Living the Dream with Curveball
Oct 7, 2026 · 39 min · 11 segments
Send us Fan Mail Send us Fan Mail In this empowering episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we welcome Emmanuel Manolakakis, an…
Oh, it does.
And, uh, y- you know, as you say, you spent over 40 years in martial arts, so talk to the listeners about how that journey began and what kept you committed to this journey for so long.
I, I worked at a big telephone company for years where we all sat around at a, a, a table, and everybody, you know, first introduced themselves, and it was years of experience, and it was just such a...
I think people sometimes that do things for a long time, they're not necessarily better than people that do it less, right? [laughs] So I've, I've done martial arts 40 years, but I will tell you, every year I do martial arts, every year that rolls over, I wanna s- I wanna study it brand new.
Um, and that's a real hallmark of, of, of masters and, and as you said, "How do you, how did you train for 40 years?" I'll tell you exactly how I did it.
I just said, "I'm gonna do martial arts for one year." And then every year I say, "I'm gonna do martial arts for another year." And it's my responsibility to make sure that I train in such a fashion that come January I say, "I wanna train another year." I'm-- I, I hope that makes sense to, to you and your listeners.
Let's say you, you decided you wanted to start running, some sort of running routine.
It's very easy to do, right? Well, if you train-- if you run too much, then you don't wanna do it again.
So you have to pick a distance and a time and an effort which makes running enjoyable so that the next day you wanna run again.
But what happens, people start getting fixated on, "I wanna run a half a marathon.
I wanna run a marathon." And then all of a sudden they wake up sore, they wake up tired, they're fatigued, they're not resting good, and then they don't wanna do it, and they s- they stop.
So the trick to doing something for a long time is to gauge the effort.
Just go slow, you know? It's like the old fable of the tur- the tortoise and the hare, you know? Slow and steady, you know? Just enjoy the process.
Oh, it does.
And, uh, y- you know, as you say, you spent over 40 years in martial arts, so talk to the listeners about how that journey began and what kept you committed to this journey for so long.
I, I worked at a big telephone company for years where we all sat around at a, a, a table, and everybody, you know, first introduced themselves, and it was years of experience, and it was just such a...
I think people sometimes that do things for a long time, they're not necessarily better than people that do it less, right? [laughs] So I've, I've done martial arts 40 years, but I will tell you, every year I do martial arts, every year that rolls over, I wanna s- I wanna study it brand new.
Um, and that's a real hallmark of, of, of masters and, and as you said, "How do you, how did you train for 40 years?" I'll tell you exactly how I did it.
I just said, "I'm gonna do martial arts for one year." And then every year I say, "I'm gonna do martial arts for another year." And it's my responsibility to make sure that I train in such a fashion that come January I say, "I wanna train another year." I'm-- I, I hope that makes sense to, to you and your listeners.
Let's say you, you decided you wanted to start running, some sort of running routine.
It's very easy to do, right? Well, if you train-- if you run too much, then you don't wanna do it again.
So you have to pick a distance and a time and an effort which makes running enjoyable so that the next day you wanna run again.
But what happens, people start getting fixated on, "I wanna run a half a marathon.
I wanna run a marathon." And then all of a sudden they wake up sore, they wake up tired, they're fatigued, they're not resting good, and then they don't wanna do it, and they s- they stop.
So the trick to doing something for a long time is to gauge the effort.
Just go slow, you know? It's like the old fable of the tur- the tortoise and the hare, you know? Slow and steady, you know? Just enjoy the process.
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