August 2016
We are officially home from our vacation in Maine. It was a great week at Castle Island. Check my Facebook for pictures. Thanks to all the brown and black belts who kept the dojo running .
Congratulations to the people who earned promotions during our July training sessions at our home.
Junior Yellow Belt – Angelica Concalves – – Junior Orange Belt – Maddy Ridge, Dylan Schulze – – Junior Green Belt #1 – Daniel Tankel, Rachel Tankel, Kyle Coletta, Anthony Coletta, Mckayla Brown, Dakota Christiano – – Junior Green Belt #2 – Sammy Heinrich Alexis D’Ambly – – Junior Purple Belt #1 – Tristen Christiano – – Junior Purple Belt #2 – Abigail Brown – – Senior Brown Belt #3 – Ken Aten – – Senior Brown Belt #1 – Jake Brader – – First Degree Black Belt – Carolyn Kulick, Shailynn Race – – Second Degree Black Belt – Andrea Aten.
July 9 camp wrap-up: Though the weather threatened throughout the day, we managed to hold all sessions outside, including the post session cookout. As is evident in the listing of promotions earned above, where 90% were awarded the day of the camp, the camp was well attended. Many positive remarks have been received and they are appreciated. MY SINCERE THANKS TO ALL THE BLACK BELTS WHO WERE ABLE TO SHARE ALL OR A PART OF THE DAY WITH US. YOU ARE THE REASON THIS EVENT RAN AS WELL AS IT DID!
The Power of Perception…What Do You See? from Half-Full – by John J. Murphy I was born on Friday the 13th, my name is Murphy (Murphy’s Law) and I had two near-death experiences before the age of three. I grew up reciting an “I am not worthy” mantra through the church and had many dreams dashed without notice, giving credence to my programmed belief system. I never really understood we become what we dwell on. We attract what we are, what we think, and what we feel day after day. Given my circumstances, it was easy to fall into a victim consciousness from time to time, a perpetual state of powerlessness. One thing simply led to another. I struggled, and with every struggle, more struggle seemed to find me. I am not sure exactly when I “woke up.” It was more of a gradual stage for me than a sudden awakening. Nevertheless, I learned to take each of my life circumstances and play them accordingly—like a hand of cards. We have all heard “I will believe it when I see it.” Try turning this around: We see it when we believe it. We experience it when we live it in the now. We call to our existence exactly what we are thinking and feeling and believing in the moment. Contemplate this: What am I calling into my life right now? What conscious and subconscious programs am I running on right now? What mental and emotional baggage am I clinging to? Is my life half-empty, or half-full? More importantly, what is even “in the glass” and how long have I been holding on to it? What if I chose to find and embrace the silver linings, the life lessons in disguise?
Self-improvement is a journey, not a destination. With each new day, we have a chance to make better decisions, bigger strides, and more progress—personally and professionally. Isshin-ryu training helps each of us a bit more disciplined so we should be able to make the right choices. Once a commitment is made the end result becomes reality more easily than for those who have never trained.
Step 1: Handling Choice Overload – Excerpt from Dial It Down, Live It Up – by Jeff Davidson A typical U.S. supermarket carries at least 38,000 items, twice as many as decades ago. There are so many different products and brands that your choices can seem overwhelming. At work, how do you handle the endless options of vendors, systems, software, products, and service solutions? While manufacturers seek to differentiate their products and survive in a crowded marketplace, if we focus intently on what we want or need, the net result is more time, effort, and energy. Too many choices, as author Alvin Toffler told us more than forty years ago in his landmark book Future Shock, inhibit our ability to choose. We now face what he called “future shock,” meaning our ability to effectively decide shuts down. Whether it’s athletic shoes, cell phone options, bagels, bottled water, or tennis rackets, too many choices, like too much information, do not serve us. Simplicity, rather than complexity, should be your product preference among items that are otherwise equal in terms of cost, durability, expected life cycle, and warranty. If one item has dozens of features while another has only a handful (namely the ones you need), choose the latter and don’t fret about a possible upgrade later. Learn how to dial down the number of choices to make a wise selection. You’ve sprung yourself from a complexity trap and handled choice overload. Creating checklists can also help you avoid choice overload, providing an easy tool for evaluating a potential vendor, product, or service offering. Review everything from a product’s design, quality, and features to its cost considerations and whether quantity discounts are available. Ask yourself whether the product will fit within the location you plan to keep it, if there’s a guarantee, or if you would need to buy any other items to make it work. When you have to make a choice, often all you need is a good set of questions to guide you, save you time, maintain peace of mind, and come up smiling!
