01/29/2025
A phrase that has stuck with me for most of my life is that every day is training.
Every day we are presented with an opportunity to learn something.
Last night, I shared an experience that I had when I was in high school with our teen and adult class.
My dad was the CEO of a textile company. When I was in high school, he asked me to put something together to share with him that covered where I was going to go to college, what my major would be, where I would live, how much it was going to cost, and how that set me up for success after high school.
He told me how many pages he wanted it to be and what was supposed to be on each individual page.
He gave me a deadline on when this had to be done and when I had to share it with him.
Well, the date came, and I sat down in front of my dad with about eight sheets of paper in the format and outline that he specified. We got through some of it, and he threw it back at me. He said it wasn’t specific enough with the numbers and that I didn’t have enough detail in certain areas. He said he wouldn’t pay for any of it until I came back with everything fixed.
I will admit – I was disheartened. I felt like I had put a lot of time into this. While I was not sure what the purpose was or what the goal was, I took it seriously because he was going to pay for college for me and I wanted to get this right.
Well, after a couple more back-and-forths, he looked at me from across the table and said congratulations on your proposal.
He had just taught me how to plan, organize, and deliver a business proposal and I wasn’t even at a high school yet.
Later in my adult years, I went to work in a company that had a very hard nosed CFO. He asked me and a coworker one year to put a proposal together. After we left the CFO‘s office, one of the other leaders asked me how I felt After delivering a proposal that was shredded. The first time we gave it. I chuckled a little and remembered having to put a proposal together for my father when I was still in high school and said “ That wasn’t too bad. Let me tell you about a time my dad made me put a proposal together.”
Every day has lessons for us that we may not catch immediately, but will have value later when the time is right. And that was the story I shared with our teens and adults.
This is why we call it “karate do”.
“Do “means “the way”.
We teach more than just punching and kicking. We talk about situational awareness, self-awareness, understanding the nature of violence, and other principles that are used on and off the mats - within the dojo and throughout our lives.
Everyday is training…
