🔥Welcome to Volume #00077!🔥
I’m Christian Champ. This is ☯️The Middle Way Newsletter ☯️. It is a place where I write, explore, share, and invite you along for the journey.
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🥋Why We Should Always Be White Belts 🥋
As my sensei put on my new belt, I felt like a little kid.
At that same moment, my son yelled, “there is my dad.” He sat in the front row, watching with his fellow jiu-jitsu kids.
My pride radiated hearing my son’s words. It felt good to get a blue belt, but better for my son to share in the process.
It’s always enjoyable to progress. It is more fun doing it with our children. They see the good days when you get rewarded, but most importantly, the bad ones. They watch us tap when we get arm-bared, triangled, and choked out. They watch us get up from defeats and keep going.
When we show up as a white belt, we fight through the struggle. We face it head-on, ok with flailing around until we figure it out.
Jiu-Jitsu brings an extra level of unforgiveness because when you struggle you physically get smashed. The feedback loop is short and vicious. There is no question when you get dominated.
What we want to harness is the White Belt Mindset.
The White Belt Mindset is Focused Effort + Reps = Improvement
The White Belt mindset invokes a practice to get to our desired outcome. It means the journey never ends because we never reach nirvana. We take each moment to push ourselves a little more, and when we hit our target, we already aimed higher.
We want to stretch for that next level or that next belt at all times.
We want to show up as better partners, parents, teammates, or teachers. Whatever our goal, the White Belt mindset means we keep going, with the ups and downs, continually getting better. We stay humble and stay hungry.
We only get there by being thoughtful in our approach and showing up. Even when we wear a blue or black belt, we show up as a white belt.
We earn it every day.
The White Belt Mindset
Aways Learning
Humble
Hungry
Consistently Showing Up
Open to New Ideas
Keep Going
Strong Effort
Repetitions
Process not Outcomes
Gratitude
Appreciating the Journey
📓Things to Think About📓
Robin Wright talks to HBR about Her Life’s Work
She started off as a dancer then became a model, actress, mother, founder, and director. Life gives us many possibilities when we reach for them.
But shouldn’t you challenge yourself sometimes? Say “I’m not ready, but I’ll try anyway”?
That came very late, well into my 40s. You know, you’re typecast a lot in this industry, and for so many years, while I was raising my kids and choosing to do one project a year at most, I was always cast as the pained, soulful woman. But I did want to break out of that box, and House of Cards was the catalyst. Claire Underwood was the most venal character. She couldn’t have been more of a departure for me.
How do you measure success?
I think it’s always been to not buy into what society tells you—like “If you leave and don’t do a movie a year, you’re done.” Just no. If you have belief in yourself, that energy, you do it your way. And I just always felt that in my bones. Maybe having children at such a young age helped. I knew they were the priority, so everything else followed from there.
Alex Tabbok posted a study on Marginal Revolution showing 2x speeds leading to no diminishing in learning
If you want to learn faster and more efficiently, up those speeds to 1.5x or 2x on videos and podcasts. Then see if that works for you.
We presented participants with lecture videos at different speeds and tested immediate and delayed (1 week) comprehension. Results revealed minimal costs incurred by increasing video speed from 1x to 1.5x, or 2x speed, but performance declined beyond 2x speed. We also compared learning outcomes after watching videos once at 1x or twice at 2x speed. There was not an advantage to watching twice at 2x speed but if participants watched the video again at 2x speed immediately before the test, compared with watching once at 1x a week before the test, comprehension improved. Thus, increasing the speed of videos (up to 2x) may be an efficient strategy, especially if students use the time saved for additional studying or rewatching the videos, but learners should do this additional studying shortly before an exam. However, these trends may differ for videos with different speech rates, complexity or difficulty, and audiovisual overlap.
Why We Should All Juggle to be Better Athletes by Justin Ochoa
There is a strong basis on my end for liking this article. I started juggling daily a couple of years ago. Instead of being better athletes, we can all use it for better skill development and brain function.
Justin breaks down how juggling beyond having no limitations and being harmless gives us better:
Hand-Eye Coordination
Brain Development (white and gray matter)
Rhythm and Coordination
🎧Things to Listen, See, and Watch 🎧
💣Words of Wisdom💣
Questlove, Creative Quest
"None of this is especially consequential except to suggest that there are patterns and línks everywhere, and if you are trying to remain in a creative frame of mind, you should let your brain find its way to them."
Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus
"Happiness is impermanent, like everything else. In order for happiness to be extended and renewed, you have to learn how to feed your happiness."
Haruki Murakami and Philip Gabriel, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
"The main thing was not the speed or distance so much as running every day, without taking a break."
Anders Ericsson, Robert Pool, Peak
"The best way to get past any barrier is to come at it from a different direction, which is one reason it is useful to work with a teacher or coach."
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
"One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore. Another is that writing motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around."
Seth Godin, The Icarus Deception
"What’s scarce is trust, connection, and surprise. These are three elements in the work of a successful artist."
🙏Thanks for reading🙏
Where do you need to show up more as a white belt? How do you remain humble, focused, and keep that desire to improve?
Any thoughts or comments, please share!
Namaste,
Christian
Now a blue belt, but always a white belt
🥋Why We Should Always Be White Belts 🥋