Episode 325 - Paradigm Shifts
On today's episode, Jeremy talks about the things that change our beliefs, paradigm shifts.
Paradigm Shifts - Episode 325
How many times have you had a change of heart or belief whether for better or for worse? Do you have an open mind about things that could potentially change your whole life or to get you unstuck? On today's episode, Jeremy talks about the paradigm shifts that makes us constantly improving whether in martial arts or in life. Listen to find out more!
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below or download here.Jeremy Lesniak:Hello and welcome. This is whistlekickmartialartsradio episode 325. Today, going to talk about paradigm shifts those moments when something kind of blew up in your mind and you start to see the world differently. But first my name is Jeremy Lesniak, I’m your host, I’m the founder whistlekick, we make some great stuff products got some services, we've got some free content including this show we do it all for you the traditional martial artists or fan of the traditional martial arts however you term yourself. Thanks for coming by, thanks for giving me your ears.Alright, now let's move on let's talk about this topic that I’m really excited to get into. Here's the impetus for this, what is the alternative, what is the opposite of not experiencing paradigm shifts? It's not growing. It's being stuck in the same old belief patterns you've always been in. If a paradigm shift is seeing the world differently, and in a dramatic way not a slow gradual way but kind of all of a sudden seeing things take light, the opposite is being stuck in darkness and if you're on social media if you would all follow anything in the world at all including martial arts, you see people that are so stuck to their beliefs that are so buried in the sand that they don't grow they don't progress they don't become better than who they've ever been and I think that's so sad. Now here on the show, we had a lot of paradigm shifts. I've experienced quite a few of them and some of them have even happened in the midst of a conversation with someone else on the show. One of my favorite things about the show is that it exposes me to a lot of different people with a lot of different beliefs many of whom believe differently from me. You see, I believe that if you can't keep an open mind about your beliefs, about all of your beliefs and talk through them with others having open intelligent conversation about them to back the pros and cons of the way you see things versus the way someone else who sees things differently like to effectively spar in a mental way, then you don't have any right to those beliefs. Every one of your beliefs should be tested, should be tried, it should be examined again and again just as we do with a martial arts technique. If you've been training for 30 years and you say that the way you punch is the best way and the only way for you and the last time you worked on the mechanics of your punch was as a lower ranked belt well, I’ve got some news for you. There's room for growth, there's room for progress because as you grow, as you get better there is more to learn least there should be and there is nuance that you can delve into whether it's mental, whether it's physical there is always the opportunity for progress. Now, we live in this really interesting time where people are artificially creating the circumstances where paradigm shifts may occur. It's not an area of expertise or with the insane area of interest for me but there are podcasts and listen to what folks are talking about plant medicine effectively using things like ayahuasca and such to open their mind. And of course we have the cliché of 60s drug culture and that was really the goal at least as far as I understand it because I wasn't there and again this isn't something that I get into personally but the idea that there is more that were looking for more, we're looking for that growth is something that is really attractive to quite a few of us. And it's something that ironically, I see happening less and less as people get better and better in the martial arts. Now this is not some kind of judgment of society as a whole because this show is not about society as a whole, I do see some parallels in the way people train in the way the world goes and you know what, that makes sense because we as martial artist still exist in the world. We are still human beings were people and we are just as fallible and just as corruptible or just is influenced maybe that's a better word as everyone else. We're people, we're real were here and were gonna stumble, were going to fall but hopefully were going to grow.Now here on the show I’ve talked quite a bit about some of the problems I see with ego in the martial arts but let's cast that aside for a moment. Why wouldn't you want to get better? Why wouldn't you want to do more? Why wouldn't you want to be more than you were yesterday? Now I suppose that there's a scary element there because the unknown can be terrifying and I suppose that if your self-esteem is fragile, the idea of being better than you were yesterday may say that yesterday you weren’t good enough. But when I look at the martial arts, when I look at my time training, and having conversations about martial arts, I am so excited to have my opinions blown up because I am not so stuck to my opinions as to believe that there all right because I know I am so much more than that. Whether I’m examining myself as a human being or a business owner or martial artist or any of the other titles that I could wear, there's a lot more to me than some things that I think and I’m willing to put everything that I believe out for examination because I think that that's the only way that you can grow. If I go to seven martial arts classes and I learned how to throw a front kick and I know how to punch and I believe that that's all I need to learn about martial arts and I’m so committed to that belief that I never go back, it's kind of a ridiculous example because I don't think it happens but at the same time isn't that what a lot of us do with a lot of our beliefs? We are so bound to them that we won't have discussions about them, we won’t examine them. When we talk about forms or sparring or self-defense basics or I even saw some argument the other day about whether all martial arts drills needed to look exactly like martial arts scenarios. And there were people claiming that if your drills had nothing outwardly to do with martial arts, that they didn't belong in your class. Calisthenics, balance, doing push-ups, meditation? I think for most people those are outside of the formal definition of the combat aspects of martial arts, the martial part, but I think the vast majority people find value in them. I would love to sit down with the multiple individuals who were having this conversation and the folks that disagree with me I wanted to know more, but what would've happened if I had commented in the soulless forum that is social media to question them? Most of the time these people get defensive, most of the time returns to argument and unfortunately as the host of this show I can't be seen in a way that people think were I’m picking on them, I’m attacking them which means the majority of the time I can't even attempt to initiate conversations I wanna have on social media. So thankfully I have this show because I get to speak to people in voice. I would go insane if I didn't have this because for me challenging others beliefs and by extension allowing them to challenge mine is such a fundamental part of who I am that I believe that is why have gotten to where I am. Most people would consider me a fairly experienced person, I know a bunch of stuff about a bunch of stuff because I read but more so because I have conversations with people who are really smart and I layout everything that I think I know and allow them to blow it up. There are folks who've come on the show who have change the way I think about certain things. The one I’m thinking of right off the top my head, sensei Richard Hubbard who's become a great friend, a very, very smart man and we had amazing conversations before he was even on the show. He and I had one of the best back-and-forths on social media I’ve ever had, I still remember it, I remember the subject and I’m not gonna talk about it because it was about someone else who had been on the show. And we were able to have that conversation in such a way that neither of us felt attacked, we didn't have to defend our positions because of our own egos. He attempted to share his point of view based on all of his experiences and beliefs and his perspective on the world and I did the same. And in the end, he understood my side and I understood his side, but my perspective had changed. I hadn't completely abandoned my thoughts but I now saw things a little bit differently because let's be honest opinions, the world is not nearly as black-and-white as much of a dichotomy as the media would have us believe. We don't have to sit in one of two camps on every subject there are an infinite number of shades of gray and the recognition that we are all in those gray shades makes things so much easier. So the next time you're having a conversation with someone and you find that the two of you disagree on a subject whether it's martial arts related or not let go of your ego give yourself privilege of the opportunity that you're wrong, that you find what you had believed to be wrong so you can grow and become a better person for it. And if you're not willing to do that if you're so tied to a belief I would encourage you to examine why? Why is that such a fundamental part of who you are that you're not even willing to go there.Little bit more introspective than we normally do on these Thursday shows huh? This was something I wanted to talk about because I wanted to wrap my brain around it little better and I am blessed that I have all of you to listen to me, as I think things think things out. there wasn't even a lick of outline for even any thought beforehand I just said, I got talk about this. I hope it came through well, I hope my point was expressed clearly if not I guess I’ll have to do a follow-up with an outline. If you want to reach out to me go ahead email jeremy@whistlekick.com you can find us on social media we are @whistlekick and if you haven't gotten the newsletter list I would encourage you to do so soon because were gonna let you know much new stuff that's happening from new product that some of you've been asking for. Thank you thank you for your time, thank you for opening your mind and your ears to my words and my beliefs. Look forward to talking again until next time train hard, smile and have a great day.