Meet Paul Mack

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Paul Mack a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Paul, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

The dads of the Defoe Place townhouses unwittingly revealed my purpose to me.

When my dad, John Mack, passed away, he was 85 years old and had suffered through the thralls of dementia and Alzheimers disease. He’d been a physically strong, slightly imposing Black man of six feet two inches of height, and a solid 220lbs. He was a World War Two veteran, and a retired New York City Police Officer. He was in excellent shape even into his seventies, and his mind was as sharp as a tack until one day it wasn’t. His decline was terrible to watch. My dad had entered into his retirement life without a purpose. I’m not saying his decline was the direct result of not having a purpose, but I think it definitely contributed to it.

Purpose. One’s intention or objective.

In this case my dad hadn’t set himself up with a purpose for the rest of his life. He’d set himself up with a couple of pensions and savings to survive 20 or 30 years of retirement, but no purpose to fill those days. Neither had the other aging dads of the Defoe Place townhouses in Co-op City, The Bronx, New York, where I grew up. These dads had worked their 9 to 5 jobs and made careers, and raised kids in what slowly became a naturally occurring retirement community.

In a strange and completely anecdotal phenomenon, none of the moms from our neighborhood developed neurological conditions like Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease—they were super busy being moms, even after their retirements from their jobs and their kids had reached adulthood. One mom even lived into her 90s, and another still lives there in her mid-eighties. But almost every dad succumbed to cognitive or neurological diseases. Except for one. The artist next door.

The artist next door created art every day. He even used his incredible skills to retouch old photographs for my mom on the computer. As he aged, he continued painting and when his kids bought him an iPad, he created digital works, up until the time that he passed away. That gave me pause. The man had a purpose every day of his life. Creating.

I was in my early 30s when I realized what was happening to the other dads, and that’s when I knew I didn’t want to risk the same fate. I began planning for my post work life. I’d been teaching public Intermediate School kids technology literacy, a glorified name for a computer teacher, and then switched to teaching Language Arts and Social Studies. The work was fulfilling, but there are only so many decades one can do the sort of work that quality teachers do before they’re burned out from the repetition and the daily grind of managing scores of young personalities day in and day out. I realized that one day I would be done with classroom instruction, and that I would need something that would work both my mind and my body, and it just happened that I discovered the traditional Chinese martial art of Kung fu at about that time.

I was told about Kung fu after a Thanksgiving meal, sitting with a family friend discussing what we did to keep in shape. I did lots of pushups and yoga, and he used an elliptical machine. Eventually the conversation turned to his past as a Karate practitioner and his regret that he hadn’t taken up Kung fu instead. When I asked why, he told me it was because Kung fu didn’t involve breaking bricks or boards, and Kung fu could be done into your eighties because it was about movement.

“If I were you,” he’d said, “I would check out a Kung fu school.”

So I did. I found a school close to where I was living at the time, emailed the teacher there, my current teacher Shigong Rex W. McCoy, and two days later I was in his school. From my first class I was hooked—there was so much to remember and process intellectually and physically. Whether in class or at home, my brain was constantly working, remembering, making new connections. After a few years I became an instructor trainee, and then a full instructor known as a Shifu (Sifu in Cantonese). By the time I opened my own school, while I was still a public school teacher, I knew that I had found my purpose in life. Long after I retired from public school teaching, the trade in which I’m still active, I would help myself and others maintain their bodies and minds through the practice of Kung fu. In my retirement, which is coming up in four or five years, I would have a reason to rise in the morning, a place to go during the day and evening, plans to make and execute, lots of people to interact with, and exercises to practice and teach. And, always, new things to learn. That is the nature of Kung fu. That is my purpose.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am a husband and a father to a beautiful talented wife and amazing, ridiculously smart and confident teenage boy. I am a proud native of The Bronx where I was born and raised. I am a teacher and artist. I teach 5th graders Language Arts and Social Studies during the day. After those hours end, my passion of teaching kids and adults the traditional Chinese martial art of Kung fu begins through owning and running a small business: my Kung fu school, Shaolin Kung fu Institute Flemington, based out of Flemington, NJ.

Kung fu means hard work—basically the act of repetition until acquired skills and strategies become second nature. This is sometimes known as unconscious competence. Practice, practice, practice. If you come to Kung fu lacking discipline, you will develop it through the structures employed in each class. Through learning and teaching Kung fu, I’ve realized that Kung fu, the hard work of practice, lives in everything. Kung fu is in the way you greet people. Kung fu is in the way you enter a room. Kung fu is in the way that you treat others. Kung fu is in the way you hang your clothes. These are learned skills for many people.

With that said, Kung fu is more than just learning to do things correctly. Kung fu is a beautiful art of graceful movements, of coiling and uncoiling the body, of whipping and snapping, and the flow and explosive release of energy known as Fa Jin. Kung fu is an art of basics. It does not require innate talent or athleticism. The more basic techniques you learn, the better you become at them, until they are a part of who you are as a person. These basics become more complex, but at their core, they remain basics. Kung fu teaches students that over time, with practice, their bodies can become elastic and powerful, coordinated and balanced. Kung fu teaches praftictioners about themselves on the inside and out.

When I began my Kung fu journey I never imagined that I would become a Shifu, or teacher, of the art, or head of a community. My first classes were super awkward, learning to pivot on my heels, and squat in a low stance and transition to another low stance; learning to move my arms and legs in complex circles with precise hand and foot positioning. But, over time with lots of practice, these movements became more and more natural. I developed a flexibility I’d never had before, a grace of movement that my friends took notice of. The particular style of Kung fu that I learned and now teach at my school is Northern Dragon Style Kung fu. The martial arts techniques we learn and practice are designed to mimic the movements of the mythical Asian dragon, a benevolent creature that floats through the clouds, and sinks beneath the surface of the water, twists and coils as it chases a fiery pearl representing wisdom, vitality, and knowledge. The Asian dragon releases its essence into the earth in the form of jade, bringing good harvests to farmers in the countryside.

My wife, Kristina, is a massage therapist. When we got married we dreamed of creating a shared space for both of our businesses. Today her office and the Kung fu school share a space. Together we have built the school into a self-sustaining business. Without her help we wouldn’t have celebrated the school’s 10th Anniversary, an accomplishment that I had only dreamed might be possible when I opened the school in 2014. My plan was that the school would become my retirement activity, my life’s purpose, once I decided to stop classroom teaching in public schools. As I speak with you today, I’m closer than ever to having that be a reality. The school now celebrates the Autumn Equinox Festival, a Summer Solstice Festival, and the Lunar New Year with Lion Dances and drumming in New York City’s Chinatown. We offer Tai Chi and Qigong classes, and on Saturday afternoons when the kids’ class is over, we hold game days, where kids can play strategy games with each other. We provide an inclusive space where everyone is welcome to learn with people sharing a common goal, who come from different walks of life, and have evolving identities. Over the ten years of the school’s existence, a community has developed, friendships have formed, and traditions have been made and continued.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I’d say that perseverance, self-discipline, and mastery of basics have impacted my journey as a Kung fu practitioner, teacher, and small business owner the most. My advice for anyone who is just starting or very early in their journey would be to keep checklists of attainable daily goals. Have a pretty detailed action plan for your first year or two. Be diligent in responding to information requests, whether voicemails, texts, social media messages, or emails. Be sure in the knowledge that tomorrow is a new day, and that today’s setbacks won’t last forever. When acquaintances share setbacks with me, I always tell them to keep working at whatever it is, because in a few years, when they’ve overcome the setbacks and have moved on, they’ll look back with a chuckle. Let things roll off of you like rain off of an umbrella. As long as you’re doing the basics the right way, you’ll be fine. If you don’t know the right way to do something, continue to seek out the knowledge of how to do it and learn. Be patient. Finally, make sure that if this is your passion it doesn’t turn into a “job”. Maintain your love of what you are doing.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

My parents instilled a powerful work ethic and love of acquiring knowledge in me. My dad worked hard to become a New York City Police Officer and, later, a Supervisor of Telecommunications at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. My mom, Shirley, worked hard to graduate from nursing school and was a Registered Nurse for 58 years. She later worked for the Greater New York Blood Center as a phlebotomist trainer, and then traveled the country demonstrating new medical technologies, like centrifuges for separating blood, for various companies. They wanted us to work hard, too.

To teach us discipline, they procured private violin lessons for me and my brother when we showed some talent at the instrument, and made us practice an hour every day. I was five or six years old when I started. The practice of the violin is no different than the practice of Kung fu–it’s a daily practice consisting of basics like endless repetitions of scales, arpeggios, and other exercises that teach proper finger position and bow techniques. Eventually this led to me attending Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art & Performing Arts in New York City, otherwise known as the FAME school. The lessons of practicing the violin spread to other arts like writing; I’m an avid writer of speculative fiction and fantasy stories. I had to practice basics like writing dialogue; writing descriptively; plotting out a story; developing a unique narrative voice. My mom and dad gave me the blueprint for learning any skill and attaining proficiency at it.

My parents were proud of their achievements, and aware and proud of how hard they worked to succeed. My mom and dad ensured that we learned that knowledge is power and that the way to acquiring knowledge was through hard work. They worked extremely hard to provide me with an upbringing that was safe and filled with opportunities to constantly hear, and see, and learn new things. They passed on their love of acquiring knowledge through reading, researching, and practicing, and encouraged me to carve my own path through life. And I have.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.shaolinkungfuflemington.com
• Instagram: northerndragonstyle
• Facebook: Shifu Paul Mack
• Linkedin: Shifu Paul Mack
• Youtube: Shaolin Kung fu Institute Flemington