An Interview with Coach Patrick Curtis
We’ve all played the game “What would you.”
What would you choose – invisibility or the ability to fly?
What would you rather have – an ever-lasting eternity or be a billionaire for 40 years?
Head-scratching scenarios, certainly not for the faint of heart!
An age-old game, “What Would You,” locks you into a binary. Yet, life is far from binary choices. In fact, life is chock-full of astronomical highs and earth-crushing lows, with a wide swath of grey in between. “What would you” is so appealing because you’ll never encounter such whimsical binary options in life. You will encounter rollercoasters that’ll whip you about and can only be ridden successfully by calling on one very important attribute – resiliency.
Meet Patrick Curtis
One guy who knows a lot about resilience is Patrick Curtis. An Arizona-based personal coach who infuses the Kung Fu five animal styles of Emei body conditioning into his practice, Curtis puts resiliency front and center in his coaching. Kung Fu as a discipline is one of the oldest martial arts. The five animals of Kung Fu break the art into techniques based on five animals – the snake, the crane, the leopard, the dragon, and the tiger. The five animals originated at Emei Temple, and this age-old system centered on self-defense applications builds a mind, body, and spirit infused with resilience.
Q: Welcome, Patrick, and thanks for sitting down with us today. Looking at your Instagram, it was tempting to jump to any of your latest posts and dive into the story behind them. You definitely have a compelling presence, so let’s start at the beginning.
Patrick: Well, the beginning takes a long, long way back. First, it’s a real pleasure being able to sit with you and tell my story. There is so much frustration, anxiety, pain, and discomfort folks are living through that is absolutely unnecessary.
Q: You’re referring to something self-inflicted?
Patrick: In a way, yes. But more than self-inflicted, they all have the power to make a swift 180-degree shift. I did!
Q: Let’s talk about that 180-degree shift.
Patrick: Ok, so growing up, I was a jock. I played every sport under the sun and eventually settled into football. I ended up playing Defensive End for the University of Arizona.
Q: Extremely impressive!
Patrick: It was, I suppose, and don’t get me wrong, I was proud of myself and felt I had really made my mother proud as well. But as a Born-Again Christian, I have always felt a greater calling. Something far greater than football, for example.
Q: That makes sense.
Patrick: I grew up in Bakersfield, where my Dad was one of the most prominent pastors in the area. The church has always been a big part of my life, and so has my family. Despite some hiccups with my Dad when I was young, by the time I got into my mid-30s, the only thing on my mind was forming a family and serving God.
Q: So this was a time when you were actively seeking that special someone.
Patrick: Most definitely, and when I found my ex-wife, I was certain she was the one.
Q: She checked all the boxes, I assume.
Patrick: She really did, and the first few years were great. But by year 4, some things started to change. I chalked it up to relationship issues that most probably go through, but at the core, our priorities differed. She wanted the white picket fence, and I wanted adventure and to serve God. There was some interesting missionary work occurring in Mexico, but she refused. The man you see today would have ended the relationship and followed my passion, but I kept my mouth shut and just went on with it.
Q: Looking at you, I can’t imagine you bending so easily.
Patrick: Internally, I was broken. I couldn’t for the life of me get out of the rut, and as the years passed, she clamped down further. I found myself isolated from friends and family and living a life of mediocrity.
Q: What do you mean by mediocrity?
Patrick: I was just going through the motions every day. I stopped working out and ballooned to around 320 pounds; the intimacy disappeared, and it was almost as if we were both just waiting to die.
Q: Well, something clicked at some point, obviously.
Patrick: Indeed, that 180-degree click occurred after a strange dream that awoke me one night, and I found myself staring at myself in the mirror. It’s still odd to try and explain, but I didn’t recognize the person staring back at me. I had no idea how physically and spiritually ruined I had become.
Q: That is really strange.
Patrick: Well, what followed was even stranger. I went to work the following Monday, and at the time, I was in charge of the sports supplement line at a major Health and Nutrition Store.
Q: You were severely overweight and charged with selling healthy sports supplements to folks?
Patrick: Hilarious, right? It was! But a guy I worked with who had noticed the physical and emotional changes and had tried to intervene earlier looked at me and said:
“Something has changed. You’re ready, aren’t you? Meet me here tomorrow morning at 5 AM.”
Patrick: I hadn’t told him about the mirror incident, but he sensed something. I met him the next morning at 5 AM, and we went to a gym. It was the first time in close to 20 years that I had worked out again.
Resiliency – Recovery time is critical
Q: Resiliency is a big theme for you. When it comes to fitness – mind, body, and spirit – and how tough things like a divorce or leaving a toxic relationship can be, I suppose resiliency is the proverbial key to survival.
Patrick: It’s not only the key to survival, but it’s, in my opinion, a key to living the non-mediocre life we all want – or at least we should want.
Q: You mean withstanding difficult situations?
Patrick: Yes, but more importantly, bouncing back in a timely manner when life knocks you down. I’ve been hit a lot in life by some of the biggest men while playing football. I always popped up; I was raised to pop up. But for some reason, when my ex-wife hit, I remained down and fell into a coma of sorts. My sole goal is to prevent that from occurring to my clients.
Q: I’m sure a lot of them have remained down, though, right?
Patrick: Some have, but the 5 animal style movements not only build physical and mental fortitude it demands resiliency. When I was 12 years old, I met Mr. Robert Brown at the Boys and Girls Club in West Phoenix. Mr. Brown introduced me to Kung Fu and was a permanent fixture in my life until his passing in 2017.
Q: What were his opinions on your ex-wife?
Patrick: He was too polite to ever tell me. But that’s how powerful her influence was; even my closest mentor couldn’t shake the spell.
Q: When you found yourself again, it sounds like you created a new you?
Patrick: What happened is I was called to find my genesis. Some interpret this to mean to go back to the beginning. It doesn’t; it means to go back to when I was made, not necessarily the beginning. Mr. Brown started along this path with me, and I veered off, as we all will. Everyone veers in life!
Q: I couldn’t have said it better.
Patrick: The trick is being resilient and knowing how to recover. I am not on this planet to live a mediocre life. There is no point in settling, and I tell my clients this until I’m blue in the face. I just hope I can continue imparting what I do to my clients and helping them not to veer too far and too long.
Q: But in a strange way, it makes your story and experience even more compelling.
Patrick: Perhaps, and another important part of my story is that had I not taken the time to work on myself and get back on track, I would not have found the new person in my life – my butterfly! I honestly give God the glory in my life for having restored my breath – energy, thoughts, and actions.
To learn more about Patrick and his work, follow him on Instagram – @beyondthecircle.performance.
