Advice from Sensei - Phrase of the week-Discipline

“Discipline is a Bridge…between goals and accomplishments!”

We teach discipline in our Dojo every day in every class. Discipline to practice your technique. Discipline to do your push ups. Discipline to focus in class. Discipline is very important in martial arts training and, as with any other lesson we teach in our Dojo, we encourage our students to be disciplined outside of the Dojo as well.

For example, say your goal is to get better grades in school. The same discipline you apply to your martial arts practice must carry throughout your day in order to keep you focused while you are in school and in class. It may be tempting to pass notes with friends, doodle in a notebook, daydream the class away, or play a game on a smart phone, but the truly disciplined student will pay attention during all of their classes throughout the day to reach the ultimate goal of improving their grades.

When you are disciplined in your daily life, you won’t veg out in front of the T.V., waste time with friends, or play video games. You’ll use this time to do homework and study, because you know that is how you will improve your grades. Without Discipline, it would be too easy to flick on the TV and forget about that homework or test.

For our adult students, maybe keeping a budget is something you struggle with. It’s hard. It takes effort. It’s not fun! But you recognize the need to create a budget and stick to it, and you apply the same discipline to a budget that you do to working out in the Dojo.

Another way to apply self discipline outside the Dojo is to understand what is expected of you, and to do it. Taking responsibility is a way of demonstrating your self discipline. Instead of having someone tell you what to do, you can anticipate what needs to be done and do it before you are told. Perhaps your parents are nagging you to clean your room. If you are able to become more self-disciplined, you will clean your room before they even get the chance to ask. Or maybe your spouse has been asking you for months to get the car’s headlight fixed. Next time, perhaps you will have the self-discipline to get it taken care of right away. Self Discipline means doing things before you are asked.

Ultimately, Self Discipline is doing what you must, when you must, whether you want to or not. More often than not, the tasks you need discipline to complete are your least favorite things. A truly self-disciplined martial artist will recognize that the unpleasant, the routine must be completed in order to advance and reach goals large and small. If you want to truly advance in the Martial Arts and in life, you will willingly embrace the difficult and mundane, because that is what self-discipline is.

Advice From Sensei—Law of Dominant Thought

“Where attention goes, energy flows and the results are soon to show!”

A few weeks ago we talked about the importance of Focus in and outside of the Dojo. The Law of Dominant Thought goes hand-in-hand with keeping good Focus. Through the Law of Dominant Thought, our students can focus all attention to a goal or task. When you put your focused attention into something, all of your energy gravitates to that task, which makes results come quicker.

For example, if a student wanted to see more results from her Martial Arts training, she could use the Law of Dominant Thought to put as much focus and attention on Martial Arts as possible. By doing so, she puts her internal and external energy toward her Martial Arts training. This may include practicing outside of class along with getting knowledge and information from outside sources. These actions would help the student improve faster in her training, and ultimately she could receive her promotion on time. 

“If we put this kind of focus into martial arts training do you think I’ll see results in my Martial Arts?”

“Yes Sir!”

Of course, the Law of Dominant Thought is not limited to the Dojo. Perhaps you have a big math test on the horizon. The Law of Dominant Thought teaches us that the more energy you put toward studying for the exam, the more successful you will be. So before the test, make sure to study, study, study!

For our older students, perhaps you are working to remodel your kitchen. If you don’t spend serious, focused time on the project, you will not be successful bringing it to completion. Your kitchen will be a wreck and you’ll be living off of take-out food until you manage, eventually, to get it done! Of course the Law of Dominant Thought is helpful here, too: the more weekends you spend in that kitchen, focusing your energy on renovating it, the sooner you will be able to cook for your family again.

It is also important to remember that, as the saying goes, “thoughts are things.” When you maintain a negative attitude, or convince yourself that things will never work out, it’s entirely likely that you’ll be constantly frustrated by bad outcomes—after all, you’ve been programming yourself for failure by focusing on negative outcomes. If, on the other hand, you maintain a positive attitude and focus your attention and energy on your desired outcome, you’ll find success comes much easier as a result.

Live your life according to the Law of Dominant Thought, and always stay focused on what you want, why you want it, and, most importantly, how you are going to get it. If you do this, you will be programming yourself for success!

Advice from Sensei—Respect

“Martial Arts begins and ends with…RESPECT, sir!”

The Martial Arts have always been rooted in courtesy and respect. We know the importance of respect from day one because we learn that the Martial Arts begin and end with Respect. It is a huge part of our Dojo.

Students are taught from the beginning to respect their instructors and the higher-ranking students because they have achieved something these students have yet to reach. Respect is not a one-way street in our Dojo. Instructors hold their students in the highest respect and higher-ranks respect those lower than them. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that they were in the shoes of the lower-rank.

We urge our students to take this idea of respect and practice it outside of the Dojo as well. Our students have a reputation of being more respectful to their parents, teachers, friends, and co-workers. Respect is something that must be taught at a young age, until it becomes a habit. We’ve been able to teach these lessons to our young students.

It is important to understand that to get respect we have to first give respect. When you give respect to others, they will recognize that and, in turn follow the golden rule and treat you in the same way.

Additionally, in order to be able to give respect you have to respect yourself. Although it can be hard sometimes, it is important to recognize why you should respect yourself—to fulfill your potential, develop healthy relationships, and make everyone around you see you as a person who is worthy of respect. In order to respect yourself, you must accept yourself and work toward being the person you want to become. When people don’t respect themselves they give up on trying to reach their full potential and often resort to “stinkin’ thinkin’”—they become down and negative, and ultimately, they become a person that others don’t respect.

We want to reach our full potential as Martial Artists and to do that; we must respect ourselves and the people around us.

Advice from Sensei—Focus

“Focus clap 1! Focus clap 2! Eyes on who… Eyes on you!”

The constantly changing technology and endless stream of information of the modern world make it harder and harder to stay focused. For kids, television and the Internet compete for attention spans, making it more difficult to focus on homework, or training for adults, constantly being “plugged in” at work and at home adds to the stress of the workday, and often makes it harder to focus.

The “Focus clap” quote is an exercise we use during classes in our Dojo in order to keep student’s attention extremely focused. Using “focus anchors” helps our instructors to keep the class fast paced and move from one part of the class to the next quickly. Students are able to learn more effectively when they are fully focused on the technique or lesson they are learning, so the anchors keep the attention where it should be.

We urge our students to take these focus anchors and the idea of full focus on a task and use them outside the Dojo in their daily lives as well. Imagine using this same sort of focus that we use at Tristar Martial Arts at school or in the workplace. Carrying focus outside of the Dojo helps our students to listen to all instructions of a task properly. At school, maintaining focus will help you do better on tasks and assignments. Carrying focus outside the Dojo creates a virtuous cycle: when students do better on assignments, they get better grades; good grades lead to a good college; a degree from a good college can lead to a good job. For those already in the workplace, doing better on tasks or projects get them recognition at their company. This could eventually lead to a raise or promotion. It all starts with proper focus.

Last week, we talked about the importance of goal setting and how to work towards goals. Using focus will help you to accomplish those goals in record time. You just need to keep that focus.

“Wherever you are… be there!”

It is always important to be present in your life and to be present in what you are doing in that moment. Often, students might be in class or spending time with friends, but they are thinking about a big test they have coming up. Adults might be at work in a meeting, but all they can think about is a camping trip coming up. A big key to having full focus is to be present in what you are doing and removing all distractions from the brain. Keep that in mind all the time and you can achieve all these things.