Finding your inner Xena: here's how to empower yourself to demolish the barriers blocking your road, to success - Richard Machowicz and his Bulkido Training System - Interview

Muscle & Fitness/Hers, June, 2002 by Beth Sonnenburg

Think of the most important change you'd like to make in your life right now

Do you want to make a career move?

Buy a house?

Get out of debt?

Lose weight?

Enter a fitness competition?

Quit smoking?

How long has that been on your Big To-Do List? You want to do it, maybe you even know what it'U take to get it done, but for one reason or another you're just not doing it. Something is standing between desire and accomplishment.

From beginning a new exercise program to making a life-altering career move, just because we want to change doesn't necessarily mean we know how to make that shift. To gain insight into what needs to happen between desiring a goal and actually achieving it, we turned to former Navy SEAL Richard J. Machowicz, author of Unleashing the Warrior Within: Using the 7 Principles of Combat to Achieve Your Goals (Hyperion, 2000). Through the toughest imaginable training in the premier special operations unit in the U.S. military, Machowicz learned to complete a mission no matter what the circumstances, conditions or obstacles in his way--and discovered that his guiding principles apply not only to combat but to everyday life.

Machowicz' training led him to develop the Bukido Training System, which he defines as "a symbiosis of mental and physical disciplines that develop skills for use under extreme stress and in the accomplishment of goals." His philosophy of performance helps get you from A, where you are now, to Z, your target or goal. Here, Machowicz talks with staff writer Beth Sonnenburg about how his system can benefit the M&F HERS reader.

preparing for combat

How do you translate 'combat" for people who will never personally experience combat in their lives?

If you want to use another term for "combat," call it stress and pressure--you can call it pain, you can call it competition. Rarely if ever will most people be in combat, but the principles that make for effectiveness in battle are just as relevant to the daily challenges we face. Basically, this is all about learning how to focus.

How do you focus?

No one really ever teaches us how to focus except to say, "Focus." We're supposed to understand exactly what that means. For the most part we get the gist of what that means, but the problem is, focus is like a laser beam: Move a little to the left or right, add a little fog or distance, and the laser either misses the target or it diffuses to a worthless extent.

But if focus is where the mind, body and spirit converge, we can get through all the obstacles that threaten to diminish the quality of our laser: stress, pain, fear, the unknown. I teach you how to focus through this metaphor of combat.

The principles of combat work against an opposing force--a side that does not want you to achieve your goals. Who is the battle against here?

The biggest battle on earth is not with somebody else. It's with yourself and who you're capable of being. I think you do more to damage your own capabilities than anybody exterior, whether that's buying into the idea that you're not thin enough, or sexy enough or smart enough, or that it's this person's world or that person's world. This kind of thinking keeps you from becoming what you're capable of being.

Your term for a goal is Target; the Weapon is what you use to knock down the Target; the Movement is how you use the Weapon. What's the benefit of using this terminology?

The dialogue from the book and the military is all about driving you forward. You've got to keep talking to yourself about moving forward because everything else is going to hold you back. You're doubting, you're guessing, you're in pain or tired, which all make you want to shut down. So I'm really trying to stack advantages in the readers' favor or in my clients' favor by giving them dialogue that continuously drives them forward. I use Target/Weapon/Movement rather than "goal," "resources" and "process" because the language drives the mind and body better.

identifying your target

You have developed a martial art called Bukido, which you teach around the country. [The Bukido Institute is based in Los Angeles.) Is this also based on the Target/Weapon/Movement plan of action?

Certainly--and you can also apply what you learn in

Bukido to everyday life.

[He grabs my left wrist]

Whatever you're going to do, do it slowly. [I futilely try to wriggle my wrist out of his grasp.]

Wait ... I didn't give you anything to do yet. [I relax my arm.] Do something, anything, that would take out my eyes.

[I lunge with my free arm toward his eyes.]

Good. Did I tell you what weapon to use? Did I tell you how to move? You stopped messing with this damn wrist--because you're not going to be strong enough to get out of it.

So I should have thought, "Okay, what's the best target?"

You could grab my wrist all day long. Going for my eyes (the Target) was a natural process, but we end up getting so much other stuff in the way The most difficult thing in martial-arrs training is that people spend hours and hours trying to learn these perfect techniques, and they miss that if you get out of your own way it's the most natural thing.