Sensei Joseph Hurtsellers: Hi, this is Sensei Joseph Hurtsellers from Ohio Martial Arts. Most people know that martial arts is practical self-defense and getting people in fantastic shape, but people also know there’s something more going on. There is this idea of learning to focus the mind. This show is designed to address that third component, how people can focus their mind to get more of the things life that they want and less of things that they don’t. Thanks for listening to my show. I hope you enjoy.
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Sensei Joseph Hurtsellers: Let's review these three things that we promise people when they study martial arts. Number one is practical self-defense, and that means that if somebody's been here for a year and a half, two years, they should be able to walk through the world and know that they can take care of themselves and take care of their family.
It's kind of interesting. I was trying to measure that as I've been working on the curriculum a little bit. I picked up the enrollment sheets the other day, and I go through that. And this is the time of year I start going through, and people that have dropped out I start to kind of start shedding and adding and just making sure that everything is just very nicely organized. But anyways, as I’m going through it I'm going, well let me just look at the people, in my mind, that are in dojo that I really think could really defend themselves. Not that they're an MMA fighter, or not they walk into a cage, not that they are working against world class athletes, but an average person attacked by a fool that just went crazy and just started attacking. Who do I think could really be okay? All you got to do is look at the sheet. About 150 classes for—not counting kids, that's different—but adults that are right at about 150 classes, it's everybody! Sometimes we don't need to overthink this. You come in here 150, 200 times, you're going to be able to fight. It's just that simple. It really is that simple, but sometimes pointing it out and making sure people are aware of it. So that's the first promise, the promise is that you'll be able to walk into a room and know that you we're ever attacked you would be able to defend yourself, defend your family.
Second promise is you'll get in good shape. You'll get good conditioning, and we'll do it in a structured way. In a way that you're so focused on what you're learning and the enjoyment that you're having with the practice that you're not so much thinking about the workout at the time you're doing the workout until the next day. And when you're cursing the workout the next day.
And then finally, the third thing that we promise is we make this promise that there's something else to martial arts. That's what we'd like to talk about a little bit at the end of each class, and the reason why it's important is because we can demonstrate a punch, or a kick, or a choke, or an armbar, but we have to talk about the mind because it's more in the [ephemeral 00:02:49] realm. And what specifically I wanted to talk about today is this idea that, what is focus? What actually is focus? So, the basic principle that we talk about when it comes to discipling the mind is to understand that where the mind goes that's eventually where you go. If your mind is not focused, you'll never get where you want to go. You'll never get the results that you're looking for in life.
But sometimes that's construed with this idea that, "Well if I think it, then it happens. If I think it, then it happens." But I want to suggest to you—and this is going to sound like a contradiction to much of what I've talked about before, but you'll see why it really isn't in just a second—It's not your thinking as it is your focusing. There's a difference between thinking and focusing. Thinking has very little power. Thinking, in and of itself, has very little power.
For example, if I said to you, "Don't think of a pink elephant," everybody thought about a pink elephant. If our thoughts create a reality, everyone one of us in the next few hours would probably run into a pink elephant because we just thought about it, but we didn't focus on a pink elephant. If you focused on a pink elephant, you'd start describing it in vivid detail. You'd start really because an aficionado of pink elephants. You'd start really wondering what a pink elephant meant to you. You'd start getting into the vibe of what a pink elephant is, and why it matters, and why is it important. You'd start writing notes about it. You'd start looking at books on it. You'd start brooding over it. You'd start studying it, and I guarantee if you did that, every single one of you within ten days would run into a pink elephant. It could be at a store in a stuffed animal, could be in a book, could be a tv commercial. You'll run into a pink elephant if you brood over it.
So, there's a difference between a thought and focused thought, and if you want to achieve something in your life, it's just very important that whatever that goal is becomes a focused thought. That's a thought that you talk about. That's a thought that you think about. That's a thought you look at, that you concentrate on. And if you do that on a consistent enough basis, you'll be moving very very very very very quickly towards your goals.
Now one of the reasons that people struggle with martial arts and don't succeed the way that the probably could in martial arts is because they keep marital arts in that realm of the first pink elephant. It's like they take martial arts lessons—haven't you ever had it happen? You meet somebody and they say, "Well, what do you do?" "Oh, I'm doing martial arts." "Oh, yeah! I took that." Where'd you take it? It's still there. Where did it go?
"I took it." In other words, they have home life. They have work life. They have other activities. The have bowling night. They have all the other things that they're in to, all this stuff that they're in to, and then, also there's martial arts like the pink elephant. [Yeah, I do that too and all that other kind of thing. 00:06:02].
One of the stories that I think it came from Warren Buffett. I don't know. I say it did, but that's what somebody told me. He said that if you wanted to achieve your goals, what you do is just take out a piece of paper and write down the ten most important things in your life, ten most important things. Then, take that same piece of paper, and then circle the top one. Then finally, take that same pen and cross off everything else. Not that you can't have those other things, but it's like Sifu says, "You can everything you in life that you want, but you can't have everything that you want, at least right now." The reason you cross off those other nine things is it's those other nine things that are keeping you from achieving that one. Does that make sense?
Students: Yes, sir.
Sensei Joseph Hurtsellers: So, the point is there is people that view martial arts as sort of this, you know its kind of interesting. It's kind of a thing that they do. It's kind of pink elephant thingy, you know, martial arts. Then there are people that when they get home, they YouTube the move that we did tonight. There are people that as soon as they go into Barnes & Noble, they find the martial arts section. They come in with questions that irritate me because sometimes can't answer the questions because I don't know. I have to look that one up myself. That's a pretty good one. Those are the people that brood over martial arts, and that is what's called focused thinking. And whether it be martial arts, whether it be your finances, whether it be your health, whether it be your relationships, anything that you take that seriously you will succeed in. If there's an area that you're not succeed right now, it just means you're thinking about it, but you're not focusing on it. Seiza.