouraging words and always let them know they can accomplish anything they want. Would you like that to be even more profound? Then get out there and show them you practice what you preach. Go out there and accomplish things and let your kids see your enthusiasm, your drive, and your confidence!


In addition to that, don't deny kids the opportunity to succeed just because they might fail. If they fail, they learn. I've told my competitors for years, "When you win, you get a medal. When you lose, you learn."


Take a look at these common phrases from parents that absolutely drive me nuts:

• She doesn't talk much... she's shy.
• Don't carry that... you'll drop it.
• Don't climb up there... you'll fall.
• He's uncoordinated...
• She's the athlete and he's the bookworm. (translation in their minds: she's dumb and he's smart)

Shad Helmstetter, author of What to Say When You Talk to Yourself, says a child hears the word "No" and "Can't" 16,000 times. I had a friend over one day and he said, "You're going to let your daughter (2 years old) carry the carton of eggs?" My response was simple, "There's no way I'm going lead her into believing she can't. Besides, those eggs were on sale for 99 cents with my Albertson's preferred card:)."

Duncan Richardson
Chief Master Instructor
The Academy of World Taekwondo
Ph: 208.381.0587
http://www.FreeKarateLesson.com

Mr. Richardson in Therapy

Boy did it dump snow last night... I told our Ultimate Body Challenge students a week ago to hit the driveway with their shovels the moment it snows. Even if it melts the same day. During a typical year, I'm just trying to finish shoveling before it melts, but this year the snow has been hanging around a few days. Okay, I just spent several bytes of information talking about shoveling the snow... better make it a kilobyte, cause I ain't stoppin'.

When I told everyone a week ago to shovel their driveways, I was hoping to stimulate a change in daily activity. I try really hard to avoid just hanging out on a cold January Sunday. Isaac and I have a goal and it's to shovel enough snow to the front of our driveway to last until April. Actually, that's my goal, his is just for daddy to build the tallest possible snow mound. Our driveway leads to a garage that's behind our house, so it's one heck of a shoveling job. In fact, I'll even shovel our neighbors driveway. He thanks me, but really... I just wanted his snow.

I believe there are certain things in life that we need as therapy. For me, shoveling the driveway is therapeutic. In the summer, it's mowing the lawn, building or remodeling something. The funny thing is, the more I work, the more I need my therapy sessions. A buddy asked me a while ago, "don't you ever sit down and watch TV?" I really don't know how much TV people watch, but my response was, "Yes, I watch Jay Leno and Conan." I can't stand Carson Daly. His response was, "No... cable, ESPN, etc." Hmmm... I wasn't sure how to answer this.

You see, there was a point in our life when I was embarassed that Rachel and I didn't have cable. Actually, we had rabbit ears, but we hid them behind the entertainment center so nobody would see them when they came over. Finally, we thought, okay... why don't we get cable. The cable guy came out and hooked up all this wicked gadgetries. Rachel and I were so excited. We were so excited, our therapy sessions went right out the window. We had cable for 25 days and called Cableone to come get this stuff out of our house. I no longer watched the only 2 shows I enjoyed, but rather 150 other channels that I felt obligated to watch. Rachel and I hardly talked and we sure as heck didn't read a thing for those 25 days.

Today our trusty rabbit ears still sit behind the entertainment center, but not out of shame, but rather because it's the only place they'll fit at full extension. Here are a list of some of my favorite therapy sessions.

Therapy Suggestions:
Stain the fence, Mow the lawn, Shovel the driveway, Paint a room, Add organizing shelves, Building a bike ramp for Isaac (the old fashioned way- with wood), Stain concrete, Build stuff from a craftsman magazine.

For Rachel, she likes burying things and then waiting 6 months to see them grow. I personally need some instant gratification. Rachel's therapy sessions also include focusing on her business, Fireweed Baby, which is designing and creating baby & toddler belts.

What's your therapy?

Duncan Richardson
Chief Master Instructor
The Academy of World Taekwondo
Ph: 208.381.0587
http://www.FreeKarateLesson.com

It's Time to Head to the Family Bank!

Hopefully you're having a wonderful 2008! I know many of you are enjoying the slopes, because I've seen you on the hill. Rachel and I have been heading up to the mountain every weekend with Isaac and Reese. Now that Rachel is due at the end of January, she is not skiing... she's jogging! Jogging down the hill following Reese, on the bunny hill of course. As of last week, Reese has actually graduated from the magic carpet to the chairlift with Isaac and myself. That's exciting loading the chairlift, let me tell you. Isaac, almost 5, and Reese 2 1/2, then a teenage lift operator flirting with the girls in front of us. For you parents on skis, you know the anxiety I speak of.

At the moment, I've been extremely busy in my life. In fact, I haven't been this busy in over 6 years. We're working on some exciting projects including a new endevour on the web where we will be able to provide our curriculum to the most remote places of the world, so long as they have internet:). We are putting our curriculum online for people around the globe to learn. In fact, our team of developers and vendors come from around the world as well. Currently, I'm working with a man named Nitesh in India, who is doing all the programming for the site. Fortunately, we get to communicate when my daytime work finishes. Unfortunately, those hours are between 12 am and 6 am.

During this time of abundent workloads and projects, I haven't forgotten what matters most- my family. How easy is it to neglect those closest to us? Tony Robbins gives a great example of a marriage. He describes it like a bank account. In order to keep your account open, you've got to continue making deposits. Sure, you can make some withdrawals, but... you can't withdraw more than you deposit. It's important that I think of every moment with Rachel, Isaac, and Reese as a deposit in the family bank account. If I need to put in some super long hours, no problem, the family bank account is full:).

Duncan Richardson
Chief Master Instructor
The Academy of World Taekwondo
www.FreeKarateLesson.com