Happy New Year!

Congratulations to the new black belts!

Getting ready for the Year of the Fire Horse and wrapping up from the Year of the Wood Snake.

One of the goals I had set for myself during the year of the snake was art, like it was my job.  A big part of this was to see if I really wanted to do that much or if it was just my fantasy self. Turns out, the more I did the more I wanted to do!

I didn’t do art on as many days of the year as I had planned to but it was still much more than I’ve done in a very very long time. There were several parts to the art goal, such as filling my sketchbook, three different art challenges, such as Inktober, and working with a professional artist as my mentor. I’m still working with the mentor, but my sketchbook is only, nearly, half full. The rest of the goals are incomplete as well. Turns out, I’m not fast enough nor skilled enough at drawing (yet) to take on that many goals in the year. Getting better though.

I didn’t complete any of my numbers goals this year. However, I set a new record for myself for the number of pushups and sit-ups (well, their equivalents) in a year. This is why I started IHC early. I knew it was going to take time to build myself physically and mentally to be able to achieve the requirements needed to earn a black belt. While I do get frustrated with myself, and get in my own way, I can feel the strength in my body and mind building.

Although there will be no more I Ho Chuan team, I am planning to continue the goal setting that has been established over the years that I’ve been on the team. I still have a lot of improving to do and I don’t want to lose the momentum that I’ve already built. I will post my goals in a later blog, but for now here are my total numbers for the Year of the Snake.

Year Totals

Pushups (modified): 11208 / 50,000

Situps (modified): 10807 / 50,000

Weapon Form: 390 / 1000. Worse this year, since last year I completed all of these.

Hand Form: 309 /1000

Random Acts of Kindness: 244 / 1000 There were more of these, but my tracking is lacking.

Sparring: 309 / 1000

Kilometres: 1365 / 1609

Memorize “Mastery”: incomplete

Nurture Relationships: need to find a better way to track this. Did make the effort to reach out to people during the year when I normally would not have in the past.

Blogging: 39 / 52

Art Like it is My Job: 131 / 252 days.

Declutter my life: so much more needs doing but with each step forward it feels easier to breath and work on the things that are very important to me, such as Kung Fu.

Greatcoat project: incomplete

Improved flexibility: minimal progress. I can usually touch the floor with the palms of my hands in a forward bend now.