The Chinese Character to Listen Is the Meaning of Success

This week we discuss a typical day in the life of Bruce Lee, his habits and activities on an average day when he wasn't filming. The Wing Luke Museum in Seattle has an exhibit called "A Day in the Life of Bruce Lee" and you can make your own "Day in the Life" infographic here. Bruce Lee believed in the restorative powers of sleep, typically getting about 8hrs a night. He went to sleep around 11pm and got up at 7am. In the mornings he would stretch and go for a jog. Bruce liked to use jogging as a form of meditation. Following his morning workout, Bruce had breakfast then played with the kids. Then he would usually teach a private lesson in his students' backyard or in his own backyard. Between the hours of noon and 4pm he would have lunch and then either teach or work on his writing. Then, he would have an hour and a half for his own personal training (his second workout of the day!) Bruce spent his early evening hanging out with the family and playing with the kids. For the rest of the evening, Bruce would have dinner and extra training with his students and friends. He had a Wednesday Night group, mainly students from his classes, who would come over for extra instruction and philosophical conversations that would turn into a communal dinner. Bruce didn't have a regular 9-5 job, but his workday consisted of a few hours of concentrated effort, a break, and then a couple more hours of concentrated effort and so on rather than one long 8 hour stretch. This Day in the Life of Bruce Lee shows what productivity and harmony is possible for anyone. What's obviously missing from his daily routine is any TV or computer time. Bruce dedicated time for physical, mental and spiritual development in his daily life—creating a harmonious day filled with training, learning, teaching and connecting with family and community. Take Action: Document your every day for a week or month to see how you spend your time. Technology makes it easy to record your day, find the app you like. Are there any changes you'd like to make or things you'd like to add to your life? You can also create your own day here. If you'd like to share how you're doing with this action item you can email us at hello@brucelee.com or on social @BruceLee #BruceLeePodcast. Listener letters: We've been receiving lots of emails from our listeners updating us on their #ActionItems and their #DefiniteChiefAims so we'd like to share a few of them with you in our shownotes online. #AAHA (Awesome Asians and Hapas) This week's #AAHA is Maya Lin, an American designer and artist known for her sculpture and land art. She first came to fame at 21 as the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Maya won a public design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and it was a controversial design since it was non-traditional, she was an Asian female, and she lacked professional experience. Maya actually had to go before Congress to get them to approve her design. She has said that had it not been a blind selection process then she wouldn't have been selected. Now she owns and operates the Maya Lin Studio in NYC and in 2016 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Maya we love your work and think you're awesome! #BruceLeeMoment This week's #BruceLeeMoment comes from Eric Colby, who wrote us before about a leadership opportunity at his work and now he's writing to tell us how it went, read the full version at Brucelee.com. "The thoughts that I ultimately decided to share came from your episode on Goals, Mistakes, and Success…from aiming high in your goals in order to broaden your horizons and see what is possible, to listening to your mistakes in order to grow, to recognizing that defeat is a state of mind and only has power over you if you accept it, to defining success as "doing something sincerely and wholeheartedly."" Share your #AAHA and #BruceLeeMoment recommendations with us via social media @BruceLee or email us at hello@brucelee.com