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...
Feb 14, 2018•41 min•Ep. 85
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 C...
Feb 07, 2018•48 min•Ep. 84
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 compa...
Jan 31, 2018•44 min•Ep. 83
"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 sincer...
Jan 24, 2018•43 min•Ep. 82
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...
Jan 17, 2018•45 min•Ep. 81
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. ...
Jan 10, 2018•59 min•Ep. 80
"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 mi...
Jan 03, 2018•45 min•Ep. 79
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 wha...
Dec 27, 2017•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 78
"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 ...
Dec 20, 2017•50 min•Ep. 77
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 t...
Dec 13, 2017•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 76
"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 experi...
Dec 06, 2017•43 min•Ep. 75
"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 abo...
Nov 29, 2017•45 min•Ep. 74
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, b...
Nov 22, 2017•49 min•Ep. 73
For this episode we talked with another Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge winner, Mary C. If you've been following the Bruce Lee Challenge, then you know that we couldn't just pick one winner due to all the wonderful submissions we received. Mary was kind enough to join us and share her experience participating in the challenge. The Podcast Challenge came to Mary at a very crucial time in her life. She is in a career transition and since 2009 she had been doing her business as a public speaking coach ...
Nov 15, 2017•52 min•Ep. 72
We had a chance to talk with another Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge winner, Bryce Young, who came all the way from Montana to record with us. Bryce shared with us his experience doing the challenge, how he found the podcast during a difficult time, and how participating in the podcast challenge changed his life. Below is an excerpt of our show notes, to read our full notes for this episode go to BruceLee.com/Podcast Bryce first found the Bruce Lee Podcast during a very tough time in his life. At th...
Nov 08, 2017•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 71
"Do not pray for an easy life; pray for the strength to endure a difficult one." Sometimes this quote is misunderstood—out of context it seems like Bruce is encouraging you to toughen up because winter is coming. But these words are not about praying for the strength to fight against a hard life. Within the context of Bruce Lee's philosophy of harmony, the "strength" Bruce is referring to is one of calm and flow. An easy life is not something you get because you pray for it or fight for it, the ...
Oct 26, 2017•43 min•Ep. 69
"Defeat is a state of mind; no one is very defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality. To me, defeat in anything is merely temporary, and its punishment is but an urge for me to exert greater effort to achieve my goal. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing; it is a path leading to success and truth." Bruce defines defeat not as a mistake or failure, but as an attitude of giving up or a depressive attitude, a loss of energy. We all get knocked down and experience mo...
Oct 19, 2017•49 min•Ep. 68
Director John Alan Thompson joined us to discuss the film project we worked on together, "One Family." John discovered he wanted to be a filmmaker at 15. A video production class in high school and seeing "Apocalypse Now" propelled John to start experimenting with filmmaking. His teacher told him about a competition that AFI was hosting for students, and his senior year John created a short film that ended up placing. After that first taste, John dove into filmmaking. John still mostly works in ...
Oct 12, 2017•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 67
We had a great time talking with Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge winner Michael R. about his experience with the challenge. Michael first discovered Bruce Lee when he was 12 and first started studying martial arts at a martial arts school. An older student recommended "The Art of Expressing the Human Body." After that, Michael was hooked on Bruce Lee. He discovered the Bruce Lee Podcast when he was looking for podcasts to listen to as he was remodeling his family's apartment. Struggling with depress...
Oct 05, 2017•46 min•Ep. 66
This episode we had the pleasure of chatting with another Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge winner, Katrina R. Katrina knew about Bruce Lee as a kung fu master, but it wasn't until she was browsing youtube one day that she came across an interview Shannon did with NextShark. This interview sparked her interest in learning more about Bruce's philosophy. After finding the podcast, the Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge popped up and she decided to do the challenge and found it to be extremely rewarding. Katrin...
Sep 28, 2017•47 min•Ep. 65
"The times of drastic change are times of passions. We can never be fit and ready for that which is wholly new, we have to adjust ourselves and every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem. We undergo a test, we have to prove ourselves. A population subjected to drastic change is thus a population of misfits and misfits live and breathe in an atmosphere of passion." When you hear the word "misfit" it usually has a negative connotation, but Bruce Lee recasts misfits as unique individuals w...
Sep 21, 2017•42 min•Ep. 64
"Research your own experience. Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own." The idea of constantly researching and refining your own experience was key to Bruce Lee's way of life. When Bruce decided to break away from traditional martial arts, he wanted to know what really works in combat and how to train your body for real conflicts. Bruce only incorporated what was useful to him and left the rest behind. This quote is the recipe for finding your path in thi...
Sep 14, 2017•46 min•Ep. 63
The idea of True Flow comes directly from Bruce Lee's physical study of martial arts and specifically from his art of Jeet Kune Do, which literally translated means "the Way of the Intercepting Fist." One of the core tenets behind Jeet Kune Do is that there are no separate movements of offense and defense, they can happen simultaneously and flow quickly together. This is an idea that can be applied to our movements in life, bridging the gap between happenings so that you can flow easier from one...
Sep 07, 2017•37 min•Ep. 62
When Bruce talked about confrontation he was talking about it on two levels, physical confrontation and then confrontations between people in everyday life. As you become ore rooted and secure in yourself, the natural tendency is to feel that you can more easily avoid confrontation, that you don't need to prove yourself. What Bruce has learned from being challenged is: What is your reaction to being challenged? How does it affect you? If you're secure then you treat it lightly. Part of being abl...
Aug 31, 2017•44 min•Ep. 61
Choiceless Awareness is a path to peace of mind. It means having awareness in the moment as things are unfolding but not making a choice or judgment one way or the other about whether it's good or bad. Bruce talks about how, "There is an awareness without choice, without demand, an awareness in which there is no anxiety and in that state of mind there is perception and it's perception alone that will resolve our problems." Choiceless Awareness is about being the objective observer, standing back...
Aug 24, 2017•42 min•Ep. 60
Often the immediate association with the word "Faith" is a religious one, but that's not the type of faith we are talking about in this episode. The definition of faith in the dictionary is: "complete trust or confidence in someone or something." That's how Bruce Lee interpreted "faith," to have trust and confidence in ones self and abilities. Bruce's definition of faith is: the spiritual power of man's will. Your will is your driver, something you can put effort into, but faith is the trust and...
Aug 17, 2017•39 min•Ep. 59
We were overwhelmed with the responses for the Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge and found it impossible to pick just one winner, so we'll be having several winners join us as guests on the podcast. This week we welcome our first Podcast Challenge winner, Kyoko @Jinjabrew! She lives in LA so Kyoko was able to join us in the studio for this special episode. Kyoko didn't grow up watching Bruce Lee films, but discovered him through activism and research in Asian-American history and politics. While study...
Aug 10, 2017•Ep. 58
"All knowledge ultimately means Self-knowledge." For all of his adult life, Bruce Lee was on a journey to understand the truest essence of himself. We remember him as the ultra confident movie star with martial arts mastery but even Bruce Lee was a work in progress. Self-knowledge is not a static idea of "who I am" but it's a forward motion pursuit of understanding your root. It is lifelong pursuit of knowing yourself. "Know the cause of your ignorance." "Instead of establishing rigid rules and ...
Aug 03, 2017•50 min•Ep. 57
We had our first live taping of the Bruce Lee Podcast last Thursday, July 20th celebrating the podcast's one-year anniversary and honoring the 44th anniversary of Bruce Lee's passing. When we started the podcast a year ago, on July 20th, it was to commemorate that day with a beautiful remembrance of Bruce Lee and the gifts that he left behind for all of us. The podcast format allows us to discuss Bruce Lee's philosophy more in-depth and share his legacy with everyone for free. Special guest Osri...
Jul 27, 2017•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 56
We are having our first live event tonight, Thursday, July 20th, at 6pm at the Central Library in Downtown Los Angeles. It's first come first serve with limited seating so try to be there by 5:30pm! This episode marks our one-year anniversary for the podcast! We created this podcast to honor and celebrate Bruce Lee's philosophy and share it with the world. Thank your for listening and going on this journey with us. We wanted to celebrate the one-year anniversary and recognize the 44th anniversar...
Jul 20, 2017•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 55
