Thanks Cathy. I am still a brown belt. Testing for black belt will be in 12 months January 2025.

That must have been so much fun being around such a large family. I am glad you had a wonderful Christmas.

This time of year, we tend to compress and look inward a bit. In to ourselves and to our family. It’s part of the cycle to get us to prepare for that expansion outward in the Spring. It’s good to recharge so that we can attack our next goal with more clarity and directed energy.

Achieving a giant goal is simply a matter of accumulating small, daily victories. Like you said, it’s like taking one cookie out of the box at a time until there are no more left.

This is a great way to look at our task at hand. I especially like how you acknowledge doing a little at a time to balance things out.

Yes! Small things, done consistently over time lead to great results. Your insight on taking small bites is valuable too. We have to consider the longevity of our training too. We want to enjoy karate for many years to come–not just a single flash-in-the-pan year.

I am glad you dropped that negative friend. They were not a friend when they said those words.They were probably jealous and knew they couldn’t do it themselves. It good to surround yourself with supportive positive friends. Don’t waste energy on negativity.

It was ‘a waste of time’….That’s unfortunate someone in your life said that to you. I think you made the right decision in letting them go. You probably heard the saying “We’ are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.” A nice person will lower their standards to match the standards of the people they spend time with. This is because nobody wants to feel alone, especially if they’re around people. So it’s best to move on and find a social group headed in the same direction…onward and upward, as they say.

I don’t know this person at all, but I’d be willing to be that they aren’t a great example of fitness or character. Very successful people don’t usually “punch down”. Instead, the are either too busy to say anything negative at all, or they will support you in your quest to better yourself. In my experience, it’s always been the least successful and most negative people that tell you why you can’t or shouldn’t do something great. It’s true in fitness, business, and personal relationships. Surround yourself with like-minded people and start looking for people that are in a place in their life that you want to be! Get away from those crabs at the bottom of the bucket trying to pull you back down.