What are the 5 karate principles and how they could benefit any leader
Take a high-level karate master and strip away tens of thousands of hours of physical training.
What are you left with?
A human being on a spiritual path.
This path is governed by principles designed to develop an individual’s physical, mental, and spiritual being.
These principles—rooted in centuries of wisdom dating back to the Shaolin warriors and to the first ancient Indian monk who came to China—create a framework that binds all traditional karate practitioners all around the globe.
In karate class, we must move from our core. On a spiritual level, our core are our principles.
As Stephen R. Covey wrote “People can't live with change if there's not a changeless core inside them.”
I asked one of the world’s top karate instructors, Richard Amos—an 8th degree black belt—to give us an insight into the principles of Shotokan karate. Born in the UK and based in New York City, Amos lived, trained, and worked in Japan for over a decade. He’s fluent in Japanese, and trained under Asai sensei, regarded as one of the greatest Japanese karate masters to have lived in recent times. Amos is the second westerner to have completed the three-year instructor’s course in Japan as well as placing second in the All-Japan Championships, at a time when no non-Japanese had ever reached the semi-finals before.
Here are five principles he shared:
1. Strive for a whole character – Some translations say, “Strive for perfection of character.”
Amos says:
“Perfection is impossible. A more accurate meaning is whole or complete. It is about having a certain knowingness that I have only really seen in yogis such as Radhanath Swami.”
The famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, in his book, The Book of Five Rings: A Classic Text on the Japanese Way of the Sword, exemplifies this well when he says that a true master is never taken by surprise because he is wise.
Being willing to strive for wisdom means being willing to learn from our mistakes, make amends, and move forward.
“I know I can get relentless when I feel that my students aren’t getting it,” he said.
In business, good character is essential from the C-Suite down to the production line. A well-run company needs employees who are hard working, conscientious, honest, and helpful, as much as a company needs a CEO who represents the whole organization with integrity.
Management exhibiting poor character will bring about high turnover, dissatisfied customers, and ultimate failure. Take Enron and Kmart’s bankruptcies as examples. In one year, Enron went from $100 billion in revenue to zero, all because its executives used accounting loopholes to hide billions of dollars of debt as well as mislead their board of directors. Similarly in 2002, Kmart’s leaders lied to shareholders and company officials while syphoning off company money for their own gain.
2. Defend the path of truth - Some variations of this principle use the word sincerity or faithfulness, and Amos says it’s about your chosen path in life and sticking to it. It’s about integrity, matching your actions to your words. It’s about walking the walk and talking the talk.
“Who are you? Do you live by your life values or do you change when a better offer comes along?”
As the founder of Shotokan karate, Gichin Funakushi, wrote: “First understand yourself, then understand others.”
When Amos was a junior instructor in Japan, he decided to recite the five principles of karate before and after class, along with the non-instructors. At that time, the instructors were exempt from saying them out loud. Amos felt, as he does today, that the self-programming of constant repetition ensured that important principles entered his subconscious. Surrendering to your path takes humility.
In business, knowing our “why” is key, as Simon Sinek talks about in his Golden Circle TED talk, or as Guy Kawasaki discusses regarding making meaning within an organization. If our sole goal is making money, we will fail, Kawasaki says. On the other hand, if our goal is to improve the quality of life for others, to protect something good or to rectify a wrong, we have a better chance of creating meaning and in turn of making money as a by-product.
Sticking to our why or our meaning is key to success.
3. Cultivate a spirit of perseverance - This speaks to daily practice and to the laws of nature. There’s no hack or quick fix in becoming a karate master.
“I like the word ‘cultivate’ because it speaks to the daily, constant, ritualistic, all year, every year labor that is required. This is a perseverance that requires constant attention, much like farming.”
This farming analogy parallels Stephen Covey’s Laws of the Farm in his book First Things First in which he points out the impossibility of “cramming on the farm.” University students may get away with cramming for tests, he says, but farmers cannot expect to have a harvest, if they do all the work at the last minute. They can’t expect anything to grow overnight.
The laws of nature govern farming, much like karate, health, self-development, or business.
“You can’t decide to persevere,” Amos says. “You just do it. The thought is superseded by action. Funakoshi said to keep your karate bubbling. But be careful not to boil it too high. I’ve seen people boil themselves dry. You want to keep it bubbling.”
4. Honor the principles of etiquette – The most visible outward sign of etiquette in a karate class is the bowing and kneeling, even to an adversary. In Japanese this is called rei and means “respect.”
“It’s about propriety, good manners, consideration, and hierarchy,” Amos says.” It’s about when to speak and when not to speak. It’s about knowing your place within the dojo and understanding the human condition as well as empathetic emotion. Bowing is humility.”
Amos reminds us that knowing your place in a military setting is crucial. Breaking rank could, as he says “sever the thread in the battlefield.” The original meaning of breaking rank was a straight line of soldiers falling into disarray and causing chaos. Severing the thread on a battlefield would be similar to an employee not using the lines of protocol and going over his superior’s head.
High ranked students should nurture the lower ranked students. In turn, the lower ranked students should appreciate, accept and respect the higher ranked students.
Karate practitioners greet each other with the word "oss." They come to class 10 to 15 minutes early, with a clean body and pressed karategi (or uniform). Some dojos require participants to wash their feet prior to entering class and street shoes are not allowed in the training space. Chewing gum, wearing watches, or idle talk is forbidden.
In business, etiquette is professionalism. We wouldn't dream of going to work in our gym pants, smelling bad, or with dirty fingers. A clear organizational structure is also important, as it allows for better communication, clear reporting, and efficiency. Salespeople understand etiquette and strive to make the client's life easier. They are respectful of the client's time. They answer emails and calls promptly. They aren't too personal, yet not too distant. There is a spirit of respect.
5. Guard against hot-blooded courage – “There is no first strike in karate,” wrote founder of Shotokan karate, Gichin Funakoshi. Some translate this as “guard against impetuous courage.” Amos says that the actual translation is “energetic blood,” and reminds us that the use of ‘guard against’ is key.
“This may well happen to you,” Amos says. “You’ll feel the power. The training will give you the tools to be courageous, but watch yourself, handle with care, and don’t forget humility.”
In business, overconfidence or impulsivity could lead to bankruptcy. Jean-Marie Messier’s disastrous leadership of Vivendi can only be categorized as impetuous and overconfident. The way he turned a once highly lucrative utility company into a heavily indebted global media group could be seen as the epitome of irresponsibility. He overpaid for businesses as he ventured into new industries he knew little about. Stretching an organization too thin removes any reserves needed to withstand stock market fluctuations, which was particularly true for Vivendi following the bursting of the dot-com bubble. Having multiple income streams is key in a downturn. In this Covid-19 era, this rings particularly true.
People with impetuous courage put themselves and others at risk. Stay away from them. Don't get in a car with them, don’t marry them, and certainly don’t do business with them.
These five principles were created and molded to form a warrior whose wisdom would help to bring about a better, more peaceful world. A better world is one where frameworks exist to contain and help us strive for our better selves. By applying these timeless karate principles to our businesses, we can increase our chances of success.
Chasing Bushido: How I Learned to Just Say Osu by my sensei Richard Amos is a book that I devoured in two days. It’s entertaining and I recommend it to a general audience because it covers themes of resilience, persistence, humility, and mastery, and does not get into the details of karate to such an extent that it would lose non-martial artists.
Will education help to battle stigma and unmet needs in addiction treatment?
When I share that I’m going to yet another addiction conference, friends and family respond with silence, then say: “There she goes again: addicted to addiction.”
Taking a deep breath, I let their comments go. How can I convince people of the joy I derive from working as an executive coach with high performing individuals who understand the value of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing above all else? Conversations with them leave me with more energy not less. They, too, value open-mindedness, integrity, honesty, and compassion.
One day, before boarding a flight to London to attend Europe’s largest addiction conference, I read the program titles to a friend: “The human fire extinguished — The rise of burnout; Bio-hacking the nervous system for mental and behavioral health recovery; Nutrition, sleep and physical exercise: Impact on mental health…”
She stopped me and said: “Cool! Now, THAT interests me! I had no idea that’s what you’re going to learn there.”
Why do people respond with such coolness to the word “addiction?”
“It’s stigma,” a recovery coach in long-time recovery recently explained. The word “addiction” is charged. We have visions of the dirty, smelly, abscess-covered addict with needles coming out of his arm, or the pill popping wife who breaks into her husband’s safe to steal checks and more pills, the alcoholic who drives drunk despite countless DUI’s, or the dad who makes covert sexual comments to his teenage daughter after chasing multiple women on line.
Addicts don’t get much sympathy.
The truth is everyone one of us or a loved one is just one accident, one pill, one drink, one job loss, or one betrayal away from starting on that downward spiral. The themes are universal and include: loneliness, anxiety, burnout, low self-esteem, being sedentary, poor habits, poor nutrition, lack of sleep, toxic relationships, rage, non-performing co-workers, etc…
Why not learn directly from the best mental health professionals in the world? They say, if you want to learn to cook, go to a chef.
According to the CDC, nearly 800,000 people have died in the USA from drug overdoses in the last 10 years. This isn’t counting alcohol and nicotine related deaths. 88,000 people die each year from alcohol-related causes alone.
Considering these statistics, I am still dismayed at the lack of knowledge and compassion out there. People still see addicts as subhuman, as morally depraved individuals who lack discipline and self-will. I’ve even heard people say: the world is over-populated. Why try to save them?
With that kind of attitude, no wonder people are dying. Then, I wonder how their attitude would change if their own child were on the verge of self-annihilation.
So what made my friend interested in the titles I read out loud? Something must have resonated. Maybe she thought she could gain knowledge to help herself or her loved ones.
Education is key to combating stigma as well as changes in policies and health care systems and this has been the mission of C4 Recovery Foundation, a non-profit public charity that started staging conferences on addiction 19 years ago on Cape Cod and then nine years later on the West Coast.
We sat with chairman Rick Ohrstrom and CEO and board member Jack O’Donnell to get an idea of the secret sauce behind their success. After all, they are the largest syndicator of continuing education (CE) credits in the field and offer what some say are the deepest and most comprehensive learning experiences for professionals working with addiction.
No wonder other big event organizers try to buy them.
“We are unique. We don’t represent the industry business. We are not the creation of insurance brokers, buyers or providers.”
“There is big demand for our conferencing business,” Jack O’Donnell said. “We have a waiting list of 100+ vendors and demand from attendees. It’s the sponsorship dollars that have dried up.” Ohrstrom and O’Donnell suspect this is due to the consolidation of treatment centers. Plus, C4 doesn’t let money dictate content.
“We represent the individuals who are struggling,” Ohrstrom added.
When asked if he were to write a book, what would the title be, Ohrstrom responded: “Blow the Sucker Up and Start Over: Speaking beyond the opioid crisis”
Ohrstrom believes there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye. He believes the traditional treatment industry has lost its way.
“The system is designed for people who can afford it,” he said. “Things need to be more equitable.”
There should be more talk about recovery services and improving the quality of life for people. There should be an unbundling of services.
Prevention has to start early. If we don’t get to kids before the ages of 5 or 6, we are too late. “At this point, you’re talking remediation,” he says.
He also believes that the breakdown of family has been largely caused by the war on drugs. How can a family survive when parents are locked up on simple marijuana possession charges? How does a criminal record for this help someone find a job and feed his or her family?
Ohrstrom has been working tirelessly to lobby congress to change the way law enforcement treats people with substance use disorders and mental illness.
He’s one of the authors of PTACC that stands for Police, Treatment, and Community Collaborative. It’s an “alliance of practitioners in law enforcement, behavioral health, community, advocacy, research, and public policy, whose mission is to strategically widen community behavioral health and social service options available through law enforcement diversion.”
Diversion means getting people treatment instead of a criminal record.
On a more philosophical level, Ohrstrom and his advisors have been meeting regularly to define what they call the “it”. They are convinced that addiction, mental illness, violence, and suicide are merely symptoms of a greater societal issue.
“Our goal is to raise awareness that something is going on beyond the symptoms.”
Until they figure “it” out, C4 will continue to deliver premier content with integrity.
Recovery work, nutrition, and cardio are crucial for people who want to be fit
Each and every day, he sees the ravages caused by overtraining. Dr. Dan Hatch, a physiotherapist in Newport, Rhode Island, blames popular fads that are ultimately detrimental to our health.
“There’s no quick fix to living a healthy and happy life,” he says. “And preventing injury is key.”
To prevent injury and perform well, it is important to do consistent recovery work, implement good nutrition, complete your cardiovascular training in the right heart zones, address your mental and emotional wellbeing, and strength train.
Dan is no stranger to such injury. After high school, his hopes to attend college on a soccer scholarship were dashed when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
His recovery experience led to his pursuing a physiotherapy degree. Now, he works with professional athletes, including Volvo Ocean Race sailors, whose livelihoods depend on preventing injury.
An avid athlete, Dan participates in triathlon races such as the Ironman. To avoid injury and to perform better, he plans enough recovery work into his weekly routine. He needs to do this if he is to climb the Matterhorn in July and to compete in the Chicago Marathon this coming October — both of which are on his agenda.
Recovery work
Dan defines recovery work as: stretching/pliability work, foam rolling, massage, and time off sport.
Stretching is based on the concept of muscle pliability that was made popular recently by Tom Brady, the quarterback for the New England Patriots. Brady — now 41 — performs better for his team than he did when he was younger. He attributes this incredible fact to his diet and training regimen, the details of which you can read in his book The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance. The cornerstone to his regimen is muscle “pliability.”
“Everything begins with pliability, the daily lengthening and softening of muscles before and after physical activity. Without pliable muscles, you can’t achieve long-term health,” his website reads.
Dan has seen what happens when clients don’t address their pliability.
“Let’s say for example that we have a muscle that’s one foot long but that now functions at six inches when it isn’t pliable,” Dan says. “Not only do you get access to half the power, endurance, strength, but this can also lead to an orthopedic negative effect. The tendons and joints now experience undue force and this can lead to tendonitis, bursitis, arthritis, and the wearing low of cartilage.”
The key is pliability work, which he says can be done be done in one form with yoga, if it is done in the correct posture and if stretches are held for the appropriate amounts of time. But beware of which type of yoga/instructor you sign up for.
“A lot of yoga out there is power-based,” Dan says. “What people need is flexibility and restoration, or what is sometimes known as restorative yoga. If done wrong, yoga can lead to more injury.”
Nutrition for weight loss
“Nutrition is most important. If you put in bad stuff, you will continue to struggle and get bad stuff out,” Dan says.
For weight loss, he agrees with the clinical opinion that the focus should be 75% food and 25% exercise.
“The old school way of thinking is that I can out-exercise my diet. But the reality is that people are getting hurt because they are over exercising more to make up for bad eating. It’s a bad cycle. We have this image of ourselves as great athletes. The reality is, great athleticism is impossible to achieve with over-exercising and a crappy diet.”
“Diet is often the real culprit. Many people think they are eating healthily, but there is a lot of flawed information out there, including our FDA food pyramid.”
Dan uses the analogy of car maintenance. “Think about not changing the oil or the tires, and not using good fuel. The car won’t perform well.”
There is a lot of confusion about food. The key is to get away from processed food.
“If it comes in a box or bag, it’s probably not good for you,” Dan says, who can attest to this through personal experience.
Since February 2017, he has lost 40 pounds; he trains well and feels well, even emotionally. “I feel great since adopting a whole food plant-based lifestyle. And I’ve tried every single thing, and this is sustainable, enjoyable, and supported by the evidence.”
Although Dan is a big fan of the vegan diet, which has been proven to work and which many Olympic and top athletes have adopted, he says that regardless of what you choose, choose whole foods that are less processed and less animal-based products. He recommends Dr. Michael Greger’s nutritionfacts.org site for tips on a healthy diet as well as Rich Roll’s inspiring book Finding Ultra.
“How do we actually progress back towards that person that we still idolize, our 20-year-old self? Or how can we even supersede that, without hurting ourselves, so we can still connect with our friends through activity and not feel left out? What we eat plays a huge roll. Rich Roll’s inspirational story shows that it’s never too late to become fit and healthy again.”
Workouts: Cardio and weights
Dan recommends cardiovascular activity three to four times per week and weight training one to two times per week.
For cardiovascular training, he says it is key to understand your heart rate zones in order to avoid overtraining and orthopedic injury.
“The sweet spot is 60 to 80% of your maximum heart rate for prolonged cardiovascular activity,” he says. “If you train too high, you go into the carb-burning zone. You only have x amount of readily accessible carbs available or about 15–20 minutes on average.
Dan recommends using a heart-monitoring device, such as a Fitbit, Garmin, or Apple Watch and to start becoming familiar with your heart and how it fluctuates with activity. Learn about your zones in percentages of your max heart rate.
“If you want to be efficient in the time that you are spending going for a walk or a run, you want to be in the fat burning zone the majority of the time.”
To calculate this, a simple formula is to take your age and subtract it from 220 to get your estimated max heart rate. “Now, take 60–80 % of that and it gives you your fat burning zone. While training try to stay toward the higher end of your fat burning zone for the greatest effect.”
“So look at your heart rate monitor and if you are in your fat burning zone, you are being efficient with your time. But if you spend your whole entire time in your carb burning zone, you will burn through your reserves, you will be vulnerable to injury as you will become fatigued, and you will start to burn muscle. You will have the opposite effect of what you want to achieve. You will not teach your metabolism to burn off the fat: the most efficient fuel service that we have available to us.”
“Over time, even the high end endurance athletes we’ve worked with have to do this. We’ve even had some of them start off at a walk to stay in the right zone when coming off an injury. Otherwise, they too would go into the wrong training zone. If you stay in the right zone for a while, you will be able to perform at a higher level with your heart rate at the same level for longer periods of time. This is how you truly improve your heart health.”
DAN’S FINAL TIPS
Just start!
Don’t be overwhelmed by it.
Eat as many plant based whole foods as possible.
Have a balance between sport activity you’re doing and recovery work.
Start in the mornings. It’s a great time. Less pressure. These are the only times that are predictable for a lot of us; the key is to get the workout out of the way.
Go outside for your workouts.
Surround yourself with people with a similar mentality. If your goal is to be fit, surround yourself people who are fit.
Avoid pyramid schemes. Most of the fitness products sold this way are highly processed.
Find a coach — someone who can help you with accountability or a training partner.
If you want to workout in a gym, find one that: is clean; has an area dedicated to recovery work; has friendly staff; has other people who are motivating and positive; and that has a place to eat healthy food.
Remember: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You might get short-term results but not overall health. There’s no quick fix to living a healthy and happy life.
Dan Hatch is owner of NPT HealthWorks in Newport, Rhode Island, offering physical therapy, massage therapy, personal training, fitness and recovery classes, plant-based nutrition counseling, On-Running Shoes, and mental health counseling.
What are standards and how to raise them to reach higher levels of confidence
We’ve all had the experience of coming across someone so beguilingly confident that we are left wondering how they got that way.
I came across such a person 15 years ago at a dinner party. The hostess had just offered me seconds. I was full, so I wanted to say “no,” yet I wanted to please her even more. So, ignoring my body, I said: “Sure, why not. Thank you.” After serving me the food, the hostess offered seconds to the beautiful 70-year-old woman seated next to me, who replied, “no, thank you,” with a calm certainty. Still smiling, the hostess moved on to the next guest.
The effect on me was powerful. I had never witnessed a “no” said with such serenity. In an instant, I yearned for this wise woman’s authenticity. I’ve often looked back on that moment and wondered how secure in herself she must have been. I’ve made progress on saying “no,” having worked on identifying and meeting my needs and establishing and maintaining boundaries. I now realize that for my “no” to come off with ease, it needs to be based on my personal standards.
Daniela Rusu is another person I met recently whom I admire for her high leadership standards. She is a certified professional coach, training designer, facilitator, and speaker based in the Lausanne area.
Born and raised in Vama, a hillside village in Romania, Daniela grew up under communism. At 11, she gave a speech — on her school’s contribution to a clean environment — in front of 2,500 people. At 18, she became a teacher. At 42, she got her Master’s in International Business Development from the University of Neuchâtel, after having enrolled in an organizational leadership program at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), where she developed a branding project for Cisco Systems.
Now she is helping people become better leaders and coaching corporate executives. She says her leadership experience as a child under communism may have helped her become what she is today.
“It was a lot like the scouts. Every school was a unit and had its own commander who was elected from the top students. People believed in me.”
The people chose her, because until grade eight, Daniela had had the best grades, had performed in competitions in the town’s traditional dance group and had been reciting poetry. She had shown the people that she was someone who did her best and who engaged herself in the cultural life of her community. She had stepped up and had exhibited high standards.
WHAT ARE STANDARDS?
Standards are not “shoulds,” but rather something so automatic that they are ingrained in the self.
“A standard is a must,” says Daniela. “I have this saying:
“Tell me what you’ll settle for and I’ll tell you what your standards are.’ Sometimes you settle, you make compromises, and you die inside.”
“A value is also extremely important, but you aren’t going to pursue it actively,” Daniela says. “I work with what’s real for you and what’s true for you. We go towards your joy and what brings you satisfaction. When you know you are in line with your values and your purpose, then everything aligns.”
HOW DO STANDARDS DIFFER FROM BOUNDARIES?
“Boundaries set your territory and are based on your standards. The higher your standards are, the more clear and strong your boundaries will be. It’s all linked to self-esteem and what you believe about yourself. Lower standards allow others to pass through your boundaries, going in and out as they please. They allow you to be manipulated, stretched and pushed, because you don’t stand up for yourself. These are the inner standards: ‘Sometimes I am so confident in myself that I don’t even need boundaries, because they come automatically.’ Explicit boundaries are needed when you aren’t sure and you need to protect yourself.”
HOW DO YOU RAISE YOUR PERSONAL STANDARDS?
“The first thing that I do with clients is to look at the Wheel of Life and ask them to assess their level of satisfaction in all the areas of their lives. Standards are a reflection of how we see ourselves. It all boils down to who you think you are. What is your self-image? What do you believe about yourself? For me, it’s a threshold. What do you allow? What do you allow others? What do you allow yourself?
“I ask clients how they see the world, what mindsets they have, and how they relate. For me it doesn’t matter if the standards are low or high; what I am most interested in is from where the standards originate.
“Every time you need to raise standards, the question is: Who do you think you are to have that standard at that level? And who do you become to raise it to that level? It’s good to have role models.
“Another thing that I have learned is that we cannot admire people who inspire us — nor admire their qualities — if we don’t already have those qualities in ourselves. Interestingly, we can only see things that we know and have a reference for. The same is true for judgments, both positive and negative. When we judge something in somebody else, we have that thing within ourselves.”
CAN YOU PROVIDE AN EXAMPLE OF STANDARDS IN YOUR OWN LIFE?
“When I was pregnant, I would not allow myself to get stressed at my job. It was not about me — it was about the baby. I did everything on time, but one client complained that I wasn’t stressed enough. She thought it meant I was not working. Some people have to see you running around like a headless chicken, sweating, to think that you are working. To this client, the fact that I was serene meant that I didn’t do much. In my work, I see we have developed a culture, in which people have to be busy to have value and to be important.”
Daniela is a role model and a wise coach. What a pleasure it was talking to a person with such inner strength.
Now, when the hostess offers me seconds and my stomach is full, I automatically respond from: “I am someone who takes extremely good care of myself, and I eat until I am 80% full.”
Now… if I could just be someone who meditates every morning without fail…
Daniela Rusu is certified with the International Coach Federation (ICF). She uses neuropsychology and neurobiology principles, the Energy Freedom Technique (EFT), neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), non-violent communication and mindfulness methods. She has trained in interpersonal and organizational communications and management, and international business development.