Welcome to the Factor10 February edition of "Martial Arts and You". A dad called me on Friday asking about classes for his 8 year old child. We chatted for a while and he asked what the next step was in getting his child enrolled. I told him that we'd need to meet to have an intro meeting so he could decide if Factor10 is what he is looking for. I hardly got that sentence out and he interjected saying "Mate, I don't know if you have had much of a look around at what choices are out there in martial arts, but actually i popped in the other day and I can tell you there aren't any professional centres around like yours ... and your website is a mile better than anything I have seen in the area as well ...".
On one hand I was very proud of what our great team of staff have created, and that was my first though, but then I got to thinking about what the other places might be like and what sort of experience they give their members. I was saddened in a way to think that all martial arts centres aren't very professional in their approach. Actually the father went on to tell me of his recent experience at a couple of places, which were disappointing.
Striving for excellence is what our staff do all the time. I'm so proud of them - the receptionists, instructors and our admin team. At the moment we have over 20 staff who are all working towards the same goal - excellence in all we do!
As a student of marital arts, my teacher Grand Master Lee has always taught me that every moment in my martial arts journey won't be exciting, or perfect, or going exactly as I want it to. In fact he says there will be at times less than exciting or even "boring" moments. But that's life, and martial arts is a reflection of the natural way of life. And just as we do in life, we need to dig deep from time to time and put in some great effort to get great results.
I'm proud of our mums and dads who believe this too. They understand life and that children need to be guided and encouraged at every turn until we know they are making their own responsible decisions, like not giving up when things get hard.
Parents, please keep making important life decisions for your children until they are old enough to make them for themselves, like whether they will do their homework or study for exams, whether they will care for their personal hygiene, and whether they want to keep at it and achieve their black belt, are all examples of life decisions we need to make for children and teenagers.
That's life .. enjoy your week.
