It’s April 13, and Day 28 of Shelter in Place
Can you believe it has a been a full 4-weeks since this all started? We sure have come a long way in that time. I often get emails from parents marveling at how well we have pivoted our school to meet the needs of our students. I actually think of it in terms of what martial arts training has instilled in us.
See here’s the thing: If you learn martial arts for just a few months, it won’t really stick. It’ll be wasted time. You’ll have fun for a short while, and then once you stop everything you gained will slowly slide back and you’ll be exactly the same as you were when you started.
But if you commit to it and train for several years, the martial arts actually becomes a way of life. So what does that mean?
I can speak in the context of our school. Martial arts develops:
- FOCUS – When COVID-19 hit, businesses started to panic. People went into doom and gloom mode and became paralyzed. We remained focused on our goal of changing lives, so our minds went immediately to what we needed to do to continue our mission.
- FLEXIBILITY – Mentally. The old way wasn’t going to work anymore. So we sought new modes to deliver our training.
- PERSEVERANCE – It hasn’t been easy, but quitting never crossed our minds for a moment. A lot of local businesses have already given up. Not us.
- DISCIPLINE – I’ll be honest: the team and I are working harder than we ever have. We’ve accepted this as our call of duty, and we’ve got the toughness to stick it out as long as we need to.
In this context, it should surprise nobody that we’ve managed to stay strong in spite of the circumstances. Our martial arts training has given us the character traits we need to survive. It’s self-defense in a manner of speaking.
Now we are poised to not only keep our heads above water, but to actually make a comeback. New students are joining our online martial arts program, and old students are coming back to train long distance. The future is exciting!
Keep Moving Forward.
