communication
Putting email into context
Do you write an email to your colleague who’s sitting right next to you? Would you rather email a person to negotiate a deal? How many times do you play email tennis until you decide to pick up the phone to call the person?
I’m an office bound worker, and my work requires me to deal [...]
Fear of feedback
I recently attended a “leadership” course, where you’re asked to play games in a group setting to demonstrate your leadership, or the lack of it, in a controlled environment. We navigated a small island with a “hot-from-the-oven” navigation skills and a 20-years-old topographical map.
I actually enjoyed the navigation part as it brought me out to [...]
Follow and borrow
Out of the 100 rounds of push hands I did, I “felt” 2 follows and 0 borrows. And realised the distinction between them.
When pushing hands, the message is always to “listen” to the intent of the force, but feeling it with your hands. If you know the intent of the force, you will know where [...]
Never force your opponent 100%
In push hands, one of my teacher’s favourite quote is to tell us not to push your partner into oblivion.
Push 70% and leave 30% for yourself (逼人七分，留三分给自己）
I’ve unconsciously recorded this in my mind, only to realise I like the quote because I used it in my teaching as well!
The reason he gave? If you push [...]
How are you? I am ok…
“How are you?”
A very simple question, with a variety of answers you can choose from, but somehow, we stick to the familiar, like “i’m ok” or “good good” or “fine”. There’s no denying the convenience of picking from stock answers. It’s simple, it’s effective and it doesn’t draw you into a long drawn discussion about [...]
Honest answers
Honest answers - an endangered species of the human vocabulary. It’s extinction among adults is probably just on the horizon, saved by the fact that human population is growing - more kids, more honest answers, until they grow up. Even kids tell lies.
So why do we find honest answers so difficult to come by? Or [...]
Doctor, my phone is sick
My dad used a very interesting analogy when bringing his phone to the repair shop. Because my dad couldn’t reproduce the fault, the repairman was not convinced that there was anything wrong with it. So my dad said:
“Look, I’ll only bring in the phone when it’s sick. If it’s not sick, why would I bring [...]
Telling others about tai ji
I always find it difficult to judge how much to talk about tai ji with non-tai ji folk or tai ji beginners. It’s ok if someone comes up to you and ask a specific question, like what comes after this step. The more difficult ones i’ve encountered are… can tai chi kill? Even the mere [...]
The wisdom of Chopsticks
Can the chopsticks teach us something about life? Or am I clutching straws (or rather, chopsticks) here?
