Know The Facts
Time is precious, so make it count.
Sometimes I feel as though I have wasted so much of my life, decades in fact, and why?
Because I didn’t ask questions or bother to check facts.
As Confucius said:
“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute
the man who does not ask is a fool for life”
This has not always been the case for me, especially not in training, in fact, if you were to ask my Sifu, Grandmaster Ip Chun, he would have said at one time, I asked too many questions!
During seminars, I would have to wait until everyone else had asked their questions, then at the moment things went quiet, Sifu would look toward me, point a finger and say:
“What about Colin, he always has questions?”
No, I am talking about life in general, silly things such as song lyrics, for instance, in the song ‘Killer Queen’ by Queen, there is a line in the second verse, ‘Drop of a hat, she’s as willing as…’ but I never actually knew what was being said.
In the song, ‘You can’t hurry love’, I thought it said, ‘A fornication for your love‘, when it really said ‘I’ve grown inpatient for a love‘!
It was not until I got an Echo music player that I was able to see the words to these songs and felt like a complete clown when I realised!
If you are on holiday and want to buy a trinket, if you can afford it, buy it, don’t have any regrets, so what if you never use it, at least you got it, and helped someone earn a living.
If you are offered an experience, and you would truly like to do it, take that opportunity, enjoy everything life has to offer you.
People say, ‘You only live once’, kind of but not really, ‘You only die once, you live every day, so make the most of it.’
When I was invited to Hong Kong by Ip Chun in 1990, I went with a one-way ticket and less than £200, I had no camera and no confidence, on reflection it was probably because of my lack of confidence that allowed me to spend so much time in the company of legends without even knowing who they were.
Once again a lack of knowledge, or more likely, a lack of bothering to get to find out!
One shameful truth is that I spent a fair amount of time in the company of Master Wong Shun Leung and only when he sadly passed did I realise that he had been Bruce Lee’s main teacher, on reflection this was probably why he was so generous with his time, the fact that I never mention Bruce’s name once?
I once saw a documentary where it was mentioned how the handling of a two and a half tonne Mercedes would change should it have new tyres on a dry road, although this passing comment always stuck with me, I have never actually checked what the weight of a Mercedes car is, even to this day!!!
So my point is this, do not take things at face value, check things out for yourself, otherwise only you will lose out.
In my wife’s family if anyone makes a reference, on any topic, everyone jumps on their phones and googles it, you’d never get away with a lie there.
So if you’re not sure, find out, and if you are training Wing Chun at the moment, and you are happy, there is nothing wrong with getting a different perspective to what you are told and how you are train.
Here at wingchun.online we have no secrets and nothing is hidden.
As Grandmaster Ip Man taught his eldest son, Ip Chun, I am directly passing on to you what Ip Chun taught me.
Variations may have been added by me in order to simplify the understanding of the system but nothing has been taken away and nothing hidden.
As Ip Man said:
“There are no secrets in Wing Chun, only time and practice.”
Don’t believe someone for years only to one day discover it was al B.S., find out for yourself, know the facts and the source of these facts, this will help you to have confidence in what you do, in life in general, and to do and get the things that really matter to you.
I do hope this blog has had a little change to your approach to life and to the further developing of your Wing Chun and Martial skills in general.
Thank you.
Oh, and I’ve just checked, a Mercedes C-Class weighs in at 1,460 to 1,955 kg
Two and a half tonne?
The lying b****rds!