“while change can be risky, remaining the same can even be riskier.”
by bill reeb
john, my instructor, teaches us that there is a hierarchy to learning martial arts.
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first you learn techniques, like punching and kicking. as you gain confidence in your technique, you can jump to a higher level and incorporate interval into your self-defense toolkit.
interval is just like it sounds – an awareness of the role distance plays in an encounter. for example, if you find yourself in a fight with someone much taller than you, your best chance of defending yourself, assuming you and your opponent have similar abilities, is to move in close, strike and then immediately get back out of range and do this over and over. why? if you are at an improper distance, because of your opponent’s much longer arms and legs, he or she will be able to hit you from a distance that you can’t hit back.
as you incorporate interval into your thinking, timing becomes the next level to consider. timing is the “when” to do something. it is not about constantly throwing kicks and punches, but throwing them when your opponent is presenting you with opportunity or is vulnerable.
from this point, breathing is the next higher level. though you may have good technique, well managed interval to protect yourself and effective timing, without good control of your breathing, you won’t last more than about 60 seconds in an engagement. once you are exhausted, even great skills won’t be of much value to you if you are too tired to respond to your opponent. therefore, having a greater awareness of your breathing and accessing techniques to control it is the fourth level of development.
finally, the fifth and highest level is “mind.” operating at this level is about managing your physical, emotional and mental states in order to stay calm, focused, in the moment and positioned to deliver the best of what you have to offer. mind is also about a state of consciousness that allows you to see and feel when your opponent is about to do something, sometimes even before the opponent knows he or she is going to do it.
i can apply john’s developmental model to the business world in a couple of different ways.
the first exactly follows his martial arts version. technique is your technical skill.
when you have developed your technical skill to a certain level, you can continue to develop it, but you need to augment that learning with interval. i equate interval in business to maintaining the right distance between people. at this level, how you work with, manage, lead and influence others takes the spotlight. this is about the human side of doing your job and learning to work through others rather than just doing everything yourself.
next is timing. this one is simple to explain, but difficult to pull off (and not without some element of luck). every business owner whom i have worked with who has become extremely successful knows that while they worked hard, their success was partially attributed to timing – they offered their product or services at the right time and the right place. in short, becoming more aware of how timing affects success and how to leverage market momentum takes your skills to a new level.
breathing is next, and i think it is the same for both martial arts and business. controlling your breath, staying relaxed and maintaining your stamina is how i interpret this stage.
finally, we move to the big kahuna: mind. just like in martial arts, it is about managing your physical, emotional and mental states. it is about developing the emotional intelligence to interpret how you are feeling and also manage yourself in a way that others can’t determine what is going on inside you. it includes the ability not only to become aware of the concerns and emotions of others, but to be able to use that knowledge and empathy to manage them through influence and leadership.
the entrepreneurial type (which i am one) reminds me of another variation of the need to evolve to the next level. entrepreneurs commonly
- are willing to take risks,
- have hundreds of what they consider great ideas,
- believe almost solely in their own judgment,
- are optimistic and
- are passionate about what they are doing.
i can go on and on about their wonderful qualities, but i know you get the picture. entrepreneurs are fantastic at starting businesses and building them to a certain level of success. however, in many cases, they are also their own worst enemy because those same qualities that make them great at developing something out of nothing tend to stall them out when they are trying to make something into more.
when i coach these business owners, it takes every ounce of my energy, and sometimes that still isn’t enough, to get them to focus and stay with one or two of their best ideas until they give them a chance to work. by the time these people get halfway into an implementation plan with one idea, they have come up with a better idea that needs to take its place. they simply get bored managing the day-to-day tedious stuff and love whatever they have conjured up that is newer and more exciting.
it is very difficult to get entrepreneurs to implement systems and processes because they feel this kind of infrastructure is stifling.
what i have found when i get involved with very profitable and growing businesses is that they often achieve that success because of entrepreneurs who create the vision and continually evolve products and services that are of interest to the market. but at the same time, those same businesses will also have someone else (i refer to them as operators) who are highly respected and in an equally strong positions that appreciate processes, procedures, systems and consistency. the best way i can say this is: “without the entrepreneur, there would be no business. but if the entrepreneur can’t evolve his or her skills to another level and embrace the characteristics of an operator, his or her business will likely top out long before its potential is realized.”
some entrepreneurs, although few, can shed their skin and morph into operators when necessary. this, when it occurs, is the best example i can give you of someone evolving to another level. to be clear, as that same business grows and gains even greater success, at some point the operator mindset will reach a ceiling as to its benefit and the operator will have to give way to another level or different approach to running and sustaining the business. in other words, we all need to recognize that the skills that make us successful won’t keep us successful. a book by marshall goldsmith has a title that encapsulates this thought best, called “what got you here won’t get you there: how successful people become even more successful.”
this is a difficult message for most to believe.
why would anyone abandon what has been working for them and replace it with an approach that is not only foreign to them, but is unproven as well? usually they don’t, which is why many small businesses remain small businesses. but there are also plenty of executives who continue to drive their organizations to new heights because they understand that while change can be risky, remaining the same can even be riskier.
finally, evolving your skills and abilities to the next level can also be a function of making sure you have access to a variety of tools, and are always trying to use the right tool in your toolkit for the project at hand. it’s the old adage, “if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything will look like a nail.” while applying a single tool to every situation might often work, it certainly does not fit the idea of working better, but rather one of working harder.
learning to work better often comes down to knowing when your work approach or your overreliance on a skill is showing diminishing returns or starting to be less effective. by having a greater awareness and acceptance of the need to continually evolve your skills and abilities to the next level, you will likely not only be more open to doing things differently, but more willing to do different things.
what can i do to evolve on every level, from technique, to interval, to timing, to breathing, to mind? what should i be doing to incorporate different tools in my toolkit or finding new approaches that can allow me to work better?