Eureka!

Okay, this is quite a different topic for my blog, but I'm doing it anyway.
Well, here goes.

As you all know, I do karate. I'm cho dan (black belt) #177 in Tang Soo Do, and I have a black belt in american kenpo. And for the most part, I am crazy about karate. I mean nuts. I loved working out, I loved doing all the push-ups, I loved pushing myself to the point where I felt like I couldn't go on.

Loved. Key word.

I don't remember exactly when this started happening, but I started to lose the enjoyment that I got out of working out. I started trying to do other things rather than take class. I started training less often. I didn't have nearly as much endurance as I used to. And I couldn't figure out why, but then, it wasn't as important to me.

Now as many of you know, I am also a Catholic Christian. A devout Catholic Christian. Crazy about Jesus type Catholic Christian. Starting early this year, I started experiencing a dry spell. For those who don't know what I mean, a dry spell is one of those times when you struggle with your faith and have a hard time finding God.

Anyway, I started finding it much harder to follow God. I had alot less will to follow God. And I didn't know why. And every day I would find myself saying "I wish I was strong enough to follow God."

Karate wasn't going much better. I wasn't feeling like I was accomplishing anything. Sure, my teaching was doing fine, but as for my actual performance.... I felt like crud, and I found myself wishing that I had the strength I used to have.

Now, connecting the dots here, along rolls April. And with it came two important things: 1 Lent. 2 New teaching curriculum.

Again, I'm assuming the majority of you aren't Catholic, so let me explain. Lent is a period of abstinence and devotion in preparation for Easter. It goes on for 40 days, and usually, Catholics will give up something to show their devotion to God. I was finding this quite difficult, and through this and the new teaching curriculum, God showed me why.

Now as for the teaching curriculum, we were, no are (until May) working on self-image. For all you who don't know, karate isn't just about learning how to hurt people. It helps build good character, and positive traits, such as humility, integrity, and respect. Every month we have one quality like this that we teach the students. This month it was self image.
Every class I taught, I would ask the students the same thing:
"What are we working on this month?"
"Self image, sir."
"What is self-image?"
"How you view yourself, sir."
One of the things that was in the lesson plan was a story about this guy named Victor. I don't remember his last name, but that's irrelevant. Anyway, this Victor dude was told by his teachers that he was stupid. I mean really stupid. As in, scrubbing-toilets-is-all-you'll-ever-amount-to stupid. And he believed them. He dropped out of school, and worked at cruddy jobs.
Then, during an interveiw for a new job, he was required to take an IQ test. His score was a whopping 168!
A [expletive] 168! This guy was a genius! As soon as he learned his IQ score, he finished his education, started a business, and wrote two books.
Heres the part where I always ask "What changed?"
"His self image, sir," someone will respond.

This should be setting off bells and whistles here. A week ago, I realized what was wrong with my karate, and more importantly, my faith. I was saying "I wish I were strong enough." Now, take those words and rephrase them and you come out with "I'm too weak to do this." So my self image was of someone who was too weak to succeed. Let me tell you, the night I realized this, I got ticked. Beyond ticked. I couldn't believe that I had let myself succumb to something so pathetic. I opened up my notebook and wrote down EXACTLY how sick I was of living like this. After that I vowed to change the way I thought, the way I felt about myself.

Now I knew why I had been succeeding academically and musically, but not physically or spiritually.

The results were immediate. As soon as I descided that I was going to succeed, I succeeded. God told me what was wrong with my life through what I was teaching. And once I decided that I was strong enough, I was.
I am not mentally or spiritually able to choose Jesus. I am not strong enough. But if I believe I am, I can. It's that simple. I'm still recovering, but life has been so much better since I just started telling myself that I am strong enough.

Now, I know I'll probably sound like I'm preaching, but you can do anything you set your mind to. Never underestimate the power of self image. Don't make the same mistake I did.

I was teaching the adult class yesterday, and I split the class up in half, and then had both halves on different sides in a horse stance. A horse stance is basically when you spread your legs like you're riding a horse, and you bend your knees. It is an excellent stance in karate, but it also hurts the legs like crazy if you do it long enough. Some of the kids and the young teens complain about holding it for a minute. Even more for two minutes. But in the drill, everyone had to stay in a horse stance until they felt like they couldn't go on, when they were allowed to sit down. the last team left standing won.
I had a few 40-somodd-year-old women who held the horse stance for almost twenty minutes straight. And they won. It was not because they were stronger than everyone else. I mean, they were, after all, fourty-someodd-year-old women. The difference was that they saw themselves winning. And because of that, they won. And every one of them said that they had no idea that they could hold the horse stance for that long.

Now, if those women were able to do that, imagine how much you can do if you start telling yourself that you can. Because your potential is quadrupled when you tell yourself that you can. Trust me. I know.

Anyway, that's all, folks!
T-WAC