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Sometimes people ask me why I started training in martial arts, or why I started the school of Cobra. I think they expect me to say something like I was inspired as a kid by Bruce Lee. Or that being a martial arts teacher and owning my own dojo was my childhood dream. The answer is not what they expect. Sometimes things happen unexpectedly, in strange ways, and work out better than you could have imagined, dreamed or planned. Sometimes a dream picks you to express itself. The goals you set for yourself as a human and your soul's goals may be very different, and fighting against the true you, being a soul having a physical human experience, doesn't work out too well in the long run.
In the 80s kids were barely aware of martial arts. I only knew one kid in primary school who had done a few lessons of Taekwondo. I was not aware of any marital arts schools and if there were any, it was very few and probably at halls. The internet was not available till around 1990 so we did not have exposure to much, besides using our imagination, making things, building cubby houses, playing marbles, sport, catching tadpoles and gilgies in the creek, and riding our bikes on the road without helmets until the streetlights came on. I recall only three TV channels as a kid, being 2, 7 and 9 and later 10, and I don't recall seeing anything about martial arts on TV, nor did I know who Bruce Lee was until video libraries began to open in Perth in the late 80s, hiring out movies on Beta and VHS tapes.
In 1984 I was having a sleep over my friend Brett's house, when he advised me at school that we will be going to see his neighbor train in Taekwondo that evening at a hall in Greenwood. I was not interested, however as I was staying at his house, I had no option but to go with him. Little did I know that this unexpected and even unwelcomed synchronicity, would be a turning point in my life.
The two of us walked to his friend's house and then the three of us walked to the local hall. Brett and I were sitting and watching the class form up, when the instructor, Mr. Nissen, grabbed us both by the wrists and pulled us out of our chairs, forming us up with the class. There was no asking and once again there was no option. The lesson was a profound and spiritual experience for me, like I had found my 'thing', and my life has been devoted to martial arts ever since, which includes strength training, nutrition, and health and fitness of the body, mind and spirit complex. Needless to say, I enrolled and have never stopped. Energy, motivation, inspiration, creativity and dreams begin to happen on their own when you follow your soul path, and they are suppressed and die when you don't.
Around seven years later, well after achieving black belt and cross training in other styles of martial arts, my family moved south of the river. One of the local kids there heard that I was a black belt asked me to teach him. I was busy with university, friends, and my own training, and was not interested. He asked me, if he got a group of kids together, would I teach them? I didn't take him seriously and suggested that he go and get a group together first and then I'll show them a few things, expecting that to be the end of it. To my surprise, some days later he returned with a few other local kids and a list of around 10 names, once again, leaving me with no option but to keep to my word. This is how Cobra Martial Arts was born!
I was walking along the river nearby when I passed the local scout hall, but this time my attention was drawn to the front door, which was open. It was empty, with only one car outside. I popped in and was greeted by a man named Ken, who just happen to be in charge of the hall. I asked him if it was for hire, and he replied yes. I advised the local kids, made some flyers, and we distributed them around the local area. A date had been set for the first ever Cobra Martial Arts lesson which was in 1991 and around 15 beginners showed up. Pretty soon the hall was filled to capacity. Opening the school was not originally my idea and was initiated through a third party, however once the door was opened (figuratively and literally), once again, energy, motivation, inspiration, creativity and dreams began to happen through their own power.
Recently, when I was asked by someone why I started martial arts and Cobra, I had the realisation that starting martial arts and opening the school of Cobra were initiated by or through third parties who steered me along the less trodden path of my soul purpose. As a child, I grew up being programmed for a set path by observing and listening to parents, relatives, school, television program(ing), society, and the media. No other way was ever spoken about or considered and the idea of perusing your dreams was beat down very quickly by the masses. When I asked my daughter's friends some years ago (grade 2) what they wanted to be when they grow up, they replied, doctor, surgeon and lawyer? Really? At 6 years old? Or is that what they have been told they have to be? When I was a kid, we wanted to be astronauts, dinosaur explorers, stunt men, and crystal hunters!
This was the program back then, and I'm not sure how much it has changed over the years, as my reality is to some degree outside of this system. Some of these programs are also coded into the DNA of all living things:
go to school.
get a qualification (university degree, a trade, or a diploma etc.)
get a safe job that pays good money and stay in the system till age 65 (there was no talk about getting a job that you enjoy. That was not ever spoken about or considered. It was about being grateful for having a 9-5 job so you could pay your tax, bank loan, rent, bills, and basic living/survival expenses).
get a loan and buy a house (what was not mentioned is that many will spend the rest of their life being hand cuffed to the bank and a job they don't enjoy).
find a spouse (there are no options here, that was the program, or you will be outcast).
get married (there was no option here, that was the program, or you will be outcast).
have a family (there was no option here, that was the program, or you will be outcast).
support the family (there was no option here, that was the program, or you will be labelled a failure).
have a two-weeks for yourself once a year (usually camping or Bali)
retire, get the pension, finally travel the world using a walking frame, pacemaker, nappies, and bifocals.
get cancer, a heart attack, stroke, or diabetes, and extend your life a little with medications and surgeries which will chew up your life savings.
die.
Following this collective programming, I completed high school and a university degree in an area that I was not passionate about, because there was a good chance of obtaining employment and earning a reasonable hourly rate in exchange for each hour of my life. I worked in a bank for five years, holding five different roles in that time. I have always been quite observant and see things differently to the majority. I could see that the majority did not want to be there but had no choice now that they had entered the system. They would much rather be doing things they were passionate about, such as their hobbies, but it was too late to take that risk as they had responsibilities now. Not many people were happy, but some were good at faking it. The system did not reward those who worked hard, long hours, or the creative ones with the new ideas that rubbed the others up the wrong way. It rewarded those who agreed with the managers and who went for drinks with them on Friday nights.
Thankfully, I had unknowingly been given an alternative path. Due to teaching martial arts in the evenings twice a week as a hobby, I decided to take a big risk, against everyone's advice, and I resigned from the bank, giving up a high paid job as an analyst. Having freed up 40 hours per week to do with whatever I chose, I was able to take Cobra to the next level, being a full-time dojo in a factory unit in Carlisle. I realised however, that my time at university and the bank was not wasted, and was necessary for me to experience the system, the matrix, how it operated, and how it chewed up people's lives, enslaved them, stifled their creative energy and sovereignty, and spat them out when they were old and less useful. And the learning experience was provided to me so I could be sure, without a doubt, that I wanted to take an alternative path to the program; and that I had to follow my soul path, my passion, my mission (we all have one or more) and to succeed, or else plug back in to the matrix.
Once again, someone showed up right on cue to show me the next step. A boxing coach I was training with, whilst shuffling through his bag to find his car keys, pulled out a crumpled newsletter that he received from a large martial arts organisation in the USA, and he asked me if I would like it. I read it and knew that I had to contact that organisation. It just happened that they had recently sent a lady from their association to Perth (of all places...and not to the Eastern states?) for a short while, and I hired her as my business coach. My university business degree taught me nothing about running a small business, but only how to play a small, isolated, and specific role as a cog in a corporate machine.
Applying this knowledge just happen to coincide with the opening of the Cannington dojo in 1998. Prior to this synchronicity, 'martial art instructor' was unheard of as a full-time career. All instructors who I had trained with in the past had full-time 9-5 matrix jobs and taught martial arts for fun, as a hobby, usually two nights a week.
The synchronicities continued and continue to this day. Everything happens as it is meant to, right on time, often at the last second, rain, hail or shine, when you follow your passion and soul path, develop your intuition, and dare to look outside the box.
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