I hope your Christmas (or other) holiday was filled with family, friends and satisfying foods. Now that the presents have been opened and my house has returned to its usual (and comforting) state of disorder, it’s time to start the prep work for New Years.
To make sure the kids at the dojo start their year off right, I gave each of them a cheap planner for 2012. I spent 20-minutes at Dollar General, seriously comparing the difference in size and quality between the 50-cent planner and the dollar version. In the end, I decided to fork over the cash for the more expensive planners, because it provided more room for writing inside each date (and some of our kids are just learning to write).
When I gave them their presents, I explained that every day, starting on New Years, I wanted them to write down what they did for practice and to bring their calendars back so I could see what they did.
“You can write down anything karate-related,” I told them, figuring the important part right now is to get into the habit of writing stuff down. We can work on their actual practice habits, later.
“Anything?” one of the older girls challenged. “You mean if I watch The Karate Kid, I can write it down?”
I seriously thought about putting forth the provision that she could only record it if she watched the Ralph Macchio version, but then thought better of it.
“Absolutely. If you spend New Year’s watching a Bruce Lee movie marathon, you can write both Enter the Dragon and Fists of Fury separately.” (Yah, I know, he’s Kung Fu. I’m making a point here.)
My elder daughter waited until everyone else got their calendars. “Can I have one?” she asked.
“Sure,” I said handing her one. “You know the rules.”
“I’m going to practice every day and write everything down.” There was a manic gleam in her eye.
Then, I let her in on a little secret: everyone was going to get stickers when they remembered to both practice and fill out their calendar. There may even be opportunities to earn extra stickers during the year.
“Stickers?! YES!” she exclaimed, working herself into a competitive frenzy. “I’m going to earn MORE stickers than ANYBODY!”
It’s a little soon to tell, but it looks like this idea may be a winner. My elder daughter’s over-the-top enthusiasm aside, the kids looked excited to get their planners. I can’t wait to find out who remembers to bring their calendars to the first class after our break.
In addition to getting everyone to write down what we do every day, I’ll be talking to Team-MSOI about goal setting and deliberate practice. And, my assistant coach, wants to do more conditioning with the kids.
I’m still working on my personal goals for the upcoming year. Typically, I make my resolutions on my birthday, which is just after New Years. It gives me a couple extra days to think about things. Do you have any dojo goals for the upcoming year? Do you have any personal martial arts related goals that I can steal?
