Heiho cherry oh

It's amazing how much of my life was determined by virtue of spending two months in Japan in Airhostess class after 4 years of sexual repression in a school who's population was too small to sustain experimentation and gossip. You play a card wrong in a pool like that your exploits are over. Anyway I was in Japan and as is the tendancy of people in their first foreign culture you fall in love (in a period known as the honeymoon period) and think the answers to all your problems is in that particular culture.
And so for the next 4-5 years of my life my desperation to unlock these answers and get to Japan dictated most of my key decisions. I did however stumble on a book by Japan's Sword Saintthat has been one of the most inspirational reads of my life. This guy talks flippantly about killing 60 other warriors in various duals having never lost a fight. He sat back and questioned why he was so good. Infact he talked about how without instruction he had become a master of painting, sculpture, farming etc. he had discovered it through the very ordinary pursuit of mastering learning, a path he called heiho. I was naturally intrigued by this concept for the prospect of being able to be good at everything you try is always going to be attractive. Infact the book of five rings is a book of strategy employed by many modern day businesses.
I highly recommend the book. Musashi struck me not as arrogant but supremely confident and self assured, an image I could have painted in my mind for sure but it was a concept I had become familiar with through art, and resonated with my image of a professional who is someone that pulls up their sleeves and gets the fucking job done. I had learnt that the secret to being good at art was to say you were, the secret to being good at painting was not to get intimidated by a blank canvas but to just lay down your brushstrokes with confidence. Same with public speaking, every joke you tell from a podium is funnier than if you tell it socially. The secret to confidence is to will it as far as I can tell.
What is worth noting though is that Mushashi lead a life on the wander and was slaughtered mercilessly alone in ambush shortly after he published his secrets. Not a lifestyle I aspire to though I do try and take on and try out as many new activities as possible these days and try and broadly apply concepts. Object fixation is dangerous, look to Yoko Ono who tried out every possible way of sitting on a chair before concluding that the common assumption that sitting upright in a chair is the most comfortable way to do so.
Yeah so as much as I admire Musashi I really have no interest in splitting people down the middle with a sword, living life as a vagrant and eventually being butchered at the expense of my reputation.