“You always move better with a smile.”

"It's not that I'm not joyful." The future Zen mater Tung-shan said to his teacher, after his inner eye opened. "But it's as though I have grasped a pearl in a pile of shit."

***

I'm weird, no question about that.

Weird, because I have not lived my life according to "normal". I didn't go to university; I didn't even go to school in my last years. In Japan, they would have called me a "hikikomori" and tolerated my behaviour.

In Australia, I just had to be sneaky.

I would get dressed, go down and have breakfast, say:

"Bye! BYE!"

My 18yo daughter graduates from school tomorrow.

Angelica stays late at school tonight - preparing pranks for us staid old baby-boomers who amble up in the morning.

How will they prank us?

By disrupting our habitual experience.

The world is full of disrupters. Every generation thinks theirs is the worst.

Back at the start of the 19th century, a train was a concept. When real trains showed up - slowly - it was a shocking. It revolutionized life. Suddenly - fruit could travel from one end of England to the other.

In a day!

In a session - just yesterday - an ATSuccess member asked an innocent question:

“Do I need to be an expert of a student’s activity, to be able to help them?”

Intellectually it’s obvious – Tiger Woods’ coach doesn’t play golf like Tiger! Does that stop him seeing areas for development? Older, beer-gutted men are often coaching baseball teams in America – would these old guys survive on the field?

No.

My first crisis happened within 2 years of my 18 years of living in Japan happened in Kyoto.

Jaldhara had our young daughter Angelica in the pram, and had just said goodbye. I turned, and started heading down the escalator to go to Tokyo…

And I tripped. I tumbled down the stairs.

And - by a remarkable confluence of unexpected factors - dislocated my arm. OUCH!

The worst part was being alone. Speaking no Japanese. Having no idea what to do next.

My first crisis happened within 2 years of my 18 years of living in Japan happened in Kyoto,

Jaldhara had our young daughter Angelica in the pram, and had just said goodbye. I turned, and started heading down the escalator to go to Tokyo…

And I tripped. I tumbled down the stairs. And - by a remarkable confluence of unexpected factors - dislocated my arm. OUCH!

The worst part was being alone. Speaking no Japanese. Having no idea what to do next.

So I screamed. I screamed as loud as the air in my body would let me…

When I suggest to new members of ATSuccess - please write about your work every day - a sudden incredibility arises almost automatically within them.

AUTOMATICALLY.

They say:

"EVERY DAY?! I can't do that."

Do you think you have nothing to say?

Nonsense. If you teach one lesson a day, you say more than you could ever fit in one email. You are a living, breathing content creator, whether you recognise it or not.

The obstacle is never:

"What am I doing to say?"

This Daily Blog is emailed out to around 500 people, both in Japan and overseas.

The readers of the original English version are a mixture of AT teachers, trainees, some devoted AT students, friends and ex-students.

(BTW: You can sign up if you don't get it by email here)

In Japan, it goes out mainly to my trainees – I have 137 of them now – and Graduates – now 80. The rest, I don’t know. BodyChance Basic members, public and friends I guess.

Carol at first thought:

"My God, Jeremy has an ego on him. Fancy calling his workshop "Golden Week". Bit over the top isn't it?"

Of course I heard all this AFTER - while we were laughing. I was able to inform Carol, that Golden Week was not a name I made up for BodyChance's annual residential - it was what the Japanese called it!

Golden Week happens in the first week of May every year. It is a Japanese version of Easter. Three public holidays, near a weekend, and everyone goes home to see family.

We'd got complaints. It was not going well…

This is the final of 3 dispatches on BodyChance's escapades within the corporate corridors of power. I write the story of our triumphant return with a new, re-engineered BodyChance group experience.

I was the re-engineering.

Turns out, it was a bit of a ladies club.