Benefits of Wing Chun for biz’nid blokes
Published: Mon, 08/22/16
Why?
Because I had a lot of traveling and launches and other work going on, it’s an entire day (3+ hours of driving to and from lessons to the Burgle, plus the two hours of instruction) lost each week, and I decided I would just go back after Labor Day for an entire 7 days straight of 2-3 hour lessons per day and get caught up, which I’ll be doing when I return from speaking in Scottsdale, AZ that weekend.
Anyway, all this got me to thinking:
There are a LOT of benefits to business people taking Wing Chun.
I can trace a significant amount of income (both income I would have lost otherwise, and also new income) as well as peace of mind to my Wing Chun journey over the past 1.5 years.
Here are just a few benefits for the biz’nid owner:
* More calm under pressure
I think back to my house being burgled in the Burgle. Before Wing Chun I would have been a mushroom cloud layin’ mo’ fo’, with my short temper. But everyone I knew was pretty surprised at how well I took it. No sense of being “violated” (hellz, I wish they would have tried coming back when I was there…) No going insane with anger, or rage, or anything like that. Just a clarity of thinking and what I had to do next, which resulted in a domino effect of relocating back to the beach, new projects, new products, and new income streams over the past 12 months.
* More confidence in systems
The cool thing about Wing Chun is, the more I know about it, train it, and understand the principles, the less I fear any kind of confrontation. The system simply makes it so you have a very clear-cut agenda in any kind of fight -- regardless of the threat. It has less to do with me than it has to do with the system I’m learning. It’s brilliantly simple and effective. I have no idea how the founders of this art figured this out, but physiologically, mentally, and emotionally, it’s the single most efficient form of combat I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen many).
* Clearer thinking
There is something that happens with your thinking after you’ve studied Wing Chun for a certain amount of time (and I suspect the handful of Wing Chun sifus I’ve exchanged emails with on my list would all agree with this). There is some kind of neurological change that happens as your body is forced to start working ambidextrously, your brain grows fresh new neural pathways, and there's a reconditioning of your mental state. This translates directly to business in so many ways I could probably write an entire book on the subject.
* More focus
My focus has probably tripled since learning Wing Chun. I used to have a very scatter-brained attention span. Something that worked for me when writing emails (if you can’t keep yourself engaged, how can you keep your reader engaged?) But overall in life and business, I enjoy a much higher level of focus than I used to pre-Wing Chun.
* Better control over your emotions
I simply don’t get rattled as easily. I have far more patience and discipline and control over my emotions as a result of studying Wing Chun. Besides the burglary example, another is when my ex-copywriting apprentice and I parted ways a few months ago, it didn't even phase me. If anything, the sense of calm, and optimism and focus on my work (versus getting twisted up over any lingering bullshyt) was eerily unnatural to what I was used to in past relationships. It’s funny because actor Robert Downey Jr. says the same thing. He’s at the point in his Wing Chun where if a problem comes up, it’s not really a problem -- just something you calmly deflect and defeat like any other opponent. It’s not something I can explain, you just have to experience it. But it’s pretty dayem cool to have this eerie sense of calm when SHTF.
* Better health
Practicing it just 20 minutes per day has done wonders for my energy levels, my sense of well-being, and my reflexes, joints, muscles, and even the fascia in my wrists (which will help prevent or at least keep at bay things like arthritis later on, according to some smart folks I have asked about this).
* A deeper appreciation of simplicity
One of my favorite quotes from Sifu is “It’s not how fast you are, it’s how quickly you get there” which is a foundational principle of traditional Wing Chun — I cannot tell you how much that ONE line of thought has revolutionized my thinking when it comes to sales and marketing.
Anyway, those are just a few of the benefits.
Some might say this is a sales pitch for Wing Chun.
And, you’d be right if you thought that.
My only regret is I didn’t find it earlier in life.
Somehow one of the top Wing Chun masters in the US is in the Burgle (his name is carved on the Shaolin Temple — but unlike a lot of people, he didn’t buy his spot, it was given to him out of his mastery of the art) so I still drive there once per week to learn at his righteous feet.
And you know what?
If you want the same benefits, I suggest you look into it, too.
Simply Google traditional Wing Chun (I don’t study modified Wing Chun, so can’t comment on it either way), which should get me some fun hate mail going by the politics I see in the Wing Chun community on YouTube…
All right.
Go thou and do likewise.
I like to think Wing Chun has affected my email copywriting, too.
And, has made my “Email Players” newsletter far more effective.
You can see for yourself here:
http://www.EmailPlayers.com
Ben Settle