I want to be like Bruce Lee.  It doesn’t matter that I’m less athletic than he was, or that I’m a girl.  I don’t care if I don’t practice the same style or that I have never been a movie star.  I think none of that matters because Bruce Lee lives in me in ways I never expected.

What you see of him in the movies is incredibly awesome, but I can never be that. You would laugh if I ever even attempted some of his fierce quickness or determination.  I’d have a bit of a laugh, too.  No, the aspects of Bruce Lee that live in me have little to do with the movie star or the guy who graced the cover of martial arts magazines.

What do I love about Bruce Lee?  Maybe the fact that he overcame nerve damage in his back to continue practicing his martial art even after being told by doctors that he’d never practice again. Maybe I admire him because he considered himself a martial artist first and an actor second. Maybe he’s my hero since he chose to teach non-Asians at a time that wasn’t readily accepted. Maybe he’s just plain awesome to me because he continually challenged himself to be better.

He seems to be a bit of a cultural diversion; a person who tapped into personal power to achieve superhuman status.  Inside, he was just a guy; a hard-working,  ultra-capable, endorphin-producing kind of guy.  On the outside, he was magnificent.

How You Can Be Like Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee is a great example of how to live strong.  He’s well-known, a legacy, and exemplifies the artistry, strength and creativity of martial arts.  You can look at his pictures and see every muscle flexed even when he was at rest.  That takes a lot of work.

So, if you can’t reach that level of dedication or physical strength and agility, how can you be like Bruce?

What Bruce Lee did with his life was nothing shy of remarkable.  We can all follow the basics of Bruce and establish a few exceptional routines for living  life with interest, dedication, desire, and personal challenge.

The key components that Bruce delivered so well in his life are the ones on which you should focus:

1.  Overcome

2.  Live as who you are

3.  Challenge yourself to be better

These factors will bulk you up.  They will expose ripples of your true self.  When you apply these masterful and artful Bruce Lee techniques to your life something incredible will happen.

To Overcome

When he was working out with extreme weights once, Bruce Lee injured his back so severely he was told he would never practice martial arts again.  You and I know the story, though, don’t we?  He never stopped and only got better.  He had to deal with other disappointments, too.  He was denied the opportunity to play the lead role in the Kung Fu series on television (the role was played instead by a non-Asian, non-martial artist). Rumors suggest that he had to overcome racism as an Asian actor and before Hollywood would accept him, he had to make his movies in Hong Kong.

Bruce Lee overcame negative experiences in the same way that you should face the challenges presented in your life.  Not everything is going to go the way you want.  Obstacles will emerge in the middle of your plans; or, your momentum will be upset by an unexpected or undeserved issue.

To be like Bruce Lee, you must remember one important thing.  Whatever happens, you can overcome.  I can think of several instances in my life when I’ve applied a strong martial arts mindset, like Bruce Lee, and had to “overcome.”

Two miscarriages, a severely troubled pregnancy, fires on my property, and living in a half-built house for years come to mind as my “challenges.”  If not for truly believing that I could overcome, I think the results would have been much different.  I was able to accept the  miscarriages as simply “not meant to be,” which helped me move on.  I fought tooth and nail to save my troubled pregnancy and I won. I extinguished a fire in my back yard with the bare hands of my family, buckets of water and a hose. Living in the half-built house taught me tremendous humility and patience and I persevered.  I will never take for granted electricity or showers.

You have your list of obstacles too, right?  From this day forward, commit to altering your normal course.  Are you ready to not give up and not give in when you know it will produce the right outcome?  Can you make the changes that are right and adequate under the circumstances and not allow others to sway you from who you are meant to be?  Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee.

Live As Who You Are First

Bruce Lee was a martial artist first, an actor second.

As a martial artist, he was one of the first to teach non-Asians martial arts.  It was not readily accepted. He did not let this deter him.  He continued on his path as a teacher and lover of martial arts. Through this love, he created a genre in movies called “action hero.” At a time when “visual effects” were not easily embedded in movies, he did stunts that were real and spectacular.  His movies are still watched today and are just as appreciated as yesterday. He popularized martial arts and energized the industry.

If we follow his lead, we are what we love first, what we do second and both will allow us to energize our lives.

I am a martial artist and a writer first, an employee second, for example. Martial arts and writing are intricately woven into my personality and my life, while my job is a responsibility.  I work both full-time and as a karate instructor.  If I did not have a passion for martial arts or writing, I would not be good at teaching and I would not be a good employee.  Martial arts taught me personal excellence and writing helps me explore and share. These are the passions that energize and encourage me every single day.

Your passions are the interesting bits of you.  When you have a particular love, it carries you through the everyday.  It infiltrates into all areas of work, family, friends and life.  At times you will ignore passion or forget about it; but, if it is real it will emerge without much prompting.  It could be something very subtle:  a love for babies, an ear for music, or an inkling toward art.  You are not your occupation or your line of work; you are simply “you,” first and foremost.

Challenge Yourself to Be Better

Bruce Lee is the ultimate example of someone who pushed himself to conquer disappointments, fears, naysayers, and prejudices.  He didn’t cave in.  He didn’t give up.  Instead, he challenged himself to be better.

Clearly, he pushed the barriers in many ways.  He could have never been that grand action hero if he had not kept himself in peak condition.  His work-outs consisted of a lot more than lifting a few weights or taking a jog.  Knowing that he had to set an example of excellence, he continually accepted the challenge to be better.

You and I have the same challenge.  It is easy to complain and easy to point fingers.

“I’m too tired.” 

“He didn’t help me.” 

“I don’t know what to do.” 

All valid excuses that get you nowhere.  To achieve is to do.  To excel is to try.  To advance is to accept…Accept the challenge.

Every day I wake up and ask myself, “what should I do today to make myself better?”

A lot of times I’m too busy to focus on myself.  Writing these blogs is one way that I work on accepting the challenge.  It is one way to share what I know, help others, and be productive in a good and creative way.  It’s healthy for me to write; it’s a passion and a very personal part of me.

I bet there is a bucket list of things you would like to try, some big, some small.  What actually challenges you to be better?  Traveling is nice, but what about learning another language for the trip, too?  Learning to paint is a wonderful pastime, but what about learning about how colors work together first?  Taking piano lessons is great, but what about understanding the concepts behind music first?

See, there is a challenge in everything you do.  The straightforward passions are great (travel, paining, piano lessons); but even greater is finding the layers that make those passions overflow.  The bucket is limitless.

You can bet that Bruce Lee had some natural talents.  Agility and flexibility may have been innate for him.  When he took those talents and accepted the challenges the talents offered, he suddenly found himself as an action hero.  You, too, can be a hero if you accept the calling, the passion and the challenge.

Your Chance

I know, I know….you’re not Bruce Lee.

I don’t think I’ve ever given Bruce Lee much thought until today; not in this way.  I suppose there is a lot more to him than I’ve mentioned here.  I’ve made generalizations combined with personal opinion.  I’m hardly an expert on his life and you may know a lot more about him than I do, but it doesn’t matter. What I know is that he didn’t give up, he turned his passion into a dream, and he overcame adversity.  He lived first and foremost as a martial artist and accepted the challenge to be better.

What’s your challenge?  How can you better understand who you are versus what you are?  Perhaps Bruce Lee is not your hero.  That doesn’t matter now because the lesson is already understood.  Whether or not you realize it, there is a yearning or a desire for a better life deep inside of you.  To me, that is the Bruce Lee way.

It’s true.  Bruce Lee had an untimely death at a young age; not what you would expect from a martial arts genius of sorts.  Sometimes, even the most vibrant people leave without warning. What you should remember the most is not how his life ended, but how the legacy of Bruce Lee began.  Find one subtlety from his life to apply to yours.

You and I can accept the challenge, apply the Bruce Lee way, and Win at Life.

Andrea