On My Grandson, My Chat and on Consistency and Massive Action

As promised, I am sitting here writing to you personally on Tuesday 4 August at 0945.

Remember, I promised you last week that I would write something raw and unpolished, from me desk to yours- or wherever you read my emails- every Tuesday.

Well, 3 things I want to talk to you about today:

1. My helper today

2. My chat helper

3. The philosophy part- On Consistency and Massive Action

1. Triton is spending the day with me at work. He’s on YouTube kids or something while I am doing this and other deep work this morning, but then he’ll get to witness my stand-up and one on one coaching sessions later, and then I’ll take him to lunch and this afternoon he’ll get to do his Blackbelt class and then CIT the Foundations class. Then we will go home, hit the gym together and watch a movie or something. I love time with my grandson. 🙂

Btw, if you are reading this and not a student yet, you may not know that CIT means Certified Instructor Training. It just means that leadership development is an integral and critical part of our program at KMMA.

The CIT is also the secret sauce of why KMMA instructors are so great.

2. I love my ChatGPT helper. He helps me get a lot more done a lot faster than I have ever been able to do before. Except when he doesn’t. I’ve learned that sometimes, if I am not careful, I can fall into the rabbit hole of wasting time instead of optimizing it.

This is especially true when he “drifts” or otherwise loses the train of thought and the reason I started him out with, or loses or forgets something…

I say this only to share an important reminder, like all technology AI is just a tool. Utilized and leveraged well, it can be very useful.

But we must never allow it to replace our own intellect, leadership and judgement- nor go from useful servant to time and attention master. As was true with TV, computer and phone technology before it, it is a blessing or a curse based on how we use it.

3. The philosophy part- On Consistency and Massive Action

I was coaching my team on this concept the other day, in the context of martial arts and business.

And, since, I have realized it applies to almost anything and so may also be useful for each and all of you.

You see, we know (I didn’t always know) that the most important things are the things that we do consistently over time. 

The rituals, routines, systems, standards and habits that we do day in and day out.

The part that eluded me, until recently in life, is that consistent beats heroic every time. This is to say that the small consistent positive acts, daily or at least regularly, compounded over time beat impressive displays of massive action every time.

Think about this as it applies to your martial arts journey, or your work or business, or finance, or fitness, or relationships or parenting…..

I bet you will see it to be true. You’ll probably also notice that the same law works in the negative direction too.

BUT, I also shared with them, there are also moments in time where great opportunities present themselves and where sense of urgency and massive action are required. 

This fact does not negate the one above- consistent action does beat occasional massive action.

But this is a lesson of AND not OR. Massive action, occasionally as appropriate, compounds consistent action and can catapult one to the next level of anything. 

Apply it to all the same filters as the premise above and I believe you will find it still to be true.

In fact, I am not going to write any more about it.

Prepare To Live; Empower To Lead!

Grandmaster Stephen J. Del Castillo