Date: June 8, 2006Title: [Ubbt]
The POINT of all of our investigation and dialogue (A callos lecture)
What's the point? The POINT is that much of the martial arts industry has spent the last decade dumbing-down and "systemizing" the education imparted through the martial arts.
The "philosophy" imparted in your average martial arts school --is, I think, mediocre at best...and the emphasis is on the physical --and the gross display of "respect" and "discipline" and "courage" manifested in rigid behavior, stamina, and endurance.
And, I might add, the philosophy all of those young men and women (our teachers) were imparting in the 50's, 60's, and 70's wasn't that sophisticated in the first place (with exceptions, of course). It's gotten to a place (in the MA industry), in my opinion, that goes exactly against (or with) the comments in the quote "Mastery":
"It's remarkable how much mediocrity we live with, surrounding ourselves with daily reminders that the average is acceptable.
"There is mediocrity in diet --in attitude --in teamwork --in ambition --in investigation --in consumption --in education...and many of these issues are more relevant to self-defense than any of these ridiculous postures and forms and competitive concepts we teach in our little kingdoms.
Now the point is that we are in an investigation of a kind of mastery achieved by the most evolved and aware human beings...what can we improve in? What COULD the education we impart include? WHAT IS HAPPINESS? What is our potential? What is truly, truly important --and are we following in the footsteps of giants --or fools?
Beyond it all --what is your personal definition of MASTERY --and of being a Martial Arts Master? Are you content with being HALF as good (or evolved) as you could be? And who, my friends, are your ROLE MODELS? Aristotle? Plato? Confucius? Christ? Buddha? Da Vinci ("I wish to work miracles..."), Jefferson, King, Rand, Nietzsche, Rush...Charles Shultz....or who?
We MUST hold ourselves to a higher standard --and it will be these standards that give you your unique selling proposition. You will SELL to your students and community --the quality of education and skills you are able to impart. You will determine the depth and scope of your investigation --and thus the education you impart. Those ideas are what will, in great part, keep people focused on participating and continuing to seek "mastery" ---or saying, "yeah, I got my black belt in 93, now I'm doing spinning."
Being in the UBBT is, to me, a rejection of the trivial ---it is the rejection of the hypocrisy and small thinking and complaining (without positive action) in the martial arts community. I am not going to let EFC, NAPMA, MAIA, or any other business within the martial arts community stuff their "system" or ideas into my head and accept them as the standards within my world. They are on tap --not on top.
I am NOT going to look to ANY (make that "many") of my peers in this little industry as superior role models to the men and women in history (and present day) who have the guts and insight to say "NO, this is not ok." And the courage to stand up for what is right. I am tired of selling a mirage --I am tired of looking at my industry and being embarrassed --I'm tired of the people in the martial arts who have set such low standards for themselves. In fact, that goes for the world.
My heroes, who are my teachers, like Sam Mockbee ---ask more of themselves --and set their goals higher. I am compelled to push myself in life and thinking as I once did in the ring and the competitive arena. So, the point is ---I ask YOU to step up to the plate Mr. and Mrs. Martial Arts "leader" ---and decide the standard you're going to hold yourself to. Who will you learn from..who are your teachers? What is the education you provide? Does it come from a box or video or a businessman? How DEEP have you gone? What is your mission in life?
Teams --- you can step up --or step out. My mission? To get YOU to think like Buddha or Christ or some kind of man or women who had a 10,000 watt light bulb shining in their head and thru their eyes. Make THAT happen and your "business" will shine. Go the other way or stand still or creep forward and you'll be looking for the next after school pizza pick-em-up-in-a-van party what-works-for-you gimmick to keep your rent paid and braces on your kid's faces. Have your staff standing in front of Wal-Mart passing out VIP passes...
We can do better. We can improve the education we provide. We can be better role models. We could, probably, even "Be the change we want to see in the world." We can train harder and smarter for health and clarity. We can reduce the ignorance the media propagates...we can develop the kind of compassion we'd like others to feel for us...we could make the idea of "a martial arts education" mean something like what
Sam Mockbee was trying to teach about architecture.(From Samuel Mockbee and the Rural Studio): "Linking ethical, social, and poetic realities would be Mockbee's fate. At the core of his being, and the center of his thinking as an architect, was the drive for justice and a mutual respect for all human beings.
"Mockbee made architecture not just about building and design --but about responsibility. I challenge you to make the martial arts not just about kicking, punching, and increasing your student body by 30 students next month ---I challenge you to make it about something much more important. And I challenge you to be a living example of the potential of the martial arts ---not just physically, but in your actions and thinking and compassion. VERY hard to do. It requires some sacrifice. Some painful investigation. Some detachment. Some self-discipline. Some awakening.
This is the school of the UBBT and the 100. ----it isn't easy. It won't come in a box. You won't learn it in a weekend "martial arts university." You won't order the manual and videos.
So, team, DO NOT slide into the trivial. Use your YEAR to seek enlightened thinking. Come back, in the end, with a SHOCKING level of clarity and purpose and mission. WOW your community the way Mockbee WOW'ed the education system. Inspire! Inspire! Inspire! BE A MASTER by acting and thinking like someone who is pursuing personal mastery for the betterment of the world.
This is the point of these programs. This is the POINT of all of our investigation, dialogue, and team activities...
Tom Callos
Date: June 8, 2006
Title: More ON THE POINT lecture (shorter, thanks)...
The Point is...Who knows if global warming is happening as a result of humans --or if it's part of a natural cycle? And so goes it with many of the other issues we address here --or see as our own personal concerns...The point is to ACT AS IF what you consume makes a difference in the world.
Take, for example, the food thrown away in my household. Almost every night our compost bucket is, at least, partially filled with food that is good --but wasn't eaten. Every week or two we throw out vegetables or fruit that has gone bad because I overbought. I don't think about it much --and I don't think my children think about it at all. But how would our attitude about this waste change if we had 3 or 4 starving children living with us?
Would it change our actions? Or would we laugh and continue to throw it away --right in front of them? (We're not going to change OUR lifestyle for things we have little or no control over!).You see, because suffering is often isolated --and we go to great lengths to insulate ourselves from pain and discomfort, we use and act --often --without regard for others because we forget --or we just don't realize.
It's like the emotion one taps into when a loved one, like my father, suffers from cancer...when you lose someone, when you love and watch them deteriorate and suffer --and then pass on....well, let me tell you, you have a LOT MORE EMPATHY for other people with cancer (and their loved ones) after that. It's also like the feeling when you have your own child --and you suddenly become connected to all parents everywhere. You feel that love and that fear and that hope --and the hope that nothing bad ever befalls them.
The thought of your own child wilting away from disease or being abducted or molested or shot or starved to death --well, it's hard even to write the words.I think if you were, right now, a world traveler and you came face-to-face with poverty and hunger and pain ---you would have a lot more consciousness about your own gifts.
You might also curtail your own consumption out of respect for those who live without.This is what my personal concern is about the environment and global warming and fossil fuels and pollution and animal rights and all of this STUFF...it's about acting as if what I think and consume makes a difference in the world. It's treating the people who mean the very, very least to me --as if they were as important as my own children.
It's about mindfulness with regards to my footprint on the planet. If global warming turns out to be a farce --good...but to act, now, as if what I do and consume makes a difference for the health and well being of the planet and it's people ----this is, I believe, the WAY of the master.If we teach young people that what they do and say and think and consume has an effect on others --it's a good thing. In the end, we are not Americans. We are not white or brown or black. We are not Christians or Buddhists. We are all connected and we are all, each of us, as important as the next.
Thinking this way is part of the solution to much of the suffering on the planet. The man or woman with the gun, the bomb, the POWER to choose whether you live or die --whether you have or have not --whether you are free or not free.....this man or woman --wouldn't you like it if they saw you as their brother and sister --instead of the enemy? Are we ever that man or woman?
When we, each of us, understands that our weapons, for both good and evil, reside in our daily choices and our attitudes about people, things, places, and consumption...then we will start to deal with some of our most important social issues.
This is, at least, how I feel about my "business" in the world --and it's some of the ideas that shape the direction of my work. At the moment, nothing else speaks to me with as loud a voice. Where I used to hear "SALE at MACY'S" --and "NEW MODEL OF BMW" --and "VINTAGE HAMILTON WATCH" --- I now hear something akin to Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech (which you can hear here http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/Ihaveadream.htm).
I won't and don't condemn you if you don't hear what I'm hearing --but it won't keep me from moving forward. Know what I mean?
Where some martial arts teachers in our industry repetitively pour over the scripts and systems to business success ---I always return to the lessons above. THIS is the work that needs to be polished, memorized, internalized, and activated. This is the work that will, after financial success, feed your soul. These ideas and topics are not a part of the ubbt and the 100.'s world by accident.
Tom Callos
Date: June 1st, 2006
Title: Information About The 100.
It’s Change and Movement --The 100. is about change. We are seeking to change ourselves, our businesses, our image within our own communities, and our image as a profession in the world.
Note: We’re not seeking to change just for the sake of change –no, we’re seeking to make a move upward --an improvement. The 100. is more of a MOVEMENT than it is a product or “association.”
It is a reason to improve, to grow, to get a new education, and to take action. In changing ourselves, in changing and improving our thinking and our actions, we establish a unique selling proposition for our schools. At the same time we work on that part of our martial arts training and study that is outside of the realm of physical technique. We are seeking clarity, enlightenment, vision, purpose, and a sense of heroic mission –through our work.
We have “The Ultimate Career.” In the long term, through our commitment to clarity, we seek to have a positive impact on the world. Forget What You Know; We Begin AgainForget what you know about what a “martial arts association” is. This is an association unlike anything we’ve been involved in before.
This is a family. This is a team. This is the classroom. This is the laboratory. This is the chalkboard. This is a place where you may be both teacher and student. This movement is the quest.
It is only in these parameters that I can be involved. It’s only with these ideas in mind that I can even dig up the inspiration to proceed. If we’re not out to do something amazing –and to leave our mark on our industry --and the world --in a way that is meaningful and an example of our potential ---then get me out of here.
BEGIN with the end in mind --that is what we have been taught. Your Role , Your first objective is to commit yourself to change, learning, growth, and contribution. It is, I believe, important to feel a sense of expectation; to have the feeling that you are in the process of changing and growing.
This will not be an association that “dumbs-down” its materials so the person with the least amount of experience can use them. This movement requires you to explore new ideas –to experiment –to read –and to experience new things; to see what happens. Different action creates different results.
What You Need to Do Now:
Send me your, photo BIO, your TEACHING PHILOSOPHY, and your PROJECT PORTFOLIO. To see a model of how those are to be done, go to our website and click on my photo. If you need help with any of this, call or write me.
Read the 2 books and one website I’ve assigned (see the notes on “From the Desk of Tom Callos” on the 100. website).
What’s ComingThe first suite of materials available to the 100. members will be posters, postcards, fliers, web banners, press releases, and other “identifying” materials that you can use to identify yourself as a part of this team and a part of a new movement within the MA community (which is –or will become --part of you’re new USP).
The next suite of materials will be based on Peace Education.
Peace Education
The 100. is going to launch and establish a powerful and potent Peace Education program –that will make you look very smart, give you all sorts of reasons to go to the media and the educational system in your community, and actually make a difference in the world.
The Environment
Our third “campaign” of sorts –will be about the environment and will include multi-layered campaigns to make a difference in the lives of your students and your community.
Ethics
A code of ethics will be written for the 100. that rocks the industry. What I Would Like of You, Some of what I am going to ask you to try with me is going to be way out of your comfort zone.
Isn’t that great!
Isn’t it fun to stretch and try new things –and aren’t we often in a rut or groove of behavior that can limit our growth?
Yes. So humor me; come try some new things –as a master teacher –and see what happens to your body, your attitude, and your thinking. In the WORSE-case scenario, you can always go back to what you know. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Green your routine. If you don’t know what that means, send an e-mail to the director of our national environmental self-defense program, Ms. Karen Valentine: http://www.theonehundred.org/members/”practicalmartialarts@mac.com”
Green your school. I would like to announce that all of The 100. schools are “green.” See Karen for all things green (more info to come).
Go organic –your diet that is. Eat a certain way –and know why you’re eating that way. No longer consume foods recklessly, but eat with intent and consciousness. I’d like to suggest you turn to Dave Kovar (http://www.theonehundred.org/members/”mailto:dave.kovar@kovars.com”) –and model his diet for a decent period of time. If you are confident with your diet knowledge, then proceed, however, in a “perfect world,” each member of The 100. would be an example of a perfectly healthy diet.
Become an expert on Peace Education. Let’s not leave one resource unexplored –no text or book or article unread. Let’s learn about Peace to the extent that we have studied violence.
Project Based Leadership Training (PBLT) Each of you in the 100. must organize and initiate 10 community projects and outline them in your PROJECT PORTFOLIO on your BIO PAGE. This might take a year? The bottom line is that before we launch a comprehensive program within our communities, we must first LIVE the idea. When we have, as a team, completed 1000 projects, THEN we will be ready for step 2. If you aren’t familiar with PBLT, contact me ASAP.
I Would Like To…I would like to tell the world about your extraordinary commitment; your commitment to environmental protection and education; to peace education; to living as an example for others. I would like to tell the world about your projects and what your years of study have done to your thinking, your consciousness, and your behavior.
I would like to use the 100. as an example of what the martial arts does for people; how it makes them eat, think, act, consume, and live like fully conscious, sane, responsible members of the world-community. I would like to talk about your exploits THIS YEAR. What you’re doing –what you’re giving up, what you’re embracing, and how it’s NEVER TOO LATE to grow as a human being. Do you think you can live up to this? Can you step up and do something extraordinary this year?
Where the FIGHT is
The acquisition of wealth and its accoutrements is a part of life –but we all know it is not “life.” To live a life fulfilled we must contribute –and I don’t mean tithing or doing a kick-a-thon once a year.
There is a level of awareness, a level of consciousness, a level of understanding, a level of compassion…that we are seeking –and that will bring us closer to those various spiritual beings so many millions of people seek to emulate.
The fight is against a world gone mad with consumption.
The fight is against violence –against any man, woman, or child.
The fight is against war.
The fight is against people who would pollute your living environment and negatively affect your health and the health of your fellow man –all for the sake of a healthy profit.
The fight is against advertising and its impact on how you feel about yourself, what you must HAVE to be fulfilled as a man or woman, and what it makes you think.
The fight is about our fear.
The fight is against men who would produce enough nuclear weapons to kill every man and woman on the planet 23 times over.
The fight is for sanity and love and clear thinking and compassion.
Now how do we get this message across to those 1000’s of people who listen when we speak? We must live it first.
Rosa Parks and The 100.
Remember that we, collectively, are out to be “Rosa Parks.” She was one person, one little lady, who stood up for her rights and what she knew was right. Our plan is to combine our forces, our thinking, our power ---to equal the power of Ms. Parks. One hundred “martial arts masters” = Rosa Parks. Is it possible that we could, together, equal the power of one person? Are there not a 1000 “buses” RIGHT NOW that we could sit on –and refuse to give up our seat on?
You bet there are –now let’s prepare ourselves. Let’s impact the world by demonstrating what we’re capable of.
On Being a Master
Don’t pretend. Don’t cheapen or discount. Don’t allow the title to be used with your name unless you are truly, deeply committed to mastery. Let’s practice “being a master” –and let us, together, create a definition for “martial arts mastery” that has an impact on the millions of people who will, long after we’re gone, turn to the martial arts –for something. Let us, together, redefine what it is to be a “master of the martial arts.”
Tom Callos
Date: May 26th, 2006
Title: To The 100.
Ok teams, our new martial arts association is underway…under construction. Let me recap what we’re all about:
We have come together as “martial arts activists” — or, if you prefer, just as “activists.” We are committed to growing our schools and advancing our “careers” in a new, holistic, sustainable, meaning-filled, purposeful way. This involves a new approach to teaching — which in turn gives rise to a new kind of promotion and advertising. Let’s say we’re changing the OUTCOME we’re looking for as a result of our efforts (teaching). That outcome has more relevance in today’s world — it involves educational principles that either have not before been associated with the martial arts — or ideas we’re re-embracing.
We are graduating to a new level of education. Level one was business fundamentals –we needed to learn how to be business-people so we could pursue our passion for the martial arts in a way that offered a decent lifestyle. Now we’re moving to Level 2, which is developing ourselves as Master Teachers (no, as master human beings) — and re-crafting our “product” to fit the needs of our society — as it is today. We have all the business resources we need — we have entire associations committed to the ideas — and business products galore. What we don’t have is the emphasis on enlightened thinking and enlightened action. This is our job.
The 100. is, for lack of a better term, the “Green Party” of the martial arts.
We embrace environmentalism, as we consider ourselves stewards of the planet and all peoples — as there is, in our minds anyway, no separation between us and them, ours and theirs. THE world is our world –and we would no sooner stand by and watch it damaged that we would watch a child be abducted (reference to recent video). We embrace peace education. We know violence very well…now we will learn and embrace the perfect opposite of it. It is our duty to know both — for a perfect balance to our wisdom — as we recognize that, currently, this balance doesn’t exist in the martial arts educational world. When we know peace as well as we know violence, then we will have succeeded in our mission.
We will explore the ideas of Sustainable business practices. We will establish a code of ethics for all martial arts professionals. We will become the most proactive leaders in our communities — as we will be in the “business of making a difference” — in people’s lives, in our communities, and in our world. We will embrace voluntary simplicity (living a simpler life, by choice). We will shape our school’s promotional campaign away from crass commercialism and towards results-oriented activism. People will come to our schools because of the results we get — not just for promises we make.
We will LIFT ourselves into a new realm of intent and purpose — and for that we will earn the right to associate with an all new level of thinker and achiever. Our “masters” will be those people in the world who give, who think, who stand against injustice, who pursue equality and civil/human rights, who promote peace without taking lives unnecessarily, who choose the unselfish way — rather than the idea of profits first.
Our “masters” will be Nobel Peace Prize winners, environmental activists, peace workers, and people who have the guts and the vision to stand up for what is wrong in the world — but more importantly we will be guided and inspired by those who have the fortitude to take action against what is wrong in the world. We will become known for this very thing. It is the new engine that drives us — and it will be our intent to fill our schools with people who appreciate “self-defense” from this perspective.
The 100. isn’t an association that GIVES you everything (although it’s our intention to give you plenty of ideas and resources)..this is an organization that expects YOU to step up to the plate and contribute. We will require your energy, your resources, your intellect, and your willingness to explore “mastery” in an all new light. Each member of the team is important — and each is a member of a new, extended family.
Our policies: No negativity.
complaining without positive problem-solving action. Peaceful, intelligent, spiritual-based conflict resolution to all problems/challenges between members (as conflicts will arise — it’s how we deal with those that will set us apart).
Full participation in group events. Consistent communication — in a way that perfectly reflects what we ask of our students. An “open door” policy to all other members (your school is their school — your knowledge is their knowledge). And of course, we‘ll be uniting in effort for four to six major “projects” a year — that will shake the tree in your communities — make you men and women on a mission — and work as fuel for your unique selling proposition — and the knowledge that you are, indeed, making a difference in the world.
More to come — always more to come. We’ve only just begun.
Tom Callos
Date: May 26th, 2006
Title: News to the 100.My plan --one of many for the 100.
Each of you, team members, will be responsible to document 10 current projects (not old-old ones) in your PROJECTS PORTFOLIO.
With 100 schools (eventually)...we will eventually reach 1000 projects. When we've done a 1000 projects — we will then launch the STUDENT version...for your members.At 1000 community projects we will have some significant bragging rights...with our students involved...we will make history.
To see PROJECT PORTFOLIO pages, click on the pictures of members who have submitted them (hal, tom, jason).
Tom CallosDate:
May 24th, 2006
Title: To The 100. (secret message for ubbt enclosed too).
Team 100., (Message for UBBT members at the end of this e-mail) First off, thank you for your patience as this association gets it's wheels turning — my goals are complex ones, requiring a good deal of design work and thought....your financial support in this time of development is a gift...and I couldn't do this without you.It is as if we are pooling our resources to create something new — something that hasn't previously existed....and that "something" is a martial arts association and "movement" that is about sanity — and sustainable martial arts school management, and creating a career that offers us a sense of heroic mission.I want you to know I am absolutely confident that your membership in
The 100. is going to be one of the best martial arts experiences of your life (no kidding!). I know this because I have a vision of what we're going to accomplish that is crystal clear in my mind. I can see what we're moving away from — and what we're moving towards.In the next few months you will be witness to a new kind of martial arts school mission — and you'll see all new tools with which you can promote your school...these tools will speak of the dignity and power of the martial arts — and begin a process of redefining what a "martial arts education" is.
In the mean time, I have asked you to read two books and visit and read one website. Have you? Please do, as I need you to be up to speed on the ideas and concepts of peace education.This isn't going to be one of those associations that feeds YOU...this is something where each one of us is a vital link in the chain — and it is in each of us that the power of our ideas becomes something extraordinary. In the "perfect" association, YOU are as important as any other member.
We are out to create something that has NEVER existed in our industry...a movement of 100 "master teachers" combining their power, action, and intellects to become one hell of a powerful force...I am available, by phone, for you...almost 24-7...and I'd like to have an on-going dialogue with you about how you can get involved --and grow your school and career in the light of a new vision for the martial arts world. Call me.Much more to come...Tom
To UBBT Team Members: Teams, have I let you down in any way? It's a possibility, for sure --BUT, if I haven't...if you have seen the power and potential of this work, then I ask you to step up to the plate and join the 100 now.I need your financial backing to do my work. Consider your membership fee an investment in a new company where your return will give you a new set of tools and motivation and purpose like you've never seen...and I guarantee you that I am creating something that will blow your minds.If you have faith in my work and vision — I ask you to fork up $120 a month (I'll see to it that that investment is returned to you times 10) and join The 100.If you've been moved by the UBBT — if you recognize that there's been a plethora of new ideas and vision in the MA world because of it — then hold on to your horse...the best is yet to come.Yes, yes....it's all expensive (it almost always is) — but look to the return of being a part of something that helps you MAKE A DIFFERENCE in a history-making way.
Look at the family you've joined — look at the power of our movement.I ask you, now, for your emotional, financial, and spiritual support.I'm a man on a mission....Join me. Help. Participate. Support me and this association with your $4 a day.
Tom Callos
Date: May 13th, 2006
Title: It occurred to me....
There's a song by the Counting Crows called "Round Here" — and there's a line that says, "Round here we talk just like lions, but we sacrifice like lambs..." It occurred to me that this is what we do (as an industry). We often talk like lions of our value and of so many benefits to studying the martial arts — but all too often, we sacrifice the potential of what we do — giving it up for misguided ambition, outdated or insufficient principals ("never make an unjust kill" — for example), or the unbalanced pursuit of "success" — using a model that — almost — worked for our parents, but is now painfully obsolete.
Ueshiba writes in The Art of Peace: "The real art of peace is not to sacrifice a single one of your warriors to defeat an enemy. Vanquish your foes by always keeping yourself in a safe and unassailable position; then no one will suffer losses. The Way of the Warrior, the art of politics, is to stop trouble before it starts. It consists in defeating your adversaries spiritually by making them realize the folly of their actions.
The Way of the Warrior is to establish harmony." and "The Art of Peace is to fulfill what is lacking." — When we begin to tackle the issues most important to today's world — we will not only become the "educators" we would like to be, but we will talk — and walk — like lions...perhaps fulfilling our potential for positive changes in people — and in the world. I don't know exactly how to proceed — but I do recognize that more than 80% of the "material" and ideas being distributed by the leaders in the "business industry" of the martial arts is about the business of business...and what we're looking for is the business of making such a difference in the world that people can't stop themselves from being a part of what we do.
It won't come from the "systems" we implement, it will originate with our philosophy, intent, ambition, and sense of mission and responsibility. We will live it, talk it, teach it — and see what happens. We will dwell in the loftiest of ideas — and turn our powers and influence into something remarkable.
All of the instructors and business people who've come before us have laid down a foundation for us to operate from. The systems are in place — and now the product must be refined — but not to feed the system, but to empower and educate the individual — and instill the belief that one person can make a difference — and must. This is "talking like a lion" — and to keep from "sacrificing" like a lamb, I need to inspire you to think bigger — outside of the dojo — outside of your wealth — outside of your current understanding — outside of the status quo.
You didn't become a professional martial artist by bending to public or parental opinion (they probably thought you were whacked)...you're a rebel of sorts — so don't start sucking up to the system now. Stay a rebel — and "think wrong" if you must — but THINK. And after you've thought awhile, DO SOMETHING that reflects your true self — and your unlimited potential.
Tom Callos
Date: May 5th, 2006
Title: Rosa Parks Inspired The 100.
Rosa Parks, the soft-spoken civil rights activist/icon, the diminutive 42-year-old seamstress who refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger on that amazing day in Montgomery, Alabama, the woman who through one simple action helped change the course of history — she is the spiritual force behind the founding of The 100.
The question is: Is it possible that 100 martial arts MASTER instructors could, combined, muster the power and determination of one 42-year-old seamstress? Could we not, collectively, refuse to yield to injustice and refuse to accept things as they are? Could we, if we took the right action at the right time, change the course of history?
We believe it is an idea worth pursuing.
In honor of Rosa Parks — and all brave men and women who take a stand for what is right, we have come together to make a difference in the world. We stand for peace, for global self-defense, for environmental protection, for honor, for courage, for compassion, and for being the change we want to see in the world.
In 1982 I wrote a letter to Ms. Parks, asking her about inspiration. She sent me a two-page handwritten letter offering her thoughts on the subject. From that day on I committed myself to making the work I do something that was important to the world. I realized that I was in the perfect business for making a difference.
The 100. is made up of martial arts teachers who believe that their years of training have been for more than learning how to kick, punch, and throw. Like Rosa Parks, we will not be giving our seat up to ignorance, apathy, and obstacles.Many other teachers, activists, and masters have their hands in this association, but Rosa Parks is the first person I think of when I visualize our potential to make things happen.
Tom Callos
Date: April. 2006
Title: This, by the way, Teams, is what's known as a WOW.
The thought....the message....the mission....the method.This kind of thing — the sense of "heroic mission" is what — in a perfect world — I would like my students to feel. That they are doing what they're doing not just for themselves, but for others — and that "it" is something that must be done.If we could tap into this — even just at 10%...5% even!
What would we do — and what would it do to us?I think we (as an "industry") have spent FAR too much time coming up with intro strategies, lead generation, and upgrade strategies — and not nearly enough time on driving the engine with a sense of mission.I know, from experience, the difference between "success" without vision — and success as a result of a purpose-driven mission. It's like the difference between being in love and faking it...like the difference between the way one feels when they see another parent's child fall off the monkey bars from across the park — and the feeling one has when it's his or her own child.
They both create reaction — but one is painful and the other is....eviscerating.I don't know exactly HOW to inspire you to find your mission — but, for me, this is a pursuit I feel is worthy of my (our) time and effort.
To see these three young filmmakers launch this campaign is paramount to what it was to see Bruce Lee perform at the Internationals in 1964. It's like living in the Honbu Dojo and experiencing Ueshiba's teaching.Do you see it? Do you recognize the extraordinary when it materializes? My friends, this is the energy and power I'd like to see you apply to your own school — your own test — your own sense of mission. This is the "Master's Olympics."To the 100 and the UBBT teams:http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php http://www.leadernotes.com/2006/04/how_to_raise_500000_from_middl.html
Tom Callos
Date: April. 2006
Title: Good Morning to the 20 or so of us that currently make up The 100.
This morning, here, in a few hundred words, I am going to offer you some instructions/directions to help make your involvement in this Association (which is really a movement — a revolution and/or shift in our thinking) something that guides and inspires you — -and something that benefits your school — -and, perhaps, if we're very fortunate, everyone you come in contact with.
First, imagine that I produced a large variety of promotional materials — REALLY good ones — around self-defense instruction. Imagine I gave you an angle with which to promote your business that just knocked people out...and that as a result you enrolled hundreds of new students. Now imagine you really didn't know anything "authentic" about self-defense. I mean, you could go thru the motions — but the truth was that you'd never defended yourself, you'd never taken any authentic self-defense courses, volunteered at a rape crises or domestic violence program — — -let's just say that all of your "self-defense training" was practicing traditional martial arts up and down the dojo floor. All sizzle — no steak.
This is exactly what we DON'T want to have happen with our activities in The 100. I am going to produce promotional materials (print, video, partnerships, curriculum, audio, whatever-is-best) around subjects like PEACE EDUCATION and ENVIRONMENTALISM and SUSTAINABILITY.... And the materials will be good...no, excellent.
The strategies for expanding our impact in our communities — and inspiring all sorts of new people to look at your schools with new interest...they will come.However, first, we must educate ourselves, authentically, in the new subject matter — so that when the opportunities arrive, we are truly prepared. You follow me?
One of the things you MUST PLEDGE TO DO — as a member of this team of activists and, dare I say, "revolutionaries," is to fully and authentically educate yourself on the subjects we tackle as a team. You make sure that when we start laying down our sizzle — that you've got a freezer full of steak (or, for you vegetarians, some sort of soy-based alternative).
Step # 1 — We are going to re-embrace PEACE EDUCATION as a team — in a way that has not ever been done in the martial arts. Now realize that Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido, was a peace activist in a very profound way — -he even named his art "The Art of Peace." So too were many of the great masters who have proceeded us... Now it's our turn. We're going to adopt a set of tools that we will, first, LIVE, then we will teach to our students — and then, with their help, we will arm every interested citizen in our communities. Our education will be like the Polio vaccinations of the 60's and 70's — with one simple shot we will protect millions of people from harm.
We will arm people with Peace tools that will help them get a mental, emotional, and physical grip on conflict — and how to resolve it without aggression...both internally and externally. It's nothing new my friends, we're just going to make it our mission to teach these skills — the very deepest "roots" of authentic self-defense — to our friends, students, families, and fellow citizens. It will be our gift to the world. If you embrace this idea with your full potential — YOU will become THE MOST proactive Peace Activist in your community.
You may become THE (or one of the) most respected spokes-people for Peace and non-violent conflict resolution. ANY parent or employer who wants his or her charges to learn the skills of peace-in-life-and-action — -will want to send them to you for instruction and training. That is our objective. We don't have to reinvent the wheel on this one. There are many, many people who have dedicated their lives to peace and peace education...what we're going to do, after studying the subject matter thoroughly, is to take action on these ideas in an unprecedented way. I'm now going to assign you two books (or books on tape?) to begin your journey (as we must begin somewhere):
Book # 1: THE ART OF PEACE by Morihei Ueshiba, as translated by John Stevens. I have corresponded with Mr. Stevens — and I hope to have more of his input on the subject in the future. You don't have to study Aikido to appreciate Ueshiba (although it's not a bad idea)...and his ideas should (when studied with an open heart and mind — searching for opportunity) have a profound impact on your martial arts CORE BELIEFS.
Book # 2: Thich Nhat Hanh: CREATING TRUE PEACE: ENDING VIOLENCE IN YOURSELF, YOUR FAMILY, YOUR COMMUNITY AND THE WORLD. If you have not been blessed with meeting/reading/listening to this amazing peace activist, you're in for a life-changing treat. Your learning curve is going to go right off the scale. So there you have it. My first act in this new association, The 100., is not to send you a packet of promotional materials — or a new strategy for member upgrades, or a slick and fancy campaign for school promotion...no, it is a request for you to lay a foundation of understanding about conflict, peace, passion, purpose, and education.
Honestly, Men and Women, our teachers should have been laying down this foundation for us from day 1....they just didn't know any better (if they didn't). We will. For all the future teachers of our various arts, we will lay down a heavy foundation of education in peace and non-violence that doesn't just scratch the surface, but that leaves a powerful and permanent positive impact on our students lives — and everyone they have the good fortune to come in contact with.
Peace is as important a part of the martial arts and life — as is any other subject. The two books I've assigned you to read, above, is as good a place to start as any. More to follow — (and I task you all to open your mental "window" to anything and everything about Peace...and you watch, all sorts of stuff is going to start flying through it). Keep in mind it takes a village to raise a "master." All of our education will NOT come from any one source (including The 100.). Together, collectively, we will teach each other, learn together, tap into all of our resources (like the great peace teacher and our friend, Terrence Webster Doyle — and others).
Oh, and one more thing: If you already have read these books, if you're already Mr. or Mrs. Peace Education, then it's your job to help, not to think or act like you're already there (of course you know this, but it's better to address ego up front, no?). The assignment above should take you no more than two weeks. Let me know how you do. Oh, and keep in mind...there's study — and then there's STUDY. Practice STUDY.It's time to prepare...Oh man are we in for a wild ride!
Tom Callos www.theonehundred.org
Friday, September 01, 2006
Monday, August 28, 2006
From Tom Callos to the Teams!
Good evening teams,
There a lot happening, behind the scenes in the UBBT and, yes, even in The 100. Let me tell you what I’m doing, first:
I’m hard at work trying to get the 100 site up and functioning. It’s a lot of work with programmers and designers –but it’ll all be worth it in the long run. It’s sort of like NAPMA –which took a while to launch... Your financial support during this period is greatly appreciated. In this case the “founding members” of the group REALLY deserve credit…and you’re making the ship move.
The UBBT is moving along. You know, it’s all about collecting a team. When the right people are present, magic happens. The “right people” are those who commit themselves to the task at hand (whatever that is). Get capable people WITHOUT commitment, and the ship sinks. I’d wager that untalented people –who HAVE commitment, could outshine the opposite. (A lesson there for your own school teams)
In the UBBT the idea is to make a personal breakthrough –and then a Team breakthrough. In fact, the idea is to “breakthrough” in all areas of one’s life: personally; financially, emotionally, intellectually, etc.
What we’re doing, in the “big picture” is revitalizing the martial arts “industry.” We’re re-organizing and redesigning our methods. We’re redefining what it is to seek –and be –a “master teacher.” We’re laying a foundation for the next generation. We’re taking matters, quite literally, into out own hands.
Do you know what YOU have to do –as a part of these teams?
First, you have to train as hard and consistently as you ever have in your life. As you must be as good a representative of physical martial arts prowess as you possible can.
Second, you must undergo a mental transformation –kind of like you’re in a Master’s Program as a top university. You must spike the ol’ LEARNING CURVE. What to learn? Peace Education and Environmental self-defense (that’s where I’d have you start –but it’s really up to you). I’d also suggest that you turn off that stupid *#&#)$_) TV –and hit the books and lecture circuit.
You must undergo an emotional transformation. No more anger –no more frustration –no more apathy –no more bias and prejudice and opinionated misgivings. Get your “master” stuff together and start ACTING like one.
You are expected to pursue the spiritual side of your life. I don’t know what that means for you ---but we WILL NOT have a bunch of senior martial arts masters walking around with NO spiritual training. No, that won’t do.
You are expected tohave a breakthrough year –on all levels. You’re expected to bite off the big chunk ---face the demons –face the fears –do the unthinkable, the unbelievable.
If you’re not willing to go thru the fire –then, my friends, you absolutely are hanging out with the wrong crowd (especially me, as I don’t want to tolerate any more mediocrity among people I expect to be HEROES.
Behind the scenes, people on these teams are sitting idle or formulating (and living) excuses or they are making haphazard progress (but progress nevertheless) or steady progress or breakthroughs. BUT, when it’s all said and done, and these UBBT’s go down in martial arts history –you will remember your contribution –or lack thereof.
I hope you’re know for what you DID –not what you did not do. I hope you SHOW your students and all other teachers what it means to be a BLACK BELT –and a senior martial artist.
Come on all you novice black belts –make these old men and women, these sagely “veterans” of the martial arts –come on, SHAME them. Show them what it is to be young and hungry and willing to go the extra mile.
And you, all of you old timers –don’t let these KIDS show you up! Show em what we’re made of! What we lack in athletic enthusiasm, we’ll make up with absolute brilliance –with perseverance –and with BRAIN power.
Don’t let one little 12 to 24 month training coarse make you tap out. GET ON IT. Let’s show the world that martial arts “master teachers” really DO exist –and that they’re capapale of producing the extraordinary in everything they touch.
Some “Ultimate Black Belt Test” if the black belts in it fail to produce even the minimum. What a sad statement for the state of the martial arts leadership-world…and what an opportunity for the next generation to establish its path.
I, for one, am going to keep pushing. I’m going to keep thinking. I’m going to keep nurturing other pushers and thinkers. They are sorely needed in an industry gone astray –in a world gone astray. Maybe we can actually make the study and practice of the martial arts MEAN something –again.
Tom
There a lot happening, behind the scenes in the UBBT and, yes, even in The 100. Let me tell you what I’m doing, first:
I’m hard at work trying to get the 100 site up and functioning. It’s a lot of work with programmers and designers –but it’ll all be worth it in the long run. It’s sort of like NAPMA –which took a while to launch... Your financial support during this period is greatly appreciated. In this case the “founding members” of the group REALLY deserve credit…and you’re making the ship move.
The UBBT is moving along. You know, it’s all about collecting a team. When the right people are present, magic happens. The “right people” are those who commit themselves to the task at hand (whatever that is). Get capable people WITHOUT commitment, and the ship sinks. I’d wager that untalented people –who HAVE commitment, could outshine the opposite. (A lesson there for your own school teams)
In the UBBT the idea is to make a personal breakthrough –and then a Team breakthrough. In fact, the idea is to “breakthrough” in all areas of one’s life: personally; financially, emotionally, intellectually, etc.
What we’re doing, in the “big picture” is revitalizing the martial arts “industry.” We’re re-organizing and redesigning our methods. We’re redefining what it is to seek –and be –a “master teacher.” We’re laying a foundation for the next generation. We’re taking matters, quite literally, into out own hands.
Do you know what YOU have to do –as a part of these teams?
First, you have to train as hard and consistently as you ever have in your life. As you must be as good a representative of physical martial arts prowess as you possible can.
Second, you must undergo a mental transformation –kind of like you’re in a Master’s Program as a top university. You must spike the ol’ LEARNING CURVE. What to learn? Peace Education and Environmental self-defense (that’s where I’d have you start –but it’s really up to you). I’d also suggest that you turn off that stupid *#&#)$_) TV –and hit the books and lecture circuit.
You must undergo an emotional transformation. No more anger –no more frustration –no more apathy –no more bias and prejudice and opinionated misgivings. Get your “master” stuff together and start ACTING like one.
You are expected to pursue the spiritual side of your life. I don’t know what that means for you ---but we WILL NOT have a bunch of senior martial arts masters walking around with NO spiritual training. No, that won’t do.
You are expected tohave a breakthrough year –on all levels. You’re expected to bite off the big chunk ---face the demons –face the fears –do the unthinkable, the unbelievable.
If you’re not willing to go thru the fire –then, my friends, you absolutely are hanging out with the wrong crowd (especially me, as I don’t want to tolerate any more mediocrity among people I expect to be HEROES.
Behind the scenes, people on these teams are sitting idle or formulating (and living) excuses or they are making haphazard progress (but progress nevertheless) or steady progress or breakthroughs. BUT, when it’s all said and done, and these UBBT’s go down in martial arts history –you will remember your contribution –or lack thereof.
I hope you’re know for what you DID –not what you did not do. I hope you SHOW your students and all other teachers what it means to be a BLACK BELT –and a senior martial artist.
Come on all you novice black belts –make these old men and women, these sagely “veterans” of the martial arts –come on, SHAME them. Show them what it is to be young and hungry and willing to go the extra mile.
And you, all of you old timers –don’t let these KIDS show you up! Show em what we’re made of! What we lack in athletic enthusiasm, we’ll make up with absolute brilliance –with perseverance –and with BRAIN power.
Don’t let one little 12 to 24 month training coarse make you tap out. GET ON IT. Let’s show the world that martial arts “master teachers” really DO exist –and that they’re capapale of producing the extraordinary in everything they touch.
Some “Ultimate Black Belt Test” if the black belts in it fail to produce even the minimum. What a sad statement for the state of the martial arts leadership-world…and what an opportunity for the next generation to establish its path.
I, for one, am going to keep pushing. I’m going to keep thinking. I’m going to keep nurturing other pushers and thinkers. They are sorely needed in an industry gone astray –in a world gone astray. Maybe we can actually make the study and practice of the martial arts MEAN something –again.
Tom
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Sound and Vision
August 24, 2006
Good morning teams,
The following comments may take a few minutes to read. I wrote it all, this morning, in my normal “stream of consciousness” style –and I believe it offers both insights into what we are doing –and gives voice to why we are involved together at this time and place.
As you may be aware of, we are on the edge of a new educational “era” in the martial arts community. Our work in the UBBT –and the work that the 100 is beginning, has brought –and will usher in --an entirely new/old dimension to the what, how, and why of the martial arts –being a professional teacher –and our “path” as martial artists.
I write “new/old” as there might be no better way to describe this blending of universal concepts (peace education, sustainability, environmental self-defense, personal development, voluntary simplicity, cutting edge technology, global awareness-participation, web-based education/community, meditation, etc…) with the methods and intent of our collective work. Does that make sense? Do you recognize the shift in our thinking and actions? Can you see where, based on the last 20 years in “martial arts industry education”, we are making a radical “shift” in intent and method and purpose?
It’ very clear to me that we are changing; Now, what direction we will eventually head…I’m not exactly sure. I do know, however, that the glory days of “business method education” like we’ve seen from EFC, NAPMA, MAIA, and others --is over. They will continue to play a significant role in providing education and resources for the martial arts community, but there is a new “movement” among school owners/master teachers (and up-and-comings) towards ideas and intent with more “universal” meaning and purpose. It might best be described using college-metaphors: Business education is the Freshman and Sophomore years –the work we’re doing is what comes after that.
I believe I am, at the moment, the leader of this “movement” ---however, I will very soon (if not already) be just one of many people who embrace --and take action on --the kind of martial arts education and direction I’m eluding to. Already we are collecting a group of thinkers and doers who are taking action in their own schools and communities in all new and interesting ways. Already we are beginning to “think globally” about the purpose and methods and education in the martial arts community –while “acting locally” to see the ideas manifest themselves in new and more-relevant/important programs, curriculum, --and results.
All of this is that “small turn of the steering wheel” I’ve mentioned in our talks. It may, right now, not seem like a big turn in direction ---but down the road we are going to find ourselves in an all new (and I think, BETTER) place.
What I’m hoping for is to collect a team of highly motivated and intelligent people ---action-takers, thinkers, creators ---who can collectively contribute to this “movement” that’s based on education and expansion of what the martial arts are all about. I think that in the long-run (and maybe immediately) we will see a broadening of our market (for students) and certainly we will feel and experience the thrill and power of creating a kind of work that speaks to the soul….that we know and recognize as “the master’s work” –and that is both therapy and solution…work that follows The Way so clearly that it empowers and energizes us in all sorts of extraordinary ways.
I don’t yet have a clear vision of how it will all come about or where it will lead, but I know for certain that I must proceed in this direction. All that I knew and cared about in the martial arts, you know, WHY I trained, WHY I attended classes, WHY I sought to be a teacher…all of this has evolved to where I am now. I don’t know about you, but I can’t go back. The business methods and the methods for promotion and the curriculum and the dialogue and the leadership and the motivations and intent in the present-day martial arts community, well…it no longer speaks to me as it once did. Now something new calls –it gets me up at 4 am, like this morning, it’s tugging on my brain and my spirit. Something bigger, something more important, something that makes more impact in the world –that raises peoples awareness. In it’s simplest form, you might call it a “new definition of self-defense training.” It is certainly a new definition of the term “martial arts education.”
The UBBT and the 100 depends on its members. If you guys and gals step up in every way you can, we will make history. If you use these programs to find the motivation to get in the best shape of your lives, then we will stand as representatives for the fitness-power of studying the martial arts. (OH, and the other element of this idea –is that you find the power to inspire all people you come in contact with to do the same. It’s not enough for us to serve as role-models ---we must inspire and mobilize [management] others. If it’s only about “us” and our personal growth, I think we will lose a most important ingredient to our long-term success and global-impact).
If you folks pursue the meditation and the much-needed expansion of the “spiritual” side of the martial arts/life ---then we will be taking back some of what the yoga world has embraced (and flourished with), something we had once in the martial arts community, but which had become displaced –and we will be leader in a revival of the esoteric aspects, the grounding aspects, the “feed your soul” aspects, the “wake up and live in the here and now –the in-the-moment” aspects of the serious study of The Way of the martial artist (The way of the Peaceful Warrior?).
If you men and women embrace Project Based Leadership and other forms of “martial arts activism” (defined as seeing the philosophy of the martial arts [read: life] manifest itself in the lives of our students –but OUTSIDE of our schools and outside of anything that has to do with kicking and punching), you will usher in a new unique selling proposition for the martial arts industry –which will shift the way we promote our schools –and CERTAINLY, the results we get from our work. PBLT and related ideas could give the martial arts an all new face –and all-new role in the world. We all know the real bullies in the world aren’t people ---they are empowering and selfish attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. We all recognize that in today’s world we don’t necessarily need “self-defense” from kicks and punches –as much as we need defense from apathy, ignorance, prejudice, violence-thinking, environmental degradation, conspicuous consumption, unwholesome dietary habits, junk food, junk thinking, and so on. The difference in our thinking, right now, is that WE can actually DO SOMETHING about all of this. That we might actually MAKE A DIFFERENCE in the world, based on how and what and why we TEACH. This, I believe, is part of the major shift in our thinking and action that I’m writing/talking/teaching about.
If all of you embrace PEACE EDUCATION and actually become the leaders in your communities for teaching non-violence education and anger management and other forms of clear and sustainable thinking ---well let me tell you, we will automatically take an all new –and vitally important role in our communities and the world. Need I say to you “a more valuable role” too? There is a mile-wide gap in each of our communities --that gap is an educational one, that we might fill. We can become the teachers for some of the things that are missing in the world ---that cause so many so much pain. We can become a integral part of THE VILLAGE that raises healthy, productive, centered, compassionate men and women. We are not “the answer” ---but we can become a vital part of the educational system that helps the world be a better place. What more could we ask for?
At the moment we are, I think, something LESS than what represents our potential. At the moment we are UFC fighters, mixed martial artists, fitness instructors, self-defense teachers, school owners, traditional karateka, black belts, seminar leaders, association heads, chief instructors, and all the other titles that don’t reflect the size and scope and power we might embrace if we all evolved and pursued the idea of “mastery” more intently. We’re going to have to define and redefine what a “master of the martial arts” is ---and then pursue it the way Martin Luther King pursued the ideas of civil rights –the way Thich Nhat Hahn and The Dalai Lama pursue the ideas of peace and compassion –the way the Cousteau family pursues ocean-awareness –the way Stephen Hawking pursues science –the way Armstrong attacked his beloved sport: with PASSION.
Why? FUN! PASSION! PURPOSE! MEANING! All the things that fuel our fires –that keep us young and alive and alert and interesting! How about relevant! And inspired and growing and learning! Yeah…those are the reasons WHY.
Ok, Team 3, you men and women must rise to an all-new place: physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually ----AND, you’re going to have to do it both alone and together. You need to get yourself training HARD and consistently –and then you need to fulfill your potential in the context of this program. DO THE WORK, now. BOND as a team and HELP each other. This is your chance to do what you said you would do. ARE YOU a martial artist? A leader? A visionary? A “role-model?” OR NOT? Get on it.
Team 3 –consider yourself members of Team 4 (and Team 1 and 2 while you’re at it). There is no separation with us; only the mission to make a difference and apply ourselves like the “Masters” we want and hope to be.
Team 4, you guys and gals are going to start on the effort and sweat equity of all the other teams. You’re going to take what’s been done already –and craft an even more amazing journey. You’re part of a family of people who believe we should do and be more.
YOU-TUBE: www.youtube.com is the UBBT of the communication world. You-Tube is an amazing cultural phenomenon. Get on the site and STUDY it. Eric Kastner (Alicia’s brother) will be a Team 4 member –and will be serving as a technical advisor to an all-new approach to our film-making adventure. Watch for more input from Eric in the coming weeks.
Why You-Tube? It’s immediate. It’s powerful. It’s an amazing connection tool for us –for our students –for our communities –and for the martial arts. It’s here and now and insanely affordable and easy. You will be creating an on-line video journal of your testing process. THIS WORK may become our “film” –and we’re looking for a kind of journaling and presence that gets hundreds-of-thousands, if not millions, of spectators to your journey. It takes the price of our film equipment from $4000 to between $40 and $400 (depending on your camera). Wow. It also means that we won’t be waiting a year or more for a film to “come out” ---our individual and collective journey airs almost immediately. We’ll know how many people are watching. We’ll hear from our audience, immediately. And if we are authentic in our quest, we will have the opportunity to teach and impact and inspire uncountable numbers of people.
On top of all that, if and when a film-deal falls upon us, by using You-Tube, now, we will all have become ultra-comfortable in front of a camera –communicating our ideas. This will serve us in many ways –let production people see what we’re capable of –and give us a huge leg-up when the opportunity arises. Preparedness is what makes for good luck. Best of all, your students and community can “tune-in” NOW and see what you’re doing / going thru / working for.
Ladies and gentlemen: Let the games begin.
Teams 1, 2, 3, and 4 -----now’s the time to ask yourself about HOW you can be or stay involved. Now is NOT the time to rest –now is the time to join and pitch in. Now is the time for 100 like-minded people to step up and, together, change the world as we know it.
If you think the martial arts are something “special” ---if you think being a “martial artist” is something important ---then let this be a wake-up call to MOVE ---NOW. Now is your time! You’re at that age ---you’re in the peak of your careers –WE ARE THE MASTERS of tomorrow –and the work we do today –will leave a legacy for those that follow us. We are the Joe Lewis’, the Jhoon Rhee’s, the Ernie Reyes’, the Bruce Lee’s , the Bill Wallace’s of the future. This is our arena! Education! Advancement of curriculum and methods and INTENT.
I think it’s our time. I can upon you to contribute to and support the work.
Rules:
NO Negativity –only contribution.
Respect for self and others –TEAM.
Perfect training –perfect diet –perfect thinking.
Participation no matter the obstacles.
Tom
Good morning teams,
The following comments may take a few minutes to read. I wrote it all, this morning, in my normal “stream of consciousness” style –and I believe it offers both insights into what we are doing –and gives voice to why we are involved together at this time and place.
As you may be aware of, we are on the edge of a new educational “era” in the martial arts community. Our work in the UBBT –and the work that the 100 is beginning, has brought –and will usher in --an entirely new/old dimension to the what, how, and why of the martial arts –being a professional teacher –and our “path” as martial artists.
I write “new/old” as there might be no better way to describe this blending of universal concepts (peace education, sustainability, environmental self-defense, personal development, voluntary simplicity, cutting edge technology, global awareness-participation, web-based education/community, meditation, etc…) with the methods and intent of our collective work. Does that make sense? Do you recognize the shift in our thinking and actions? Can you see where, based on the last 20 years in “martial arts industry education”, we are making a radical “shift” in intent and method and purpose?
It’ very clear to me that we are changing; Now, what direction we will eventually head…I’m not exactly sure. I do know, however, that the glory days of “business method education” like we’ve seen from EFC, NAPMA, MAIA, and others --is over. They will continue to play a significant role in providing education and resources for the martial arts community, but there is a new “movement” among school owners/master teachers (and up-and-comings) towards ideas and intent with more “universal” meaning and purpose. It might best be described using college-metaphors: Business education is the Freshman and Sophomore years –the work we’re doing is what comes after that.
I believe I am, at the moment, the leader of this “movement” ---however, I will very soon (if not already) be just one of many people who embrace --and take action on --the kind of martial arts education and direction I’m eluding to. Already we are collecting a group of thinkers and doers who are taking action in their own schools and communities in all new and interesting ways. Already we are beginning to “think globally” about the purpose and methods and education in the martial arts community –while “acting locally” to see the ideas manifest themselves in new and more-relevant/important programs, curriculum, --and results.
All of this is that “small turn of the steering wheel” I’ve mentioned in our talks. It may, right now, not seem like a big turn in direction ---but down the road we are going to find ourselves in an all new (and I think, BETTER) place.
What I’m hoping for is to collect a team of highly motivated and intelligent people ---action-takers, thinkers, creators ---who can collectively contribute to this “movement” that’s based on education and expansion of what the martial arts are all about. I think that in the long-run (and maybe immediately) we will see a broadening of our market (for students) and certainly we will feel and experience the thrill and power of creating a kind of work that speaks to the soul….that we know and recognize as “the master’s work” –and that is both therapy and solution…work that follows The Way so clearly that it empowers and energizes us in all sorts of extraordinary ways.
I don’t yet have a clear vision of how it will all come about or where it will lead, but I know for certain that I must proceed in this direction. All that I knew and cared about in the martial arts, you know, WHY I trained, WHY I attended classes, WHY I sought to be a teacher…all of this has evolved to where I am now. I don’t know about you, but I can’t go back. The business methods and the methods for promotion and the curriculum and the dialogue and the leadership and the motivations and intent in the present-day martial arts community, well…it no longer speaks to me as it once did. Now something new calls –it gets me up at 4 am, like this morning, it’s tugging on my brain and my spirit. Something bigger, something more important, something that makes more impact in the world –that raises peoples awareness. In it’s simplest form, you might call it a “new definition of self-defense training.” It is certainly a new definition of the term “martial arts education.”
The UBBT and the 100 depends on its members. If you guys and gals step up in every way you can, we will make history. If you use these programs to find the motivation to get in the best shape of your lives, then we will stand as representatives for the fitness-power of studying the martial arts. (OH, and the other element of this idea –is that you find the power to inspire all people you come in contact with to do the same. It’s not enough for us to serve as role-models ---we must inspire and mobilize [management] others. If it’s only about “us” and our personal growth, I think we will lose a most important ingredient to our long-term success and global-impact).
If you folks pursue the meditation and the much-needed expansion of the “spiritual” side of the martial arts/life ---then we will be taking back some of what the yoga world has embraced (and flourished with), something we had once in the martial arts community, but which had become displaced –and we will be leader in a revival of the esoteric aspects, the grounding aspects, the “feed your soul” aspects, the “wake up and live in the here and now –the in-the-moment” aspects of the serious study of The Way of the martial artist (The way of the Peaceful Warrior?).
If you men and women embrace Project Based Leadership and other forms of “martial arts activism” (defined as seeing the philosophy of the martial arts [read: life] manifest itself in the lives of our students –but OUTSIDE of our schools and outside of anything that has to do with kicking and punching), you will usher in a new unique selling proposition for the martial arts industry –which will shift the way we promote our schools –and CERTAINLY, the results we get from our work. PBLT and related ideas could give the martial arts an all new face –and all-new role in the world. We all know the real bullies in the world aren’t people ---they are empowering and selfish attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. We all recognize that in today’s world we don’t necessarily need “self-defense” from kicks and punches –as much as we need defense from apathy, ignorance, prejudice, violence-thinking, environmental degradation, conspicuous consumption, unwholesome dietary habits, junk food, junk thinking, and so on. The difference in our thinking, right now, is that WE can actually DO SOMETHING about all of this. That we might actually MAKE A DIFFERENCE in the world, based on how and what and why we TEACH. This, I believe, is part of the major shift in our thinking and action that I’m writing/talking/teaching about.
If all of you embrace PEACE EDUCATION and actually become the leaders in your communities for teaching non-violence education and anger management and other forms of clear and sustainable thinking ---well let me tell you, we will automatically take an all new –and vitally important role in our communities and the world. Need I say to you “a more valuable role” too? There is a mile-wide gap in each of our communities --that gap is an educational one, that we might fill. We can become the teachers for some of the things that are missing in the world ---that cause so many so much pain. We can become a integral part of THE VILLAGE that raises healthy, productive, centered, compassionate men and women. We are not “the answer” ---but we can become a vital part of the educational system that helps the world be a better place. What more could we ask for?
At the moment we are, I think, something LESS than what represents our potential. At the moment we are UFC fighters, mixed martial artists, fitness instructors, self-defense teachers, school owners, traditional karateka, black belts, seminar leaders, association heads, chief instructors, and all the other titles that don’t reflect the size and scope and power we might embrace if we all evolved and pursued the idea of “mastery” more intently. We’re going to have to define and redefine what a “master of the martial arts” is ---and then pursue it the way Martin Luther King pursued the ideas of civil rights –the way Thich Nhat Hahn and The Dalai Lama pursue the ideas of peace and compassion –the way the Cousteau family pursues ocean-awareness –the way Stephen Hawking pursues science –the way Armstrong attacked his beloved sport: with PASSION.
Why? FUN! PASSION! PURPOSE! MEANING! All the things that fuel our fires –that keep us young and alive and alert and interesting! How about relevant! And inspired and growing and learning! Yeah…those are the reasons WHY.
Ok, Team 3, you men and women must rise to an all-new place: physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually ----AND, you’re going to have to do it both alone and together. You need to get yourself training HARD and consistently –and then you need to fulfill your potential in the context of this program. DO THE WORK, now. BOND as a team and HELP each other. This is your chance to do what you said you would do. ARE YOU a martial artist? A leader? A visionary? A “role-model?” OR NOT? Get on it.
Team 3 –consider yourself members of Team 4 (and Team 1 and 2 while you’re at it). There is no separation with us; only the mission to make a difference and apply ourselves like the “Masters” we want and hope to be.
Team 4, you guys and gals are going to start on the effort and sweat equity of all the other teams. You’re going to take what’s been done already –and craft an even more amazing journey. You’re part of a family of people who believe we should do and be more.
YOU-TUBE: www.youtube.com is the UBBT of the communication world. You-Tube is an amazing cultural phenomenon. Get on the site and STUDY it. Eric Kastner (Alicia’s brother) will be a Team 4 member –and will be serving as a technical advisor to an all-new approach to our film-making adventure. Watch for more input from Eric in the coming weeks.
Why You-Tube? It’s immediate. It’s powerful. It’s an amazing connection tool for us –for our students –for our communities –and for the martial arts. It’s here and now and insanely affordable and easy. You will be creating an on-line video journal of your testing process. THIS WORK may become our “film” –and we’re looking for a kind of journaling and presence that gets hundreds-of-thousands, if not millions, of spectators to your journey. It takes the price of our film equipment from $4000 to between $40 and $400 (depending on your camera). Wow. It also means that we won’t be waiting a year or more for a film to “come out” ---our individual and collective journey airs almost immediately. We’ll know how many people are watching. We’ll hear from our audience, immediately. And if we are authentic in our quest, we will have the opportunity to teach and impact and inspire uncountable numbers of people.
On top of all that, if and when a film-deal falls upon us, by using You-Tube, now, we will all have become ultra-comfortable in front of a camera –communicating our ideas. This will serve us in many ways –let production people see what we’re capable of –and give us a huge leg-up when the opportunity arises. Preparedness is what makes for good luck. Best of all, your students and community can “tune-in” NOW and see what you’re doing / going thru / working for.
Ladies and gentlemen: Let the games begin.
Teams 1, 2, 3, and 4 -----now’s the time to ask yourself about HOW you can be or stay involved. Now is NOT the time to rest –now is the time to join and pitch in. Now is the time for 100 like-minded people to step up and, together, change the world as we know it.
If you think the martial arts are something “special” ---if you think being a “martial artist” is something important ---then let this be a wake-up call to MOVE ---NOW. Now is your time! You’re at that age ---you’re in the peak of your careers –WE ARE THE MASTERS of tomorrow –and the work we do today –will leave a legacy for those that follow us. We are the Joe Lewis’, the Jhoon Rhee’s, the Ernie Reyes’, the Bruce Lee’s , the Bill Wallace’s of the future. This is our arena! Education! Advancement of curriculum and methods and INTENT.
I think it’s our time. I can upon you to contribute to and support the work.
Rules:
NO Negativity –only contribution.
Respect for self and others –TEAM.
Perfect training –perfect diet –perfect thinking.
Participation no matter the obstacles.
Tom
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Instructions for the UBBT 3 and 4 (and more)
About The Ultimate Black Belt Test
How
The UBBT is about accomplishing the gigantic, by breaking it down into little, bite-sized pieces. This is how one of your students becomes a black belt, becomes a doctor, becomes an engineer, becomes a great mother, father, friend, inventor –or what-have-you.
This is how YOU become a “master of the martial arts” ---which, in this day and age, seems like an impossible feat (Where are our role models? What are the standards?). By engaging in the DAILY training/learning requirements of the UBBT, you demonstrate to your students, and to yourself, exactly how one works on himself ---how one creates transformation, in any form, in one’s life.
All you have to do is get up and TRAIN; keep track of what you do; THINK “out of the dojo” ---and ACT like the teammate and student you want your students to be –your children to be –your mate to be --your friends to be –your employees to be. All you have to do is LIVE with passion and purpose and vision and SELF-DISCIPLINE.
And, most of all, two things:
1. Work on your attitude –by studying THE MASTERS and the work of masters.
2. No matter how hard it is, no matter how many times you drop the ball ---you get back on track and never, ever, ever quit. You don’t fail when you try –you fail when you fail to try.
Why You Do the UBBT
We’re doing the UBBT because there is something wrong with the martial arts “world.” We, collectively, are not reaching our potential. We are not fulfilling the promise of all the training –and the philosophy of the martial arts. We are living, for lack of a better term, a lie.
We are doing the UBBT because there is something wrong in the world. We, collectively, are not reaching our potential as human beings. We are not fulfilling the promise of all the abundance and philosophy in the world –we have become mired in life, so much so that we have nearly forgotten how to live.
The training is our car. The martial arts is our vehicle. The journey is for meaning, method, purpose, passion, and most of all –for clarity and enlightenment. Can we transcend the mundane? Can we wade through the advertising, the sex appeal, the trivial, the gossip, the ignorance, the misunderstandings, the mis-information, the anger, the FEAR, the aggression, the apathy, and see the simple? Can we find our center? Can we be Buddha? Christ? The Dalai Lama? Mother Theresa? Albert Einstein? Rosa Parks? Or anyone that holds the image and the ideals that move us? Can we make a difference in the world? Are we connected –or disconnected? Are we one? Is it our job to live as an example for others? What is The Way?
In the UBBT, in a perfect world, each participant would, literally, be “on a quest to be her best” ---a slogan we’ve all uttered, which is utterly meaningless unless embraced on a “cellular” level. But forget the UBBT –it’s not this program’s objectives you/we strive for, it’s LIFE’S objectives –it’s striving to be a fully conscious, aware, evolved, compassionate human being; that’s all we’re trying to be. To connect, through study and self-discipline, and ritual, and effort, and focus –to those things that keep us learning, asking, contributing, and growing.
In the UBBT, as in life, as in your school, as in your business, as in your thinking, whatever is difficult is your teacher. All the reasons you can’t –are why you must. All of your obstacles are your opportunities. All of your excuses are your enemies –is your thinking –is your downfall –is your education.
The UBBT has given you a very public forum with which to live out the drama of YOU trying to find purpose and clarity ---and most of all, to prove yourself as both student and teacher and man or woman –but that’s no difference than “life” –is it?
To succeed at the UBBT you train. You study. You learn. You get up off your ass, no matter how many times you get knocked on it. You learn from the masters. You don’t give in to excuses, you make solutions. You contribute. And TEACHER…You teach (thru your actions).
For the next year: There is a curriculum, which is very flexible. Get on it. Break it down into bite-sized pieces. Make everything a lesson (for yourself, your students, your community). Be one of the FEW who actually get up and DO something. DO the curriculum. Do the activities. DO the projects. Do the acts of kindness. DO the diet. Do the training.
BE the teammate that you want your students to emulate. BE the student you want your students, children, friends, to be. BE the man or woman you want to be. BE the “master teacher” in training? Be the ULTIMATE STUDENT. Be the ULTIMATE BLACK BELT.
That’s all you have to do.
Tom Callos
How
The UBBT is about accomplishing the gigantic, by breaking it down into little, bite-sized pieces. This is how one of your students becomes a black belt, becomes a doctor, becomes an engineer, becomes a great mother, father, friend, inventor –or what-have-you.
This is how YOU become a “master of the martial arts” ---which, in this day and age, seems like an impossible feat (Where are our role models? What are the standards?). By engaging in the DAILY training/learning requirements of the UBBT, you demonstrate to your students, and to yourself, exactly how one works on himself ---how one creates transformation, in any form, in one’s life.
All you have to do is get up and TRAIN; keep track of what you do; THINK “out of the dojo” ---and ACT like the teammate and student you want your students to be –your children to be –your mate to be --your friends to be –your employees to be. All you have to do is LIVE with passion and purpose and vision and SELF-DISCIPLINE.
And, most of all, two things:
1. Work on your attitude –by studying THE MASTERS and the work of masters.
2. No matter how hard it is, no matter how many times you drop the ball ---you get back on track and never, ever, ever quit. You don’t fail when you try –you fail when you fail to try.
Why You Do the UBBT
We’re doing the UBBT because there is something wrong with the martial arts “world.” We, collectively, are not reaching our potential. We are not fulfilling the promise of all the training –and the philosophy of the martial arts. We are living, for lack of a better term, a lie.
We are doing the UBBT because there is something wrong in the world. We, collectively, are not reaching our potential as human beings. We are not fulfilling the promise of all the abundance and philosophy in the world –we have become mired in life, so much so that we have nearly forgotten how to live.
The training is our car. The martial arts is our vehicle. The journey is for meaning, method, purpose, passion, and most of all –for clarity and enlightenment. Can we transcend the mundane? Can we wade through the advertising, the sex appeal, the trivial, the gossip, the ignorance, the misunderstandings, the mis-information, the anger, the FEAR, the aggression, the apathy, and see the simple? Can we find our center? Can we be Buddha? Christ? The Dalai Lama? Mother Theresa? Albert Einstein? Rosa Parks? Or anyone that holds the image and the ideals that move us? Can we make a difference in the world? Are we connected –or disconnected? Are we one? Is it our job to live as an example for others? What is The Way?
In the UBBT, in a perfect world, each participant would, literally, be “on a quest to be her best” ---a slogan we’ve all uttered, which is utterly meaningless unless embraced on a “cellular” level. But forget the UBBT –it’s not this program’s objectives you/we strive for, it’s LIFE’S objectives –it’s striving to be a fully conscious, aware, evolved, compassionate human being; that’s all we’re trying to be. To connect, through study and self-discipline, and ritual, and effort, and focus –to those things that keep us learning, asking, contributing, and growing.
In the UBBT, as in life, as in your school, as in your business, as in your thinking, whatever is difficult is your teacher. All the reasons you can’t –are why you must. All of your obstacles are your opportunities. All of your excuses are your enemies –is your thinking –is your downfall –is your education.
The UBBT has given you a very public forum with which to live out the drama of YOU trying to find purpose and clarity ---and most of all, to prove yourself as both student and teacher and man or woman –but that’s no difference than “life” –is it?
To succeed at the UBBT you train. You study. You learn. You get up off your ass, no matter how many times you get knocked on it. You learn from the masters. You don’t give in to excuses, you make solutions. You contribute. And TEACHER…You teach (thru your actions).
For the next year: There is a curriculum, which is very flexible. Get on it. Break it down into bite-sized pieces. Make everything a lesson (for yourself, your students, your community). Be one of the FEW who actually get up and DO something. DO the curriculum. Do the activities. DO the projects. Do the acts of kindness. DO the diet. Do the training.
BE the teammate that you want your students to emulate. BE the student you want your students, children, friends, to be. BE the man or woman you want to be. BE the “master teacher” in training? Be the ULTIMATE STUDENT. Be the ULTIMATE BLACK BELT.
That’s all you have to do.
Tom Callos
Friday, August 18, 2006
We Have Only Just Begun
Good morning UBBT and 100 Teams:
Know that whatever it is we are doing --whatever stance and/or actions we have taken --that we have only just begun.
Our understanding of mastery of peace of activism of making a difference in the world of compassion of love of the martial arts themselves ----all of this is in development. It's to become clearer as we age --as we experience --as we aim and push and pull and move towards The Way (whatever that is for you).
Note too that all of the above --these are the things that make your business FLY. It's not the promotions --it's not the systems --it's not your employee handbook, your sign, your location, your understanding of rotating curriculum ----it's your ability to live as if you were on a heroic journey --it's your striving for compassion and to be authentic --to be clear and participative.
MOST OF ALL it is your understanding that you are a TEACHER --and a student.
Maybe that's: STUDENT/TEACHER?
Steps to take (for those of you searching for business tips/direction):
1. Establish your MISSION. After the mission is clear --I mean as clear as your own face in the mirror, then how you communicate this MISSION TV mechanical (ads, tv, radio, demos, fliers, posters, etc.)
2. Make a product that EVERYONE NEEDS. And when you make it, create something that people can see and hear and feel immediate results with. Communicate that message in such a way as it drives it to the soul --to the guts --beyond the rational mind.
The rational mind understands "two-for-one" --and "summer special" and "50% off" and all of that. The guts feel genuine caring, compassion, love, empathy, and deep concern for the human condition.
3. The best thing you will ever do (in my opinion) is to sow the seeds of ACTIVISM (as in "taking action on those things you care about --those things you see that need doing") in your students. Imagine if you could inspire people to take action to improve the quality of their own lives --and then to their fellow man --and the world). That's something that should keep you VERY busy, very relevant, and in a mode where your work is your life's work (not just a job or the work you do to buy the things/experiences you really want to do).
More tips:
A. Return to the organic. Take as much of the plastic, the in-organic, the fake ---OUT of your school. Return to nature --and if you have to live some of your life in a box under florescent lights, then bring as much of nature in it as you can.
Choose organic colors, GO GREEN with your entire scene (green as in eco-friendly), bring the wood (salvaged and/or sustainable) into your school --bring plants, bring light and air.
Go ahead, try it! See what happens to the "feel" of your school.
Become a "Peaceful Warrior." Explore peace in all of it's forms. Remember when (for those of you who have been in the "industry" for some time) we were urging you to keep your statistics and adopt a 3-lesson introductory? Well, this is 100 times more important to your business future than any of that --you just can't see it yet.
Oh there's a LOT more --but let's start with these things, first.
Why? The future of our industry --and the quality of your awareness --and the genuine pursuit of some kind of personal mastery beyond the "business" of the martial arts ---beyond style and technique.
We have only just begun. How exciting!
Tom Callos
Know that whatever it is we are doing --whatever stance and/or actions we have taken --that we have only just begun.
Our understanding of mastery of peace of activism of making a difference in the world of compassion of love of the martial arts themselves ----all of this is in development. It's to become clearer as we age --as we experience --as we aim and push and pull and move towards The Way (whatever that is for you).
Note too that all of the above --these are the things that make your business FLY. It's not the promotions --it's not the systems --it's not your employee handbook, your sign, your location, your understanding of rotating curriculum ----it's your ability to live as if you were on a heroic journey --it's your striving for compassion and to be authentic --to be clear and participative.
MOST OF ALL it is your understanding that you are a TEACHER --and a student.
Maybe that's: STUDENT/TEACHER?
Steps to take (for those of you searching for business tips/direction):
1. Establish your MISSION. After the mission is clear --I mean as clear as your own face in the mirror, then how you communicate this MISSION TV mechanical (ads, tv, radio, demos, fliers, posters, etc.)
2. Make a product that EVERYONE NEEDS. And when you make it, create something that people can see and hear and feel immediate results with. Communicate that message in such a way as it drives it to the soul --to the guts --beyond the rational mind.
The rational mind understands "two-for-one" --and "summer special" and "50% off" and all of that. The guts feel genuine caring, compassion, love, empathy, and deep concern for the human condition.
3. The best thing you will ever do (in my opinion) is to sow the seeds of ACTIVISM (as in "taking action on those things you care about --those things you see that need doing") in your students. Imagine if you could inspire people to take action to improve the quality of their own lives --and then to their fellow man --and the world). That's something that should keep you VERY busy, very relevant, and in a mode where your work is your life's work (not just a job or the work you do to buy the things/experiences you really want to do).
More tips:
A. Return to the organic. Take as much of the plastic, the in-organic, the fake ---OUT of your school. Return to nature --and if you have to live some of your life in a box under florescent lights, then bring as much of nature in it as you can.
Choose organic colors, GO GREEN with your entire scene (green as in eco-friendly), bring the wood (salvaged and/or sustainable) into your school --bring plants, bring light and air.
Go ahead, try it! See what happens to the "feel" of your school.
Become a "Peaceful Warrior." Explore peace in all of it's forms. Remember when (for those of you who have been in the "industry" for some time) we were urging you to keep your statistics and adopt a 3-lesson introductory? Well, this is 100 times more important to your business future than any of that --you just can't see it yet.
Oh there's a LOT more --but let's start with these things, first.
Why? The future of our industry --and the quality of your awareness --and the genuine pursuit of some kind of personal mastery beyond the "business" of the martial arts ---beyond style and technique.
We have only just begun. How exciting!
Tom Callos
Monday, August 14, 2006
The Peace Book
http://web.mac.com/toddworld/iWeb/Site%203/Toddcast/238F77DD-9B5E-4DBA-8DD6-E31CA0859B30.html
Teams,
The link you see above is to Artist/Author Todd Parr's site --and a "Todd-Cast" where he reads his book, "The PEACE BOOK."
Not only do I like Todd's website, but I think this book addresses peace in a way that is easy and relevant. One of our (I mean, my) projects is to define what an "act of peace" is --as we can't really have an acts-of-peace program if we can't explain how to perform one (well, a LOT more than one).
Todd covers plenty of ground in his handsome little book --and he writes for a young audience that we also entertain in our schools.
Part of our (did I mean, My?) peace project is to define what a "Peace Education Center" is ---as you know, I'm asking each one of The 100 schools (ok, honestly? I'm asking everyone who is a fan of my work --or at all embraces the UBBT /100 / Acts of Kindness concepts) to embrace peace education in a powerful, proactive, and productive way ---and make his or her school a center for Peace Education....
Of course, I have to define what a "Peace Education Center" is ----and I've yet to do that...except to say that we talk about peace from a broad perspective --kind of like Todd. Having a large library of Peace books and films is a good start...and I'd like to suggest that you add Todd's book to your reading list (listen-list too)...
Today I'm reading Pema Chodron's book, Practicing Peace in Times of War --kindly sent to me by Shambala Press.
Anyway, visit Todd's site and see how we can start, very slowly, to make a difference in people's lives by embracing peace --no matter what kind of clothes it wears.
Tom
Teams,
The link you see above is to Artist/Author Todd Parr's site --and a "Todd-Cast" where he reads his book, "The PEACE BOOK."
Not only do I like Todd's website, but I think this book addresses peace in a way that is easy and relevant. One of our (I mean, my) projects is to define what an "act of peace" is --as we can't really have an acts-of-peace program if we can't explain how to perform one (well, a LOT more than one).
Todd covers plenty of ground in his handsome little book --and he writes for a young audience that we also entertain in our schools.
Part of our (did I mean, My?) peace project is to define what a "Peace Education Center" is ---as you know, I'm asking each one of The 100 schools (ok, honestly? I'm asking everyone who is a fan of my work --or at all embraces the UBBT /100 / Acts of Kindness concepts) to embrace peace education in a powerful, proactive, and productive way ---and make his or her school a center for Peace Education....
Of course, I have to define what a "Peace Education Center" is ----and I've yet to do that...except to say that we talk about peace from a broad perspective --kind of like Todd. Having a large library of Peace books and films is a good start...and I'd like to suggest that you add Todd's book to your reading list (listen-list too)...
Today I'm reading Pema Chodron's book, Practicing Peace in Times of War --kindly sent to me by Shambala Press.
Anyway, visit Todd's site and see how we can start, very slowly, to make a difference in people's lives by embracing peace --no matter what kind of clothes it wears.
Tom
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Out of the Dojo and into the World
I am not the first martial artist to engage in activism. I am, however, taking credit for the term "martial arts activist." It is my new "title" --and one I will gladly wear.
Becoming a martial arts activist and embracing activism, in one way or another --and as my primary focus, has deepened my ability to feel compassion, broadened my perspective of the world, and created a more profound purpose to my life.
I no longer separate the study and practice of the martial arts with the study and practice of living as a conscious and compassionate human being. When I say “martial arts,” I think "life." When I say “martial artist,” I think "human being."
The greatest teachers, regardless of the discipline, teach that we are all connected. Beyond race, religion, gender, geography, sexual preference, wealth or lack thereof --we are all one. The martial arts, as with life, is about opening and expanding one’s awareness. It is about recognizing the interdependence between all things, the micro and the macro, the left and the right.
I believe that it is our job, each of us, to live as an example to others. I feel a sense of responsibility to actively participate in the transformation of consciousness and behavior in the martial arts community --and subsequently, in the world.
I am asking other martial arts teachers to become activists too. We must engage with our communities, educate ourselves, and help alleviate the fear, ignorance, and prejudice which are often associated with our global emergencies --such as incurable diseases, abuse, poverty, sexual exploitation, and environmental destruction, to name only a few. Without our compassion, interest, time, money, voice, intelligence, or whatever we have to offer, change cannot happen --and tragically, fear, pain, discrimination, violence, and even death is perpetuated.
The 100 (http://www.onehundred.org/) is part of my contribution to these ideas.
(Special thanks to yoga teacher Seane Corn for helping me find the right words to express my ideas and feelings)
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Sunday Morning Ideas About the Martial Arts and the Business of the Martial Arts
I don’t believe in the “power” of the martial arts.
I believe in the power to make change, the power of passion, the power of purpose, the power of courage and contribution and compassion ---and of course, I believe in the power of love for self, family, fellow man, for nature, and of wonder.
That is, of course, easy to say –but difficult to make manifest in my (your) day-to-day existence. This is, I think, “the practice.”
I don’t believe in the martial arts
The martial arts is architecture is art is science is invention is engineering is math is everything the world is. The martial arts represent another tool which people use to make love, war, science, beauty, pain, and what have you. Look at Frank Lloyd Wright and see Bruce Lee, see Jigaro Kano, see Buckminster Fuller, see Frieda Kahlo, see Albert Einstein, see Jhoon Rhee, see any man or woman who created, taught, inspired, and sought excellence and invention in the subject that called their name. The subject is irrelevant –the attitude and purpose behind it is the core. It’s the intent –it’s the following of the passion-- and it’s the desire to make, to create, to change, and at its highest levels --to inspire and make a difference in the world..
I don’t believe in styles
Let down the barriers you can perceive –forget about your “style,” forget about the country it originated in, forget about the martial arts, and see the world from as big a place as you can. Forget about the color of one’s skin, of their nationality, of what flag waves over their capital buildings; forget about their religion, their gender, their sexual preferences.
Whenever you hear “martial artist” –you hear or say “human being.” Whenever you hear “martial arts” –you hear or say “life.” There is no “martial arts” –there is only life and living. Spending your energy to be a master-level martial artist is a ridiculous pursuit –being an evolved, compassionate, empathetic, contributing human being –now there is something worth pursuing.
This is my “Business Advice” to you
Take all of the above, blend it (with crushed ice), add your own special ingredients, then slowly pour it over your business (your martial arts school, its curriculum, your promotional campaign, your black belt training, your own training) –or whatever else you care about –and I think THIS is the way to profit –to achieve “success,” to “get your gross up,” and to feel a kind of drive and purpose and passion that make you grateful to be alive.
We are (our “industry”) thinking TOO SMALL and we’re OFF COURSE
Let’s hear this (and more) out of the mouths of our “leaders” in the martial arts community. Let’s hear someone say, “We are being disrespectful to our planet, let’s do something about it.” Let’s hear them say, “We are massacring children, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and all in the name of fear and hate and borders and religion and misunderstanding and greed…let’s DO something about it.” Let’s have the courage to talk about responsibility to nature, about the stupidity and evil of war and violence, of the absurdity of the distractions we pursue to avoid the things which really ought to have our attention. Let’s bring the integrity back to the martial arts (to life) by being the heroes we so admire.
If all of you are, indeed, pursuing “the martial arts” at its highest levels, then seek to define “mastery.” I, for one, am in the pursuit of mastery –and by looking for something… I think one is more likely to find it. I am not a “master” –I am actively involved in the discussion, the study of, the pursuit of, the idea that represents “the master’s work.” I’m not seeking to “become” a master –I’m seeking to create change and clarity in a way that indicates some degree of mastery (of clarity).
When I can bottle this (all of the above), and use it on the floor when I’m teaching my classes –I don’t need the ads…I don’t need the “renewal strategy”…I don’t need to phone script, the employee’s manual, the statistics, --all of those things become the clothing, not the person.
Let’s start tomorrow…with a deep awareness of what we consume –and the cause and effect of that consumption. Let’s teach what needs to be taught –not just what sells lessons, upgrades, and that builds “student retention.” Let’s start small and build momentum by engaging in a quality of thinking –and action –that represents the “power” we so often relate to the martial arts.
Our opportunity is to alter the intent and purpose of learning the martial arts –of its value as a form of “education.” If we do this, we can charge a rate for our lessons that supports our endeavors. We will also find some of the passion that fuels the fire of a business that transcends the meaning –and be teachers like the great, but simple, men and women (MASTERS) we all admire.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Team 4 Instructions
From Team Coach Tom
First off, I’d like to personally thank you all for having the guts to step up to the plate like this –and serve as role models for the martial arts industry. For some of you, serving as a role model for other martial artists is not a concern, as you have other reasons for participating. But, from my perspective, it’s a valuable thing that we get to help ourselves –while doing good things on a larger scale.
On that note, I find my inner-dialogue saying, “Isn’t it right for each of us to stand up as role models for every man, woman, and child on this planet? Wouldn’t my heroes, my best teachers, ask this of me? Don’t the people I admire the most do this –at least on some level? What kind of life do we lead --what kind of thinking do we do, what kind of mental and spiritual evolution do we undergo with this kind of thinking?”
Of course, you’d have to be a real “master” to think this way.
Lately teams (ok, during my entire career), I have been on an exploration of the why and what of the martial arts. As you may know, I work in the “industry” of the martial arts –and so I’ve been looking and trying and analyzing business concepts for, literally, years. I have studied things school owners could do, could embrace, that would help their business and keep them sane and growing. Out of all this has come the work I do now.
So the UBBT’s about business –but then, it’s not just about business.
I’ve coined a new phrase: “The master’s work.” The master’s work is the work we do after we’ve done all the necessary survival-based jobs. The master’s work is where the “master” focuses his or her energies. The master’s work is in creating, mobilizing, cataloging, teaching, and promoting ideas, beliefs, “causes,” and so on. Ernie Reyes, Sr. works on the martial arts and performance –it is the master’s work. Emil Farkas is contemplating the creation of a new “martial arts encyclopedia” –this is the master’s work. Bill Kipp seeks to arm people with the knowledge to turn fear into power –this is the master’s work. Keith Hirabayashi is making a film about the martial arts and peace –this is the master’s work. Dave McNeill founded his Keep On Pushin organization and heads his own martial arts association –the master’s work. Mike and Karen Valentine have spearheaded an environmental self-defense program in their school –the master’s work. Charles Chi gets things done, with his students, in his community…and on an extraordinary level –the master’s work. Dawn Barnes is writing educational stories that hundreds-of-thousands of children are reading –the master’s work.
Well, regardless of your age, experience, or rank, the UBBT is the master’s work. Only you, with your attitude and commitment, can take this on and MAKE it important, make it real, make it a tool for your own personal transformation, the transformation of your students, your community, our industry –and, if we are very diligent in our work, we have a chance to make an impact on the world. Yes, we do.
This is the master’s work because it’s so big –it’s so unbelievable –it’s so out of the ordinary. Participate in the UBBT, play full out, “go the distance” and beyond –and you have taken the heroes journey. You will, by your very example be a teacher and leader extraordinaire.
Now for some details:
On Quitting
Look over the Team 3 roster, look over the journal entries, and you will see success stories –and people who can’t find the self-discipline to follow thru on their commitment. On Team 4, we only want successes. We want fully participative people who won’t allow ANY difficulty, ANY obstacle, ANY challenge to sidetrack them. Yes, it’s going to be hard –maybe the hardest thing you’ve ever done. Well, damn-it, GOOD! Aren’t you just sick and tired of mediocrity? Isn’t the condition of people’s thinking and commitment and apathy just disheartening? The UBBT –and for that matter, the rest of your life (I hope) is a way to DO SOMETHING about all of that mediocrity and ignorance. And even if this has already been your path, this project is about re-committing yourself to “the way.” Your way.
Don’t quit. Don’t embarrass me by not-journaling and not trying. Don’t allow any excuse to keep you from participating in all events –and in any way. And, my friends, EXPECT bad things, unexpected things, hard things, to get in your way. EXPECT failure. EXPECT changes in direction. EXPECT the unpredictable. EXPECT the catastrophe –as those who apply themselves in ANY way to this program will have to deal with it all.
If you can’t commit yourself at least 100 times more than you ask of your students, then, quite frankly, you don’t belong here. You see, I’m not out to get your money –and I’m not out to run a “program.” I’m out to change the world –and I need your help.
If you can’t do the UBBT ---you’re still a good person –and I hold no opinion of your value. But if you commit to it, I have HUGE expectations of you –and your ability to show the world what this crap we call “the martial arts” is supposed to be about (Excuse my French…did you know I was bilingual?).
On Filming a Movie
This is one complex son-of-a-gun. So much so, that even Nancy, an Academy Award winning filmmaker, can’t always get her head around how to proceed. I love it. Our first step, before you do anything on camera, is to prepare a variety of “pitches” to the industry. If the industry buys the rights to our project, we have a show–in-the-works. If they don’t, we’ll have a lot of home footage and a lot of memories. The odds are VERY good –but the way the story is to be told, that isn’t necessarily up to us. So, for your information, we are working on a pitch. In the mean time, you work on yourself. If and when you go on-camera in the UBBT, BE an example of the ultimate black belt, period.
On Our Events
Ultimate Black Belt Test TEAM 4 Special Events
Team 4 - Required Event 1
March 2007
Alabama House Building Project with Pam Dorr / The Hale County Housing Authority and the Rural Studio (www.ruralstudio.com).
Team, we are in the midst of crafting something extra-extra-ordinary here for this year's Alabama mission. More to come.
Team 4 - Required Event 2
July 5, 6, 7, 2007
Testing, events, and performances at the Century / MAIA Super Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The UBBT teams will perform their physical martial arts tests in front of more than 2000 professional martial arts teachers at the largest gathering for teachers in the nation.
Team 4 - Required Event 3
October 2007
Final Test - New JerseyMaster's Weekend and Final Test, to be held in New Jersey, hosted by UBBT Members.
The first event is going to require us to raise funds for the project. It’s going to be a BIG deal –and we will be looking for all kinds of help. This should be our greatest event ever –and major educational project. This project will, most likely, be a once-in-a-lifetime event where we will mix with the most amazing people –for an extraordinary cause. More to come.
The second event is crazy-intense –as we are going to be performing in front of EVERYONE in the martial arts business industry. Don’t think I don’t expect you to be UNBELIEVABLE. How? Practice Baby! Practice and training and due diligence.
The third event will be an amazing homecoming of emotion and completion –in and around New York City. More to come.
How to Proceed
Well, honestly, treat this test with 100 times the respect you want your own students to treat YOUR testing process. Do that, and you’ll ace this –and it’ll kick your school into high gear. START TRAINING. Go over the test curriculum with a fine tooth comb. Call me with questions. I’m here to help.
The UBBT Binder
You will be keeping your stats and blog on the test on-line. More to come.
First off, I’d like to personally thank you all for having the guts to step up to the plate like this –and serve as role models for the martial arts industry. For some of you, serving as a role model for other martial artists is not a concern, as you have other reasons for participating. But, from my perspective, it’s a valuable thing that we get to help ourselves –while doing good things on a larger scale.
On that note, I find my inner-dialogue saying, “Isn’t it right for each of us to stand up as role models for every man, woman, and child on this planet? Wouldn’t my heroes, my best teachers, ask this of me? Don’t the people I admire the most do this –at least on some level? What kind of life do we lead --what kind of thinking do we do, what kind of mental and spiritual evolution do we undergo with this kind of thinking?”
Of course, you’d have to be a real “master” to think this way.
Lately teams (ok, during my entire career), I have been on an exploration of the why and what of the martial arts. As you may know, I work in the “industry” of the martial arts –and so I’ve been looking and trying and analyzing business concepts for, literally, years. I have studied things school owners could do, could embrace, that would help their business and keep them sane and growing. Out of all this has come the work I do now.
So the UBBT’s about business –but then, it’s not just about business.
I’ve coined a new phrase: “The master’s work.” The master’s work is the work we do after we’ve done all the necessary survival-based jobs. The master’s work is where the “master” focuses his or her energies. The master’s work is in creating, mobilizing, cataloging, teaching, and promoting ideas, beliefs, “causes,” and so on. Ernie Reyes, Sr. works on the martial arts and performance –it is the master’s work. Emil Farkas is contemplating the creation of a new “martial arts encyclopedia” –this is the master’s work. Bill Kipp seeks to arm people with the knowledge to turn fear into power –this is the master’s work. Keith Hirabayashi is making a film about the martial arts and peace –this is the master’s work. Dave McNeill founded his Keep On Pushin organization and heads his own martial arts association –the master’s work. Mike and Karen Valentine have spearheaded an environmental self-defense program in their school –the master’s work. Charles Chi gets things done, with his students, in his community…and on an extraordinary level –the master’s work. Dawn Barnes is writing educational stories that hundreds-of-thousands of children are reading –the master’s work.
Well, regardless of your age, experience, or rank, the UBBT is the master’s work. Only you, with your attitude and commitment, can take this on and MAKE it important, make it real, make it a tool for your own personal transformation, the transformation of your students, your community, our industry –and, if we are very diligent in our work, we have a chance to make an impact on the world. Yes, we do.
This is the master’s work because it’s so big –it’s so unbelievable –it’s so out of the ordinary. Participate in the UBBT, play full out, “go the distance” and beyond –and you have taken the heroes journey. You will, by your very example be a teacher and leader extraordinaire.
Now for some details:
On Quitting
Look over the Team 3 roster, look over the journal entries, and you will see success stories –and people who can’t find the self-discipline to follow thru on their commitment. On Team 4, we only want successes. We want fully participative people who won’t allow ANY difficulty, ANY obstacle, ANY challenge to sidetrack them. Yes, it’s going to be hard –maybe the hardest thing you’ve ever done. Well, damn-it, GOOD! Aren’t you just sick and tired of mediocrity? Isn’t the condition of people’s thinking and commitment and apathy just disheartening? The UBBT –and for that matter, the rest of your life (I hope) is a way to DO SOMETHING about all of that mediocrity and ignorance. And even if this has already been your path, this project is about re-committing yourself to “the way.” Your way.
Don’t quit. Don’t embarrass me by not-journaling and not trying. Don’t allow any excuse to keep you from participating in all events –and in any way. And, my friends, EXPECT bad things, unexpected things, hard things, to get in your way. EXPECT failure. EXPECT changes in direction. EXPECT the unpredictable. EXPECT the catastrophe –as those who apply themselves in ANY way to this program will have to deal with it all.
If you can’t commit yourself at least 100 times more than you ask of your students, then, quite frankly, you don’t belong here. You see, I’m not out to get your money –and I’m not out to run a “program.” I’m out to change the world –and I need your help.
If you can’t do the UBBT ---you’re still a good person –and I hold no opinion of your value. But if you commit to it, I have HUGE expectations of you –and your ability to show the world what this crap we call “the martial arts” is supposed to be about (Excuse my French…did you know I was bilingual?).
On Filming a Movie
This is one complex son-of-a-gun. So much so, that even Nancy, an Academy Award winning filmmaker, can’t always get her head around how to proceed. I love it. Our first step, before you do anything on camera, is to prepare a variety of “pitches” to the industry. If the industry buys the rights to our project, we have a show–in-the-works. If they don’t, we’ll have a lot of home footage and a lot of memories. The odds are VERY good –but the way the story is to be told, that isn’t necessarily up to us. So, for your information, we are working on a pitch. In the mean time, you work on yourself. If and when you go on-camera in the UBBT, BE an example of the ultimate black belt, period.
On Our Events
Ultimate Black Belt Test TEAM 4 Special Events
Team 4 - Required Event 1
March 2007
Alabama House Building Project with Pam Dorr / The Hale County Housing Authority and the Rural Studio (www.ruralstudio.com).
Team, we are in the midst of crafting something extra-extra-ordinary here for this year's Alabama mission. More to come.
Team 4 - Required Event 2
July 5, 6, 7, 2007
Testing, events, and performances at the Century / MAIA Super Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The UBBT teams will perform their physical martial arts tests in front of more than 2000 professional martial arts teachers at the largest gathering for teachers in the nation.
Team 4 - Required Event 3
October 2007
Final Test - New JerseyMaster's Weekend and Final Test, to be held in New Jersey, hosted by UBBT Members.
The first event is going to require us to raise funds for the project. It’s going to be a BIG deal –and we will be looking for all kinds of help. This should be our greatest event ever –and major educational project. This project will, most likely, be a once-in-a-lifetime event where we will mix with the most amazing people –for an extraordinary cause. More to come.
The second event is crazy-intense –as we are going to be performing in front of EVERYONE in the martial arts business industry. Don’t think I don’t expect you to be UNBELIEVABLE. How? Practice Baby! Practice and training and due diligence.
The third event will be an amazing homecoming of emotion and completion –in and around New York City. More to come.
How to Proceed
Well, honestly, treat this test with 100 times the respect you want your own students to treat YOUR testing process. Do that, and you’ll ace this –and it’ll kick your school into high gear. START TRAINING. Go over the test curriculum with a fine tooth comb. Call me with questions. I’m here to help.
The UBBT Binder
You will be keeping your stats and blog on the test on-line. More to come.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
The 100.’s Projects – 2006/2007 (current draft)
The 100.’s Projects – 2006/2007
an outline for members
Idealism
Ok, I confess –The 100 is an idealistic organization. My dictionary listed the synonyms for idealistic as high-minded, lofty, rarified, and noble-minded. Yes, that is The 100. In being an idealistic endeavor, we will strive for the highest ideals. The dictionary defines ideal like this:
1. Ideal – The idea of something that is perfect; something one hopes to attain.
2. Ideal – Model of excellence of perfection of a kind; one having no equal.
Therefore, with the idea of being the ideal idealistic martial arts association, I am setting some rather lofty goals for members. We are, after all, coming together to do extraordinary, career-defining work; and with the idea of "beginning with the end in mind," we will be seeking to become an association with no equal.
What I’m Asking from Members
Be a Role Model of Fitness
I’m asking members of The 100 to get --and stay --in great shape. How great? As great as any Master of the martial arts should be; as great as any role model for the benefits of studying the martial arts should be. Near-perfect shape I would think.
Treat Each Other with More than Respect
I’m asking members of The 100 to treat each other as extended family. I mean that any fellow member of The 100 would be a VIP if visiting another member’s
school and, if at all possible, in their home as well. Now maybe that sounds like an odd request, but not in the ideal idealistic sense. Why not treat each other with an extraordinary level of respect, courtesy, and hospitality? What culture from times past has not had a tradition of welcoming travelers and strangers into their homes --and offering them food, shelter, and friendship? Likewise, if a member of The 100 calls or e-mails another member, I would expect that his or her request would be treated as something important.
Play Team with a Capital "T"
I’m asking members to play TEAM at an amazing level. How amazing? Amazing enough that ANY professional team builder, consultant, or coach would look at our association and be in awe; that they would use us as an example of what team means –and how a team is supposed to function. Is this not within the scope of our abilities? Is this not very little to ask of people who are striving to be "Masters" of the martial arts? No, it is not too much to ask; it is the core of the very lesson we are trying to teach our own teams --in our own schools.
The Attitude of a Master
I’m asking the members of The 100 to have the attitude one would have if he or she were a true, an ideal, martial arts Master. In my mind, this means an attitude along the lines of Martin Luther King or Gandhi or The Dalai Lama or Thich Nhat Hanh. This would be an attitude that could turn conflict into peace, disagreement into agreement, anger into understanding, and make obstacles become opportunities. This would be the kind of attitude that one would expect from a true Master –an attitude of compassion, wisdom, peace, reconciliation, and participation. If attitude is everything, then this is the ultimate test of whether someone is learning the lessons of the martial arts (and life) –or not.
In my book, the attitude of the Master is in understanding that you are not the "Master" at all –but the servant. The more you play the "traditional" role of "The Master" –the less of a Master you truly are.
The more humility you have, the better. When you are really thinking and behaving as a Master, you will not have to show or tell anybody --they’ll know.
Contribution and Participation
I’m asking team members to contribute to this association to the exact degree of benefit they hope to derive from it. The very nature of this beast, this "100," is that we have come together to realize ideals and ambitions that are outside of the status quo in our industry (and certainly in the world). Mediocrity is the enemy –activism, innovation, and teamwork are the weapons we will use to fight it.
I’m asking for 100-percent participation in our activities. I’m asking the members of The 100 to act as if they were the very backbone of the future of the martial arts –and of the world.
Idealism Revisited
Is all of this idealistic? Yes, it is, and I think it is high time for some idealism among the leadership in the martial arts community; we have nearly been taken over by salesmen, by businessmen, by dance-studio tactics, by for-profit-only hucksters with heads full of up-selling, gross profits, "return on investment," pro-shop sales, and market share. The 100 is out to reshape the business of the martial arts so that we can offer more than "product" and "service." The 100 seeks to build a new model for "martial arts education" in the international martial arts community. We are not against profit, but we recognize that it is not the primary fuel that fires our engines –it is not our reason we chose to make a career out of teaching the martial arts. Profit and business are factors in our lives, but not The Reason we are here.
For the most part, I would guess that members of The 100 have already progressed through and beyond those years when gross and net profit, the size of one’s student body, and the ranking of his or her school on a "highest gross" list ruled over their behavior and goals. Practicing the skills of good business are like practicing good hygiene; everyone needs to brush their teeth to stay healthy –but we don’t LIVE to brush our teeth.
Engage in "Sustainable Business Practices"
This is, I believe, the first time in the martial arts industry that the term sustainable business practices, or for that matter, the word sustainable, has been used in anything relating to the business of the martial arts. A sustainable business practice is one that doesn’t wipe out the very resources that make the business survive.
Clear-cutting a forest that can’t be re-grown for hundreds of years is not a sustainable practice. Removing all the fish from a lake or an ocean without regard for future catches is not a sustainable practice. Encouraging large cash payments for long-term memberships --and using contracts that bind students to payment regardless of their satisfaction with the product or service --and doing either with an assumption or expectation that the student will drop out before his or her course is complete, is not a sustainable business practice.
You cannot clear-cut students and their families in your community by taking advantage of them, financially, at the early peak of their enthusiasm. You cannot take money for hundreds of untaught lessons and consider it "yours" without regard to the needs, expectations, and feelings of the consumer. If we do that as an industry, if we leave behind hundreds –if not thousands --of people who have paid for services in advance, but didn’t enjoy those services as they unfolded, we leave ourselves open to the same kind of operational and legal restrictions that the ballroom dance "industry" are subject to.
In the not too distant past, unscrupulous dance school operators bilked lonely senior citizens out of untold thousands of dollars by selling expensive dance-lesson contracts and asking for large cash payments; that is, until the legal system got a hold of them. There are people in our industry doing almost exactly the same thing to customers that don’t know any better. If we do not police our own business practices, history has shown that some outside entity will come in and do it for us.
The 100’s written Code of Ethics and Sustainable Business Practices is in the works. The members of The 100 will be expected to serve as role models for sustainable business practices in the martial arts industry –by rejecting ALL forms of questionable, outright dishonest, manipulative, and suspect business and/or sales practices.
Project Based Leadership
The 100 is a "project" –and The 100 is all about taking action on projects, as projects and Project Based Leadership Training (PBLT) are a significant part of the new kind of martial arts education we are developing and promoting. In many ways, we will define ourselves –and promote our schools –by what we do in our projects, both as a team and individually.
The 100.’s Projects – 2006/2007
• Project - Living as an Example
• 1000 Community Projects
• The 10,000 People Project
• The Peace Education Project (including "acts of peace" and Peace One Day)
• The Invisible Children/Global Night March Project
• The Environmental Self-Defense Project
• The Media that Matters Film Project
• The 100Foundation Project; The Living Heroes Support Project
Project Living as an Example;
Living as an Example of The Way
The 100 is not a "martial arts association" as much as it is a movement. It’s a movement for improvement; as we are out to improve the quality of our own lives, the quality of life for our families, for our students, our communities, and the world.
We begin with our own thinking and behaviors. Diet, exercise, meditation, education, attitude, consumption, teamwork, relationships, community participation, and the pursuit of personal mastery are not just topics of discussion for this team; we pledge to live each area of our lives as examples of The Way.
What else is there? If not us, now, then who will step up –and when?
We will step up. We will make The Way of the martial arts instructor The Way of peace and extraordinary commitment to a quality of thinking and living that raises the standards for everyone we come in contact with. Why not? What have we dedicated most of our lives to in the martial arts for, if not the pursuit of mastery?
Diet
The association doesn’t advocate any particular kind of diet. Each member of The 100 is asked to eat with a consideration for the environment, for living things, for the people who produce the food, and for how the food is produced.
As a member of The 100, teaching other people about food and diet, by example, is as much a part of the martial arts as are kicks, punches, and throws. Members are expected to consume food consciously and with awareness –and this effort is to be documented in The 100’s journal pages so that we may teach others the value and importance of diet in the pursuit of martial arts mastery.
Exercise
Physical fitness is essential to participation and membership in The 100 If we are not "in shape" then how can we serve as role models for a new generation of martial arts practitioners? Each member of The 100 pledges to use his or her membership as a reason for getting in the best possible shape, now. Being grossly overweight because of poor dietary habits and insufficient exercise and attitudes about food and consumption are the norm in much of the western world today. To be in The 100 is to commit oneself to fitness and health in an extraordinary way –one that reflects what, exactly, a "martial arts Master" should look like. Our examples of fitness reside in the fitness regimes and practices of masters and athletes like Jhoon Rhee, Ernie Reyes, Sr. and Jr., the Gracie family (Helio, Rickson, Royler, Royce, Etc.), Chuck Norris, Keith Hirabayashi, Dave Kovar, Steve LaVallee, Mike Swain, Chris Natzke, Lance Farrell, Peter Johnson, Mike Valentine, Alicia Kastner, and our many other peers…
Meditation
For basic lessons in how to practice meditation, members of The 100 would do well to read and listen to the books and audio programs of Thich Nhat Hanh (pronounced Tick-Not-Han); however, there are many ways to practice meditation –and many different teachers.
It is the goal of this association to reunite the martial arts and meditation (as most instructors have never had formal training in meditation). A martial arts master instructor should be as familiar and comfortable with the techniques of mediation as he or she is with the techniques of his or her martial art.
Education
The 100 is an association about education beyond the scope of simple business practices. Environmentalism, anger management, meditation, non-violent conflict resolution, voluntary simplicity, anatomy and physiology, and any number of other topics are where we will methodically put our focus. We do this, as we understand the evolution of the martial arts industry (and our own careers) is contingent upon better-educated instructors –and the blending of innovative education into our curriculums.
Consumption
How we treat the environment, how we deal with conflict, anger and peace, and how and what we consume (individually and as a society) are all related to self-defense and the kind of consciousness and awareness we are promoting through The 100.
Each member of The 100 is expected to take a long and honest look at his or her consumption of goods and resources –and then act in a way that reflects a concern for the welfare of our planet and its people.
Teamwork
The 100's the proving ground for people who desire to create their own dynamic teams.
Community Participation
Project Based Leadership Training will revolutionize your school –and the industry. Community involvement and activism is the ultimate end-product of sophisticated martial arts training.
1000 Community Projects: Project Based Leadership Training and The 100.’s Project Portfolio
Each member of The 100 is responsible for 10 community-based projects per year. Collectively this represents 1000 projects a year organized and implemented by team members. Each project is to be outlined in the members "Project Portfolio."
Projects are meant to be a manifestation of each member’s teaching and business philosophy. No member of The 100 shall launch a Project Based Leadership Training program for his or her students until he or she has completed and documented the required 10 projects.
The 10,000 People Project
Mobilizing 10,000 to 50,000 people in a day for community activism
Each member of The 100 pledges to mobilize a minimum of 100 people in his or her community on a given day for a given project. Collectively this represents a mobilization of a minimum of 10,000 people. The 100 will mobilize people for at least three projects per year.
Peace Education
The Peace Education program for The 100 is an extensive and multi-layered program. The goal is that The 100 schools in the association will each be a "Peace Education Center" –and that we will have all the tools, resources, and knowledge to teach peace-related ideas equal to our knowledge of martial concepts.
The association will, in 2006, design and launch a website that will define and track "acts of peace" –and The 100 will provide support to the Peace One Day campaign by organizing and/or participating in activities on Sept. 21st. of 2006 (the day the United Nations has delegated as an international "Day of Peace). Our website’s address
will be www.actsofpeace.com. The web address for Peace One Day is www.peaceoneday.org.
The Global Night Commute - Invisible Children: www.invisiblechildren.com
The 100 will be participating in the Global Night Commute, please visit their website for more information.
The Environmental Self-Defense Program
It would be an honor and a privilege if The 100 became known as "The Green Party" of the martial arts industry. Every school involved with The 100 is expected to go GREEN –and instructions on how to do this will be contained in the e-book "How to Green Your Dojo" –now in development.
The Media That Matters Film Program
The 100 has a relationship, through the Ultimate Black Belt Test program, with Tapestry Films International. Tapestry’s owner, Nancy Walzog, along with filmmaker Susan Hadary, introduced the UBBT program to King Gimp, a documentary film about a man with Cerebral Palsy. Ms. Walzog and Ms. Hadary won an Academy Award for the project.
After watching King Gimp, which delivers a powerful set of lessons about perseverance, self-determination, and courage, it occurred to me that The 100 would greatly benefit from showing this –and other –films as a part of each school’s curriculum.
Since watching King Gimp, I have found two other films relevant to the philosophy and mission of The 100, Peace One Day and Invisible Children.
The essence of the Media That Matters Film Project is that each of The 100 schools will engage in a year-long experiment where we use select documentary films to help us teach components of "character education."
It is our long-term goal to establish closer links to the film industry –and specifically to filmmakers who are making films that make a difference. No doubt there are 1000's of films I don't know about, but we will start with the three films mentioned above.
Using these films is a NO-BRAINER for the martial arts Master Teacher --who needs to use any and everything within his or her power to keep student focused and growing. I think the films would also be excellent tools for the teacher to use when visiting public or private schools ---as films like King Gimp speak more about the core education we hope to provide our students, than does board breaking, punches, kicks, grappling, and weapons training.
You may purchase King Gimp through www.films.com, Peace One Day at www.peaceoneday.org, and Invisible Children at www.invisiblechildren.com.
The 100 Foundation and, for now: The Living Heroes Support Project
The 100 Foundation will be organized with the concept that each member of The 100 will be required to fund-raise $1000 per year ($84 per month) for a scholarship and grant fund. With 100 schools raising a minimum of $1000 per year, we would accumulate $100,000 in 12 months. Those funds would then be issued to students of The 100 who apply, and qualify, for grant money needed for social-entrepreneurial and/or community-based projects.
Until all the details and legalities of establishing a foundation are dealt with, this project will be "on hold." In the mean time, we will try another concept that I think could give us some remarkable opportunities:
The Living Heroes Support Project
The members of The 100 will pick one "living hero," a man or woman making a significant difference in the world, and offer financial support for his or her efforts. This "financial support" will come about by having each of The 100 soliciting $1 to $4 donations (with some mutually beneficial project) from a minimum of 100 people (or half as much from 200 people!). Association wide, this will amount to somewhere between $10,000 and $40,000. This project will take place in one specific month –date and project specifics yet to be announced. All tools for fund raising will be organized by the association.
Why send money to a living hero? And why make this idea a "project" for The 100? Sending financial support to someone doing amazing work allows us to mix with dynamic thinkers in arenas outside of the martial arts community. For just $1 a week (over a month-long period) your students can learn about and participate with some activist who is applying his or her "personal power" (Anthony Robbins calls personal power the ability to "take action’) to issues that need it.
If you were working on a project, investing your time and energy and struggling to make a difference, wouldn’t it be a wonderful gift to have some group send you $40,000 to help with your efforts? For some activists, this could change the course of their project –and his or her life. We can do this for someone worthy of help –and with very little effort on our part.
We may end up helping a child’s-rights activist working with children in need –or an environmental activist working on habitat restoration –or who knows? The 100 will engage in this experimental project just for the gift of finding out what we can learn –and whose lives we can alter with our efforts.
an outline for members
Idealism
Ok, I confess –The 100 is an idealistic organization. My dictionary listed the synonyms for idealistic as high-minded, lofty, rarified, and noble-minded. Yes, that is The 100. In being an idealistic endeavor, we will strive for the highest ideals. The dictionary defines ideal like this:
1. Ideal – The idea of something that is perfect; something one hopes to attain.
2. Ideal – Model of excellence of perfection of a kind; one having no equal.
Therefore, with the idea of being the ideal idealistic martial arts association, I am setting some rather lofty goals for members. We are, after all, coming together to do extraordinary, career-defining work; and with the idea of "beginning with the end in mind," we will be seeking to become an association with no equal.
What I’m Asking from Members
Be a Role Model of Fitness
I’m asking members of The 100 to get --and stay --in great shape. How great? As great as any Master of the martial arts should be; as great as any role model for the benefits of studying the martial arts should be. Near-perfect shape I would think.
Treat Each Other with More than Respect
I’m asking members of The 100 to treat each other as extended family. I mean that any fellow member of The 100 would be a VIP if visiting another member’s
school and, if at all possible, in their home as well. Now maybe that sounds like an odd request, but not in the ideal idealistic sense. Why not treat each other with an extraordinary level of respect, courtesy, and hospitality? What culture from times past has not had a tradition of welcoming travelers and strangers into their homes --and offering them food, shelter, and friendship? Likewise, if a member of The 100 calls or e-mails another member, I would expect that his or her request would be treated as something important.
Play Team with a Capital "T"
I’m asking members to play TEAM at an amazing level. How amazing? Amazing enough that ANY professional team builder, consultant, or coach would look at our association and be in awe; that they would use us as an example of what team means –and how a team is supposed to function. Is this not within the scope of our abilities? Is this not very little to ask of people who are striving to be "Masters" of the martial arts? No, it is not too much to ask; it is the core of the very lesson we are trying to teach our own teams --in our own schools.
The Attitude of a Master
I’m asking the members of The 100 to have the attitude one would have if he or she were a true, an ideal, martial arts Master. In my mind, this means an attitude along the lines of Martin Luther King or Gandhi or The Dalai Lama or Thich Nhat Hanh. This would be an attitude that could turn conflict into peace, disagreement into agreement, anger into understanding, and make obstacles become opportunities. This would be the kind of attitude that one would expect from a true Master –an attitude of compassion, wisdom, peace, reconciliation, and participation. If attitude is everything, then this is the ultimate test of whether someone is learning the lessons of the martial arts (and life) –or not.
In my book, the attitude of the Master is in understanding that you are not the "Master" at all –but the servant. The more you play the "traditional" role of "The Master" –the less of a Master you truly are.
The more humility you have, the better. When you are really thinking and behaving as a Master, you will not have to show or tell anybody --they’ll know.
Contribution and Participation
I’m asking team members to contribute to this association to the exact degree of benefit they hope to derive from it. The very nature of this beast, this "100," is that we have come together to realize ideals and ambitions that are outside of the status quo in our industry (and certainly in the world). Mediocrity is the enemy –activism, innovation, and teamwork are the weapons we will use to fight it.
I’m asking for 100-percent participation in our activities. I’m asking the members of The 100 to act as if they were the very backbone of the future of the martial arts –and of the world.
Idealism Revisited
Is all of this idealistic? Yes, it is, and I think it is high time for some idealism among the leadership in the martial arts community; we have nearly been taken over by salesmen, by businessmen, by dance-studio tactics, by for-profit-only hucksters with heads full of up-selling, gross profits, "return on investment," pro-shop sales, and market share. The 100 is out to reshape the business of the martial arts so that we can offer more than "product" and "service." The 100 seeks to build a new model for "martial arts education" in the international martial arts community. We are not against profit, but we recognize that it is not the primary fuel that fires our engines –it is not our reason we chose to make a career out of teaching the martial arts. Profit and business are factors in our lives, but not The Reason we are here.
For the most part, I would guess that members of The 100 have already progressed through and beyond those years when gross and net profit, the size of one’s student body, and the ranking of his or her school on a "highest gross" list ruled over their behavior and goals. Practicing the skills of good business are like practicing good hygiene; everyone needs to brush their teeth to stay healthy –but we don’t LIVE to brush our teeth.
Engage in "Sustainable Business Practices"
This is, I believe, the first time in the martial arts industry that the term sustainable business practices, or for that matter, the word sustainable, has been used in anything relating to the business of the martial arts. A sustainable business practice is one that doesn’t wipe out the very resources that make the business survive.
Clear-cutting a forest that can’t be re-grown for hundreds of years is not a sustainable practice. Removing all the fish from a lake or an ocean without regard for future catches is not a sustainable practice. Encouraging large cash payments for long-term memberships --and using contracts that bind students to payment regardless of their satisfaction with the product or service --and doing either with an assumption or expectation that the student will drop out before his or her course is complete, is not a sustainable business practice.
You cannot clear-cut students and their families in your community by taking advantage of them, financially, at the early peak of their enthusiasm. You cannot take money for hundreds of untaught lessons and consider it "yours" without regard to the needs, expectations, and feelings of the consumer. If we do that as an industry, if we leave behind hundreds –if not thousands --of people who have paid for services in advance, but didn’t enjoy those services as they unfolded, we leave ourselves open to the same kind of operational and legal restrictions that the ballroom dance "industry" are subject to.
In the not too distant past, unscrupulous dance school operators bilked lonely senior citizens out of untold thousands of dollars by selling expensive dance-lesson contracts and asking for large cash payments; that is, until the legal system got a hold of them. There are people in our industry doing almost exactly the same thing to customers that don’t know any better. If we do not police our own business practices, history has shown that some outside entity will come in and do it for us.
The 100’s written Code of Ethics and Sustainable Business Practices is in the works. The members of The 100 will be expected to serve as role models for sustainable business practices in the martial arts industry –by rejecting ALL forms of questionable, outright dishonest, manipulative, and suspect business and/or sales practices.
Project Based Leadership
The 100 is a "project" –and The 100 is all about taking action on projects, as projects and Project Based Leadership Training (PBLT) are a significant part of the new kind of martial arts education we are developing and promoting. In many ways, we will define ourselves –and promote our schools –by what we do in our projects, both as a team and individually.
The 100.’s Projects – 2006/2007
• Project - Living as an Example
• 1000 Community Projects
• The 10,000 People Project
• The Peace Education Project (including "acts of peace" and Peace One Day)
• The Invisible Children/Global Night March Project
• The Environmental Self-Defense Project
• The Media that Matters Film Project
• The 100Foundation Project; The Living Heroes Support Project
Living as an Example of The Way
The 100 is not a "martial arts association" as much as it is a movement. It’s a movement for improvement; as we are out to improve the quality of our own lives, the quality of life for our families, for our students, our communities, and the world.
We begin with our own thinking and behaviors. Diet, exercise, meditation, education, attitude, consumption, teamwork, relationships, community participation, and the pursuit of personal mastery are not just topics of discussion for this team; we pledge to live each area of our lives as examples of The Way.
What else is there? If not us, now, then who will step up –and when?
We will step up. We will make The Way of the martial arts instructor The Way of peace and extraordinary commitment to a quality of thinking and living that raises the standards for everyone we come in contact with. Why not? What have we dedicated most of our lives to in the martial arts for, if not the pursuit of mastery?
Diet
The association doesn’t advocate any particular kind of diet. Each member of The 100 is asked to eat with a consideration for the environment, for living things, for the people who produce the food, and for how the food is produced.
As a member of The 100, teaching other people about food and diet, by example, is as much a part of the martial arts as are kicks, punches, and throws. Members are expected to consume food consciously and with awareness –and this effort is to be documented in The 100’s journal pages so that we may teach others the value and importance of diet in the pursuit of martial arts mastery.
Exercise
Physical fitness is essential to participation and membership in The 100 If we are not "in shape" then how can we serve as role models for a new generation of martial arts practitioners? Each member of The 100 pledges to use his or her membership as a reason for getting in the best possible shape, now. Being grossly overweight because of poor dietary habits and insufficient exercise and attitudes about food and consumption are the norm in much of the western world today. To be in The 100 is to commit oneself to fitness and health in an extraordinary way –one that reflects what, exactly, a "martial arts Master" should look like. Our examples of fitness reside in the fitness regimes and practices of masters and athletes like Jhoon Rhee, Ernie Reyes, Sr. and Jr., the Gracie family (Helio, Rickson, Royler, Royce, Etc.), Chuck Norris, Keith Hirabayashi, Dave Kovar, Steve LaVallee, Mike Swain, Chris Natzke, Lance Farrell, Peter Johnson, Mike Valentine, Alicia Kastner, and our many other peers…
Meditation
For basic lessons in how to practice meditation, members of The 100 would do well to read and listen to the books and audio programs of Thich Nhat Hanh (pronounced Tick-Not-Han); however, there are many ways to practice meditation –and many different teachers.
It is the goal of this association to reunite the martial arts and meditation (as most instructors have never had formal training in meditation). A martial arts master instructor should be as familiar and comfortable with the techniques of mediation as he or she is with the techniques of his or her martial art.
Education
The 100 is an association about education beyond the scope of simple business practices. Environmentalism, anger management, meditation, non-violent conflict resolution, voluntary simplicity, anatomy and physiology, and any number of other topics are where we will methodically put our focus. We do this, as we understand the evolution of the martial arts industry (and our own careers) is contingent upon better-educated instructors –and the blending of innovative education into our curriculums.
Consumption
How we treat the environment, how we deal with conflict, anger and peace, and how and what we consume (individually and as a society) are all related to self-defense and the kind of consciousness and awareness we are promoting through The 100.
Each member of The 100 is expected to take a long and honest look at his or her consumption of goods and resources –and then act in a way that reflects a concern for the welfare of our planet and its people.
Teamwork
The 100's the proving ground for people who desire to create their own dynamic teams.
Community Participation
Project Based Leadership Training will revolutionize your school –and the industry. Community involvement and activism is the ultimate end-product of sophisticated martial arts training.
1000 Community Projects: Project Based Leadership Training and The 100.’s Project Portfolio
Each member of The 100 is responsible for 10 community-based projects per year. Collectively this represents 1000 projects a year organized and implemented by team members. Each project is to be outlined in the members "Project Portfolio."
Projects are meant to be a manifestation of each member’s teaching and business philosophy. No member of The 100 shall launch a Project Based Leadership Training program for his or her students until he or she has completed and documented the required 10 projects.
The 10,000 People Project
Mobilizing 10,000 to 50,000 people in a day for community activism
Each member of The 100 pledges to mobilize a minimum of 100 people in his or her community on a given day for a given project. Collectively this represents a mobilization of a minimum of 10,000 people. The 100 will mobilize people for at least three projects per year.
Peace Education
The Peace Education program for The 100 is an extensive and multi-layered program. The goal is that The 100 schools in the association will each be a "Peace Education Center" –and that we will have all the tools, resources, and knowledge to teach peace-related ideas equal to our knowledge of martial concepts.
The association will, in 2006, design and launch a website that will define and track "acts of peace" –and The 100 will provide support to the Peace One Day campaign by organizing and/or participating in activities on Sept. 21st. of 2006 (the day the United Nations has delegated as an international "Day of Peace). Our website’s address
will be www.actsofpeace.com. The web address for Peace One Day is www.peaceoneday.org.
The Global Night Commute - Invisible Children: www.invisiblechildren.com
The 100 will be participating in the Global Night Commute, please visit their website for more information.
The Environmental Self-Defense Program
It would be an honor and a privilege if The 100 became known as "The Green Party" of the martial arts industry. Every school involved with The 100 is expected to go GREEN –and instructions on how to do this will be contained in the e-book "How to Green Your Dojo" –now in development.
The Media That Matters Film Program
The 100 has a relationship, through the Ultimate Black Belt Test program, with Tapestry Films International. Tapestry’s owner, Nancy Walzog, along with filmmaker Susan Hadary, introduced the UBBT program to King Gimp, a documentary film about a man with Cerebral Palsy. Ms. Walzog and Ms. Hadary won an Academy Award for the project.
After watching King Gimp, which delivers a powerful set of lessons about perseverance, self-determination, and courage, it occurred to me that The 100 would greatly benefit from showing this –and other –films as a part of each school’s curriculum.
Since watching King Gimp, I have found two other films relevant to the philosophy and mission of The 100, Peace One Day and Invisible Children.
The essence of the Media That Matters Film Project is that each of The 100 schools will engage in a year-long experiment where we use select documentary films to help us teach components of "character education."
It is our long-term goal to establish closer links to the film industry –and specifically to filmmakers who are making films that make a difference. No doubt there are 1000's of films I don't know about, but we will start with the three films mentioned above.
Using these films is a NO-BRAINER for the martial arts Master Teacher --who needs to use any and everything within his or her power to keep student focused and growing. I think the films would also be excellent tools for the teacher to use when visiting public or private schools ---as films like King Gimp speak more about the core education we hope to provide our students, than does board breaking, punches, kicks, grappling, and weapons training.
You may purchase King Gimp through www.films.com, Peace One Day at www.peaceoneday.org, and Invisible Children at www.invisiblechildren.com.
The 100 Foundation and, for now: The Living Heroes Support Project
The 100 Foundation will be organized with the concept that each member of The 100 will be required to fund-raise $1000 per year ($84 per month) for a scholarship and grant fund. With 100 schools raising a minimum of $1000 per year, we would accumulate $100,000 in 12 months. Those funds would then be issued to students of The 100 who apply, and qualify, for grant money needed for social-entrepreneurial and/or community-based projects.
Until all the details and legalities of establishing a foundation are dealt with, this project will be "on hold." In the mean time, we will try another concept that I think could give us some remarkable opportunities:
The Living Heroes Support Project
The members of The 100 will pick one "living hero," a man or woman making a significant difference in the world, and offer financial support for his or her efforts. This "financial support" will come about by having each of The 100 soliciting $1 to $4 donations (with some mutually beneficial project) from a minimum of 100 people (or half as much from 200 people!). Association wide, this will amount to somewhere between $10,000 and $40,000. This project will take place in one specific month –date and project specifics yet to be announced. All tools for fund raising will be organized by the association.
Why send money to a living hero? And why make this idea a "project" for The 100? Sending financial support to someone doing amazing work allows us to mix with dynamic thinkers in arenas outside of the martial arts community. For just $1 a week (over a month-long period) your students can learn about and participate with some activist who is applying his or her "personal power" (Anthony Robbins calls personal power the ability to "take action’) to issues that need it.
If you were working on a project, investing your time and energy and struggling to make a difference, wouldn’t it be a wonderful gift to have some group send you $40,000 to help with your efforts? For some activists, this could change the course of their project –and his or her life. We can do this for someone worthy of help –and with very little effort on our part.
We may end up helping a child’s-rights activist working with children in need –or an environmental activist working on habitat restoration –or who knows? The 100 will engage in this experimental project just for the gift of finding out what we can learn –and whose lives we can alter with our efforts.
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