Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim: Are you where you want to be?

If you are not where you want to be, now is the time to figure out where you want to go and how you’re going to get there. But there is no point making plans until you know what you want. And to know what you want, you have to examine your priorities.

Ask yourself: if you had only five days to live, what would you do in those five days?” The way you answer tells you much about what your real values and priorities are.

Ask yourself that question now. Don’t be surprised if you don’t spend your last five days at your job or painting the house (which perhaps you may have done faithfully every weekend recently). Chances are you’ll choose to do what really matters to you, what you really really love, what is really you. Chances are you’ll choose to be with your family or certain friends in a special way. Or perhaps you might choose solitude, experiencing nature’s beauty in a private way. Or dancing. Or playing music. Answer for yourself, and then ask, “With every day that I do have now, how much time do I give to these things?” (After all, you could be living your last five days right now!)”

The way that you answer that question gives you very important clues regarding your true direction in life. Your Silent Master consciousness speaks to you powerfully through your true desires. Of course I am not talking about destructive or distorted desires like obsessive smoking and drinking. The desires you feel through the exercise above are most likely your true desires, and you have them for a reason. They tell you much about who you are as a unique individual and your unique role to play here on earth. Your desires will never be exactly like anybody else’s.

Have you created a life that allows you to experience your own truths? Or have you created a life that has taken you so far from your inner truth that only during your last five days on earth will you allow yourself to experience what you love? If you find you are living here without enjoyment, without realizing your personal truth, then you have a right to change! That is what self-discovery is all about: fulfilling your true desires, not just thinking about them. As you find your true self, automatically you find your true place, your true activities, and your true fulfillment.

So you see, my dear fellow Martial Artists, death is nothing to be afraid of, only to prepare for. Let us live this life – every second, every moment - to the fullest, with peace, harmony, and joy in our hearts, and helping as many people as possible along our path. Let us make a difference in this world; let us be remembered with beautiful thoughts by those we leave behind.