In college I had a friend named Chas through whom I stumbled upon the secret to making things happen that I shall now impart unto you.
 
Chas is a little guy (think Macaulay Culkin).  He looks like he'd break if he bumped into something too hard.  I also suspect him of narcolepsy.  Nevertheless, Chas believes he's tougher than he is in a way that's contagious.  A small group of us in Navy ROTC played something we called the Game.  Anyone in the Game could call a Game, but only after midnight and before dawn.  It involved a rugby ball, and a hill, and it basically hurt.  Sometimes it hurt a lot.  Good times.  I think Chas might've invented the Game.  A year or two after I met him he started studying a form of martial arts called Aikido (think Steven Seagal).  I went to one class with him, and that was all it took.

You might say Aikido is about using your opponent's weight and momentum against him.  I think that interpretation hides its full potential.  A subtle reformulation of the concept opens fantastic possibilities:  Aikido is about redirecting the weight and energy of another to a more agreeable end.  By applying this more generalized form to daily life, where hand-to-hand combat is generally frowned upon (though certainly not without its proponents), you'll arrive at what I call Social Aikido.  If you can stop the bull in its tracks, you will survive to fight another bull.  If you can redirect the bull and smash the gate, you can free yourself from the arena altogether.  You can transcend the battle.  You can make things happen, influence outcomes, bend the energy of the universe...

Use this knowledge for good, young padawan.  Stop fighting the same battle over and over. Smash the gates and escape together.

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit."
-- Harry Truman