I Use Kung Fu To Steer My Career Path

My head often floats away like a kite. While there are some advantages to having a head in the clouds, these would never be realised without reconnecting to the ground. Especially when it comes to career questions. I have now learnt to reel the kite back in, significantly thanks to learning the martial art Wing Chun Kung Fu.

The central philosophy focuses on 3 elements: enjoyment of the present, seeking longevity and being oursleves. Within the philosophy there are 8 wisdoms in Wing Chun (also written at Wing Tsun) to help achieve these goals. Each offers practical guidance on managing career paths which I draw on in my work as a career coach.

1. Know Yourself
2. Stay Relaxed
3. Don’t Force
4. Positivity
5. Simplicity
6. Freedom & Responsibility
7. Expect To Be Punched
8. Mastery

1. Know Yourself. Career questions always unravelled me at glance. I grew up in an environment in which you are what you do for a living. Any questions around careers felt like a god pointing at me and demanding ‘WHO ARE YOU?’. I have found two things to help answer this. Firstly, I did personality tests (Enneagram, Myers Briggs). These provided an opportunity to see which traits resonated and a chance to get a new and deeper level of acceptance for who I naturally am. The answers were quite different from what I had assumed back at school. Secondly, I identified the top values, skills and experiences that brought me the most satisfaction. The first part provided a me with the name of my tribe (4w5 Individualist, INFJ) while the second gave me clues on what motivates me.
2. Stay Relaxed. I was choking on toxic feelings from career anxiety and having physical symptoms from it. The body has two states, the ‘sypathetic’ fight/flight mode and the ‘parasympathetic’ rest mode. Modern life and work increasingly triggers the stressful sympathetic mode. I have worked to counteract this with wellbeing practices including meditation, retraining to breathe using biofeedback and resetting my sleeping and eating habits.
3. Don’t Force. This may be best understood as trying to force ourselves into becoming things for which we’re ultimately not suited or don’t have the capacity. Coaching helped me to separate career options that are truly appropriate from those to simultaneously impress my parents and my irreverent 18 year old self. That wasn’t going to work. Social pressure can inflate our aspirations beyond abilities or suppress us into ignoring our talents. Either way, it’s a double tragedy as not only do we fail to be what we’re shooting for, but we fail to be who we are too.
4. Positivity. It’s obvious isn’t it. And yet in practice I found it challenging to take a positive approach to my career. As fast as part of my brain would write a plan, another part would cross it out or erase it. I have now taken the time to unpick the negative narratives, put up wanted posters for the saboteurs lurking inside and have taken back control.
5. Simplicity. I’m prone to massively overthinking things. I’d sooner have a list of 100 things I hadn’t done than 1 thing I had done. I had a shortlist of 300 baby names for my first born. Thankfully, Occam’s Razor is a method of giving preference to the simpler of two options. Whenever I’m get stuck I simplify down until I identify the next right thing to do.
6. Freedom & Responsibility. Understanding the kind of working structure that suits us best is critical to career satisfaction. Although I crave it, too much freedom does not suit me as I am easily distracted. However, no structures I know of are able to offer me the level of individual creativity I value having so I have to put in place structures to keep me focused. These include daily and weekly routines and regular engagments with mentors as well as clients.
7. Expect To Be Punched. This simple point tempers my tendency to fantasise naively idealistic outcomes, and then be distraught by every bump in the road and then giving up. These days set backs just set me back, but they don’t knock me down as they would have once done.
8. Mastery. This is another subtle point to summarise. Basically, this is the transformation from consciously taking choices following the wisdoms of Wing Chun, to a state of mind in which these choices are taken instinctively without engaging the brain. I’m not there yet!

Finally, it is worth emphasising that while using the wisdoms as an intellectual tool to make decisions is useful, the biggest benefit for me has arguably been from the grounding that comes with the actually practicing of Wing Chun. The physical grounding helps me to stay present and stay healthy which are necessary if I am to realise the benefits of the philosophy.

Sources: There are different interpretations of Wing Chun. The version discussed here is based on the book ‘Winning Not Fighting’ by John Vincent and Sifu Julian Hitch. It’s the best book I read in 2021. It’s the story of a healthy fast food chain entrepreneur demonstrating the value of Wing Chun in business, and how it helped keep him stay grounded throughout its growth. More than that, they argue that it is a worthy successor to the business as war analogy.

Max Kalis

Career Coach & Founder at The Last Coach

www.thelastcoach.co

www.maxkalis.com/