time at the prestigious International Christian University in Tokyo. I stayed on in Japan after I graduated, spending a year researching keiretsu, the large Japanese corporate conglomerates that dominate Japan's business landscape. My professional experience in Japan culminated in working for many years at a large international consulting firm helping Western Fortune 500 companies succeed in the Japanese market.
Finally, in 1999, I moved back to the United States, began working in the corporate world, and teaching aikido on the side. And then, in 2003, everything changed.
The Interruption
Right after my thirty-fourth birthday, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer – and instantly I was plunged into this whole other world. I went in for surgery less than 48 hours after my first doctor's appointment. The surgery went well. And for a couple of months the news was good. Until it wasn't.
Three months after my surgery, I found out the cancer had spread to my lung and I was going to have to go through chemo – really aggressive chemotherapy, all day, five days a week. My body felt completely destroyed. And yet, even after all that, there was still a spot on my lung in my postchemo scans. So I went in for another surgery. The doctors removed part of my left lung.
Thankfully, I've been cancer free since that surgery. But as you can imagine, my life has never been the same. After fighting cancer, the idea of quitting my stable corporate job to open a full-time aikido academy didn't sound scary at all. After all, what was the worst that could happen? The school could fail. So what? It wouldn't kill me.
I became a full-time business owner in 2006. I built a very successful aikido martial arts academy. Gradually, as I developed my aikido practice and worked with students from all sorts of walks of life, I started to see how the principles of the discipline could help me – and others – become more successful in my business career. I developed a coaching and consulting practice, and these days I speak all over the world, sharing aikido wisdom with groups at conferences, Fortune 500 companies, and elite organizations such as the Central Intelligence Agency.
How the Book Is Structured: Applying the Principles of Aikido
In this book, I'll introduce you to 10 key principles that underpin the discipline of aikido. Each chapter will explain one of these core principles and introduce a physical or mental exercise that you can do to start to understand the principle and immediately put it into practice. In addition, each chapter has a final practical exercise that you can use to help improve your business or personal life. Throughout each chapter, I'll also share simple tips that will help you streamline your work and personal lives to attain clarity and peak performance.
The principles discussed in the book are the foundation of the philosophy of the beautiful martial art of aikido. It may sound strange to talk about a philosophy behind a martial art – after all, most Western sports don't really come with a philosophy. Basketball, baseball, and football all have rules. But martial arts are different, and aikido in particular is a discipline that combines demanding physical regimens with a spiritual side grounded in concepts drawn from Zen Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies.
The 10 principles we'll discuss in this book are:
Chapter 1.
Heiki, pronounced “hey-key,” literally means “calm energy.” The word is often found in Buddhist sutras, or chants. It's often translated as “equanimity.” We'll begin with this principle because none of the other work we'll do is possible without finding this kind of calm energy. We'll talk about how essential calm energy is during a crisis – and in daily life – and we'll discuss strategies for maintaining your calm no matter what is happening around you.
Chapter 2.
Ki, pronounced “key,” is life force. It's the physical and mental energy that flows through you at every moment of your life, powering everything you do. In aikido, students learn not only to use their ki but also to channel it. Aikido teaches us not to rely on pure strength alone. Strength can be seductive – if you rely too heavily on it, you're not learning the techniques properly. You're not learning how to direct your energy through the right channels, and that means you're not being as effective as you could be. In this chapter, we'll talk about how to harness and direct your energies in order to accomplish your goals.
Chapter 3.
Literally, musubi (moo-sue-bee) means tying a knot. In aikido, the word is used to mean connection – a powerful connection that links you to your deepest self, to your opponent, and to the world around you. In business and in life, musubi can help you see the world through the eyes of a customer, a colleague, or a friend or loved one. In this chapter, we'll discuss strategies for building these kinds of connections in order to get the people around you to support your goals.
Chapter 4.
Physically, in martial arts, the word nen (rhymes with “ten”) refers to a point two inches below your navel: your center of gravity. Metaphysically, nen is a sense of cosmic balance. Ultimately, most of us would say we value the same things: family, friends, meaningful work, giving back to our communities. The much harder question is finding, and holding on to, a way to balance all those competing priorities in a way that feels right to you. In this chapter, I will explain how to set and hold on to proper life priorities, in order to find the path that truly works for you.
Chapter 5.
Mushin (moo-sheen) is one of the most important concepts in aikido, and one of the most difficult to grasp. At the moment when you enter into battle – when you most want to have your wits about you – you are asked to empty your mind. Your conscious mind must let go of your training, your preparation, your thoughts about the contest to come. It must become still water, calm and clear. In this chapter, we will discuss strategies, including a formal meditation practice, that will help you clear your mind in the midst of day-to-day distractions.
Chapter 6.
Aikido requires practitioners to go against their own instincts when faced with a conflict. You have to move toward your opponent at a moment when your instincts will be urging you to flee. Aikido is based on centripetal force. The principle of irimi (pronounced like my home town of “Erie” and “me”) refers to the fact that if you want to immobilize a stronger fighter, you have to get close enough to touch them. And if you want to solve a problem, you have to start by moving closer to it, something that takes great courage. In this chapter, we'll talk about why it's so important to attack the heart of a problem rather than getting distracted by tangents – and I'll explain how to tell the one from the other.
Chapter 7.
Every aikido class begins and ends with an exercise called kokyu-ho (pronounced, koh-Q-hoe). You grasp a partner's wrists and hold on to each other while you each try to throw the other off balance, powered by nothing more than an exhaled breath. Students have to learn to relax their bodies – and also their minds. They have to learn not to worry about who looks silly, or who has practiced longer, or who is stronger; they have to stay focused only on their breath to avoid telegraphing their intentions. We all hold back in life because we are afraid of failing, afraid of looking silly, afraid of change. In this chapter, I will discuss
