IHC Next Year

         I'm not going to lie, for a hot minute I was considering not joining the team next year.  Knowing my life is going to become more hectic around May, along with the other life changes happening.  Those feelings subsided pretty quickly, because I knew that that was exactly WHY I needed to join the team.

        The IHC I have always found interesting, because even though we call ourselves a "Team", there are many components that are individual, and as such, many treat it as an isolated effort.  I'm guilty of this.  I also know I have 29 other people (instructors/ Master instructors included) to call upon for aide, and to help keep me accountable.  Crazy thing is, is I don't utilize all those people to the extent I could be.  I reach out to a handful, other than the times that we are paired up or grouped together in class.

        We all know that Mastery is the goal of the IHC, and we all know that we have the guidelines and tools to use to help us on journey, so why is it then do we fail to use these tools and neglect the guidelines?  Is mastery something we just like the idea of, and we don't want to, or maybe realize the amount of effort it takes?  Maybe we just have poor management skills, or we don't know how to ask for help?  I see many of my teammates struggle, and I do my best effort to reach out and see how they are doing and if there is any help I can offer.  This works as long as the other person is willing to accept the help and engage back.  I think back to our last class when we talked about confidence versus ego.  I think many of us lack confidence here and there and our egos try to hide the parts of ourselves that we don't like.  Again, I know this is something I'm guilty of.  I also know I'm incredibly difficult on myself and hold myself to a way (unreasonably so) higher standard than I do others.  I'd be nigh unstoppable if I could figure out how t cheerlead for myself like I do for others.  A skill I'm still developing in my late 30's.  Part of me reaching out is to help keep myself engaged and accountable.  I recognize that my journey is full of peaks and valleys, plateaus, and the odd detour that ends up going backwards for a bit before it leads me back up the mountain.  Odd thing is it doesn't make those times feel any better, but it does give me the perspective that those periods will change.

        As much as I'm in the IHC for myself and my own personal growth, I really cherish the people I do it with.  I look forward to seeing their faces every class, and I'm invested in their journeys.  I want to see them all succeed, unless we're sparring, then I want to succeed a little more.  I'm mostly kidding, I do want to see your skills improve there too.  So just as with our forms/sparring/techniques can we train in a silo, I think we can also approach Mastery in that same silo, when in reality Mastery should seep into all aspects of our lives, and that we don't have to do it alone.