Written by Yosef Michael after Shabbat on June 8, 2024.

I left the blank because you can put any goal in it, and the simple philosophy will help you reach it and any of your other goals! I will explain the simple philosophy below, how I learned it, and why I am blogging this post.

Anyone with questions about this post can send them to me. I will answer them for free by collecting any or all questions and writing the answers in a blog post, covering as many questions as I can in one or multiple posts.

I’m doing this to do my portion of Tikkun Olam (healing the world!) I’m not requiring a fee or donation. I don’t want to know if anyone donated to support my website or mission! If anyone tells me they donated to my website, I will refund their donation and block them! No one will receive special treatment for donating, and donations will NOT be tax deductible. If someone wants to make a donation but can’t donate $2 to $5 without a tax deduction, give it to Chabad.org or another worthy Orthodox Jewish Organization instead of me!

I’m merely sharing a simple life-changing philosophy that I learned at the Dojo, where I received my blue belt and, shortly after, was invited to train as an instructor in June of 1991 as a non-black belt.

I considered the invitation an honor and didn’t want to fail, so I asked one of my instructors, “What can I do to become my best and succeed?” He looked at me seriously, staring into my eyes, and said, “The Way of the Warrior is a rope made of three strands: with his right hand, he extended three fingers, and on the first finger, he said Mind, the second: Body, and the third: Spirit! When you understand my words, you will grow and become the best warrior you can be!”

In the context of the Dojo, the philosophy was to become the best warrior, but that simple philosophy works for becoming the best anything! For example, the Way of the Tzadik, the Way of the Rabbi, the Way of the Chassid, the Way of the Husband, Wife, Son, Daughter, etc.

When I was about to train with the black belts, I aimed to become the best instructor I could at my level and ability. I didn’t want to fail and lose the respect I had earned. The goal of any serious martial artist interested in martial arts philosophy was to know how to be the best warrior possible. Therefore, I tried to unlock the meaning of his words!

When I broke down the metaphor into parts, I considered what is a three-strand rope. It is paramount to achieving ultimate success in whatever goal one sets by focusing on the maxim (ideal), not the mediocre!

Several months ago, I wrote a blog titled “How Low Should I Set My Goal?” The title was to shock my readers into setting higher goals. That blog was based on my understanding of the Torah and The Way of the Warrior philosophy. The theme was, if I set a mediocre goal, how could I ever grow to my full potential?

However, that begs the question, if I set my goal for greatness, how can I achieve that goal considering my past performance? To answer that, read any investment portfolio from a USA company with any past success, and you will always find the disclaimer, “Past performance doesn’t guarantee future results!”

Another way of understanding that disclaimer is, “Past failure doesn’t guarantee future failure!”

Although future failure is possible, there isn’t any guarantee that you will fail or succeed! Therefore, in this world, future success or failure is NOT guaranteed, at least theoretically! You can achieve your goal if you plan and create realistic goals, learn as you pursue your goal, and adjust your methods and goals as The Way of (Your Goal) becomes more evident as you work toward success.

Several years after I learned The Way of The Warrior philosophy, my employer decided to become ISO certified through a program at one of the junior colleges in the Bay Area of California named Total Quality Management (TQM), developed by studying Japanese Automobile and Electronics Technology philosophy. Before the Japanese developed the TQM philosophy, when Americans saw the Made in Japan sticker, many assumed it was low-quality. Still, in those consumer’s minds, the products made in the USA were of the highest quality!

The TQM philosophy of the Japanese soon flipped that, too; made in Japan, it was the highest quality and surpassed American quality and ingenuity! Think Sony, Mitsubishi, Toyota, etc!

The simple TQM philosophy is that continually improving your product will produce a better, less expensive product! The American philosophy was if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it, and a better product would sell for a higher price!

Eventually, Japanese product manufacturing surpassed American quality and at a cheaper cost. If not for the import tariffs (the tax on products imported into the USA to protect US companies), many more American manufacturers would have gone out of business!

Combining the simple Japanese martial arts philosophy of The Way of the Warrior (or whatever) with the Japanese TQM (Continuous improvement) philosophy, it is almost impossible to fail if you put in the effort required to succeed!

Getting back to The Way of the Warrior (or your goal)? These two philosophies work together if you continuously improve your three strands (or cords), which are made of many smaller fibers that are spun together to make the three strands: Mind, Body, and Spirit. The fibers you use to create your strand for Mind can be Education, Mindfulness, learning how to cope with stress, etc. Fibers used to make the strand for the Body can be exercising, proper hydration, eating a healthy balanced diet full of life-sustaining nutrients, etc. The fibers for your Spirit strand can be prayer, learning, meditation on the Torah, finding a rabbi to mentor you, etc.!

The concept of a three-strand rope is that each strand must be equally sized and have the same strength to perform at its best capacity, or, in other words, be balanced so all three strands work together harmoniously and are beautifully or symmetrical and pleasing to your eyes and the eyes of all who see your accomplishments as desirable for others to strive for. The more balanced the strands are, the stronger the rope is; therefore, you will become your best and reach your goal! I couldn’t find any images of an unbalanced rope to compare to the balanced rope included with this post, so you will have to use your imagination of a rope with three stands of different thicknesses!

The three strands of Mind, Body, and Spirit. When all three strands are in balance, meaning of the same size and strength, the rope created by wrapping them together is more robust, and the three balanced strands working together can carry a heavier load than the total carrying capacity of each strand working separately rather than wound into a rope. For example, if each strand could carry 50 pounds maximum, that would sum to 150 pounds, but when the three are woven together into a rope, the rope can carry a load of more than 150 pounds. That is why ropes are more popular for carrying heavy loads than single strands!

1) The Mind includes your thinking, philosophy, studying, or knowledge of your goal. For example, if you want to be the best Doctor, Lawyer, Carpenter, DJ, etc., you must be up to date on everything associated with your goal! How could you succeed without knowledge of your goal?

2) The Body is anything that pertains to your physical health, including but not limited to fitness level, hydration, food choices, flexibility, etc. Someone physically disabled can achieve success, but the stresses on the Mind and the Spirit will affect the Body. Likewise, any two strands will affect the last, so the better you improve your Body (Physical health), the better you can cope with the stress.

3) Spirit is many things, but to keep it simple, it is your relationship with G-d, your psychology, and your determination to succeed!

If I receive any questions, I will try to answer them once I have at least three or four. If I receive the same question from at least four people, I will write a post to answer that question alone.

Please be aware I am busy working on many things, so it may take me several days to write a post or posts once I receive the minimum number of questions, but I will try to answer them as soon as possible.

Please email questions about this post to Yosef@yosefmichael.com. I won’t respond to questions in Messenger.

Shavua Tov! (Have a lovely week!)