Bruce Lee Podcast

“A man is born to achieve great things if he can conquer himself.” When Bruce Lee says “conquer” it is not about subjugating yourself, but instead it is about knowing yourself in order to liberate yourself. “Each man binds himself – the fetters are ignorance, laziness, preoccupation with self and fear. You must liberate yourself.“ Fetters are a chain or manacle used to restrain a prisoner. In this quote the fetters are our own restrictions of ignorance, laziness, preoccupation with self, and fear. These things hold us prisoner, restraining us from being free to be our most authentic selves. Bruce Lee was a normal person dealing with his personal chains and traps. Here, he was describing his own fetters, describing what was holding him back and what he needed to work on in order to free himself. Ignorance Bruce wrote often about how we have to discover the cause of our ignorance. To accept and know that you do not know is a huge initial step. Then you have to ask “What is it that I am ignorant about?” Self-wor

This is a special episode of the Bruce Lee Podcast honoring Brandon Bruce Lee. We just celebrated Brandon’s birthday February 1st and coming up on March 31st is the 25th anniversary of his passing, so Shannon wanted to share some stories of growing up with Brandon as her big brother and share some excerpts from Brandon’s journals.  Shannon and Brandon had a very special relationship and Brandon viewed himself as her protector. Brandon was also the typical older brother in that he loved to mess with Shannon playing pranks and picking fights, but there were instances where he would come to Shannon’s rescue. If he thought Shannon was in trouble, or had really hurt herself, or if someone was picking on her, he would come to save her. Brandon was a larger than life soul. He was a voracious reader and would have a dictionary with him so that when he encountered a word he didn’t know he would look it up. Brandon knew the definition of everything and he got a perfect score on the English portion of the SATs. His favo

Broken Rhythm is Bruce Lee’s technique for creating an opening in combat. “Ordinarily, two people (of more or less equal ability) can follow each other’s movements. They work in rhythm with each other. If the rhythm has been well established, the tendency is to continue in the sequence of the movement. In other words, we are “motorset” to continue a sequence. The person who can break this rhythm can now score an attack with only moderate exertion.” The notion is that there are rhythms in fighting, and in life. In combat, Bruce’s form of disruption is to create an opening to strike. In life, we have our own habits and patterns, and if we can disrupt that rhythm then progression can be made and new things can be allowed into our life. In the combat analogy, Bruce says you can break the rhythm though a small hesitation or a large unexpected shift or change. This way of disruption can be applied to life as a way to shift ourselves off of our plateaus and go to the next level. We all get stuck in patterns or loops

“The Tools” are what you have in your arsenal at your disposal to tackle life head-on. Bruce Lee repeatedly wrote about different Tools he used in life. We have talked about these tools separately on the podcast, but what is it to have these tools in your arsenal and to use them?  “Your tools have a dual-purpose, to destroy whatever is in front of you that stands in the way of peace, justice, and humanity, and to destroy your own impulse of self-preservation, to destroy anything bothering your mind, to overcome your own greed, anger, and folly.” We have the obstacles in our life that are outside of ourselves and then we have the obstacles within our own mind. Bruce has a warrior-like mentality to destroy these barriers in life to achieve peace. These are Bruce Lee’s Tools: Willpower Simplicity Intuition Presence Love Joy Flexibility and Adaptability Awareness Stillness Willpower was a tool that was extremely important to Bruce Lee as he considered himself a self-willed man. He had the power to direct his ener

Most people know Bruce Lee as an actor and martial artist, but he defined himself as an Artist of Life. This term comes from a series of drafts of his essay “In My Own Process” which we discussed in Episode 29. In Bruce’s essays on “In My Own Process” he stated that being an Artist of Life was his overall goal and how he identified himself. It is because he was an artist of life that we still know about Bruce Lee today. He was intentional about cultivating his life and who Bruce Lee was. “I am a martial artist by choice, an actor by profession, and I am actualizing myself daily to be an Artist of Life."  This definition was both concise and broad enough to allow Bruce to grow and expand. Bruce wrote often about how he is an ever expanding person and that there is no end or limit to this process and that he is discovering and growing exponentially all the time. Bruce put his identity in the context of humanity, not a profession or trade. This is applicable to everyone.  If you are the artist and your canvas i

Bruce Lee is a true warrior. A warrior is often thought of in the physical sense, as a fighter and physically strong. But it is possible to be a warrior in the mind, body, and spirit. Shannon comes from a lineage of warriors and has been exploring what being a a true warrior means for her. What does it take for us to become true warriors? “The warrior is the average man with laser-like focus.” There is no language about fighting or physical prowess in this quote, but what does Bruce Lee mean by “laser-like focus”? Laser-like is to put intense energy towards something. To be a warrior is a big commitment in one’s life and Bruce put an intense, energetic beam of focus towards that goal. For Bruce, being a warrior was actually about one’s growth and healing, and the combination of using your mind, body, and spirit in harmony toward the cultivation of one’s self. Bruce was a warrior in the broader sense of life. Every day Bruce got up with the intention of working on himself, bettering himself, actualizing himsel

In our final Core Values at Work Episode Shannon and Sharon discuss Relationship, Communication, and Trust.  These Core Values are derived from Bruce Lee’s philosophies and Shannon has adjusted them for her workplace. Shannon has put together these Core Values based on how her workplace functions best, incorporating the philosophy and essence of her father, including what was important to him and what is important to Shannon. For many of us, work is where we spend most of our time. It is important to have values in the workplace, even if you work for yourself or a small company. Shannon carries her values and principles through all aspects her life. She likes to be able to show up at work as she would be at home, with an integrated principle of being able to be herself and continue to work on what is important to her as a human being no matter where she is. It is a good thing to know what your values are. Are your values different in your personal life than at work? How can you make those values more integrat

In this episode, we continue our conversation on Core Values at Work, and this week we talk about the Core Values Change and Curiosity. Bruce Lee thought change was very important: “To change with change is the changeless state.”  Bruce’s idea of “Be water,” is about adapting to change because life is always different. Change is a constant on big or small levels. Shannon included the core value of Change for the Bruce Lee Family Company because over the years the company has gone through a lot of changes. Change has been challenging at times, but for a small company like ours change is necessary. Change: Embrace change. Be open to change. Learn to love change. Change is inevitable. Don’t get paralyzed in the face of change. Be open to pivots, goal shifts, reframes, change of strategy. This is a living organism in constant process. It can be difficult to think of your company as a changing, living organism because change can spark the fears of “Am I going to lose my job?” “Will I be replaced?” “Will I lose my

Many companies have core values, which are a set of values that they share throughout the company on how everyone should proceed in their jobs.  At the Bruce Lee Family Company, Shannon has created core values for the company. With the New Lunar Year approaching Shannon has decided to revisit those core values. Shannon started with core values from her father’s philosophy and has refined her own core values for the Bruce Lee Family Company. In developing her core values for the Bruce Lee Family Company, Shannon asked herself, “What does it really take to work at the Bruce Lee Family Company?” Bruce Lee was against compartmentalizing your life. Often we have our own personal values at home and then we have to switch to our workplace’s values. It is really important to Shannon to create harmony between her personal values and her work values, and she is lucky enough to get to shape the culture at her work. The Bruce Lee Family Company is a really small workplace, and it has been an interesting journey for Shann

For Bruce Lee the notion of compassion extends beyond the common definition that compassion is “allowing ourselves to be moved by suffering and wanting to alleviate or prevent suffering.”  Bruce Lee was a huge admirer of Kuan Yin, the goddess of compassion and mercy. Kuan Yin shows up in many different cultures in East Asia. In Bruce’s home he had a huge, full-size statue of Kuan Yin and as a kid Shannon used to sit in her lap. Bruce had a great relationship with Kuan Yin and he believed in compassion because he believed humankind as One Family. He believed in living in relationship and understanding of our surroundings and everyone you come into contact with, living the oneness of things. Compassion is acceptance of others for who they are and where they are. It’s freedom from judgment and acceptance of your whole experience. Bruce Lee was an integrated masculine and feminine energy. As an esteemed athlete in a highly masculine practice of martial arts, Bruce balanced that with his inclusion of Kuan Yin in h

“It’s not what you give, it’s how you give it.” Bruce Lee is talking about how you approach life, how you show-up in the world. It’s not what you’re doing, but how you’re approaching it. This concept is about effort, quality, and injecting your heart into what you do. Bruce was a big believer in putting in the training, the hours of practice, and applying effort towards his goals. He also believed in natural action, being in the flow, and not being in opposition to life. Bruce believed in sincerity, with your work coming from your heart.  When Bruce Lee came to the US when he was 18, he could speak some English, but was not fluent. He really wanted to communicate and have facility with the English language in a way that he did not have. Bruce put in the effort and applied himself learning the grammar and syntax of English. He also wanted to be able to communicate colloquially, and practiced this through telling jokes. Being able to understand humor in another language helps you to communicate in a more natura

Bruce Lee referred to Natural Action in different ways. He would write about “spontaneous action” or “naturalism” or used a Taoist term “wu wei” which means non-action or non-doing. From Wikipedia: Wu Wei “In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu explains that beings (or phenomena) that are wholly in harmony with the Tao behave in a completely natural, uncontrived way. The goal of spiritual practice for the human being is, according to Lao Tzu, the attainment of this purely natural way of behaving, as when the planets revolve around the sun.” This grand, celestial action of the planets, the sun, stars, moons; it is a concert of beauty and movement happening naturally with no force or effort. The idea of natural action is action in one’s life without forcing. Bruce talked frequently about the Tao, and a nice synonym for the Tao is nature or the natural world. Bruce Lee talked often about not being in opposition to nature. Our culture is mind-heavy. We are always trying to hack, force, speed up this natural action. Sometim

Shannon met former Kristen Ulmer at the Spartan Race in Lake Tahoe. Kristen is the author of The Art of Fear: Why Conquering Fear Won’t Work and What to Do Instead. In this episode she shares her journey with fear and discusses how we deal with fear. Kristen Ulmer started out as a professional athlete, she was the best female big mountain extreme skier in the world, a status she kept for 12 years. She risked her life on a pair of skis, jumping off cliffs and skiing “you fall you die” descents. Kristen was voted “Most Fearless Woman in America” by the outdoor industry beating women in all sports and disciplines, not just skiing.  While Kristen felt fearless, she realized after looking under her everyday reality that fear was with her in every single moment of every day and in every decision she made. She came to this realization after retiring her ski career in 2003 and studying with a Zen master for 15 years. Kristen started off as a mindset sports coach and currently is a fear specialist. Now Kristen’s whole

“All in all, the goal of my planning and doing is to find the true meaning in life – peace of mind.” Achieving peace of mind was Bruce Lee’s ultimate goal. Peace of mind is something that we all desire, whether we know it or not. We want to feel peaceful so that we can enjoy life fully. Having peace of mind does not mean that you are removed from your everyday life, but instead you are living in a calm state while fully engaged in life. Shannon shares that she has, at times, achieved peace of mind, but that it is very difficult to live your life constantly in that state. This is because there is always something that is going to come and shake things up in life. For Shannon, peace of mind can come in the form of acceptance, just accepting where she is in life right now, that she is in process, and that it is enough. Especially when things are difficult and challenging, being able to step back, observe, and reflect, helps Shannon accept where she is in the moment. This reflection and acceptance helps bring pea

For our end of year episode we asked our listeners to submit questions they wanted us to answer or advice they wished they could receive from Bruce Lee. We had many, many questions submitted and we noticed that many dealt with finding motivation when you’re stuck. People were feeling stuck and unmotivated in a range of topics from their work and jobs, to dealing with injuries and feeling isolated. From listener Anthony: “I’ve had an empty feeling in me for as long as I can remember. It’s not what I would call depression, more like an unmotivated feeling. Like a “nothing really matters” feeling. It’s been with me since early years (I’m 20 now) and I’ve had problems feeling any belonging. Bruce has written about this type of thing. How loneliness is an opportunity to find yourself. I was wondering, were there any rituals Bruce would find himself doing when things were rough?. For example, when he was struggling to land genuine movie roles that weren’t discriminatory to him in his early years. Best wishes from I

“It’s not about what happens; it’s about your reaction to what happens that matters.” This is a big Bruce Lee concept and a big concept for moving through life. Sometimes we use what happens in a situation as justification for our extreme reaction. How you react to anything says more about you and where you are in that moment than any of the events that led to your response. It could be that you had been having a bad day all day and then this one incident sparked a huge reaction from you. Or it could be that this event poked some small part of you where this fear, anger, or insecurity exists and that provoked a huge reaction from you that is not truly related to the situation. The truth is that it is never about the incident it is about the response. “I have learned that being challenged means one thing and that is what is your reaction to it? How does it affect you? If you are secure with yourself, you treat it lightly – just like today the rain is going on strong, but tomorrow, baby, the sun is going to com

This episode we talked with our final Podcast Challenge winner, Dina, who called us all the way from Germany! Dina is a recent fan of Bruce Lee. She grew up in East Germany, the German Democratic Republic, and she never heard anything about Bruce Lee. She thinks Bruce Lee wasn’t mentioned in the GDR because he had “made it” in the Western world and people from Western countries were not talked about in the GDR. Dina just discovered Bruce Lee last year when she and her boyfriend watched “Way of the Dragon,” last December. Her boyfriend grew up in Western Germany has been a huge fan of Bruce Lee since he was young. Finally, he convinced Dina to watch a Bruce Lee movie. She thought the movie was really fantastic and it touched her. The humor in the film surprised and delighted her since she sat down expecting a serious action film. Bruce Lee was like Superman, but without any special effects. It was so impressive and she could see that everything was real, the muscles, the fast moves, something you can only achi

“Many people are still bound by tradition; when the elder generation says ‘no’ to something, then these other people will strongly disapprove of it as well. If the elders say that something is wrong, then they will believe that it is wrong. They seldom use their mind to find out the truth and seldom express sincerely their real feeling. The simple truth is that these opinions on such things as racism and traditions, which are nothing more than a ‘formula’ laid down by these elder people’s experience. As we progress and time changes, it is necessary to reform this formula.” Bruce is talking specifically about racism, but this quote can be applied in a broader sense to old traditions and stagnations we face in life. Bruce encountered racism and stale traditions in both the martial arts world and in Hollywood, and decided that he had to create his own formula for moving through those worlds. When is it time to reform the formula? How do we know when a formula is not working? You can tell when something is not wo

“To hell with circumstances, I create opportunities.” Patience was something that Bruce Lee tried to cultivate. His wife Linda said that he would get very frustrated by other people not being able to match his timeline or if they would say they would do something and then not do it. Bruce was in dynamic motion all of the time. He had follow through so when others did not he would get frustrated. This quote starts with a frustrated, fed up tone, but ends with a proactive, positive tone. It is about not being a victim of circumstances and creating your own solution. Bruce offered a unique talent to Hollywood, he was a superb martial artist, actor, and writer, but he was dealing with a racist 1960s Hollywood. He was not getting the opportunities his talent deserved because of the color of his skin. Bruce could have kept slowly chipping away at the establishment to get to where he wanted to be, but instead he decided to figure out how to fast track his way to the lead roles he wanted. This led Bruce to move to Ho

This episode we sit down with another Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge Winner, Mahmoud Hamed! He shares with us his experience with the challenge and how approaching life from a place of love has deepened his daily interactions. Mahmoud first discovered the podcast out of a desire to learn more about Bruce Lee and reengage with the interest he had in Bruce Lee when he was growing up. Mahmoud knew of Bruce Lee the martial artist and actor, and over the years he acquired that interest in Bruce again, but wanted to know “What more can I learn about Bruce Lee, what more did he have to tell us?” After doing a quick search Mahmoud was excited to find the podcast and excited to see that Bruce’s legacy was being upheld and showcased in a meaningful way. When the Podcast Challenge was announced, Mahmoud was impressed with the format, the affirmations, and the introspection the challenge promoted. Mahmoud’s five affirmations: Love Presence Knowledge Purpose Wellbeing Mahmoud’s Wellbeing Affirmation: Complete wellbeing in