The 3 Disciplines that Drive Kids to Success!

Why is that some kids seem so driven and motivated while others seem to lack enthusiasm? Is it in their nature or DNA? Is it the environment they live in, their friends and/or experiences? Or is a mental attitude shift that seems to give them the advantages in school, home, and life?

Although we cannot control everything in our life daily, we can certainly control our mental focus. This past week we spoke to our students at First Choice Martial Arts about the 3 disciplines. When I positioned this message, I asked the kids a simple question. What is the difference between good discipline and bad discipline?

We provided an example of how one student and/or child was asked by a teacher and/or instructor to do something as easy as put something away and they refused to do so. When I polled the kids if this was an example of good or bad discipline, they unanimously answered “Bad Discipline Sir!”

When we asked the same question, but the result was the child and/or student did the task asked of them they invariably agreed that the student was showing god discipline. As a follow we asked the students which one was better and they all answered, “Good Discipline Sir!”

Although I was proud of their answers, I thought I would take it one step further and ask them what could be better than good discipline? The answers I heard were “Great, Super, Awesome, and Amazing Discipline Sir!” While these were great answers, I suggested to them that there was something called Self-Discipline.  We described it in a way that when your teachers, parents and/or instructors ask you do to do something you have already done it before being asked.

At First Choice Martial Arts we constantly ask kids in class questions like, are your hands chambered? Are your hands up? Do you have your eyes on the target? Are you showing good focus? These questions are designed to help the student think about how they can improve what they are doing without us having to tell them to do so. Children seek to find answers to questions and if we can train them to ask these good questions of themselves, they will attempt to seek answers that make their skillsets better.

This like everything is simply evaluating your task, situation, and goal to get better clarity and direction on how to do things better. When kids ask questions out loud, they often do it out of curiosity and while it may appear interrupting at times it shows a desire to understand and do better. If we can get our students and children to constantly evaluate and ask questions in their minds, we will begin to see that level three self-discipline evolve. This to me is that mental attitude shift that we spoke about earlier that creates the motivation and drive that leads to their successes!

It takes practise, commitment, and constant reminding to build good habits. Self-discipline is a habit like any other habit that is worth developing. You already do it at karate so why not use this amazing habit in your daily life so you can continue to be successful in everything you do!

Sensei Chris