| June 2015
There has not been much response to having a yard sale at Cassandra Brown’s this weekend (June 5 and / or 6). If you are interested please call the dojo or email ASAP. BROWN & BLACK BELTS – WILL YOU BE ATTENDING THE JUDGING SEMINAR SATURDAY FROM 1:30 to 3:30. LET ME KNOW BY WEDNESDAY OR I MAY HAVE TO CANCEL. Also, I have Hanshi’s Sai Posters from the Buffalo summit that people asked me to get. If you want one see me.
Congratulations to the students who earned promotions since our last newsletter – Junior Yellow Belt – Rachel & Daniel Tankel, Junior Orange Belt – Anthony & Kyle Coletta. Students who have earned promotions are to be commended. The receiving of a new rank is a challenge to improve. Just like school or work, the people who work and are diligent in their preparations are the ones who succeed. It is our hope that each student practices at home so a promotion may be deserved and respected once awarded.
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| How to Turn Ideas into Action – by Jim Rohn |
| Being disciplined requires the development of the ability to take action. Hasty action is not necessary, but don’t lose time. The time to act is when the idea strikes us—when it is hot and the emotion is strong, before the feeling passes and the idea dims. If you don’t, you’ll fall prey to the law of diminishing intent. A month from now, the passion will be cold—a year from now, it won’t be found.
So take action. Set up discipline when the excitement is high and your idea is clear and powerful. You’ve got to take action—otherwise the wisdom is wasted. The enthusiasm will soon pass, unless you apply it to a disciplined activity. Discipline enables you to capture the emotion and wisdom and translate them into action. The key is to increase your motivation. The greatest value of discipline is self-worth, also known as self-esteem. Many people who are teaching self-esteem these days don’t connect it to discipline. But once we sense the lack of discipline within ourselves, it starts to erode our psyche. One of the greatest temptations is to just ease up a little bit. Instead of doing your best, you allow yourself to do just a little less than your best. Sure enough, you’ve started in the slightest way to decrease your sense of self-worth. There is a problem with even a little bit of neglect—neglect starts as an infection. If you don’t take care of it, it becomes a disease—and one neglect leads to another. Once this has happened, how can you regain your self-respect? All you have to do is act now. Start with the smallest discipline that corresponds to your own philosophy. Make the commitment: I will discipline myself to achieve my goals so that in the years ahead I can celebrate my successes. |
EXPECT TO WIN
Not only during competitions but especially in life do the preparations and expect to win. “There’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillo,” says Jim Hightower. Decide to do something now to make your life better. The choice is yours. “My decision is maybe—and that’s final.” Is this you? Being decisive is essential for a successful life. If you deny yourself commitment, what will you do with your life? Every accomplishment, great or small, starts with a decision.
David Ambrose remarked, “If you have the will to win, you have achieved half your success; if you don’t, you have achieved half your failure.” The moment a commitment is made, change begins. All sorts of things happen to help you that never would have otherwise occurred. Kenneth Blanchard observed, “There is a difference between interests and commitment. When you are interested in doing something, you only do it when it is convenient. When you are committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.” Lack of decisiveness has caused more failures than lack of intelligence or ability. Indecision often gives an advantage to the other person because they did their thinking beforehand. Helen Keller said, “Science may have found a cure for most evil, but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all—the apathy of human beings.” Don’t leave a decision for tomorrow that needs to be made today.
Athletes have learned to enhance participation during practice and competition by visualizing the desired outcome. They mentally prepare and their physical participation improves because of the positive mental attitude that has been developed. Remember, don’t be a “middle-of-the-roader” because the middle of the road is the worst place to try to go forward. You can do everything you ought to do once you make a decision. Today, decide on your dream.
Angela Lee Duckworth: The key to success? Grit relates that for one to be successful in school, work or karate the individual must develop GRIT. Each of us must commit to sticking with the program, doing the work, preparing to achieve greatness by developing stamina. Life, school, work and karate are marathons . . . not sprints. The discipline learned through committing to succeed will create a solid work ethic. Understanding and doing what it takes is more than worth attaining the goal at the end. As has been said it is the journey that has value not the destination alone.
HOW TO LEARN –
Understand that there something to be learned—knowledge to be gained
You must create the will to learn, intention to learn plus enthusiasm.
There is no substitute for continuous participation in class.
Allow yourself to be guided through this knowledge, and do not become concerned with how fast you learn but how well you learn. Being concerned with how fast you learn will develop anxiety which will prevent you from learning.
