Subtract To Add

Subtract To Add Value To Your Life

By Sam Yang - Get similar updates here

People want simple answers. Things aren't simple. We easily believe simple lies and get skeptical of complex truths. The world is complex and that's a truth we're constantly battling with. We reduce complex human beings into simple stereotypes. People want to believe martial arts is simple but it's not, it's extremely complicated. Beating a bigger person is no simple task. Martial arts began as a study of the effortless actions of nature, and man tried to mimic those actions, recreating big movements with little effort. We relied on technique, concepts, and a lifetime of repetition. The path to understanding natural order and harmony. A concept doesn't make sense? Rep it out. Still doesn't make sense? Do a thousand more, rep it until it makes sense. It's not in meditation the martial artist finds mindfulness, it's within the breaths in-between repetitions.

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

— Antoine de Saint Exupery

The concepts, tactics, doctrines, and principles are all complex. What martial arts attempts to do is simplify the application. Instead of knowing five hundred throws, know five really well. Instead of learning how to throw a million windmill punches, learn how to throw one jab with as little tell, telegraphing, and movement as possible. Rather than learning how to wave a sword around the air for thirty minutes, learn to unsheathe, strike, and re-sheathe. It may not be possible but that's why we participate in this noble practice. Load, perfect strike, return to ready stance. We may never get there but it is in this attempt that we become better people. You look at the name of every martial art, and translated, it means "the way." This is what that means.

"The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory nor defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants."

— Gichin Funakoshi

Mu-shin Or “Mind No Mind”

It means removal of all that is unnecessary. In a critical moment, this could mean the difference between life or death. This state is the singular mindset that martial arts strives for. In the West, they call it flow, or the zone. Michael Jordan is a modern example. Many of us who have never trained martial arts have had moments of it, glimpses of it, sometimes when the life of a child was in danger, when our own life was in danger, a pivotal game, when there was a need we became almost super human. Sometimes it happened purely accidentally.

Now we panic every day, in daily life activities where our life isn't at stake. We no longer have a barometer to compare all other events to. Fight or flight no longer has a purpose, so it kicks in for any reason. Instead of nothing being life or death, in the absence of danger, everything becomes life or death.

"It's not go with the flow, it's flow with the go"

— Rickson Gracie

Go with the flow and flow with the go sounds like it's saying the same thing. The difference is in the belief in action and control. Go with the flow means, as the world moves, be like a jelly fish and float along, don't rock the boat, give up control. Flow with the go implies a skill (the skill of flow or entering the zone) to ride energy (ki or chi) to our best advantage and maintain control under chaos. This takes mu-shin and constant practice. It's the jellyfish vs the surfer. The punching bag vs the fighter. Instead of wasting your energy, when life brings aggression, conserve your energy, and learn to channel it, ride it as far as you can. You are not obeying, this is what I call quiet strength.

Perfection

Perfection in martial arts is not about adding more moves, it's about removing all unnecessary moves and spending our time mastering the things that are most important. In one lifetime, we only have enough time to master a few things, and even then it's not enough time. We were dealt a finite life, we must act accordingly to the doctrines provided.

Martial arts in a sense is about taking complicated information or chaos, and creatively prioritizing for best outcome. An "artist" who can be creative under chaos. The effortless actions of the universe, chaos, and to create order, flow, and free will from it. Martial arts derives from the word Mars, meaning the Roman god of war. It is more truthful to think of Mars representing the planets and the rest of the universe, and the martial artist then is a universal artist who attempts to make art from the universe. His body is his brush, space and time his canvas.

"Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful."

— John Maeda

Zanshin

If you don't prioritize correctly, you get hurt in martial arts. People have a full inbox, a full to do list, and panic because to them each item is of equal importance, and each check mark in their daily ledger is more added stress, burden, and dilemma. It's not all of equal importance, but we aren't under the threat of being punched in the face to prioritize what matters most. If there is no need to prioritize, we won't. We get easily distracted by more and more things, giving less attention and time to the most important tasks. Such as spending time with our loved ones. It's all check marks in our ledger and it all looks the same to us. We fret more and more and get less and less done. Few can exist in zanshin, the ready state where you get things done.

Now Apply It

An inbox full of a hundred emails is stressful, but it's only stressful because you count total emails, you don't count total important emails. Maybe only five is important, maybe another twenty five isn't urgent, maybe another thirty is urgent but not important. Maybe the last forty is neither important nor urgent. Five you have to deal with, forty you can throw away, twenty five you can deal with later, and maybe the last thirty is best left for someone else to do. A powerful person can give away some of their power. Can you?

Only you truly understand how incredibly stressful, busy, and complex your life is. To cope with it, you may attempt to add more things. Even though your life is ultra busy, instead of removing anything, you try to add a spin class to get your endorphins going, or find time to meditate, or take a yoga class, or spend thirty minutes making a health drink. You already have enough on your ledger and your body and mind doesn't care if it's "good" or "bad" stuff. It's strained and at this point even the good stuff will strain it. It also avoids the bigger issue, you don't have a "not enough on your plate" problem. You have a "too much on your plate" problem. No amount of meditation or breathing will eliminate that. It goes against the doctrines of martial arts philosophy, and it goes against the effortless actions of nature. This is taking too much effort to get too little done. In actuality we're less busy than years past, we have more leisure time, and more anxiety. Our mindset and priorities have shifted. Instead of being a communal village, we have become islands. Happiness is difficult to foster when feeling isolated.

Monks and martial artists began meditation because they moved all day and it took discipline to sit still in one position. They focused on the self because all they did was participate in the community. It was a different time. Now all we do is sit in the same position and think about ourselves. Don't focus on the application, focus on the original concept. Strip away the layers until you see the essence. Applications change, concepts remain the same. It is the job of the martial artist to create new applications. It's about balance, do the thing you need now. Back then it was about sitting still and finding yourself, now it's about moving more and still remaining present in our environment. The search is for balance, not self realization nor sacrificing yourself for others. Our activities to find balance changes with the era, based on what is needed. A martial artist remains supple and goals are just expressions of purpose and constantly being re-defined. Our purpose anchors us to shore.

“It's like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.”

— Bruce Lee

Don't focus on the messenger, focus on the message. Simplify your life first. If you have a weed infested garden, there is no point to add more flowers to make it beautiful. The flowers will get choked out by the weeds and never get enough room to grow, it will never see sunlight. Get rid of the weeds first, simplify your garden, only then should you add more things to beautify it. I love to meditate and breathe, but that's all attempts at simplicity. What's most important is the simplistic applications. Simply first, otherwise acts of simplicity will only complicate your life. "I'm really busy, I'm running late to my mindfulness class!"

"Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners."

— William Shakespeare

If an attacker charged at me and my family, it would be life or death. I don't have time to scratch my nose, check my phone, play a game, or gossip.

I have to order all the actions into four categories:

1. What's most important and urgent?
2. What's only important?
3. What's only urgent?
4. What's neither important nor urgent?

From there I can begin to prioritize, eliminate, and take the right course of action without delay, without hesitation and distraction, without wasting my time.

1. Defend against attacker and take minimal damage.
2. Look for exit strategy.
3. Have one of my family members get help.
4. Go back to 1 and 2.

You can apply this concept to every aspect of your life. It doesn't have to be ordered in this way or even in these categories, your specific values may be different, but what's important is you make an effective change and make it work for your needs. Distraction is the enemy of simplicity.

Examples of ways to categorize:

Importance and urgency (Dwight D. Eisenhower's method)
Risk and reward
Value and meaning
Attitude and performance
Time and cost
Effort and effectiveness

These are just a few. The concept is important, the applications can change, and should change based on the situation and where you are in your life.

Life is life or death. You don't only live once. You live all the time. You only die once. Your life is being leveraged all around you, being pulled in multiple directions, but it doesn't have to be. It's not all important and never will be. Saying you can't do anything about it is mental suicide. Don't give up. There are always things actionable. What actions are you taking?

Mata Leão

Day one of martial arts, you lose a lot. You are then taught a valuable lesson, you can't control the actions of your opponents easily, you can however control your own actions. A big person is laying on top of you, you can't always move them. That may not be actionable, but you can move yourself, that's actionable, that's in your control. In BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), instead of the being the lion, they tell you to become like the shrimp, become small, and wiggle yourself free. A lot of the analogies in BJJ relates to beating the lion, the most dominant move being a choke from the back. You can attack your opponent and your opponent, no matter how large cannot attack you. It's the strength of your whole body vs their neck. This move is referred to as the "mata leão," meaning "kill the lion."

When I talk to people about re-organizing, re-prioritizing, re-defining, being more productive, and managing their time better, the response across the board has always been the same. It's either, "I should," or "no I don't need to," or "I can't." Meaning: I'm not going to take action. They usually then want me to give them something they can additionally add to their life to make it all better. One trick, one hack, one pill, one TED talk, "In just 60 seconds, this video will blow your mind and you won't believe what happened next!"

If you don't take action, should but won't, don't need to, or can't, then what are you saying? That's it? You complain about your life but believe this is as good as it gets? You want to improve but there's nothing you can do? You, a person who has available all the technology and information, living in the most advanced, powerful, and richest country in the world can't do anything? This is when the master tells the student that they're lying, and bonks them on the head.

"The hand is closer than the mouth."

— Yang Family Proverb

Yes it's difficult but there's a world of difference between difficult and impossible. What martial arts is based around doing the difficult to nearly impossible tasks. The method that makes difficult tasks possible? Faithful practice. It's been proven effective since humans took their first step. Walking is proof of practice. It gets easier every time you practice, easier with each repetition.

"The more I practice the luckier I get."

— Arnold Palmer

Martial arts define these universal truths through Yin and Yang. The martial artist attempts to be slow and fast, heavy and light, act and react, strong and supple, simple and complex. These sound like contradictions but they're not, they're played out every day in the universe, and if a fighter can't apply these ideas, they lose. Tai Chi relies on push and pull, Mixed Martial Arts relies on heavy and fast. Every martial art relies on these principles for their various methodologies to work. What makes martial arts so great unlike other esoteric philosophical chases is, it can't be theoretical. It has to work, otherwise objective reality leaves a black eye on your face. Intentions mean nothing in martial arts, all that matters are actions.

"A picture is worth a thousand words, an action is worth a thousand pictures."

— Jhoon Rhee

Remember that before someone likens a new age alternative mystical self help belief to martial arts. Martial arts has to be grounded in reality and be applicable lessons about how to live your life. A daily code of behavior. It's why so many masters spent their life writing about how martial arts is just an analogy for the art of living. The fighter and the tea master being one and the same, masters of inner tranquility. It's not the selfish belief that what's true for you is true for the universe, the martial artist does the opposite and observes the universe and tries to align their beliefs to what's true for the rest of the universe. Many tell you now the "ancients" said you are the center of the universe. No, that sells seminars and books because we love loving ourselves and hearing more about "me." In a universe that is infinitely big and ever expanding, there is no center. Harmony has no center.

"Never look down on anybody unless you're helping them up."

— Jesse Jackson

Tao or "The Way"

— The absolute principle underlying the universe, combining within itself the principles of Yin and Yang and signifying the way, or code of behavior, that is in harmony with the natural order.

Before trying to be someone great, try being a good person first. Before chasing your dreams, try helping others. Before trying to figure out how special you are, see how you're a part of the community. Before making millions of dollars, try volunteering. As every martial artist learns, before trying to conquer the world, try tying your belt correctly and start from there. This is the essence of Yin and Yang. In a life with less danger, this is our new barometer to compare all other events to. Gratitude and appreciation the new Tao of Priority. There's always time to be "great" but by the time you've "made it," it may be too late to go back and be a virtuous human being. Once you lose your path, you may never find your "way."

That's the lesson martial arts is sharing with humanity. It's our job to appreciate the complexities of life and find simple applications for it. As a martial arts writer, I can only do so much.

‎"Teachers open the door but you must walk through it yourself."

— Chinese Proverb
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Sam Yang from an early age has been obsessed with connecting the dots between martial arts and efficiency, health, mindset, business, science, and habits to improve optimal well-being. For more info, join his newsletter. You can also connect to All Out Effort on Facebook and Twitter.

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