Yes, it sounds harsh, especially when it strikes as the truth: that is when it hurts the most, without leaving any physical mark. The fight only calls for perseverance and focus. I sprinkle a ton of patience to my goal, and I know I will get there. That is what I have learned in martial arts: debating and talking about options for positions, techniques or drills just does not get me anywhere. I just waste time, energy… and saliva! When I first started, I wanted to peel every of the moves I was being taught, to picture how they would fit and look, whether I would tackle from the left or from the right. Sometimes my imagination was going far beyond any practical application, just because I wanted to visualise the best execution of that sweep or this arm bar. By the time I was thinking the whole “sentence” through and putting words on it, I was down, taken by surprise by my opponent.

I like taking my time and thinking a project through: to me, this builds the foundation of a logistics case. Laying out the milestones from my mind to a project plan will make my body follow without question: to push as much as possible to reach the zone, that mental state I feel when I am fully immersed in an activity (the planning phase of a project qualifies as such). Its implementation has low tolerance for debating, or physical tiredness: it is mind over matter. To reach an awareness of an energised focus and flow, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity depends on how prepared and trained I am: nothing to do with anything I could say in the middle of a project delivery. That would just be vacuous.

I now talk less and act more, and not only at the dojo. I still wrestle with my mind on some decisions, and a punch in the face (literally and figuratively) is usually a rather unequivocal reminder of keeping my honesty to a high level: honesty around the consequences of my choices. Like this rider at the Gran Fondo Whistler who repeatedly told me she was not a quitter: 30 km from the finish line, she had given everything she had, and she was suffering, physically at first. As the manager of the fine gara caravan (end of race), I was looking after the safety of the slowest riders. She and I talked, for a very long time: that is when I knew she would end her race there. She was doubting herself and arguing with her own psyche. The matter had defeated her mind just because her words and thoughts distracted her focus. Yes, she abdicated the race after riding 90 strenuous kilometers, and she gave all she had, physically and verbally: the latter was her pitfall.

It is only with training, rehearsing, practicing and repeating that I just keep fighting: to finish my own race, a logistics project or a client’s contract.