I'm Still Standing...

There’s a lot written about it already, but I keep coming back to Musashi’s Book of Five Rings. It’s a masterpiece that benefits from re-reading time and time again; the insights of someone who’d survived hundreds of real fights where death was the only other outcome. The insights are timeless, because, although weapons change a little (though not that much), men and strategy remain the same. From time to time I'll set down my various thoughts and reflections on this greatest of works.

One of Musashi’s insights is that there should be no difference between practice and performance, and our whole lives – every bit of them – should be practice. There’s no difference between walking or running in battle, and walking and running in our daily lives. Train how you intend to fight, and make every bit of everything you do a part of that training.

This insight helped me out in my own life several years ago. I was talking to my boss at work. Not my immediate boss, but THE boss. A powerful, perceptive, very forceful character. Everyone was wary of him. I’d given a presentation and we spoke a few words as we were leaving. He asked me a few questions and probed me a bit. And then he said: ‘Stand still man! You’re hopping around like a damned chicken!’ or some such thing. In retrospect I’ve never felt comfortable just standing and talking – a bit self-conscious – and, admittedly, I would always be shifting position whilst doing so. He’d picked up on this and had obviously found it annoying.

If the person I’d been talking to was an attacker the feeling he’d be getting is not one of annoyance but a clear signal of my discomfort. Uncomfortable equals not confident; a clear sign of weakness, which adds up to the perception of being an easy victim. Even if everything else had been perfect – my eye contact, hand positioning, voice, intonation, all the rest of it, my shifting about would have been totally incongruent and betrayed the lie that I wasn’t really confident. I had, what we call in the FAST system, "happy feet."

This really bugged me. After all, I’d worked for a long time in an area where doing this was required, and I’d done it. I’d reflected on it, practiced it, honed it in the mirror, and used it successfully night after night. What was the difference? The answer is, there really is no difference. I’d made a separation between life and work; between the different spheres of work. I’d not taken Musashi’s insight to heart and made the way I stand in battle the way I stand in daily life, and vice versa. Standing is just standing.

So, I brought the two into equilibrium. I use every single conversation I have with others as the opportunity to practice my situational control position. Standing firm, feet bladed, hands in front (talking Italian), making eye contact (another thing I find really difficult), intoning in a certain way. My colleagues and others don’t realise it but I’m training when they talk to me. Now, I don’t even realise it; it’s second nature. It’s just standing.

D