When Master Brinker asked us if we wanted to participate as student members in the UBBT with him I had already set some personal goals and been working hard on them. My own goals were completely up to me but with the UBBT I had to choose from a selection off of the website. The nice thing about that was that the goals were already measurable, something I struggled with on my own goals. By measurable I mean they were worded so that I could easily keep track of my progress and I would know for sure when I was finished. For example 1000 acts of kindness is measurable, you just have to keep track of the numbers, whereas if I had written that I wanted to be more kind, it would be hard to know whether I had succeeded or not.
I admit that since coming to China to train full time again, I've found the UBBT less useful than I believe most of my teammates have but during my time home in Canada it was invaluable. I know that without the goals I chose for myself I would have never tried Brazilian Jiu Jitsu which was a lot of fun and very informative. I also tried Muay Thai which I thought I would like a lot more than I did. Both were mind broadening experiences and reinforced for me why I love kung fu so much.
While I was home I was training hard 6 days a week and totally focused on my martial arts training the entire time. Knowing that I was moving to China in the fall I wanted to spend as much time with my family and friends as possible, without the UBBT pushing me I'm sure I would have let my training fall to the back burner and focused more on social obligations. Now I can look back and I feel like I accomplished both intense training and spending quality time with those I care about both of which were extremely important to me. I have never been so driven and self-motivated as I was during the 6ish months before my return to Wudang. This was an important experience not only to achieve the goals that I had set but also to prove that I really have what it takes to push myself to do what is important to me in spite of social and societal pressures.
I also learned about how to train with injuries, how to avoid them, and how to take care of them when they happen. When you have a huge pile of goals hanging over your head you can't just take a week or 2 off if you get hurt, you have to figure out a way to work around it. I sprained my ankle so I couldn't do any run/walk/bike stuff so I did extra push ups, sit ups, etc while I let my ankle heal. I also learned that when you push your body so very hard you have to take really good care of it, I got regular massages (something I've never really made a priority before), ate well and often, and tried to avoid anything that would be another stressor in my daily routine. These lessons are really going to help me while I'm here training in China. I had a completely frozen up shoulder/neck last week and I've had to continue training without making it any worse. One armed push ups, slower punches, no handstands, massages, applying this AWESOME herbal ointment and it's slowly getting better and better.
Probably the most important thing I got out of the UBBT is that setting a goal and giving it my all is WAY more important than whether or not I succeed in achieving said goal. Some goals I blew out of the water and others I'm definitely not going to succeed at but they were all really valuable experiences that taught me about myself and what I'm made of. I have so much more confidence now to try my best at anything in life because I know that the journey really is more important than the destination.
I'm really glad that I chose to participate in the UBBT and really grateful to Sifu Brinker for asking me. Definitely a life changing experience.
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