We just finished our annual Monster Hunt, and it was our biggest and best year ever. As I reflect on this success, I thought I’d share the inspiration behind its concept.
When I was a kid, my school hosted a haunted house in the gym. Filled with enthusiastic teenagers in scary costumes, they would leap out of dark corners to frighten children who were brave enough to enter. I was one of those brave children.
And then I wasn’t. After a particularly effective scare, little 7-year old me ran out of the gym in tears. It was an experience I never forgot.
Fast forward 20 years and filled with a level of confidence that only martial arts can give a person, I decided to change the entire concept of a haunted house. Rather than allowing children to live as frightened victims subject to terror, we would turn Halloween into an opportunity to inspire courage and action.
When children enter our haunted house, they enter with a team, a guide, and armed to the teeth with padded swords and nerf blasters. When monsters attack, the children don’t run. They slay the monsters. Each encounter gets larger and increasingly challenging. The final battle in the haunted house is a massive showdown against numerous tough-as-nails enemies, but by that time the kids are emboldened. They grit their teeth, reload their blasters, ready their swords, and don’t stop striking until all the monsters are defeated. They exit the Monster Hunt as heroes.
It is a metaphor to success in any major undertaking. You need to have 3 things:
(1) Mentorship – Like the ‘guide’ our children are led by in the Monster Hunt, a mentor provides invaluable advice and lends you confidence.
(2) Team – Nobody accomplishes great things alone, and going through the Monster Hunt with a group teaches the value of teamwork. Learning to lean on and rely on a great team is an essential skill.
(3) Tools – Arm yourself. This could certainly be a physical weapon, but more realistically you arm yourself by developing the skills you need. Education, training, and practice – whether physical, intellectual, or spiritual – are needed to succeed.
I love the thought of teaching children that when something scary awaits you – that big challenge or dream you are chasing – you don’t have to run away in tearful fright. You can learn how to face those monsters down and defeat them. And that, my friends, is how we create Confidence and Turn Children Into Successful Adults.
