Smarter Than Harder

When I taught Karate, I would often use the following phrase: “I will teach you to fight smarter rather than harder.”  The official term is Economy of Motion.  It means learning to maximize your power and energy efficiently rather than wasting energy, time, and movement.  Bruce Lee referred to it as, “Casting off what is useless.”

Over the years, I’ve come to realize the economy of motion philosophy to all aspects of life.  One of the ones everyone is quite familiar with is the dreaded rambling meetings at work.  People rattle on, do not follow the agenda, or end up on some tangent off in another direction.  When you have a good leader and agenda in the meeting, you stay on task and can get through it efficiently.

Communication is another area where economy of motion can be your friend.  Rather than spending time trying to flower up a dialog, get to the point.  The best example of no economy of motion is listening to those babbling idiots in Congress.  They can ramble on for 30 minutes and never get to the point.  All types of relationships can benefit from economy of motion too.  Communicate openly, shoot straight without being sarcastic, be honest, and bypass all nonsense.

Learn to cast of what is useless and work smarter than harder.  “You’ll be glad you did!”