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It's time for me to get focused on not being focused. Mushin or no mind is something that I have been searching for but has eluded me for many years. I finally had a taste of mushin last year when I competed in kata at the Karate nationals and I have only been able to have that same experience, a few times, just recently. It is the feeling of doing something that you are so focused on, you do not see of hear anything around else around you. It is as if you are all alone, almost outside of your body but performing at your peak. If the building you are in was to all down around you, you would not notice until you are finished with what you are doing. 1 - Focus all my training efforts on making my katas better! When life starts to go down the toilet, I have always turned to my Martial Arts training to bring me back from the dark side. It has kept me sane in the past and I know that it will help me get through the issues I am dealing with now. With that said, all the training that I do needs to make my Karate and Iaido better. I will come up with a workout plan and do those workouts at least twice a week. I am going to focus those strength workouts on my hips, glutes, upper back and forearms. I will include my other bodyparts too I need to focus on the former. I will also continue to work on my katas every day like I have for the last two years but I want to add two additional "hard" kata training days along with the training that I get in my Karate class. 2 - Flexibility! It seems that I have been working on improving my flexibility since the first challenge and even though it has improved a great deal, I need to be more consistent. The HFS routine has really taken me to the next level but there are days when I just don't feel like doing it. For this challenge I plan on using the HFS as much as possible, at least two to three days a week but I also want to work on yoga for full body flexibility and some more focused hip work. I always do at least one stretch each day but I need to get serious if I want my Karate and Iaido to improve. 3 - Find a job! Being out of work for two months now has given me a lot of time to reflect on what I want to do going forward. If it's a job in IT again, freelance writing, building blogs and websites, consulting or a combination of all of those, I need to get more traction on getting some income. Even though I have many years experience, maybe too many, the job search hasn't gone the way I thought it would and I need to think outside the box to get some money coming in. 4 - Meditate.... This is one area that I really need to get into. I used simple meditation in the past and it really helped but I keep coming up with excuses not to do it. The goal here is to mediate for at least five minutes a day. These four goals are a bit open ended but that is normally how I do it. I will increase the focus as the days go on but I know that this challenge will be one of my greatest challenges. I am ready to do battle and these goals better be ready for a serious butt kickin!