December 8, 2025

“This may be tough, but it can be licked.” – Maxwell Maltz, M.D. – Psycho-Cybernetics, Updated and Expanded

Oftentimes, the goals we set or practices we begin look easier than they truly are. When we’re confronted with the reality that the objective is much more difficult than we first imagined, our attitude toward it largely determines whether we will succeed.

We can lose momentum if we keep telling ourselves how difficult something is. But if we break it into easier-­ to-­digest, bite-­size nuggets, we see that the task can be licked.

We cannot accomplish a big goal quickly, but we can tackle one small goal after another, gaining one victory each day, and it won’t be long before some-

thing major has a checkmark next to it.

In my thirty-­plus years studying martial arts, so many of the movement patterns I have learned looked impossible to me at first. I would watch the

instructor and be clueless about what I observed.

The most amazing martial arts master I have ever watched and studied from, Pendekar-­Kru William Sanders, uses an approach to teaching his style of martial arts that may be music for your brain and nervous system.

Just as I have advised others, Sanders advocates practicing one portion of any new movement pattern and working it until it becomes nearly subconscious. In

my particular case, the most essential key to work on first is what I am doing with my feet.

After I get my footwork down, I go to work on other parts of the movement pattern, such as the kicks being employed. After the kicks, I add my hands, elbows and shoulders, then the spine, and within a much shorter

time than it would normally take me to learn something complicated, I have a new movement down.

This was further proof to me that slowing down the

teaching can greatly accelerate the learning process. When you apply this method to learning anything difficult, you will prove to yourself that what

appears to be impossible can “be licked.”

Matt Furey

Today’s email is an excerpt from Psycho-Cybernetics 365 – if you don’t already own this book, it will be the perfect way to begin the New Year – “One small step at a time is the biggest and fastest way to climb the ladder of success.”