Friday the 13th is nice

Last Friday I had a very odd day full of variety. Morning coffee really early in a snowy Gothenburg, Breakfast in a rainy Copenhagen, Lunch in a Sunny Roma and Dinner in a Warm Sardinia (compared to Sweden).
Even if it was a day with a lot of waiting and many flights it was still refreshing to have all of these differences in one day. At Saturday the sun was shining and the people was smiling. We had a great lunch and went to the sea for relaxation and some pictures at the beach.

Sardinia is really  nice and I like the people here. Did I mention I love my work.

Appreciate life and keep looking for opportunities.

Your Body and Your Stories

I often hear the expression “I will do that when I got better time” or There’s to much stress for me to train right now. And then you start to think how it’s possible to make those contradictions in your life. I mean, everything we do in this world are depending on our body. No matter what, physical activities as well as deep solid thinking are done by our body. So when you let your body degenerate by not taking care of it and then give yourself a story why you can’t do it right now you are actually telling yourself (and maybe others)that you’re not here to do your very best. So if you think about it for a short time when you last gave yourself or someone else a story like “I can’t train right now because…………….”´, was it really true or where there in fact some possibilities to manage your own personal maintenance one way or another.

I got some friends with career, family, kids and the hole enchilada still never miss a training. I also now people who I wonder how they fill up their schedule and they miss a lot of workouts. It makes me curious.

Me and one of the trainers at the club did a 12 week regimen one and a half year ago there we worked out Monday to Friday every week. We where both really busy this period but we never missed out one single workout. Believe me, we where really creative. I went to Thailand and had to do squats back in the plane because it was Friday/Leg day. Both of us where travelling and got back late a Monday night, driving to a dark and cold soccer field at 11.30 pm, unloading a lot of iron to complete the workout of the day I’m happy nobody else was there. They would thought we where completely insane, and maybe we where…..

But most importantly, we promised each other and our self to complete this regimen and we did, without any stories or excuses. Every time you fulfill your promises and take care of yourself and your body you raise your standard.

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Stories don’t!

Goals and Expectations

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Many times in my life I have seen people talking about different ways of running projects. Where to start and what to do first and so on. I have realized and learnt first you have to define the vision and the specific goal. Without that any kind of project is doomed.

I have been accused heavily for being dishonest, steeling and not fulfilling tasks and so on. (see former posts) The irony in this though is that I really tried to clarify our vision and goals many years ago. Most of the time the feedback was “I don’t know”, “we have to start the basics first” or “you do it”. I realize now that I shouldn’t have let it go because now the other one claims that it is all wrong, we shouldn’t be where we are today and there’s all the money?

I can in one way understand the frustration of not being where you want to be but on the other hand, if you don’t steer the ship from the beginning don’t expect to end in the right harbor.

So the earlier you define your goals the better you will work to fulfill your expectations. That’s the same principle for a person, a coach or a team.

ROLES AND GOALS

When I was in the Navy we once had an interesting challenge. We were out doing night navigation which means you are going quite fast in a narrow environment without the regular visibility. The captain has special marks you have to follow really strict and it’s a lot of teamwork. Our ship was running router with another ship. Our sister ship had an accident and smashed pretty badly out at sea in the middle of the night. A total chaos erupted and now our skill and training went to trial.
The captain managed direct orders, sailors started to administrate “tubes” thru the ship, the machinist started the pumps, divers went into water to cover the hole and slow down the water. Our ship was right behind and went for assistance A.S.A.P and supported to keep the ship floating.
Afterwards I evaluated what did happen and it was really interesting. We found one guy at his locker packing old cassette tapes and when we asked him what the f--k he was doing he answered “do you know how much time I spent recording these……” he was panicking and completely useless for handling the crisis. We put him to the side and kept working. Altogether we worked like a team and it all went well. The broken sister ship had to go to repair and our ship still had a mission to fulfill so our captain put us back on course.
This is very similar to crisis in companies and groups. There will always evolve different crisis and these personalities always show themselves during the chaos. The guy who starts to do something completely meaningless has to be put out of the way from the people who take initiative and fulfill their missions. If there would have been rats onboard the lame ones in the bottom of the ship doing nothing will probably drown there, the rats that jumps off the ship before fixing the predicament will be swimming alone in the big dark sea. The team who takes responsibility and fight to survive will probably be even stronger afterwards. The captain still floating will get back on his course and reach his goal and the other captain will be put on hold and getting nowhere until the team has fixed the ship and the new goals have been set.

The Me or The We in a Brand and a Team

Many times I have had discussions such as “I did this you didn’t do that” and so on. In my opinion that is ok if you are a one man band, but if you are a team that’s not the way to communicate.

So the question you could ask then is. Who made “Volvo” and who is it today? Is it the guy who designed the emblem back in the day’s or one of the car models of today. Or is it the car salesman who talk to the customers or maybe the repairman who take care of problems that occur? You can make this list longer and then you start to look at it the first statement (I / You) looks really misplaced. I truly believe that a Brand or a Team consists of a group of WE! Where everybody strive in the same direction and tries to bridge over to each other to fill up all the gaps between the different department.

Lesser the gaps stronger the team. And maybe I can build some kind of car myself but WE can build racecar and  make it a famous brand at the same time.

Bring the Me out of We and the Team will Grow

Three kinds of people

Sometimes a piece of daily sarcasm can help yourself to act. There are basically three kinds of people.

1. Those who makes things happen
2. Those who participate in the happening
3. Those who asked "what happened?"

I quite often ask myself that question and it's very rare that my wish is to be no 3. When I look back on most things I've spent time on in my life it's 1 and 2. They doesn't have to be ranked because if you start something good and can make other people to join you would be stupid if you couldn't do the opposite then other people start good things as well. But then things go wrong nobody want's to be 1 or 2 and many people prefer to say "it was them......." . The problem though is nothing happens with that attitude and your life get's REALLY BORING. So get out there and ask yourself who do you want to be and have some gut's.

It will be fun and you will go further.

Mabuhay

Time for a new season

The "summer?" is to an end and the new season is to begin. I have had some wonderful days with our "all time high" summer camp with many new friends and happy moments. I got the honor of being invited to Lebanon and Sardinia during 2009 and I really looking forward to that. My seminar schedule is completely booked until next summer and I don't know if I should be happy or worried. I'm far to optimistic about time as always.

I got the book "The Alchemist" from a friend and I do recommend it. It made me feel positive and "look at the bright side of life". Go and get it and read it with an open state of mind if you want to refresh your philosophical side of life.

Hollywood Philosophy #1

Viva Peter Buckroyd who "found good in bad - Fifht Element"

"It does show some very basic skills we are looking for."

-PETER BUCKROYD,

chief examiner for Britain's Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, after a student was awarded points for writing "f____ off" on a national English exam

To do or not to do, is the action

I'm amazed how little people actually accomplish of what they say they really want to do.
I often hear people say they want to train more but they can't because there's to much stress at work. I don't really see a problem in that because everybody know that one of the cures to stress is working out. A member at the club "Kali Sikaran Göteborg" told me today that he really appreciated the training because he had a tough season at work and this was his relief. There you go, this man got it.

All my life I trained the most during the hectic highs, and some of my close friends have a really chaotic life and still work out a lot because thats the only way to handle it.

The society of today have high expectations on everybody and we also hive high demands on ourself to do all those things to be fulfilled and happy.

The conclusion is this. Take care of your basics, sleep, eat and work out. Then you have the discipline and energy to do ALL the other things as well as long as you don't cheat on the first three. I can do it, my friends can do it, so can you!

Action To Do

Berlin

Kali Sikaran in Berlin is a really good club.

During my seminar there I covered some Stick grappling, surprise action, take downs and locks.
These themes are quite demanding but the group kept on pounding ever so consistent.
It is really inspiring to teach and give your best to people that dedicated.

Like we used to say in our marketing - it's better to give than to get.

This is why I love my work, MABUHAY

2007 another remarkable year

My life and my 2007 low and high

• A terrible lost of a dear friend, Pelle
• Happy memories and remarkable moments from an outstanding man, Pelle
• Almost lost another friend
• It wasn’t his time luckily
• Enormous pressure and challenges of aiming to high
• Satisfaction of accomplishing many goals together with fantastic people
• Learned some interesting aspects of dealing with all kinds of pressure
• Friend who’s been turning away in disappointing ways
• New and unexpected contacts in my international network with very interesting people
• Moments of insanity like a Chinese on an unknown balcony with firecrackers flying around in the middle of a Sunday night
• 30 year anniversary with my original Jujitsu club
• 38 flights and some hours on different transits with lost luggage
• Accomplished an all time high seminar with 160 participants in December
• Walked on fire and Unleashed the Power Within
• Participated in my second “action movie” ………….
• Learned that values, expectations and safety on movies is different in the world
• Marks jet ski challenge in Thailand
• Chicken and rice in Philippines 3 times a day
• Marketing Diploma after 2 years of studying
• Remarkable hospitality in the world when you least expect it
• Another year to get to know myself, still some mysteries though………….
• Crazy 12 week physical training regimen 5 days a week with some spiritual moments
• House painting on a high ladder in the middle of the night, who’s Ozzy?
• Hosted our own “Prison break” at the office a couple of times

Sadness and happiness is yin and yang, you will have both as long as you live. Learn to accept that and keep growing.

It's easy to forget but life is wonderful !!

Training, Health and Myths

There are loads of myths about what you should eat when you train or want to be healthy. Personally I been on many of them myself but most of it is only business. So it's always cool when you see somebody who prove them wrong.

In Philippines I met John from Ireland. He was amazingly strong, bended nails, horseshoes and lots of things with his bare hands. And ate regular food but no meat, he wasn't on any special diet. Of course he took care about his body but not in an complicated way.

I did that quite often as I grew up because my mother was interested in vegetarian cooking. None of us where 100% vegetarian but we didn't eat a lot of meat some periods.

So after "Unleash the Power Within" they spoke a lot about health on day 4 and gave everybody a 10 or 30 day challenge to exclude all unhealthy food in our lifestyle. I took the challenge of course but not only because of that but also because inspiration from people like John and my mother.

But most importantly "I FEEL GREAT"

Time Zero

After a very inspiring and fascinating weekend there where a few hours to spend in London before returning to Gothenburg. Visited Tower Bridge, The Millennium Dom and the Greenwich Meriddian, it's been a long time since I visited those things and this day it felt all new again. The last week has been very strange, a loss of a close friend and at the same time some amazing emotions high and low all in once. In all it's beauty life is strange.

A dear friend and a true fighter is gone

Pelle Östman is not among us any longer. He's been fighting cancer for many years and friday the 22th june his body fell to sleep. For him it was a relief to end the pain, for us it's a loss of an amazing person and a friend. I'm sad not being able to meet him again but also very grateful for all those moments of fun and laughter in my memory, for myself and shared with others.

Pelle had 7 hard years of resistance and all reasons to be miserable but he choose not to. He lived with passion and always did more then other people expected from him. I remember a time when I went up the mountain with my son and Pelle was joining us. I didn't think about it and we started to climb, after some time it started to be more advanced and I realized that Pelle was struggling and I felt stupid for putting him in that spot. I asked him how he was doing and he said "I wish my doctor could see me now". We gut up to the top and down again and laughing about this comment.

He loved to prove the doctors wrong because they always said he couldn't do this or that and he wanted to live, not aim for the mellow.

He know that his day might come but we all know that and nobody knows when. So what Pelle taught me and many others was, choose who you want to be and what you want to do and don't let others decide for you.

Always in my mind

NEVER SURRENDER

I haven't been around since the trip in Philippines because everything has been crazy. There has been some serious struggling in all sort of ways. I expected a couple of tough weeks and hard work due to some final examination in the two year education I've been doing (which have been a lot of fun). But when people around you are in medical emergency your focus change right away.

A very close and dear friend is fighting cancer since 7 years, ha has shown tremendous will power and fighting spirit. He have kept proving doctors wrong over and over again and always made more than he was supposed to do. Since I came back his condition got seriously to the point where the hospital said "there's nothing more we can offer" which means it's over (give up). It was a shock to all of us and at that point it is very easy to just surrender and start to count down.

A couple of days before this though, we heard about some alternative treatments at different hospitals which we planned to find out more about. So then all of this happened we started to work for this with all we got and that was a real challenge. Because what we found out is that this big and ineffective machinery is very stubborn to new ideas if they don't come from the people of their own department. And you can't take no for an answer, because then they are right.

So after really hard work and loads of phone calls his girlfriend managed at least to get him on this program. Now we pray it's not to late...

Amazing idees create amazing results

In 1995 someone decided to rebuild a trading ship that was touring from Göteborg to China in the old days. On one tour it wrecked outside Göteborg, but in modern days they made a new copy of the original. And then they sailed it to China and back in 20 months. I think it is an outstanding act of dedication, management and guts.

There has been many hick ups and challenges on the way, but they "Improvised, Adapted and Overcame" as they say in the movie "Heartbreak ridge".

At the return it was a big celebration day and some of the guys from the club did a "pirate" exhibition and joined the fun.

Back in Business

After a long flight and another portion "CHICKEN AND RICE" I'm back at the office. It's been a very special trip in many ways. Especially with the movie making and all that. Fighting and shooting with warm clothes in 40C is challenging if you are supposed to look sharp.....
I also met a lot of interesting new friends and contacts and got to some new insights in life.

If you're looking for problems you will find them, and if you're looking for friends you will find them, so you have to understand what you really are looking for and why, that's understanding!

In one way it's very obvious but I realized this when a group of people from different parts of the world with different backgrounds and different values tried to have a meeting together. Sometimes this is impossible (normally ends up in war) and sometimes it is so easy which made me curious why. It can be a communication problem when people don't understand each other of course, but I seen so many examples when people can override that easily. The conclusion is that the intention is more important then the interpretation.

Peace Love and Understanding

A good day at the office

Training day with Gm and a nice break in the sea. The day ended with some barfighting for movie number 3. Life is wonderful.

Chicken and rice

Today it was a really nice training day specially with the power breakfast of cereals and milk. All the other days its chicken and rice three times a day and sometimes rice and chicken... Mabuhay

Perfectemundo

Here you see some of the souveniers of training in Philippines. Cut and swollen hands and feet plus a few we probably dont know about. Calm unstable and smile everything is cool.