Finding A Great Story

by Sifu Nick Francis

What is your favorite story?

Do you have a favorite book? Or, if perhaps, books aren't your thing?

Do you have a favorite movie?

As long as there as been humans, there have been stories!

Today, everyday, these stories compete for our attention.

Some stories are trying to sell us things, telling us how they can make our lives easier or better. This is called advertising. Other stories competing for our attention are meant to influence us. Sometimes this may be toward a personal opinion or even a public sentiment. Yet even more stories flood our daily lives with an intent to just inform, inspire or entertain.

Although there is a lot I do not know about stories, I do know this...

Wherever humans gather, you are sure to find all kinds of stories.

There is one specific story however that I think is more important than all the rest, there as a story that holds great influence over our lives.

The stories we tell ourselves!

Rarely carrying images or captions, these stories often play over and over in our minds. They shape the opinion we have of ourselves. They influence the choices we make, and ultimately the person we become.

Although many stories matter, this is the one we cannot escape!

Have you ever noticed the things that are central to a great story.

#1. A character that we care about!

This is often shaped by the way we connect to their personality, their struggles, their shortcomings, and their challenges.

#2. A battle to fight.

Although we desperately want the main character to succeed, we don't actually need them to fully win. We just need them to overcome!

Winning and overcoming are two separate things. Yes, sometimes winning is the crescendo of a great story, but more often than not, it's not actually that important. What is important is the overcoming the hero does in the process.

Winning does not necessarily mean that you have overcome, but to overcome means that you have already won!

#3. A shared reason for the fight.

 In every good story, it is the relationships that matter the most. It may be star soccer player that found his way back to helping the team after suffering a setback. It may be the family members that weather and overcome the storms of life together. It may be the soldier, whom against all fear, fights with all his might to not let his brothers fall.

In every great story there is shared meaning and purpose.

In every great story there is commitment, hope and perseverance.

In every great story, there is love.

Without these elements. The story is just not important enough for us to listen.

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

When you leave the Lancaster Wing Chun Association, this "anonymous" quote hangs above the door post. I decided to place it there, not because the author is anonymous, but because the author is actually "everyone"!

This message reminds me, that within all of us,

there is great story waiting to be lived.

You are the great character of your story.

The world is waiting for you to show up, to overcome, to inspire.

This is the entire point. A story is great because its author refuses to let it be told by someone else. Great characters are determined to write their own ending.

I certainly do not want to minimize the complexity of this challenge.

I am however certain of this...

If we make the same decisions tomorrow that we made today,

we can expect tomorrow to be the same as today.

This is fine of course, if you like the present life you are living.

But what if you want a different future?

Well, this is going to demand different choices and

making different choices will require the hero inside of you to rise up.

Why do I call this the hero?

Simple.

Only the hero can choose courage to take a new path.

Only the hero can make the sacrifice to forge a new future.

Here at the Lancaster Wing Chun Association, this happens regularly.

Instead of focusing on what cannot be done. Many who are here, are writing a beautiful story of their own. One choice at a time.

• They sent us a text message.

• They met for coffee.

• They trusted us enough to show up and gave it a try.

• One day after another, they commit to learning something new.

The result has been nothing short than many amazing stories.

Stories of adventure.

Stories of courage.

Stories of discipline.

To me, this is precisely where I find myself situated with Wing Chun.

Although the authentic origins of Wing Chun are debated, for me, I am drawn to the romanticized version of a runaway Buddhist nun, creating her own system for love, for survival, for a future.

Rise or fall, the courage of the main character moves us because, in their story, we see our own.

The hope and courage they pass to us binds us to same fate.

We must overcome!

To me, this is Wing Chun.

Wing Chun is the process by which we care enough to change,

 Wing Chun is the voice that calls us into the future.

In the journey, doubt is exchanged for possibility and skepticism is exchanged for hope.

The story of Wing Chun is about a life in pursuit of our very best self.

"The Lancaster Wing Chun Association exists

to build people through learning traditional Ip Man Wing Chun

in a safe and supportive environment."