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The connection between GTD and Tai Chi

15 11 05 - 22:43 - Bookmark this post

I have been practicing Tai Chi (or T’ai chi or Taijiquan) for a couple of years now. For me, this martial art gives me relief, a moment of meditation and it is a pool of tranquility in a hectic lifestyle. As some of you may know, Tai Chi consists of a series of movements and postures. For those interested, I practice the Yang style as thought by Cheng Man-Ch’ing. This consists of 37 postures. To quote Wikipedia on this martial art:

T’ai Chi Ch’uan is considered a soft style martial art, an art applied with as complete a relaxation or “softness” in the musculature as possible, to distinguish its theory and application from that of the hard martial art styles which use a degree of tension in the muscles.

The relation between form and principle
Today, during Tai Chi class, we talked about a couple of principles my teacher has tought from his teacher and so forth. And some of these principles really resonated to me when thinking about personal productivity, GTD and implementing “systems”. I am listening to the GTD Fast seminar on my way over so some of those principles came to mind when listening to my teacher. It all may seem really obvious and straightforward when you think of it, but I really felt something clicking in my brain about these subjects. How they connect to each other and perhaps influence one another.

I will not quote the whole discussion we had but here are some of the best ones

• “When truly mastering Tai Chi, the form is no longer important. It is the principle that counts”
• “Even when you master the form to perfection, when you do not adhere to the principle, you will not have true Tai Chi”
• “The form is just the doorway to understanding true Tai Chi”

One of the best tips I had (without my teacher knowing) was when he said: “sometimes it’s better to have as little form as possible to fully understand the principle”

How does this relate to GTD?
Well, think of the principle as the theory, the rules, the 5 stages of productivity, the mindset. Think of the form of Tai Chi as the tools, the software, the Hipster PDA etc. You can have all the software, you can have your PDA, your Moleskine, your Backpack-account and your Outlook Add-in. But when you do not fully understand the principles and how they apply to your situation, you’re toast! Simply put, you can’t get a management summary of GTD. You can check the 5 steps, but when you do not see the internal relationships, when you don’t understand the underlying principles of the how and why of these steps, you will never fully master it. That’s why I feel the last quote is so strong. You can be fully functional, totally black belt GTD with a pen and paper. Just as long as you understand the underlying principles.

We talked about the different principles of Tai Chi (body alignment, calmness, moving from the centre, open-closed) and when I referred to the term “to have a mind like water”, it struck a chord at my teacher and the other students. Without explaining GTD and personal productivity, I explained what “a mind like water” means and how it fits into the philosophy of Tai Chi to me. We didn’t learn much today at class when thinking about form. But I sure learned more about the principle. And how this affects me in more ways I sometimes think about. It makes me think more about practicing Tai Chi, and practicing GTD. You can even go as far as saying that a principle as GTD can be healthy and have some meditational aspects. Think of the Zen-like feeling when your Inbox is empty. Think about the flow you can be in when checking of Next Actions.
Perhaps anyone can relate to this or have some thoughts on this relationship?

If you want to know more about Tai Chi, I can recommend the mentioned Wikipedia-entry or you can always check the almighty Google

Cvičíme Tai Chi pro zdraví, sebeobranu a duchovní růst a hlavně udržení si mládí. Kurzy pro začátečníky a mírně pokročilé máme v Praze. Vhodné i jako doplněk rehabilitace.
Vlasta Bednar - 30 06 06 - 14:07

Hi Vlasta
Thank you for your reply. I received an email recently that this blog is mentioned in a Croatian magazine. Unfortunately I can’t understand what you are saying. Perhaps anyone else can translate this for me?
Frank Meeuwsen - 30 06 06 - 14:39

Vlasta’s message is in Czech, not Croatian, and is basically a mini-ad for his tai chi courses in Prague.
MiGrant - 28 11 06 - 15:57

have you heard of “Shu Ha Ri”?

It is a descriptive model of learning, originating from martial arts.

The Shu Ha Ri model can be applied to any discipline.

Look for more at: http://www.shuhari.com/site/view/Shuhari.. and any web search.
anonymous coward - 14 01 07 - 15:12

@A.C: I never heard of Shu Ha Ri but the link you provide is very interesting. I will read up on it on later occassion. Thanks for the insight!
Frank Meeuwsen - 14 01 07 - 22:37