The Black Belt Approach

I am a black belt.  The martial arts have had a huge impact upon my life.  My approach to most of life has been influenced to some degree by my training and experiences as a martial artist.  As I continue to post I am sure that this subject will be a reoccurring theme, so in this post I have chosen to focus on one particular aspect of the martial arts that I believe could be of use to those of us who want to have successful effort and live on purpose.  This aspect is curriculum and rank.

In the martial arts the lowest rank is white belt.  Every white belt dreams of one day wearing the coveted black belt, however good black belts spend much of their time sharpening their basic white belt techniques.  The difference between a white belt and a black belt can be found in the number of techniques they know, but more importantly it is also found in the precision with which they execute the basic movements.  The importance of a good foundation has endless examples.  Here is one example—The Eifel Tower is a beautiful and intricate structure, yet if it were built upon a sinkhole it would be reduced to ruin for lack of a good base.  Likewise, a kick is useless if the person throwing that kick has no balance, base, focus, or technique.  In grappling a good base is crucial to prevent being thrown to the ground by your opponent.

How does this relate to personal productivity?  Simple.  When we do not know where to start a project, life improvement strategy, weight loss program, or other something we purpose to do, we must remember to start with the basics.  In other words quit striving for another layer of complexity and seek the very basics of what you are trying to do.  Work done at the basic level is never wasted effort and will filter up to improve every level above it.  Examples:  Do you need a faster computer or do you need to be a faster typist?  Which would improve productivity more?   Would all the details about how a computer keyboard works help you in any way to complete your work?

Because I believe this principle to be true, items of interest will often be assigned a corresponding belt color and ranked in order of importance.  They will be designated as white belt foundational concepts/methods or as higher rank concepts/methods that build upon the white belt foundation.  I hope this helps to make the information more useful and gives those who are overwhelmed a place to begin.