What Can Breakfast Teach Us About Commitment?

Have you ever heard that one about the Ham & Eggs breakfast?
 

The chicken was involved - the pig was committed.

How to Get In Shape and Stay Fit With Cage Fitness

Losing weight takes a lot of time, energy, and will to get that perfect weight and figure you’ve always dreamed of. But before going to the proper step-by-step how-to’s, let us first warm our minds up on the right information about this weight loss and fitness stuff.

Health is Wealth

 Being wealthy is neither about acquiring all the riches in the world nor getting whatever you want with just a snap of the fingers. It’s more about investing something from an earlier period of your life and being able to continuously use it perfectly until you grow old. No material thing can be such an investment because one day they come, and before you know it, they go. For instance, the money you earn today may be the car you’ll be driving tomorrow. But automobiles don’t last that long either; sooner or later, their parts will get rusty until they become broken and useless in time.
The real richness in this world is being happy – being able to do what you want to do, when you want to do it. It makes no sense to achieve happiness and success if you're not healthy and fit.


Healthy People

People who are considered “healthy” are those who are physically and mentally fit. CAGE FITNESS at MVP Taekwondo Center gets you fit physically and mentally, but we'll get back to that in a sec. Physical fitness is the ability of the human body to function with vigor and alertness, without undue fatigue, and with ample energy to engage in leisure activities, and to meet physical stresses. Muscular strength, endurance, stamina, and general alertness are the overt signs of being physically fit. CAGE FITNESS sharpens these qualities.


Your level of physical fitness can be influenced by regular, systematic exercise and proper nutrition. Regular is key. Our classes enable our students to develop discipline through routine and support. Moderate activity in between CAGE FITNESS classes will maintain you at a level that is usually adequate to handle ordinary stress, while right diet affects energy expenditure. Overweight, underweight, and weak individuals have low fitness levels.


On the other hand, mental fitness refers to the psychological state of well-being, characterized by continuing personal growth, a sense of purpose in life, self-acceptance, and positive relations with others. As you focus on your training, challenge yourself to break out of your comfort zone and meet new friends you “stretch your mental toughness.”

The great thing about CAGE FITNESS at MVP Taekwondo Center is you get the best of both worlds.

How we see our children = How they see themselves (Their Self-Image)

Dr. Maxwell Maltz found that the way we see ourselves directly relates to what we are capable of achieving. The beliefs we have about ourselves are a compilation of our past experiences and what others have told us since we were children.

Your child is going to believe what you tell him about himself. If you make consistent positive deposits to your child’s self-image, than your child will grow up believing he is capable of great things.

If your word deposits are negative than that is what your child will grow up believing. If the latter is the Your child will have to UN- learn the negative images that you have painted for him, whether you meant to or not.

Many times I run into parents who inform me that their son or daughter is “shy.” I particular take an interest in these children because I firmly believe that martial-arts are a great way to break them out of that shell!

I particularly remember a little girl who was just about to turn five years old. She was “tiny” and petite therefore her parents believed her stature controlled the confidence she had in herself. I’m not quit sure but I wouldn’t doubt if her parents told her things like “you’re smaller so be careful” Obviously if she was “small for her age” she would have figured that out and then asked why the other kids were bigger.

Never the less, the little girl was very hesitant to take classes. When she finally did a couple of lessons she did very well.

One evening her parents walked into the school appearing frustrated with her. They had her martial arts uniform in hand and began to explain that she did not want to take martial arts classes any more.

I very gently and with a lot of concern got down on one knee. I said in a warm loving caring tone: “Do you just not want to do martial arts class today or do you not want to do it ever again?” At this point she informed me that it was just today!

Her father became very angry and told her to “make up her mind!” It seemed to me as though this little girl was feeling a little bit of anxiety because it was just her third visit. We wanted to give her enough time for free until she felt comfortable. Usually this takes no longer than one to four classes - in most cases one.

The lesson I gather from this story is simple. The little girl was just living up to the shy label that her parents had given her in the months and years prior. She had actually stretched her self-image in the previous two visits, but like a rubber band snapping back was her parents’ conviction that she was shy. Do not label your kids unless you are one hundred percent sure the label will be one that you want them to live up to!

In my career working with parents I’ve seen parents whose message to their child’s self-image was positive and those whose messages were negative. Many parents make the mistake of labeling their children as shy, UN-coordinated, UN-disciplined, or quitters! Knowing what you now know I’m positive that you will be careful of the label you give your child.

What A Crumpled Piece of Paper Can Teach Kids About Bullying

A teacher in New York was teaching her class about bullying and gave them the following exercise to perform. She had the children take a piece of paper and told them to crumple it up, stamp on it and really mess it up but do not rip it. 

Then she had them unfold the paper, smooth it out and look at how scarred and dirty is was. She then told them to tell it they’re sorry. Now even though they said they were sorry and tried to fix the paper, she pointed out all the scars they left behind. And that those scars will never go away no matter how hard they tried to fix it.

That is what happens when a child bully’s another child, they may say they’re sorry but the scars are there forever. The looks on the faces of the children in the classroom told her the message hit home.

Winners are Determined to Win Big!

Champions in life set big goals for themselves.

Winners set their sights on large scale achievement. It juices them and motivates them to take massive action in pursuit of a worthy goal or objective. It becomes their primary target in life and has a very positive influence on all aspects of their life.

Highly successful people have developed something called a dogged determination and an endless energy for achievement.

In sports, in business and in the Martial Arts, there are countless stories of Champions overcoming the odds and obstacles that get in their way. Why? Because they were determined to successes no matter what obstacles interfere.

The bigger the goal...the bigger the obstacles. Mostly truly worthwhile achievements are usually very difficult to accomplish. In the big scheme of life, tougher goals tend to toughen us up.

Sometimes real life can be tough. It's been said that the tougher that we are on ourselves, the easier life will be on us. Many people love training for Black Belt and beyond, they understand that it is meant to be a challenging goal.

It brings challenges of skill, will and desire. It brings out the best in all of us and make us better in every way. We become stronger and stronger...mentally, physically, and emotionally.

A person with a strong will...a determined to win attitude...will go much farther in life than someone that is quick to give in to obstacles and setbacks.

The next time you encounter an obstacle and are tempted to give up on your goal, think like a winner...

Winners are determined to Win big in life!

Success Imprints

“Self-Confidence arises from ‘success imprints’ that were acquired early in life through some kind of positive life-experience. It comes from within and is imprinted their through past successes…. Those fortunate people who were told by some important role model or mentor that they were bright, hard workers, or destined for success had a message imprinted onto their psyche, and most of the time have lived to fulfill that prophesy…. Anyone who has successfully achieved something that was thought to be difficult or impossible has experienced a success imprint.”

These words come from Dr. Gene Landrum’s book 8 Keys to Greatness. In this excellent book Dr. Landrum studied the lives of men and women who rose to the top of their fields. Men and women like: Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Catherine the great, Frank Lloyd Write, Oprah Windfrey, and Michael Jordan. The book linked many common traits to each one of these great people, but one paragraph stood out for me.

Do you see the significance of this paragraph? To me it means; Kids who experience success early in life can build on that success. How great is that! What a great thing to not only understand as a parent, but also implement… Personally, I want my son to experience as much success as possible as early as possible so that it will be “imprinted” on his mind. This tells me I should pay close attention to the things I do and especially the things I say.

Tell your children you believe in them and remember that telling is not enough - we must show. Think about that nice mom who didn’t even realize she was sabotaging her son self-esteem by hesitating so much on the decision of taking martial arts. She was worried he “might quit.” What she was saying is “I don't believe in you!”

Set goals for your children and help them work toward them, just don’t accomplish the goal for them. If they get off course, re-adjust. And keep in mind that failure imprints our left from being a quitter. We want success imprints not failure imprints.

The Benefits of Martial Arts Training

* Martial arts improves psychological health in areas such as anger management, a sense of well-being, depression and sleep disruption (Woodward, 2009).

* Between 2000-2004: 6.5 million people participated in martial arts in the US. That is a 28% increase from the years before (Woodward,2009).

* Over the past five years, there has been a 15% increase each year for children under the age of 12 participating in martial arts (Greenberg, 2000).

Why the Increase?
* Martial arts incorporates more psychological aspects such as: self control, self-respect, courtesy towards others. It does this through promoting "relaxation, self-esteem, and mind-body coordination," (Woodward, 2009).

* Martial arts allows students to connect their mind and body through focus and concentration, which requires intense physical and mental discipline (Lucer, 2009).

Development of Oneself
* Those in martial arts are constantly developing themselves...They learn that the "true meaning of mastering martial arts...consists not in gaining the ability to defeat enemies, but in overcoming one's own weaknesses and shortcomings," (Zhigulin, 2009).

A thanks to Dr. Judy Flury for providing these statistics.