tiny gigantic

As part of our pursuit to keep creativity alive and kicking, we’ve been doing Muay Thai kick boxing for the past 8 months or so. And I’m not talking cardio-kickboxing either. I’m talking pads and headgear and a nagging fear that one of these days, your sparring partner’s gonna make you sterile.

We do it because sitting in front of a computer every day is as bad for your body as it is for your mind. We do it because it’s fun. And we do it because there’s nothing like taking a solid kick to the head to keep you in the moment, open you up to new ways of doing, and lay bare your weaknesses.

Many of us walk around with a deep-seated belief that if we ever had to, we could rise to the challenge of a big fight. But guess what—it’s not actually true. Everyone who steps into the ring learns this very quickly. It’s a painful lesson, and there’s no easy way to learn it. But it’s one of the most useful lessons out there.

We’re finding that you can ease the pain (just a little) by opting to get your ass kicked (or your mind beaten, or your spirit crushed) by people you trust. You can create a safe environment to learn the hardest of lessons. The thing is, you have to choose it. You have to engineer it and then walk right into it, knowing you’re about to get hurt. And knowing that the hurt will be worth it.

There are other rewards too. When you ask someone to kick your ass, your enemy becomes your collaborator. Collaborative ass-kicking is one of the most sacred and intimate things you can do with another person, and the beautiful part of it is that you not only grow as a person, but your relationship with your counterpart becomes deeper and deeper.

It doesn’t matter what arena you choose: the conference room, the studio, or the boxing ring. What matters is the intention you bring to it, and the willingness to truly see what happened when it’s all over.

06/28/07 by josh kamler

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Candy, Thinking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.