The Kaizen Philosophy, Optimism, and a Meaningful Life
Host: Eric Chow · Guest: Allen Santamaria · December 25, 2019 · Episode 19 · 80 minutes
Transcribed from the episode audio and edited for names and terms. Speaker labels are assigned automatically and can occasionally place a line with the wrong speaker; the episode itself is the record.
Eric Chow
What is up everybody welcome back to the Eric Chow Empowers Podcast in this episode I sat down with my good friend my childhood friend Alan Santa Maria We begin by talking about a conversation We had a few months ago about the process of comforting other people and how sometimes we feel like we're not doing enough to help We also talk about some of the different passions we've had throughout our lives A fun fact is, Alan and I actually both did Taekwondo at the same dojo many, many years ago. But we talk about how our passions have changed and diverged since that time and how amazing and important it is to have communities around your passions and just being surrounded by passionate people.
We also discuss the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen, which Alan brings up. And I'm giving a few lessons from a book I was reading at the time of recording, which was called Everything is Figuratable by Marie Forleo. This concept of Kaizen, the concept from the book of progress, not perfection, is something we discuss a lot in this episode, a major theme of this episode. and a really important mindset and philosophy that really applies to all of life. And I'm really glad that we were able to share that with you guys. We talked about a few other lessons from some of our mentors. I share a few other lessons from the book and we compare them and look at some of our own life experiences to examine their truth.
We also talk about a few general principles for how to best spend one's time such as you know, how are you using social media? What are you what kind of content are you consuming? So on and so forth So in anyways guys, I hope you guys enjoy and get value from listening to my conversation Alan Yeah, let's just get right into it. Thank you for tuning in this is episode 19
Allen Santamaria
For sure. Today I am joined by my friend Alan Santa Maria Allen.
Eric Chow
I'm going to introduce you in the intro, but why don't you introduce yourself a little bit.
Allen Santamaria
Hi guys, my name is Jeffy Patrick here. I go to Shabot College, no I'm just kidding. Yeah, it's me, Alan Santa Maria, student of Aloni College.
Eric Chow
And... We're going to be talking about, we'll start with something that we both apparently have credibility in. We were both voted in senior year as most encouraging and optimistic. I'm not even gonna lie, I didn't think.
Allen Santamaria
I thought it was just gonna be one of us. Right, me too. I was like, a lot of Eric Gwynn's are at school.
Eric Chow
Yeah, like, I didn't. We neither of us gave a fuck.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah, that's the thing. We didn't care at all. Exactly. But then... We both ended up winning. I don't even know that's possible.
Eric Chow
I thought it was like one boy one girl. Right. That's what I thought. Yeah, that's what I thought.
Allen Santamaria
We got Alina. Oh, yeah. You count my powder puff persona, Alina.
Eric Chow
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, we both somehow won. Don't really know how to happen, but we did. Yeah. So that's what we're going to go off of. We had a conversation a couple of weeks ago and over text and we were just going to read a couple messages from it and then talk more about it. So I think we'll start there. Yeah, for sure.
Allen Santamaria
I just want to note that like we were supposed to do this conversation a long time ago. Yeah. Because the time I sent this message was like on August 25th, 2019. That says the date on here. So I can give you I could give them an idea of how long which is like two months from now. So this has been. A work in progress for us. Yeah. For sure. So, you know, the other day I was just thinking about it like, hey dude, you know, whenever I'm trying to comfort someone like through a difficult time, regardless of a breakup or some mental breakdown, something that, you know, your friend's just calling for your help.
But the only thing you could really do is just kind of empathize with them. That's great for me, but then sometimes I feel like I'm just not doing enough to really help them, you know? But like I said, empathizing is a great way to help someone out.
Eric Chow
I just wish I could do something different than that. Yeah, and my response was that I totally understand and I totally agree with him. Empathizing is great, but totally get him on like sometimes we want to do something more. And my response to him was, I try to pay attention to what it seems like the other person needs and contrast that with what I can provide. So sometimes people need just someone to be there for them. That's literally all they need, comforting and empathizing is perfectly enough. Other times it's, they want advice. Other times they need some sort of validation, some sort of like, hey yeah, you're How you're feeling makes sense or something like that?
Sometimes it's they they're you need to try and show them a different perspective So I think for me it was about trying to gauge what the other person needs and what I can actually do because sometimes they need advice But I don't know how to give it but I don't I don't have any experience there I don't really know what I would do We don't have that specific answer for what they're looking for.
Allen Santamaria
That's I think that's just a problem Because like you say, we don't specialize in what everything.
Eric Chow
Yeah, exactly. We only have certain experiences that we can draw on. Absolutely. And so sometimes what I can actually do is literally like, I can't do much and I can't say much. And so that's where we end up in the position where it's like, wish we could do more. And then I went on to say, sometimes if I don't know what the other person wants, I'll ask them straight up like. what can I do to help you or what do you want? Things like that. Just to ask them that. And some other times I'll make suggestions to, I like to get people to think and come up with answers for themselves.
So sometimes instead of like giving advice, I'd be like, so what do you think about? And then I'll try to like guide them in a direction because when you come to your own conclusions, it's so much more powerful than if I was the one who told you what the conclusion is. So sometimes I do that. I mean, there's a lot of things I just said. Like there's a lot of complicated. Exactly. It's a lot of things going on. Yeah. But sometimes, you know, when I add, when you do ask them, like some of the responses I get is like, I don't know.
Allen Santamaria
And like that's where I'm just like, oh, this like, I'm just like, how are you feeling right now? You know, what can I do to help you? And they're just like, oh, I don't know like how I feel right now. I was like, oh, okay. And then that's what that's where I feel like I struggle and I. And I feel like, oh crap, I'm really a bad friend. I don't know what to do. I'm really thinking, so they don't know how they feel, they don't know what to do. But I think that's where your advice comes in. Just give them a suggestion, more or less.
Because that's the best you can do. Right, exactly. You don't know the outcome. Exactly. You're just trying to pitch in your ideas. Yeah. Same as to film, you know. Whenever you have an idea for a movie, you pitch it to your group.
Eric Chow
They like it. They don't. Yeah. That's my analogy. Yeah, no, no, that works. It's basically guessing. Yeah. It's, I think step one would be listen, like you said empathize. And that usually is a... Great way to start and then two is can you figure it out and can you provide it and if you can great if you can't oh well that's kind of you can do the best you can just repeat step one and never die exactly exactly step one empathize old stuff to you again it was figure out what they want and what you can provide and then step three if necessary the answer is I don't know
Allen Santamaria
Go back to step one. It's pretty much stay there. It's like you can exactly so they can so your friend or your sibling or the person that needs help until they can figure out what they need. That's when you can you know, really right right really help them out.
Eric Chow
It's it's tough man when people don't know what they or even when I'm in something like that I don't know what the hell I want because like it's complicated when you're like upset and like you're having a mental breakdown. You don't have the mental capacity to be like I want
Allen Santamaria
No, because we can't we can't be straightforward what we want. That's not so hard. It's hard. Like we know what it is. We just can't explicitly get it out there. Exactly. Sometimes because even like with me like this could be as far as do I really need to like watch myself which you know I should be like especially the past few weeks like it's been rough for me. But then as complicated as you can get from you know from mentally like do I really need to do this? Or it could be simple as, do I really need to go out and get bubble right now or should I see my money like...
Eric Chow
We know what the answer technically should be.
Allen Santamaria
Yes, it should be a yes, for sure. Oh my gosh dude. But yeah, try to empathize and observe what's going on.
Eric Chow
Usually it'll do a pretty good job of telling you, and especially as you do it more and more often you try to observe, you'll get a better idea. And this is for the listeners. of what the other person actually needs. And even if you don't know, like I said, like we said, make suggestions like, hey, you know, maybe you just need to blank whatever is coming to you at that moment. It's sort of instinctual, I feel like it's not like logically this makes sense. That doesn't really matter to me. It's more of whatever just comes to you.
Allen Santamaria
You know, usually what helps for me is like a... It's like a fasting room social media like logging in. I think you were doing this. I did it one time. Yeah. I actually did. I do this every time I go to, not every time, but I started doing this every time I go to Maui. I log off a social media. I have a friend of mine that takes care of streaks for me while I'm gone for Snapchat.
Eric Chow
Because I don't want to lose that. Yeah, but yeah, I get it.
Allen Santamaria
But yeah, I think like just logging off a social media and just telling yourself, all right, I'm not going to worry about. Who's gonna be posting what for a week? Yeah, that really did change me because you know I just didn't worry so much about going on my phone I just didn't you know I didn't really care like I just woke up Got to go eat breakfast on the local place. You know did you think enjoy it enjoy Maui?
Eric Chow
Yeah, yeah, yeah, cuz I feel like That's what people need to do more often just start enjoying things we you know we take for granted of some of these things I agree really do I think like It also helps it up. Yeah, I can't speak English right now. I'm sorry English is hard man. I'm surprised I'm doing okay my English Okay, but yeah, it just kind of trains you to like hey There's a world out there you need to put your eyes on that then on the screen. Yeah, I agree with you you so when you you go Maui how often?
Allen Santamaria
Probably once a year. I'm going back next year for my cousin's graduation.
Eric Chow
Nice. So, and you say that for what, a week? You said? Like a good week or two. Yeah. Yeah. I think, yeah, usually when I go on vacation, it's not even like I'm trying to stay on social media. I just don't because I'm enjoying my vacation. I'm like, I'm exactly, I'm experiencing what's happening. So my social media time is significantly less. It's just like, I go through the entire day and then at the end of the day it's like days over and now I can finally check my phone for once. Exactly. It's like I could breathe.
Allen Santamaria
I could relax. Exactly. I could stay alive for the first time.
Eric Chow
Exactly. After a whole day. Which is awesome. I love it. And like like Alan mentioned I did it I did a social media cleanse one time during Seeing well I've done a couple of times for other reasons, but like just purely for myself I did it one time I think it was like the week after spring break for our senior year. Yeah took a week off No Instagram Twitter, which were my primary sources of social media. I don't have Snapchat or I didn't have anything else at that time I also didn't use Facebook which I use for messenger, which I did allow it messenger was allowed Facebook itself was not and then YouTube.
Yeah, well messenger is technically part of Facebook But I let my but because the messenger app is separate. It was okay Facebook itself wasn't allowed YouTube also. I didn't allow. Oh, okay, which was big for me Exactly, and then I don't watch a lot of movies. So that wasn't something I needed to get rid of. Okay, YouTube was the big one How do you what your favorite channel on YouTube? Yes, theory. Yes, theory. Yeah, that's number one for me.
Allen Santamaria
It had to be Casey Neistat. I like his content not only because like, you know, just just as a sparring filmmaker, like I just, you know, want to be able to like vlog and tell the story like every day, but his vlogs are not so like they're very pure for him, you know, he has his honest feelings.
Eric Chow
Yeah, it's very like authentic to him. Yeah, for sure. He has his very unique style.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I'm surprised you can like survive all the YouTube for like a week a week. Yeah, I'm always on YouTube. Exactly. I'm gonna start I'm gonna start fasting from YouTube starting now Right now is going on a week as of right now.
Eric Chow
What days today is November 5th? I will not be watching YouTube for a week. All right.
Allen Santamaria
Good luck We'll get an update from Allen If you see me if you see me back on Twitter, I probably failed
Eric Chow
But it was good for me. I had so much more time. So for you, it was in Maui so you could enjoy time with family, you can enjoy Maui. Exactly. Oh, enjoy the beach. Exactly. Yes.
Allen Santamaria
I think just getting off of your daily routine or whatever you do on the daily, just for a good... Maybe it doesn't even have to be a week. You could start small and go one day.
Eric Chow
There are these guys I've been following on Twitter. They're the minimalists Yeah, they also have a YouTube channel podcast a bunch of stuff, but one of the concepts they have is called screenless Saturday. Oh So you they like at the strictest level it means like literally no screens So not even a TV like no TV computer phone gone Okay, what is the strictest level now? I'm if I were to do it I would probably just do social media, but I haven't actually done it That's an idea they have so like if you want to do like a one day off of social media That's one kind of idea that they they have screen list Saturday.
Okay. What if they need to go eat in the menus on a screen? Good luck I'm alliterate That would suck. That would suck. Yeah, I don't know.
Allen Santamaria
That's a good question. The only reason why I'm on YouTube is because I just like watching like short films. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, actually what inspired me to like really do film or like kind of just be a cinematographer is that I don't know if you remember this back then, you know, the kindamas at school. Like it wasn't like more than like the toy itself. There's like it's like skate editing, you know, you film yourself doing tricks. You know you just have a camera sitting there, but some of these people they take it like to the next they make it look like a movie You know that's that's what made me kind of want it.
Oh, you know those are one channel kuma films or something. Yeah, do you see those two guys? I don't know which one you're talking about but that's the Sorry, it's the two guys.
Eric Chow
They have like the economics. I feel it. I might have I might have
Allen Santamaria
I think I've had those guys, but... Really?
Eric Chow
Yeah, I know. Japan in like 2015... Or not Japan, San Francisco, Japan. No, it's Japan's sound, okay we're good. I was like, my boy. I was like, no, I did not go to Japan. Wait a second. 20-15. Yeah, yeah. But you know, Kondama hasn't just like really... Condama has helped me out, you know, just like meet more people. But more or less this brand called Condama USA, they had these line of Condamas called Kaizen. It sounded like a cool word to me and I was like, oh okay, yeah, it's like a cool word. I don't know what I didn't know. I did not know what it meant.
Yeah, I did not know what it meant. Until you know, I met one of the pro players in San Francisco and they for Condom USA He's like kai-sen. This is actually a Japanese philosophy and you know just constant improvement and this goes back to our main topic which is you know optimistic you know constant improvement and You know, I just thought about it like a constant improvement and like you know to this day kai-sen really still sticks with me and I think it's just one of those philosophies You know, even though listeners like listening right now you guys should try and just applying kai-sen it your everyday life.
It doesn't have to be those big setting goals of big improvements today. Like I'm going to start eating vegetables like nonstop, no meat, no, no, like, you know, little by little. Yeah, very little by little little increments of improvement is, you know, how I'm just like able to live, live every day. Yeah. I thought of a couple of things here. Just really quickly, the one in that first bit you said, he was saying like he You watch YouTube mostly for like the short films Yeah, and I think a lot of people just going back to like why people should take a break from social a lot of people go through it mindlessly like they just go down the rabbit hole Exactly exactly like we watch all these things that are just like yeah, they're entertaining they're funny, but they kill our time They're not really meaningful.
They're great every once in a while. I do it to whatever but being able to like use platforms, social media, YouTube for like what you actually give a fuck about, like watching short films or whatever it is for anyone who's listening, using social media for that instead of the mindless stuff. Great. And that- That was fun. Yeah, exactly. And that was one of the things that came out of my detox. It was like, I realized like I wasted so much time. And then so when I came back, I was like Now I can be more intentional about this. Yeah. And then I like what you were saying about like the kendama.
It wasn't just about the kendama. Like, yeah, it's fun to play with the kendama, but it was like, there's a community around it and there's a philosophy behind it. And I think with a lot of the things people become interested in, whether it's, you know, you did dance for a while, we both did martial arts for a while, things like that. It's like the activity is great and all. When you look deeper, there's that community also. And then there's the philosophies behind it. That's really what's important about having something you're interested in.
Allen Santamaria
Especially dance, you know? Dance is like a really big community. Yeah. And I think like going back to like how, you know, sometimes when people need help, they feel alone. Sometimes just remembering that like, you know, there's community out there and like, it only takes one step. You just got to kind of get yourself in. But it's not easy to... It's not easy to do that because some people have social anxiety and I understand. That's fine. But if you really want to see the other people out there and get a social interaction face to face, it would be great to join a community. I agree. With dancing, making music. Whatever you're interested in. Whatever you're interested in.
Eric Chow
I think a lot of people who are shy. Instantly become more open when they're doing something they love. Yeah, that's just how it works even even the more most shy reserve quiet people Suddenly change when they're into something when you find out what that is and then I also like the idea of Kaizen small improvement I was reading I'm reading a book right now It's called everything is figure outable by Marie Forleo and she has a line Okay progress not perfection Exactly. A lot of people are like, I need this to be perfect. I need this to be exactly right. Especially in the beginning, they're like, I need this to be perfect.
But now, measure yourself not on how well you do, but how much you're improving. Exactly. Little by little. So I love Kaizen. That's a great, great idea. Yeah. It's just always the philosophy I'm always going to live by.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah. I'm going to get a tattoo of it. I don't know.
Eric Chow
But I don't know. How does that look like as a Japanese character?
Allen Santamaria
I feel like it was pretty cool. which is getting like a sleeve or something. Actually the way the company for the kendama that made the brand kaizen, it looks like the infinite symbol, but it's like a bunch of lines going around it. Some like it. Because if you think about it, infinite possibilities, infinite progression. I like it. That's pretty cool. But even like I said, even with dance, there's a whole community out there. And like you said, increments of progress. That's still me for anyone that be was out there I did I uploaded the podcast with him the other day. Yes, you do come back come visit But um yeah for Basically this move.
I'm trying to do right now. It's called flares and The whole premise of it is instead of your legs are kind of in the air and your hands are just always planted down Kind of like this hand motion. I'm doing it right now. I got you if you For the listeners that can't see what we're doing right now, just look up like how to do a flare on YouTube. Yeah, it's pretty. Yeah. Yeah. I've been stuck on that move for like four years and I still can't get a picture. She's doing such the same thing. Yeah. But you know, Jazoon, he's really passionate about what he does.
And I think that's just a perfect example of Kaizen, you know, those increments of progression got Jazoon to do those flares and you know, look at him now. He's like, he's like amazing. Yeah. Actually funny, because he started. Way later than I did. Right, you started. I started in sixth grade. I think Jatune.
Eric Chow
He started like late eighth grade. He told me. Late eighth grade. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I remember.
Allen Santamaria
That's what he told me. Yeah. And then, you know, just looking at his progress from time to time, like I could tell this guy was really passionate about it and it was amazing to see him progress over time. And like I said, that's just a perfect example of Kaizen. Mm hmm.
Eric Chow
Think one thing I we did mention at the end of the podcast with Chitun a lot of people feel like What they're when they're passionate about something when they're really into something they feel like they have to be perfect or they have to That everything is supposed to be easy But that's just not I mean that's just not true what you're passionate about means You're willing and you're interested enough to put in the efforts to improve because you love to do it exactly exactly
Allen Santamaria
You don't do it because for whatever reason being you do it because like you really love to do this. Yeah. I think that goes with me for guitar. You know, I do play guitar. Yep. It's not the fact that I'm playing music so I can, you know, make money and get into the music industry. You know, I'm doing it because, yeah, I love music. Yeah. It's like part of my everyday life or part of mostly everyone's daily lives. Yeah. And it's like I said, if you're doing it, but you don't feel some sort of like motivation to keep going or keep trying, you know, maybe you want to step back. It's like, do you really love to do this?
Eric Chow
Or I just doing this because for the sake of something, you know, and don't get discouraged by sometimes when we like are doing something we love. But even then it gets hard, then you have those moments of like. No, I don't want to do this anymore, but really no it's just got hard and you're kind of exhausted and you just need a break and you'll come back to it I didn't I had that on a podcast once I was even when you get intimidated.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah, yeah, that's who I'll admit right now when I saw you tune like progressing like way more than I did And then we started battling on the dance floor. Dude, oh my gosh, I was intimidated. This guy, Jatune has like the battle face whenever he's going against him. He has this fierce look like he wants to kill you. Not literally. Yeah, the dance battle. He's not a murder. This is a dance battle. But even though I see that like fierce look in his eyes, like I was able to tell like this guy wants to do this for the rest of his life.
Eric Chow
What passions would you say you've had? Oh, the course of your lifetime.
Allen Santamaria
Singing in the beginning when I was like a little kid, but then I realized how bad I sounded after looking at all the young people. Same! Same! Look at all the videos and I was like four or five and I was singing. Like I was like, oh, okay, never mind. I'm not doing this. Same. But then I do sing to myself sometimes when I'm in the car and I'm alone. Hell yeah. Drums is kind of there, but I don't practice as much. I used to have a drum set when I was a... I was like 10 we had it in the garage. Mm-hmm, but for some reason like or not after some reason I had to sell it because I was like I was always getting complaints from my heart like it's too loud It's only 3 in the afternoon you said I could play So we had to sell it was a really nice drum set too But we had to sell it on Craigslist, so that's gone now But I bought a electronic drum kit just to practice on from time to time.
Yep, it's not It's not as like I don't always pick it up often be like I feel like playing drums Guitar it's a complete opposite because you know they're just right there in my room. I don't play guitar It doesn't seem to matter. I feel like Well, this is just me with guitar. I just can't sleep without playing just not even just like a couple minutes of the guitar I just don't know why it's just me, you know I I'm soothing for you. Yeah, I was like I can't sleep I can't complete my day if I don't touch my guitar or a guitar in general sure sure sure Yeah, so that's, you know, I'm always psyched when I go to get places like guitar center because I'm like, oh my god, hold on, I tried this in the last place.
Every single one. Yeah. Like, this is at a mall too. I was supposed to go shopping with my mom, but then I was like, I haven't got a guitar center right across the street. And I was like, they're at the whole increment when I could have been, when I could have been going around the mall. But I think that is another example of going back to like how we, do you remember what we were like? How into it we are?
Eric Chow
Yeah, into it we are. But I even had social media and stuff, you know. We're doing some of the stuff that's so mindless. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it has meaning, but sometimes it's just mindless. I'm just there because, oh crap, this is a cool guitar on a plate. But then we don't, we realize that we just killed time when we could have been doing something else. Yeah. So it's somewhat good and bad for me to be at a guitar center. I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Fair. I think. But. I don't know. I don't think it's really a bad thing. Unless it's like taking away from something you need to do.
Oh, no. That's how you're having a problem. Oh, really? All right. There you go then. Because my mom was like, I need to help go like these clothes. Oh, sorry. Because then, yeah. Then it becomes a problem.
Allen Santamaria
No, it becomes a problem. But no, it's not a bad thing if you're only, you're killing time because you know you're doing something wrong.
Eric Chow
You're enjoying it. Yeah, exactly. And there's a difference between like... watching a YouTube video, random YouTube video you found and thinking, hey, this is hilarious versus actually having fun. There's a difference between low quality and high quality fun. There is such a thing. Yeah. That's true.
Allen Santamaria
You can get a gig a lot of YouTube. Exactly. That's easy. Or Netflix. I was watching Jeff Dunham do you make me laugh? But then if you actually hang out with your friends, your friend cracks up a joke, that's 10 times a day. Exactly. Because you're with them. Exactly. And you know, I think everything we talked about, it just has to do with presence. If there's people out there that can connect with you, you know, you, you know, you have support. Everything, everything like, I've just noticed from this conversation, most of it was like about presence, who's going to be there for you?
Eric Chow
Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you. Presence is... And then I go just goes back to like community getting a group of people who Maybe doesn't even have to be like the same interest. It's always great if they have the same interest. Yeah, but even if it's like different interests like I'm I don't play the drum set. I don't play guitar. I've I've never done kendama. Yeah, I don't dance We have done carons. We have done martial arts together. Well, not together, but we both have done martial arts. But for the most part, a lot of our passions don't align. But even then, it's like, I still understand it.
I can still be curious about it, which I am. I am curious about it. But I'm not doing it with you. At least people who are like that, that's still the community. Exactly.
Allen Santamaria
And then going back to what about the Twitter message I sent you and all I guess, you know, how do you help someone out? You may not be able to help them out, but if your presence is there, whether it be through the phone, through text or even, you know, you know, I prefer a person, right? Like that's going to help them just the presence.
Eric Chow
It's there. They know, they know, they know you're supporting them. A lot of people struggle because they feel alone. Yeah. And that's why having some sort of presence around them that is somewhat positive. It's just so empowering. Yeah, exactly.
Allen Santamaria
You know, my junior year, I did feel like that. But only because I was being ignorant that I had presence. I'm like, I'm just a chair. It keeps like, it keeps popping like every like five minutes.
Eric Chow
Is the mic gonna catch you? It might, but whatever sucks for you guys.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah. Sorry listeners, if you might get a little ear rape, I'm gonna hear every five minutes. But, like I said, you know, Junior year, I just somewhat kind of felt alone, even though I did have presents on me. And I think that's just something I took for granted that year. Because, you know, eighth grade, like, I wasn't really aware of myself, I was just like this dumb Filipino kid, just like wandering around. I get it. I can dumb. Still doing that to this day. sometimes but Junior years when I started becoming more or maybe not junior freshman years when I started become more aware of what I was doing saying like a and you know I can't be doing this I can't be I don't want to be I don't want to be this kind of person when I get into the old so It's good to really observe Observe what you're doing Make sure you know it's good if it's bad someone's up.
Eric Chow
Why do you think you? Didn't realize you had people around you.
Allen Santamaria
You know just at the time I was really ignorant like this is this is I Guess you could say this is the part when I had like a some sort of edgy phase, you know I shade my head and I just wasn't happy for some reason there was something holding me back You know to this day I can't figure out what it was but I've I've not even gone back to that question until today, you know, I don't go back to that question. Yeah at all because I've learned to except the fact that there's presence around me. You know, like me and you right now, there's presence in this room.
I'm with you, we're making a podcast. We have listeners that are gonna be listening to this. It's the presence that's, it's the presence that really affects, it makes an effect on someone.
Eric Chow
You do it, yeah, you just found that you don't really need to think about that, cause it's over. Sure, it might be interesting to figure out why it happened, but it doesn't matter to you. Moved on you learned from it.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah, it's in the past exactly and I feel like that's why some people just have Some people just don't feel happy with themselves sometimes because they're always just holding on to that thing that's in the back my stepdad told me like Why worry about yesterday when there's a you know, there's a world in front of you like right now like every yeah that passed by you know Like the 10 seconds I was just talking to you already passed by like now it won't really matter if you bring it up again.
Eric Chow
It's the point. There's no value. Yeah, you and me were talking about Gary Vaynerchuk before we started recording. Oh, yeah, one thing he does incredibly well is he switches from thing to thing so quick. Yeah, like anyone who's watched one of his daily v's which are like his daily vlogs. He literally goes from speech, keynote, Q&A, He's on his phone making a call to somebody. He's now he's in the car. He's just moving from thing to thing. And he's just, and one of the reasons he is able to do that so well is he's like, okay, deal with this. Okay, that's done. Move on now.
Like I don't have to think about that. That decision is done. Move on. Move on to the next thing. And a lot of people you're so right, like get stuck.
Allen Santamaria
I guess stuck in the class. Me too. Yeah. Freshman here, especially for me. He's getting stuck in the pad. I was kind of stuck in the past after like some stuff that freshman year. Yeah, I'm not gonna say it because I go it's kind of personal, but yeah, it's fine Like you said Gary Vee like he's busy every day first of all like he's a busy man.
Eric Chow
He's a really busy guy How many how many episodes a day again? Well, he does a daily Vee every day. Yeah, and then he is constantly posting on All sorts of platforms tick tock Twitter Instagram. He's posting clips on YouTube. He's on LinkedIn. He's on fucking everything Facebook literally fucking everything and then he's running like a giant business with what 800 employees or something I Feel like it's more maybe probably more probably more doing a time. I mean he's a busy man, but he does have a team behind him, which is good, but yeah still it's It's it's really busy
Allen Santamaria
But I feel like that's just the way to hustle now. You can't think about that. I'm not saying like go rushing through like, right? Having the present, you know, like sometimes it's okay to just kind of reflect on what kind of happened back then. But don't go deep into what happened back then because then that's when you really feel like, oh my gosh, you know, like you get these feelings from the past when you should be really worrying about what's happening right now. And that's why Gary Vee is just able to move. So quickly. From. from task to task, you know, he's just, he's not thinking about, geez, did I really mess up on that speech I did last night?
Eric Chow
Or should I be good to tell him that? Like, he's always moving. Just go. Yeah, just go. I think one line he said, and I'm going to get these numbers wrong, but it's fine. You were saying a lot of people, they try to do get three wins and one loss.
Allen Santamaria
I'm trying to get 117 to 96. 117 to 96.
Eric Chow
Interesting. So people are like, I'm trying to win these win, get a win, get a win, and then maybe like one loss somewhere, like one mistake. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they're only doing four things. Gary Vee's like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going 117 to 96. Or whatever the number, like I said, I'd probably get the number.
Allen Santamaria
See, even with those many else, you can still take a W.
Eric Chow
Exactly. Like a wide double use. A wide double use.
Allen Santamaria
A wide. A wide. It's a wide. If you think about it, too, let's make a W. No, literally, like if you take two Ls and then you put one of them and you put them together and kind of angled them, they make a W. And I said it even number of the Ls. So... You got number L so they he has a couple W's there too and you I mean you don't obviously we don't have to be as busy as Gary V I would never want to be as busy as Gary V ever couldn't do it not me and but actually this goes back to optimism if you're gonna if you're gonna like you can have friends say oh you took an L you're better off thinking you took a W Not like literally, you know, like, oh no, it's a good W.
Don't do what an Adrian Broner did when he fought many Pacquiao and be like, hey, I beat him one really many. No, don't do that. What I mean by thinking of taking an L as a W, there's something that you probably won.
Eric Chow
when you took that out. I think I know my typical answer would be you learned something. Exactly, you learned something. Like it goes back to Kaizen, progress not perfection. It goes back to that. And optimism. And optimism. When you take an L, yeah you messed up, but you also can learn something from it and move on.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah, I have a perfect example for this. Junior year, I had to do a film. Well, okay, I was in Filipino class learning the language and how it works is oh you got to film yourself like how to cook and you got to speak in the gala Okay, um When I when I was filming that we it was a group of me and a couple of other guys and I'm gonna be honest with you We kind of just messed around We're like hey, let's make a parody of TFC or the Filipino channel for those of you who don't know yeah, so we compared to you that let's make a funny commercial cuz we're allowed to have commercials in between the in between the project film.
And that turned out really bad. Because one, we were using improper words. It just wasn't taken so seriously. Everything had these really cringy jokes in it. It was that bad. And you know the whole class is just like looking at my group like y'all are clowns bro. Y'all should have taken this seriously. And I was walking back to my desk and my head down like I was thinking like oh my god I really like messed up so badly. And that kinda just went out through me until we had the next project, next film project which is like make a project about saving the earth. Okay, I'm gonna tell you this right now.
This is one of my favorite like comebacks in my life because Taking from what I learned from how bad we did on the film now more seriously I should have taken it we I Should mention this is when I started getting more into the cinematography I had my first camera at that time I was really like dialing in this you can actually be serious Yeah, like I was actually trying to make it more cinematic But you know be a little bit of ourselves in there and crack up a joke or two. Yeah, yeah, of course and I was filming it you know acting more professional and editing it all together and we had the final product and we showed it to the class so my first my teacher miss p was like you know you know you know that take this you didn't take this seriously but then after we showed like our masterpiece I just saw her in the back like smiling like laughing at some of that some of the stuff we did actually one of the funny parts we added in that little project was um So if you use your car, you know, there's air pollution.
Yes Well the whole like kind of story of ours is like hey put on these glasses See what happens if you keep using your car so my friend takes these glasses he puts it on you see smoke everywhere And towards the end when the whole film was finished and everyone was clapping and my teacher was like, oh that was really good. But then towards the end of the year, like end of junior year, my Filipino teacher, she goes up to me and she goes, oh and I need to tell you something. I was like, yeah, what's up? Your film, I need to tell you, out of all the years I've been teaching here at Logan, yours was the best one I've ever seen in my whole yeah I was like oh my god not in like the whole year not the whole like this year like the best film of all time and it'd be great to like have her kind of show the class like you know this is what we created because one it was a perfect example at everything that was required for the project and two it told a story at the same time it engaged in a story not the best cinematography not the best storyline but the best story or a good way to add a story while teaching the Gollum.
And I was thinking about it, I was like, did I really just bounce back from the previous project? Damn. So that's a really perfect example of taking that L and turning it to W. That's two L's taken W, like I said. Yeah. Not that I took two losses, but that be learning how like...
Eric Chow
Actually, I do like this. I do like this. If 2L's make a W and you take an L, that means you're halfway to a W.
Allen Santamaria
Exactly, you're halfway to a W. Perfect. I like it. I'll keep note of that.
Eric Chow
I like that one. Look at us. Look at us.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah, that's a good one. So I was like, oh my god, I really like, I just made the best film out of like all time in Filipino too. Yeah. Which is like great to hear, but then now it's kind of sad because unfortunately, the former Filipino two teachers she retired. So it's a different guy. I might have to contact him and be like, oh yeah, Ms. Pete told you to show us our film because it sets an example for her thing.
Eric Chow
Yeah. But yeah, you can't be taking Ls and crying about it.
Allen Santamaria
You got to learn something from it. You have to learn something from it.
Eric Chow
It's OK to cry about it, but don't take too long. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, let's stay there.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, cuz like for me, well my my metallies like I'm not gonna cry about this. I'm gonna learn. Sure. That's me, but yeah, it's okay to cry about whatever you do. So I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it. You're good.
Eric Chow
You're good. I just want to clarify a little bit. Yeah. As long as you don't dwell on it, which is what Alan's saying, like don't dwell on it too much.
Allen Santamaria
Don't think like you just failed for the rest of your life.
Eric Chow
Yeah. I like this part too about the book I'm reading, Everything's Figure Outable. She said... No, she was quoting someone It's a judge she like in criminal justice and stuff and she was interviewing her and I don't remember the name damn it but the quote is Failure is an event not a characteristic people can't be failures Something like that like people feel like I'm a failure. No, you're not a failure. You failed This event is a failure But it's not who you are. You made a mistake and you can move on.
Allen Santamaria
Exactly. It's not who you are. Which is exactly what you're saying. You know, just because you failed doesn't mean you will not be successful the rest of your life. That doesn't fail. Shouldn't define you. Yeah. Like if you failed, like you only failed, like you said, at the event. Yeah. Not you failed because you are a failure. Yeah. You only just didn't. Didn't succeed what you were trying to go for you know you're intent And you can just learn from it and try it and try to move on exactly exactly and that's that's Kaizen Yeah, I think I think that has to be Kaizen has to be in the title now The number of times we've put Kaizen in this episode that's definitely in the title now Alan and Kaizen Yeah, cuz like when I first adapted to the word or when I first started like Using the word kyzen I was like I should put this in my Instagram handle.
It's like I'm just gonna cheat it's like I'll say it's more closer to my name. Yeah, yeah, definitely have some kyzen in you guys like it'll it'll make you realize that you're progressing more you're not downgrading you're not getting yourself a little and even I think people feel like when they make like mistakes that they are getting lowered.
Eric Chow
Yeah They feel like it, but in reality it's like, no, you're learning something, you're growing. And if you think about it in terms of kai-sen progress. Exactly. No, you're always leveling up. You're never going back. Yeah. Yeah, you fall all the time.
Allen Santamaria
Yep. Yep. You're going to fall all the time and then eventually the baby's going to get back up on it's own and continue walking. And it's a whole cycle until she finally bounces herself and that's when she could start walking. And then that's when she grows up, there's a kid. And then causes some trouble to the parents and grows up.
Eric Chow
It's puberty. The whole life story. Actually, when you were saying that, it took me back to when we were talking about helping people who were in some unfortunate situations. One of the greatest feelings is after I've helped someone and then over a longer period of time, I get to see them start to deal with their own things. and then maybe even help other people and pass that on. I'm like, damn. Because I tried to help this person not obviously learn to walk, not something as big as that, but maybe he's helped them on something smaller that they needed help with and now they're able to take that and pass it on.
Allen Santamaria
Exactly. And you know what, sometimes you don't find happiness within yourself. You find happiness seeing someone else grow or something like that. Because think about it, like some people like they have a lot of money like that and that's for themselves But you know, sometimes it's just not the happiest person ever However, there's like people who have like these loads of money, but they're giving it to charities and Metallica is one of them one of my favorite fans I should say they started the all within my hands foundation Which is you know any from like the revenue made from all the concerts they perform or like merchandise made they give it to like these local charities, you know, wow and like I feel like them doing that, it's what makes them happier when they just play music, you know, they're helping out.
And actually even in Rob Deardex, I forget what show this was, not ridiculousness the show, it was like a reality show. But there was no drama in it, like it was just Rob Deardex and his own private skate park, and he's just doing a bunch of random stuff. I forget who this one girl was, she had the annoying laugh. Ridiculousness, I don't think I don't know if you watched it. I didn't I forgot, but it's just girl. She was like I think sarcastically she's like oh, I'm not happy enough I was like oh really why and they bought like this happy meter I was like I could use one we're happy meter and like basically you record it read your voice and tells you like if you have your set Okay, I don't believe in that though.
Yeah, it's kind of dumb But basically she's like I'm happy the first time they tried on her. He's like okay, go say to the mic I'm happy like she records I'm happy and then it says sad and she's like what the heck and they're like, oh, you know, let's try doing this Let's try putting her in a room full of pup full of puppies. See if that makes her happy Which hey, I'm not gonna lie. I would do that too. I'd be happy already. I'm more of a dog dog and puppy person not really a cat. You know sure yeah, so They tried to put her in a room full of like puppies and like, okay, same to them like now. I'm happy. She says I'm happy and the meter still reads like sad. I was like, that doesn't make sense.
Eric Chow
Wait, hold up. She was laughing. That's interesting. Okay. I don't think it's really like. Yeah. I feel like that was really. That's a skid or whatever.
Allen Santamaria
It doesn't really matter. Yeah. But here's where like the show started to really convey a message. You know, because Rob Durek's kind of rich, you know, he has his own TV show and TV. He was like, hey, you know what? Let's try this. We have a couple of money here. Let's see what happens if you give this stack of, I think it's like 50s or 20s to someone, see if that'll make you happy. And basically this girl's getting free money. Which I wish I was there when she was doing that. So she was basically like, hey, you want some money? You know, thank you. which again, I feel like that was scripted.
She's just giving away these stack of 20s, like probably summing up to 100 in each stack. And then you're like, okay, same to the mic. Say I am happy. And then the mic says I am happy. It finally ran out. She was happy. I was like, oh, that's interesting, you know, like, because sometimes we can't take, we can't just find that happiness in ourselves. I'm not saying it's you will never find it. Like sometimes it's not always going to come from within you. It's going to come from within your generosity or within your kindness. I like it. That's what makes that's what should be making.
Eric Chow
I've heard a lot about like people saying like, oh, you know, happiness shouldn't come from other people. It should come from yourself. Yeah. which is where I find that really interesting. I think what people mean when they say don't get it from other people is more of don't let other people determine your happiness. Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. And then sure maybe you can find happiness within yourself. But I really like what you're saying of more of forget both those options. Let's take happiness and say it is being able to do something for other people service of some sort. even if it's like, you know, if it's giving cash away or even if it's something as simple as like, which I would recommend doing.
Yeah, that's great. I could use some, I could use some. Yeah, you could Alan could too. Yeah. If you enjoyed the podcast, our Venmo is not.
Allen Santamaria
I'll give you all my Venmo after this. No. Like, don't give me money.
Eric Chow
Like that's not smart. If you're rich, you can.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah, if you're rich. Give me no I have a broke I live in a fancy mouth shit all the way in Beverly Hills I'll have you know I go to the dinner every once in a while and my own butler I don't need that to be happy me neither you I feel like making someone happy is what it's the more Reliable source to mean someone happy and then and this goes oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Oh, you know what we need to And a bunch of our other friends for senior year, you know, we have this called hip-hop elements You guys did mention this in the episode podcast.
Yeah, I did to his podcast We know we started hip-hop elements and you know more or less I was just kind of happy to see people there and that goes back to what we're talking about presence is what affects us affects our mood. Yeah You know as much as I was happy to see myself progressing and I was to kind of sit I was happy to see myself progressing more for break dancing We had to teach kids how to break dance because you know these these freshmen were new and you know They didn't they didn't know where to start and that's where the that's where you know our happiness started coming from we were happy to see them progressing You know I'm happy to see some of these students, you know before they couldn't even do these certain moves now They're like really advanced, you know, they're trying new things that I wouldn't even try Even backflips too, some people got backflips. More or less, I would have been happy if that was me, but I was really happy to see some people getting those backflips.
Eric Chow
I was like, oh my God! I taught you the basics and now look at you.
Allen Santamaria
Exactly. But that's just the perfect example of how you can be happy without trying to find it for yourself.
Eric Chow
I think a term that my old martial arts teacher used to use was fulfillment. Which actually no there was a different because I did taekwondo and then I did sugyu a keto Oh, okay, so it's my sugyu a keto sensei yeah, and he said like fulfillment Which is? Giving taking what you've learned and passing it on I remember I I was thinking somebody at the dojo once I don't remember if it was my sensei or someone else who who had basically helped train me all along the way. And as I was a brown belt preparing for my black belt test, he was the one who helped train me.
And so he had been a huge mentor for me in training and in life. I don't remember if it was him or my sensei. But one of them, I remember I told them, hey, how do I ever thank you for everything you've done for me? And they said, the best thing you can do is to pass on what you've learned to other people. I don't need anything from you. There you go. And I was like, I was young at that time. I was four years ago. I think possibly even four years ago today possibly and like I was like Bro, what are you talking about?
Allen Santamaria
I bet you had the age when I was like if I was at that age where I was like six and be like, okay, just get to my message. I wouldn't know what you was talking about.
Eric Chow
Exactly. I like what the fuck you and me.
Allen Santamaria
I guess there's nothing to you. Like you have to do something like that.
Eric Chow
I'm sure I thank you. Exactly, that's not a thank you. And then like two years later, I kind of, or two or three years later, I kind of, I realized like, oh, I get it now.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah. Yeah. I like looking, I like those times where you're just thinking about, like what, what is he talking about? I mean, you look at it like a couple years later. Oh, that's what he meant. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. That was super profound. That's how you can be thankful for someone, like just passing on what you've learned, you know, passing on the knowledge. Like this goes for like anything really. If the best way you could preserve like any culture is just to pass on the knowledge from generation to generation. Especially going back to Kidnaw. There was a pro player named Dave Mateo. He was really influential on everyone.
I met him in San Francisco and you know, he's a really, he was a really nice person. Unfortunately though he just passed away recently so you know, rest of these to day Mateo but you know he was always just emphasized on like not only just being hyped about learning new tricks you know for anything really because he was a b-boy too. Yeah, okay. It's He emphasized more on just like passing on the skills and you know what you know from Every everything you know just passing it on to the next generation and again, that's how you preserve the culture But again, you know rest in peace to him.
Eric Chow
He was just a really inspirational man. I remember um similar story. Yeah, super influential person passed away He was Literally one of Bruce Lee's best friends. Oh shoot, that's cool genuinely and like I met the guy four or five years ago, a couple of times, because he was at some seminars that I was attending for martial arts. Yeah. And first of all, my dude was like 91, 92 at the time. Oh, okay. He passed away or like maybe one or two years ago. Oh, I lost him, jeez. Yeah. But I mean, he... was so pet like he's old as he can't fight anybody you can't really do much anymore well unless he's like maybe you can pull some master Uguay stuff I don't know you never know you can like meditate you know the future in your body exactly I don't know maybe you could do that but like physically he's not as capable of anything anymore but he was still like so into it yeah and like you could tell like all he was doing was like trying to pass on like say Bruce Lee's legacy and like the like certain messages that were like really important to him as a high martial artist.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah, that has to go the same for it. Are you familiar with Dragon's Den and Eunice?
Eric Chow
Yes. Yeah, because my uncle's friends with Jonathan McElle he just like released his own book called Exit the Dragon. Yes. I've been kind of reading it. I've been reading it like I was not a consistent rate during the summer but then I stopped because you know, fall semester is about to begin here at the loney. Yes. But I noticed in that book, yeah Jonathan Mack, he long story short, he answered his like third, I think it was his second or third cage fight. First couple of minutes in the round, he kicked real hard, but he didn't knock the guy out, he snapped his own like calf and half I think.
So yeah, like he was like stop the fight, stop the fight. And you know the whole story kind of that's where like the story begins like he just had this broken leg he feels kind of He feels like power. He feels like he has nothing to do now. Yeah He feels a lonely empowered, but the best thing he could do from From that time was just kind of pass on the knowledge to other people and just how to how to grow. Yeah So that's that's really how you can how do I say this? That's how you can make yourself feel satisfied just knowing that someone has like the rest Even if it isn't you yeah, exactly even if it's you too, you know, yeah, yeah But yeah, you know, that's just how That's just the way I feel like We can continue to spread happiness because they're you know as much as there's like so much positive things going on the world There's a lot of negative things going on this way.
No doubt, you know, right right right you can't there's it's impossible to take completely take that out away because you know if there has to be good there has to be there has to be bad in order for good to be You know real existing yeah existence cuz think about it like it's relative Yeah, if there's no bad like or if there's no bad like how are you how are you supposed to know? It's good then right it's all relative. Yeah, yeah, so it's it's important that we We acknowledge that there is gonna be negative stuff in this world cuz then that that should be our intention Okay, there is some negative stuff in this world.
Let's contrast that with some of the positive I have a little saying, this is what I call my life motto. And it's based on, I can't even take credit for it because it's based on this guy by the name of Brendan Burshard. You have to just shout him out real quick for a credit. But it's three words, live, love and matter. And what we're kind of talking about is that first word which is live. And to me, it's just the idea that living is so much better than existing. And what I mean by that is Living is when you actually are like Experiencing life existing is like I'm alive.
Okay. Yeah, I'm just gonna go through it and then die like that's you didn't really live life if you just wonder the face of life right right and you're not living it and so Gotta have gotta I think like for live you just gotta use all five of your senses and take it in be present be present find communities and One of the key parts to live because all three words like those are three words But to me they have so much meaning under it one of the big things for me on live is Kind of this coin but instead of good or bad is in order because living is about having that meaning instead of just like going through existing that coin is on one side enjoying the positives of life whether you're on vacation whether you're having a great relationship with somebody else, whatever, enjoying something.
And the other side, which people would think of as the negative side, the part that sucks, the part that's horrible, I think of as the part you learn from, or the part you progress from, right? Because we progress more when we're struggling than we do when we are succeeding. So that's the coin I think of instead of positive, negative, good, bad joy and pain, it's joy and learning.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah, that's what I think of it as. Yeah, well, because you won't know where it is what you need to work on until you've failed on something. Yeah. Because that, because like you're going to be oblivious if you just keep, if you're just good at everything, you know, you're not going to know when to like know where you are right now, know where you stand. You know, I always go by the saying to like, even though you, even the people that are that think they're the best in the world, or they're considered the best in the world, they know out there, they're somewhat better than them.
And it's a whole cycle. This obviously goes for me. I may break dance, but I know that there's people out there that are way more advanced than I am. Not saying that in a discouraging way, but just to stay low on the ground, just be humble about it. Not be arrogant. Yeah, don't be too arrogant. I need to work on that. Just all this is. Yeah, that's fair. But what I just said right now, that's improvement. I know I need to work on something. Yeah.
Eric Chow
Yeah, I like what you said there and this is this is gonna go back to what I was saying earlier about my sensei saying fulfillment. He actually had a process for I think of as like the cycle of learning. Yeah Step one is respect respecting other people respecting yourself Just plain and simple respect have respect for people and yourself step to humility recognize you still have so much more to learn. Even if you've been, got so much experience you feel like, even if you're so good you feel like. And by the time we, he was stressing humility, because he did this as we got through the belts.
Respect was you can't get past white belt if you don't show, if he doesn't feel like you're showing respect to him and to everybody else on the mat and to the mat itself, the Dodgero. And number two, humility was brownbell. Like all the way at brownbell. When you're at brownbell, you're like, I'm so good. I'm right at blackbell. Let's go. But no, he was like, no, this is humility. Like you have a lot to learn. Yeah. And then you get to blackbell, which is when he's like, okay, now you can start learning. Right. Now you can really start learning. Getting depth. Exactly. And then once you learn, you gain knowledge, knowledge, you gain wisdom, wisdom, then you can start.
Getting that fulfillment process of passing what you've learned your knowledge to other people and then you start over again I respect yeah, so it's all cycle. It's a cycle exactly perfect.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah, yeah Man, when I used to cuz you know actually a fun fact me and Eric used to go to the same Korean martial arts Center. You as martial arts in even city. Yep. Taekwondo. Yeah, I forget the It was respect, discipline, determination, perseverance, self-control, integrity, helpfulness, honesty, curt, weight. I think it was just those six. I think that was a whole list. This is like a long time ago, we forgot.
Eric Chow
Yeah. Those are a whole list of tenets of hang-doh-quan.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah. Basically, like, you know, ideal philosophy. You don't be sticking to in your everyday life. And... It's good, you know, I haven't I haven't visited in like such a long time I haven't visited but I went back there one time and I was just like oh my god like I took this class for granted because you know I just wanted to go there just to learn how to defend myself but then now now that I'm all grown up I'm 18 like I want to understand the more the more mindful aspect of it, you know, you know, so I was like shit I was like should I should I go back and do it? Nah too busy. Yeah
Eric Chow
Yeah, yeah, it was great martial arts was a huge Super beneficial for me because I was lucky enough to actually be Fairly mindful of it. Yeah, like fairly like not so much in Taekwondo but more into shoot you a keto just because I was older.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah Did I tell you and chose martial arts? So you know how like typical board breaking yes, and you know sometimes the the black belts, they like to go insane and like step on a cup or like they'd see his people's backs to step on like hop over, do this like 360 and then someone holding the board like sideways like this like parallels their arms. I was one of them and I was so scared dude. Let me tell you why it was because I think the original guy that was supposed to hold the board out I think he was there. So they're like, hey Alan you want to hold the board?
And I'm used to I'm used to like holding it. like someone just doing a little hammer fist and just bringing them back. That's easy. That's easy. Like I'm not scared of that.
Eric Chow
This was like 10 times scary. This is a fancy 360.
Allen Santamaria
There's so much momentum and power. And it's like really high too. But it doesn't, I didn't have to hold it high up. The thing was like I had to hold it like, well I had to hold my arms parallel to each other. But I was on top of like three people that were lifting me up. I was like, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. And the first and the. Even at one point two like during the practice run when I had like the practice board.
Eric Chow
Yeah, the instructor kicked my hand. I was like, oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Allen Santamaria
You're good. Oh, it, it, um, yeah, I was like, oh, that's the sucks. And I didn't want to do it again because I always get traumatized by it. But I think like a couple years later, you know, I got called to do it again. I was like, oh, how long that? They're like, Alan, please, you're the only one. I was like, hi. I get up and I climb back on the same, I climb back up to the right top. And you know, actually that actually helped me out from powder puff. Cause I was a flyer inside note, but that helped me kind of get rid of my fear of not only just like trying again, even on the first attempt, it didn't go bad.
Or the first attempt went bad. Yeah. Now I got, got over my fear that, which is again, example of Kaizen constant improvement or just getting over fear. Yep. and heights as well because I did as much as I trusted myself going on heights of like rides at like a museum parks I didn't trust myself with heights like with people holding you know because like if I fall yeah you know and and again this presence you need to people you need people to be there to help you out not physically or physically and with everything else yeah and What were you talking about again?
Eric Chow
You were telling me about hurt yourself and then you were getting over your fear.
Allen Santamaria
One of the main points of your talk. Oh, optimism. There you go. Just because I got hit in the finger by a really big foot doesn't mean it's the end of the world for me. I just got to try it again and see what comes out of it.
Eric Chow
I like what you're talking about with fear. Jesus, I am pulling so many things out of that book. Think I think I might have to do a whole podcast just on what I found in the book. Yeah, I'm a stop right here. The thing is I'm pretty sure they'll just take royalties Marie for the old be like hey, you can't do this Just so you guys know Eric's gonna come out with a book in 10 to 15 years Yeah, I was telling him before the podcast I want to do a book at some point but that's gonna be like 10 to 15 years The best way through action is not wait fuck What was I just saying?
I might leave it in just for fun. It was the best way To deal with fears through it something like that. That's definitely not the quote, but that was the idea Yeah, you got it because I feel like if you just walk away from that Just gonna be behind your back the whole time you won't even like You're right.
Allen Santamaria
It's not it's gonna be behind your back the whole time until you actually turn around facing you Push right through it. Like literally.
Eric Chow
Here's the quote, a different quote. Okay. Action is the antidote. Fuck. Is it? Antitose? What the fuck's a toad? Antitode. Antitode. Is it? Fuck. It's an antidote to even a real word.
Allen Santamaria
Sweetie. Yeah, I don't think it's a real word.
Eric Chow
Antidote. Yeah, there you go. It's a fear. Okay, there we go. Action is the antidote to fear. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And that's- that's what you did. You- Yeah. You just- Did it again. You just did it again. Also, this is totally, this is nothing to do with like any theme of the podcast. It was just a funny story. From my black belt test, we had to break three boards, right? This is for your choice or choice? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's all for you. Yeah. So, um, and you could pick whichever move you wanted to do. Yeah. I was genuinely about to do headbutt. Really? Like genuinely during practice.
Allen Santamaria
I was going to ask your child like, okay, go ahead.
Eric Chow
I don't think Grandmaster Troy was there when I was doing my practices. At least most of the teams were there a couple times. But I would literally be like with other bastards or assistant teachers. I would be like, hey, I really want to do a headbutt. They're like, we haven't taught you that. I'm like, I know. I just want to do just for fun. Yeah, it's like genuinely like we did practice rounds like me and like the other people we did practice rounds where other people would hold the board and I'd literally Take off my glasses and put it on and then turn around and then do the other move whatever the other moves I would have been I was there to go during the actual black belt that's I did change it I think I did it last I think I decided to last minute to it because literally like Hey, don't do the headbutt. We're gonna do blah blah blah. We're gonna do a nail kick and stall. Just like hold it like that instead.
Allen Santamaria
Hold it like that, I'll kick it and it'll be fine. For black belt tests, like some of them, like some of them like they're fair, like choice martial arts. Like that's fine, you know, because all you're really doing is learning how to write Korean, you're doing the moves in forms, do the training of conditions. Sure, sure, sure. Yeah. Some karate classes, they don't do that. What they do instead is I forget the name of this one. I don't know if it still exists. John Sue, along with it? I don't know. Their black belt test is not like you're not gonna break any boards. You're not gonna show any moves in front of me.
You're not gonna, uh, you're not gonna like learn, or you're not gonna memorize anything. This is what you're gonna do. You guys are going to a forest for three days, two nights. I'm going to give you a Ziploc bag. It has like, I forget like water a couple like small grains of rice a protein bar Some and like fruits that's but that's all you had and you just had to stay there for like three days and two nights I was like are you kidding me dude? I can't do this is a karate glasses of wilderness. I'm so sorry. I will test. Oh my gosh I was like I can't do that.
Hell no I've had to break boards I feel like that's too harsh to me in my class. I mean damn. All right. But I, you know, I have talked to someone that took that class and what they got out of it was like, well, you know, one, we were talking about this at the very beginning of the podcast, just getting off your film. Yeah. And they'll just allow them to enjoy nature, but not fully because he had. He got bug bites and like he couldn't sleep at night. Oh my gosh. It sucked for him, but like he he got a lot out of that quote black belt.
Yeah, but yeah, I don't know how to feel about that because I'm not a field about that either. Yeah, because I found out because he thinks I got a festival they had a booth. You know, I was like, oh, come sign up for our classes. I was like, oh, you know, I used to do Taequandale, yeah. He was like, yeah, there's like, oh, you want your choice? Like, yeah, I did. He's like, oh, okay. I was like, what was the black belt test like for you? I was like, oh, that's fine. Just breaking boards. He's like, you want to hear what ours was? What? Three days, two nights in the forest.
Only one bottle of water, a cup of rice. And I was like, oh my God. Can't do that. Oh, I can see, even I can tell, I can tell you can't do that. Some veins are just popping out of your forehead.
Eric Chow
That Alan is referred to these like veins on the on like the Side of my forehead that like pop out sometimes I Love traveling I love nature. I love being I love martial arts. I love being off my phone, but I can't do it I don't know about that. I also love food. So yeah automatic counter I think, yeah. I'll stick to whatever the belt below that one.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah. I'll stick to it. I'll stick to Redbelt. Yeah, that's enough for me. Yeah, man. That's good. Mm-hmm. I feel like for me, the mediums, they just change over time. We were so used to type one though. Now we moved. For you, you moved into more like more mindfulness and just recording podcasts. That's a new medium. I feel like the medium is just a ball over time. But then, again, this goes back to applying some of that knowledge you learned. Mm-hmm. Because sometimes it's not even a person that will pass the knowledge on you.
Eric Chow
It'll be the medium itself. Mm-hmm that can pass the knowledge on you Yeah, this is like a by medium. I think I'm also thinking of like passions. Yeah passions My passion was martial arts doors was martial arts. We moved on to other things. Yes, you know, yeah exactly you got into kendama dance guitar. I got into you know a different totally different martial arts style, et cetera, et cetera. Things, but kind of there's still certain elements that are always the same. Like love what we do, the progress. It still applies. Community, presence, the same learning process, respect, humility, learning, knowledge, wisdom, fulfillment, same thing. A lot of that's the same, the medium, like you said, yeah.
Allen Santamaria
I like for sure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well that's all I really have right now because like everything we've talked about is just based on our mediums and I think in conclusion, you'll be able to find something for yourself if you can find out what that medium is or what that passion is for you. Yeah, I agree. You know, because then that having that passion just lends to the community. Links to really everything. Yeah. Yeah? Stupid chair. Right at the end too.
Eric Chow
Like literally you couldn't wait like 30 seconds chair. Can you show over to me? Jeez. Try to park your ass here.
Allen Santamaria
I think we're going insane in this room.
Eric Chow
Yeah. We're actually in a studio room this time. Yeah, you're in a professional recording studio.
Allen Santamaria
This is actually like a real studio room, which is kind of cool. Yeah, Eric, I think you noted like, oh, before I wasn't recording in like studios, I look at you now. Yeah, I'm just yet. This is your studio. This is definitely this is a lonely Smith Center is that a studio?
Eric Chow
Yeah, for sure. And I'm just we're just taking it. Yeah, for sure. Which thank you for getting me. Thank you for asking the people to let us record in here. Yeah. I was like, well, I technically didn't get their studio. Yeah, but you got it. I got it from here.
Allen Santamaria
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for coming on. Yeah, of course. And you're welcome for the upgrade. Alright, that's all for me guys, take care.
Eric Chow
Hey everybody, thank you so much for tuning in to episode 19 of the Eric Chow Empowers Podcast. I hope you guys enjoyed listening to this conversation I had with Alan. I hope you guys got value from a lot of the different things we discussed. You know, the idea of Kaizen and progress, not perfection. The idea of being conscious about Hey, when I consume this concept, when I'm on social media, am I doing this for my genuine enjoyment and to get some value from it? Is it one of those two things, or am I just wasting time? And when I could be spending it doing something that furthers my goals or really makes me feel inspired and motivated or something of the sort, you have to decide what you want to spend your time doing, so maybe that's an idea that's standing out to you.
Or maybe it's that you're now wanting to find a community of people who you want to surround yourselves with. You know, maybe it's finding something that you really want to do and pursuing a passion and interest and being willing to put in the work even when it gets hard because you give a fuck about what you're doing. Maybe that's one of the lessons you're taking away. There are a lot of valuable nuggets of wisdom throughout this episode that I hope you guys can recognize for what it is. and hopefully take something from it that will help you to live the life that you want to live.
But yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed it. Let me know your thoughts. You know, you can message me on social media. And if you enjoyed this episode and you got value from it, share it across social media. You can tag me on Instagram and Twitter at underscore ciao. Eric. And you can find Alan's social medias in the episode description as usual But thank you guys so much for tuning in I also want to say since this is probably gonna be the last episode of the year since I'm uploading this I think today's Christmas Eve 2019 I don't expect to upload another episode before the end of the year, so I just want to say thank you guys because You know I started this podcast back in August And right at the end of 2019, I'm ending it at episode 19.
So this is absolutely phenomenal. Thank you guys for supporting it. It really does mean so much to me. I look forward to continuing the podcast in 2020, but until then, have a fantastic rest of the day.