About

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James Ryan, sitting inside of Cruises Pub in Ennis, Ireland
Photo taken on May 7, 2012

“It is by teaching that we teach ourselves, by relating that we observe, by affirming that we examine, by showing that we look, by writing that we think, by pumping that we draw water into the well.”—Henri Frederic Amiel

I love writing but I’d be misleading you if I didn’t admit that the real reason why I began this new chapter in my life in the first place was because I much prefer learning, whether it be about myself or just life in general. In fact, that’s exactly what writing is. A process that enables the writer (or artist) to examine his life in a deeper and much more purposeful way. An opportunity to explore his soul, if you will.

“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”—Cyril Connolly

In the beginning, I tried my hand at sportswriting for several reasons, none of which had anything to do with a yearning to become a sportswriter, journalist or public media celebrity. Based on the advice from a good friend of mine, Paul Dalton (the creator of this blog), I was encouraged to open myself up creatively and to start living my dream of becoming a “writer” by making small, yet daily contributions about the things that were of personal interest to me. At the time, this boiled my topics of interest down to five main categories: teaching Customer Relations (communications) at Niagara College, coaching youth football (group leadership principles), being the father of a young athlete (easily the most complicated aspect to my life), a life-long interest in the tenets and values of martial arts, and a lifetime devotion to health and fitness.

Through a great deal of experimentation and personal study, I eventually found a way to incorporate each of these elements into my writing style, thus doing what many writers attempt to do but ultimately fail at, which is that I was fortunate enough to have found my own unique writing voice.

As time went on, I definitely got swept up in the whole “mixed martial arts” scene and I began writing for various MMA-related websites as a result. The real attraction was that some of these sites offered editing tutorials, which ultimately sharpened my literary skills and taught me everything that I know today about the basics of technical writing. I always knew that I wanted to be a writer, but first, I needed to invest the time and energy into learning my craft, regardless of how long it could take.

As a big fan of social experiments (I have always found social behaviour fascinating, probably as a result of nearly two decades worth of bartending), and with the help from the book The 48 Laws of Power (written by Robert Greene), I unleashed several profound strategies for self-promotion and guerrilla marketing. I made a lot of friends throughout this process, but I absolutely went out of my way to make even more enemies. If I didn’t like you, you damn sure knew about it. I stayed true to my agenda and never once let my guard down or revealed the true purpose of my writing (until now) which was to simply stir up the waters and create conversation through debate and controversy. The stronger the opinion, the better.

“Raise your flag and see who salutes.”—Hank Moody, Californication

My opinions were my own, but it certainly helped that I had my values clearly defined beforehand. A writer who doesn’t know what he stands for is lost indeed. You don’t need to be right. You just need to be consistent. Writers who flip-flop with their opinions from one day to the next in order to appeal to a much larger audience, or worse yet, refuse to have an actual opinion in the first place for fear of offending anybody, are major frauds. But again, that’s just my opinion.

“Teaching requires a sensitive mind with great flexibility. Above all, a teacher does not depend on a method and drill systematic routines; instead, he studies each individual student and awakens him to explore himself, both internally and externally, and ultimately integrate himself with his being. Such teaching, which is really no teaching, requires a sensitive mind with great flexibility and is difficult to come by nowadays.”—Bruce Lee

I have always been the type of person who becomes heavily influenced by the books that he reads, and I can easily list four other works that have forever changed the future of my writing and how I have moved forward in my life:

The first was left for me after my father passed away. It was a book that he had always encouraged (insisted) that I read, but as you probably know, kids don’t generally like to listen to their parents too much growing up, so it wasn’t until much later in my life that I fell in love with the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull (written by Richard Bach). Suddenly, my life had no limits, and in terms of my writing, I never cared about what my peers or any other writers were doing. I was only concerned with doing my own thing and this book gave me the confidence to believe that I could achieve anything that I set my mind to, regardless of my prior experiences or what other people may have thought about it.

The next book is one that I stumbled upon while browsing yard sales with my son. I picked up the book Zen in the Martial Arts (written by Joe Hyams) for one dollar, and to date, it is the best dollar that I have ever spent, as it offered badly needed clarity on why I was the way that I was. It truly articulated what I was feeling and helped me to better understand myself as a person and to accept all of the things about myself, both the good and the bad. I was very young when I started training in the martial arts, but it wasn’t until I matured that I finally began to understand the principles of the training. This book simply validated what I had already known (suspected) and reinforced my confidence and convictions in my own personal beliefs and values. Martial arts is about being the best person that you can be for yourself, the ones you love, and for your community.

Something happened after I wrote my own book, Desolate Warrior. I felt that I needed to step back from the process and just let myself feel. While browsing through the used book store, I picked up a five-book series about the true life of Musashi (written by Eiji Yoshikawa), and suddenly, nothing in my life was the same ever again. My mistakes became vividly obvious and my future became brilliantly clear. As a result of this new perspective, some relationships (both professional and personal) have been slightly damaged, while others have become incredibly strengthened. Certain life changes are always very difficult because depending on the scale, it can take a very long time before the results are ever noticeable. Change is definitely a slow evolution within oneself, but I’m committed to seeing this thing through til the very end. Ironically, I can’t get my son to read this book.

The final book is currently in process, but I can already feel the impact that it’s having on my life. It’s called The Tao of Leadership (written by John Heider) and I plan on reading it several times over just to make sure that I have permanently ingrained each of these uniquely powerful lessons into my mind and my life.

So anyway, this was just a bit about me and my writing and perhaps what you can expect from me in the future. Please note that this entire page will be under constant revision, so please check back regularly for continued updates. I sincerely hope that you’ll enjoy my work-in-progress, and thank you all for being a part of this lifelong social experiment that I call living.

Cheers and thank you.
James