Author: roberthillauthor

The First Rule of Martial Arts …

The basic principle of respect is to treat all things living or inanimate with respect. Failure to do so could bring about suffering to other living things, other persons, or yourself.

In the case of one’s self, a lack of self-respect can lead to harm to your being, either physically or mentally or both. If you lack respect for yourself, this could lead to neglect or abuse of your body and your mind possibly resulting in poor health, a poor self-image, and the degradation of your personal relationships with those surrounding you. If you are in poor health, you certainly cannot maintain happiness for very long, nor will you hold on to peace. And if your health is sufficiently diminished this will subsequently diminish your ability to attain success in your daily life.

Taking the initiative is where we do things without being told or take action in situations where others might not.  This is incredibly important for your success, as it separates the average person from the go-getters.  If you have to be told what to do every step of the way, you are in essence a follower.  But if you do things without being told, even if it is done incorrectly, that sends the message that you are an independent thinker and a doer.  Those who take the initiative are often noticed.  They stand out, or more aptly put, they move forward to the front of the group and essentially become the leader.

In a martial arts setting, this would be the student who practices more often outside of class.  Oftentimes, this is noticed by the instructors because not all students will train before or after the class they have come to attend.  This also becomes apparent while in class as their performance sometimes is better than the students who did not take the initiative to train and practice outside of class.  If you’re training in martial arts, imagine where you would be with your skills if you took that initiative and practiced outside of class.  The training would become accelerated, and your instructor would be aware of this.  The instructor might even be more inclined to teach you more and at a quicker pace.  Even better, if your intent is to become an instructor yourself, showing initiative will strengthen and illustrate your work ethic and your capability to become a leader.

This also holds true in everyday life outside the training academy.  At home, showing the initiative leads a feeling of dependability, respect, and trust within your family.  If you do not have to be told to do something, but rather do it on your own, your family will trust you to handle any task and won’t be inclined to prompt you into doing it.  At work or at school, this demonstrates to others that you are capable of becoming a leader.  Positions of responsibility open up and become available to you, leading to opportunities you would not have if you merely moved along like all the others surrounding you.

So when you see things that need to be done, whether it is for yourself, your family, your employer or your own business, take the initiative and do the hard work that others won’t do.  Soon enough you will find doorways to success opening for you that lead to happiness, wealth, and victory.

“Teaching Skills For Life”

Robert Hill

Showing appreciation can be a powerful tool for reaching success and for living a happy life.  When we show appreciation to someone for the things they have done for us, we build a bond with that person that leads to great joy.  Appreciation is the mortar that builds the foundation for a deep and fulfilling relationship.  And it is that relationship which is critical to our success.  If we cannot form deep, meaningful bonds with those around us, we are doomed to failure no matter what our aim.

Yet, we rarely think of appreciation as that action that can bring us success.  Instead, we focus our time, energy, and resources.  Instead, we plan out in intricate detail how to become educated and skilled.  Instead, we create complex methods and complicated techniques, and formulate tactics and strategies hoping they will help us reach our goals.

Now all of these measures are important, certainly.  However, it is in showing appreciation for what we have that can assist us in significant ways, sometimes more so than any of our best laid plans.  Appreciation is a powerful interpersonal tool that costs us nothing, requires little skill or education, and does not require great effort, yet can be easily utilized to build powerful, intimate bonds with those around us.  And it is through those relationships where the opportunities to achieve what we want truly exist.

As an example of how appreciation can lead to success, let’s look at it within the context of a relationship between spouses.  The simple act of appreciating what your spouse does for you emotionally, mentally, and routinely goes much, much further than anything else you could ever say to them.  And it is not just words that can form the understanding of your appreciation.  Actions also demonstrate your appreciation for your spouse.  Bring her flowers not just because it is a special occasion, but because you simply appreciate her and all the things she means to you.  Cook him his favorite meal on a Tuesday evening even though you’re dead tired from an exhausting day at work.  Clean the house as if she had done it herself in the way that she would like it to be done.  Tell one another with specific words what it is you appreciate about them.  Show them that each thing and each action they take matters to you and that you love them for it.

This will manifest itself in your life in other ways outside the relationship with your spouse that far outweigh anything you could do toward the achievement of your success.  Other things outside the relationship will also be advanced and enhanced.  Your goals, despite possible setbacks or difficulties, will feel less arduous.  Your emotional state will become positive, thus helping you move through obstacles with ease.  And the support you will receive from your spouse will buoy you to greater heights as you move toward your goals.

And it all starts with one simple action:  Showing appreciation.

There are so many other examples of how appreciation can further your success personally and professionally.  But right now, stop what you’re doing and look to that one person you appreciate the most.  Tell them how much you appreciate them.  Show them how much you love them for what they have done for you and how they have made your life better than ever.  Just doing this is success in its own right and opens the door to your true peace and happiness.

Motivational moment …

As you progress through your training, the skills you are learning always become more difficult. Each new skill presents a new challenge in order to master it.

But the strangest thing is all the skills you have already mastered make the latest challenge easy. When you truly perfect what you already know, this makes what is to come simpler even though it is actually more complex than what came previously.

Does success determine happiness or does happiness determine success?

Sometimes we struggle to achieve success in whatever we strive toward not because the task is difficult, but rather because of our emotional state of mind.  When our emotions are negative or we are feeling down, even the most mundane tasks, much less important endeavors, become impossible if not monumental.  This is a deception our emotions play upon us to keep us from the goal.

We sometimes see this on the training floor at the martial arts school.  One day the student comes to class and is performing a particular self-defense technique.  The student performs adequately and without difficulty.  But then in a subsequent class the student executes the same self-defense technique, and the results are less than satisfactory.  In assessing what happened, it is discovered that the student’s attitude is negative at that moment for various reasons or another, and this has affected their performance of the technique.

This phenomenon also holds true in the business world.  There we find companies that perform a service or provide a product because they know the service or product is in high demand.  But the business leader is unable to profit from this high demand service or product because the leader is not happy, positive, or passionate about the product being sold.  Eventually this leads to the business failing.

Conversely, and this is where the above quote is most obviously demonstrated, you find a business leader running a company that provides a service or product that is not typically in wide use by mainstream society, nor is there high profitability for this service or product.   Yet, the business thrives.  The service or product from that company attains high profitability and becomes the benchmark within the industry because the leader is happy, positive, and passionate.

To take this a step further, there is a mindset behind this success.  The mindset is that the business leader is actually happy with what they are doing and is not even concerned with profitability.  The leader is simply doing something or providing something that they love without regard to profit.  They do it for the simple joy of doing it, and because of this positive, passionate, happy energy customers are attracted to the product in the form of fervent fans.

Let’s take this full circle back to the martial arts student.  If a student is positive and enjoys the practice of martial arts but is not a natural performer of martial arts, the simple joy of practicing martial arts will propel them much quicker toward the coveted black belt than the student that is athletically gifted but is not quite so passionate about the martial arts.

Discover the things that make you happy in life first, and the success you desire will come as a result of that.