Warrior Wisdom: The Heart and Soul of Bushido, is the second book in the Warrior Wisdom series by Bohdi Sanders. I have read through both of the current volumes several times, and treasure the collected wisdom contained herein.

What never ceases to amaze me regarding this series, is that Dr. Sanders has gone so far above and beyond simply collecting a book of quotations. Often, the most useful interpretation of a quote is not immediately obvious, but Sanders spells it out for the reader in plain terms in his discussions about each quote.

As a lifelong martial artist, I am well versed in many of the quotes one would expect to find in a book of this nature, but that is another strength of this book - many of the quotes are ones most readers will have never heard before (myself included). The result is a really meaningful title that has the potential to make a lasting impact on the lives of anyone who reads the series and takes the advice found within to heart.

I simply can't recommend this book enough. Buy this, and buy the first book in the series while you are at it.

I have now read four of the ten basic Achieving Kicking Excellence books by Shawn Kovacich (1, 2, 4, and now 5). This entry into the series, the Reverse Crescent Kick, is, in my opinion, the most useful thus far. The primary reason for this is the fact that the kick itself is extremely useful and versatile.

As is the norm for this series, Kovacich goes to great lengths to provide every piece of information you could ever want (plus some more on top of that) regarding this kick. From appropriate stretching to the dynamics of the human body when correctly performing the kick, Kovacich covers all the bases in this outstanding book.

The provided variations on the primary kick are all useful and provide a solid jumping off point for the potential student to explore other possibilities and uses for the kick.

The reality is that no book can replace a competent teacher of the martial arts, but this book is probably as close as it gets. Even better, if you are currently studying martial arts in a formal setting, this book will help your progress by leaps and bounds compared to classroom study alone.

(See my review for the fourth volume in the series, Crescent Kick, here.)

Warrior Wisdom: Ageless Wisdom for the Modern Warrior, is an exceptional book. Author Bohdi Sanders has compiled a phenomenal resource of quotes from important warrior-thinkers throughout history and from all around the world. Unique amongst the Warrior Living books I have read, this book provides not just page after page of timeless wisdom, but also a modern context for each saying. This is a truly remarkable work in this regard.

This is a book you could read a page at a time, or one you could open randomly during a difficult time of your life to find inspiration. There's really nothing negative I can say here. It is really an outstanding collection of wisdom, which would have been a worthy purchase on its own...the additional commentary and discussion put this book over the top.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone seeking self-improvement, warrior and non-warrior alike.

This is the first in a series of product reviews which I originally posted only to Amazon.com. I'm reposting them here so it is easier to reference and link to them in the future. Some small changes to make their meanings clear are included, but nothing that changes the message of the review.

Baguazhang: Theory and Applications, by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming and Master Liang, Shou-Yu, is an excellent book. As a practitioner of Baguazhang for the past several years (Yin Style Baguazhang, vs the Emei Style presented in the text), I found this book extremely informative and insightful.

Of the most worth to me were the collected translations of Chinese texts on the Bagua and Baguazhang, but the practical applications and exercises were laid out in a very informative manner.

I feel like if I were a complete novice to Baguazhang, I could use this book to learn some of the basics. That said, there are some very basic, foundational exercises, which I am surprised to NOT find in this book. For example, I didn't feel that the circle-walking techniques were emphasized enough, given the fact that they are the very foundation upon which the rest of the techniques in Baguazhang are built. Again, though, I study a different style of Baguazhang, and so these might just be stylistic differences.

The individual techniques and partner exercises are laid out in an easy to use format, though some pictures felt a tad out of order just in terms of their layouts on the page. While my own style's techniques vary in differing degrees from the ones presented in this book, this clearly looks and feels like Baguazhang, if perhaps a little foreign, but this, again, probably comes down to stylistic differences.

I simply can't emphasize enough how valuable I consider this book. The translated Chinese texts and modern-day rewordings are an absolute treasure to any Baguazhang practitioner who wants to gain a deeper understanding of his or her art.

I recommend this book wholeheartedly to everyone with even a passing interest in Baguazhang, and also to other internal stylists who would like access to some fascinating commentary on Bagua QiGong. You'd be hard-pressed to find a 500+ page work on ANY martial art that is as information-heavy as this one. Buy and enjoy.

Alright, here's the deal. If you own even one book in the Achieving Kicking Excellence series, you know what to expect from this one. As usual, Shawn Kovacich has done a spectacular job of illuminating the ins and outs of the kick upon which this title focuses. The long and short of this review: if you use the Crescent Kick in your martial arts practice, you really want to own this book. If you are not a martial artist, but want to develop this kick, again, this is a great book to own.

The topics covered within the pages of this book range from the purely informative (anatomy as it relates to the kick) to the purely functional (how to get more power out of the kick) and everything in between. This is really a groundbreaking series. At some point I'd love to see this type of breakdown for every technique in every martial art. It seems like a pipe dream, but Mr. Kovacich is getting us well on our way through the documenting of these excellent kicking techniques.

As is the norm with the series, some of the opening information is duplicated from other books in the series - undoubtedly so that a buyer who only purchased one or two of the books is guaranteed to get that vital information. This duplication also has very little affect on the value of the book to purchasers of the full set, as the real meat and potatoes of the book is the technique-specific information.

The variations on the primary kick which are presented in this book are worthy additions, and one can't help but realize just how much valuable information is presented.

This book, and the series as a whole, comes very highly recommended. This title is excellent for anyone with an interest in self-defense, and the practicing martial artist will likely find the value here to be worth substantially more than the cost of entry.

This post is the first in a series I plan to write on Strategic Living. Keep an eye on the the front page of The Tao of Derek for updates, or sign up for the feed!

I want to start here with a definition. It won't do us any good to talk about strategic living unless it is clear what I mean when I use that term. Strategic Living is a method of organizing your life in such a way as to maximize your ability to reach your stated objectives. In other words, you need to have an objective, figure out what things you need to do to attain that objective, and then do those things.

Step 1: Have an objective
The first step you need to take in order to start living strategically, is to define your objective. This is more than goal-setting, though goal-setting is obviously involved. When we talk about objectives here, this is more than the standard goals you hear about all the time - 'buy a house', 'get a raise', 'finish my degree', etc. Those are all fine goals, but they aren't objectives - they don't drive you in the same way a real objective would. What I am talking about here is finding purpose. You need to define what you want out of your life, at the most primal level. Now, I've told some people this in the past, and by far the most common answer is 'I want to be happy'. That's a copout, and we all know it. Of course you want to be happy. When I tell you that you need to define your purpose, don't respond with the restated equivalent of 'I am a human being'. This is a huge, and vital, topic. Let's break it down.

Goals, Roles, and Moles
Imagine with me for a moment. Tomorrow morning you wake up and walk into the bathroom. You wash your face, and as the fingers of your right hand pass your cheekbone, you feel a large lump. You look in the mirror to discover a large mole has grown on your face, miraculously, overnight. Does this change who you are? Of course not. As a society, we like to believe we are beyond judging people by their looks, though that is obviously not completely the case. In fact, it is likely that as you go to work, some of your co-workers or clients might treat you differently than they would have if you didn't have the large mole on your face. Nevertheless, you are the same. You are still you - it is only what the world sees that has changed.

The roles you play in life are both like and unlike the mole in the previous paragraph. Imagine your 1st grade teacher. Now imagine your 1st grade teacher passionately kissing his/her first love. Never thought about your teacher like that, right? You know that your 1st grade teacher very likely did have that experience, but you've likely never even considered thinking about him or her in that kind of environment. Your perception of your teacher is colored by your view of the role he or she was inhabiting, regardless of your feelings on the teacher as an individual (if you even have impressions about him or her as an individual). The fact that your teacher likely had a social life, a love life, human fears and passions and needs, was not at all changed by the fact that his or her chosen profession was 'teacher'.

Of course, the roles you play do have an affect on you. Tom Wolfe, in his book The Bonfire of the Vanities, wrote the following: "Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later... that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could... adopted a role called 'Being a Father' so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life." Certainly, Sherman's father changed as a man because of the role he took upon himself.

Similarly, your goals may not change you, but if you inhabit a mindset long enough, it can have an effect on who you are. Eventually, your goals and thoughts become your actions...and your actions determine your legacy.

So, after all that, let's come back around to the point - what does this have to do with strategic living? Remember that the first thing you have to have to live a strategic life is an objective. I've shown you what a role is, and how a goal can affect who you are. Now let's compare and contrast those things with a life objective.

The Objective: Your purpose/mission/destiny
Your objective in life is referred to by some people as your purpose in life. Others prefer the term mission, and others still refer to it as your 'destiny'. I'm not a big fan of the word destiny, because it implies that you have no control over the end-result, I have similar feelings about the concept of fate. I believe it is possible to screw things up. I believe you can have a mission or purpose and blow it. That's really a topic for another article, though. For now, let's talk about your purpose.

What do you believe your purpose is? What do you think you are here for? Let's assume that there is a benevolent creator watching over the Earth, and that this creator has placed every single human being here on this planet with a mission in mind for them. What is yours?

Let me ask you something while you think. Consider a modern police officer. Let's say this police officer is retired, but while on duty, was one of the best police officers who ever lived. This officer served his community for 30 years before retiring, and once retired, advocated for safer streets to the city council, organized neighborhood watch programs, etc. Some would say that this officer's purpose in life was to be this great police officer - that's who he is.

Now, let's imagine our great police officer was born in 1567 - 100 years before the creation of the first police force that a modern person would recognize as a police force. Is our police officer a different person now? Would his nature be changed? Probably not. He would likely still find a way to serve his community, to protect the weak, to be a force for good in the world. This is because his purpose in life was not to be a police officer - that was just a role he assumed to facilitate his purpose.

In the next installment of this series on strategic living, I'll talk more about purpose, and some archetypes we can use when discussing our missions in life. In the meantime, examine your life. Discover your purpose. Imagine what your life would be like if you were born 500 years ago. What parts of your life would be similar? What parts of your life would be different? How would you make a living?