If you’ve ever taken a look at my photo, you might be surprised to discover that I’m a killing machine.

That’s right. Green belt black tip in the deadly art of karate, courtesy of three years of classes at my local YWCA.

This is a few years back.

I’d like to pretend that my martial arts training took place in a remote, forbidding mountain palace, or at the very least at a YMCA. But appearances can be deceiving. My sensei was one tough cookie, and I learned some valuable lessons from her, although I can’t say the karate part really stuck with me.

What Sensei really taught me was how to set a goal and achieve it. Luckily, doing a jump kick through a wooden board has never been one of my goals.

Finding Yourself in a Tight Spot

Sensei was a determined, powerful woman with close-cropped hair, glasses, and a big, hairy mole. She was utterly no-nonsense, and when she dipped into judo she’d have us jump in there and start throwing each around regardless of size or age. (I still remember being absolutely unable to pin a girl about half my size, and half my age. That would have made her about seven.) Sensei would often share stories of self-defense and survival, and one in particular still stands out in my memory.

Sensei was in the subway. This was back in the late eighties, when the New York City subway system was even less user-friendly than it is today. No air-conditioning, graffiti everywhere, no good signage, and dead ends waiting to trap the unwary.

In a NYC commuter’s worst nightmare, Sensei went through a turnstile only to discover that the station entrance was closed. This was before 24-hour turnstiles, too. It was a one-way street. Sensei was trapped.

Listening to the story, it was hard to imagine Sensei helpless. But even she couldn’t bend steel bars.

To Shatter a Great Obstacle, Think Small

That’s when her karate training kicked in. She picked a single person out of the crowd.

“You,” she said. “Yes, you in the brown coat. Stop. I need your help.” Singled out, the guy came over and agreed to find the station manager.

By directing her energy at a focal point instead of scattering it, she got herself out of a tight jam, fast. Same principle she applied to wooden boards, made suddenly practical.

Are there any obstaces in your life that seem immovable? Focus your energy on the tiniest part you can pinpoint. Even slight movement of a seemingly intractable problem can set off a chain of events leading to a resolution.

As Archimedes said of the lever, “Give me a place to stand on, and I can move the earth.”

(All this is not to imply that I gave up on the martial arts. I went on to study the streetfighting art of zujitsu, where one of the mottos is “whatever works!” That’s another post all by itself.)

Photo by totoro!