School owners, martial arts teachers, and staff members, it’s Monday! My favorite Monday line? Tony Robbins: “My Monday’s are better than most peoples Christmases.”

Monday’s the WEEKLY CARD REVIEW, one of 50 times a year that you and your team go through and evaluate each of your students, as though they were standing right in front of you and your team. “How’s attendance?” “Are we seeing the progress that reflects our potential?” “Is there some way we might better serve you?”

It’s the day when your staff each spends 5 or 10 minutes to tell you what they’re learning, applying from The 100. They tell you how they’re promoting the school, ingeniously, that week, and what projects they’re working on that both spreads the word AND mobilizes students in the community. 

Each week, you see, the best staff members reaffirm why they’re so valuable —and, in many ways, they get re-hired each week. 

Monday’s the day you and your team look deeply, ahead of any problem, as if you all had ESP —looking to catch POTENTIAL problems with students, long before anyone with less experience would see them. There’s no —or less —need for “DNS” calls (Did Not Show) when every challenge is caught FAR in advance of the “problem” stage. 

Monday is the day progress is measured —and nobody on the team is permitted to be the same person they were the week before. Progress: What’s been read? What’s the most amazing thing you’ve seen, done, witnessed, and dreamt up?

Monday is the day we decide who, this week, we will reach and affect. Is there a business in town we can help? Is there a student doing something that we can push forward? Is there a kid, anywhere in our town, who could use a big brother or sister to stand up for them? Is there anyone who, not in a million years, would expect someone to come to their rescue? Can we do that? 

Monday is 5 days before Friday, when we sit together again and talk about how we made things happen, how we engaged, who we helped, who we connected with, what we’ve learned, and what we’ve created. 

In our camp, it is never “Business as usual.” Every day is Christmas.

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Tom Callos heads The 100., a martial arts business association that starts anew, every day of the year, helping instructors create magic through their martial arts schools. If you’re a school owner and/or teacher of the martial arts, of any style, this is a week-long pass to our on-line dojo / campus. http://the100.me/?xgi=5YHew4Oyrkh0ya

Oh, and READING IS SELF-DEFENSE is a program, in development, courtesy of The 100. More news coming soon.

In the end —and/or now —you could be a monumental force for good, for sanity, for connectivity, for education, for non-violence, for peace education, for clear thinking, for many, many good things in your community.

In the end —and/or now —you could be a Master Teacher of all the most important topics: Peace; kindness; service to mankind; compassion; tolerance; love; listening; art; sustainable living and thinking; forgiveness; awareness; simplicity.

In the end —and/or now —you have an opportunity to define your role as a martial arts teacher in a way that helps you, maybe even forces you, to become a genuine, centered, compassionate and wise teacher, student, leader, follower, dad, mom, friend, grandparent, activist, and engaged, sane human being.

In the end —and/or now —your work can allow you to self-correct, to contribute, to give, to heal, and to act like a master (like a “master” the world doesn’t often see).

How To

The only thing that really makes you a Master is what you do in your head —and what you do in the world as a result of what you do in your head.

In other words, mastery is found in what you think —and what that thinking causes you to do.

Greed is not the trait of a master. Hate, anger, misunderstanding, envy, and violence are not the way of the master. Selfishness, self-deception, attachment, narcissism, justification, apathy, and disconnection is not the way of the master.

Find some real masters. Find people who do amazing things and for all the right reasons. They’re out there. You can be one of them.

Your anger, it’s not her fault. That feeling like he just doesn’t understand, has little or nothing to do with him. That mess, is your responsibility. That car, that watch, that shirt, that house, that posing, that performance, that income, that thing is not you.

Be of the school of thought that says being a master of the martial arts is not about the martial arts at all, but about all the best things in the world. Embrace education. Embrace involvement. Embrace solutions. Embrace peacemaking. Embrace all the smartest, healthiest, most enlightened ideas.

This is the path to “success” that in the end —and/or now —is worth investing in and that will offer you the kind of ROI (Return on Investment) that will make your life’s work something of sparkling significance. 

(I am talking to myself)

About the Author

Tom Callos heads www.The100.me

If what you are “doing” IS “working,” then this report isn’t for you. If you think there’s some “room for improvement” in your efforts, then feel free to read my ideas on the subject —and take from it what you will.

What’s Wrong?

You don’t use a Franklin Covey Day-Planner, which means your staff doesn’t either. If you’re not organizing and studying what little time you DO have to accomplish exactly what you want to accomplish, you can work and work and work and work and work —and work yourself right into an epic struggle. 

How can you manage the smart-effort of others if they don’t know how to manage and track their work and time? 

Whatever excuse you have for not using day-planners and training your entire help-team to do the same (except for, “I’m so bloody rich I don’t have to!”), is part of your own lack of knowledge and self-dicipline that keeps you from the success you think you deserve. 

On the other side, you’re busy as all get-go, but you’ve made the same mistake that 90-perent of us make 99-percent of the time: Mistaking ACTIVITY for ACCOMPLISHMENT. 

You spend too much money on stuff that drags you down. 

That $5 you blow off every day on (name your small vice here)_______, is costing you $150 a month and $1800 a year. Add to that the way-too-expensive cars you drive around to prove that you are special, the TIVO, the house that’s more than you need or can afford, the school rent that’s way too much of your gross income, the meals out, the clothes, and all the other junk you’ve been trained to feel represents “the good life” —-and you’re bleeding your freedom, your education, and the pleasure right out of running your school. 

DECREASE your expenses, get your overhead down —and increase your income. Need help with this? You probably do, as it’s not “an action,” it’s an ongoing process. Call me, I’ll help you look at all the options (Tom Callos, 530-903-0286). 

You’re not “Managing” —or really TRAINING others to help you accomplish the work. Oh yeah, your knowledge is VAST, but I have to tell you, the people underneath you aren’t THERE yet —and you’re not doing a whole hell of a lot to get them there. 

Your brain says, “Well WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?” And the answer is: “A lot smarter work with others, organizing their time, teaching them, and guiding them into helping the school (thus, themselves) to the best of THEIR ability.” Most instructors I know, on a scale from 1 to 10, with “10” being the best, aren’t even training their staff members at level 4. 

You’re not studying your numbers, as in what you’ve done, what you do, and what you need to do. Talk about flying the plane blind! Not studying your stats and knowing how to affect them is a career and business disaster of monumental proportions. You don’t even know —as if you did, I wouldn’t have to tell you.

You market your school like an amateur. 

I’ve seen how FAR TOO MANY schools “market” their wares —and my God is it a pitiful example of the craft. First off, if you’re still listening to “the industry,” you’re not doing your very best work. Second, everything you need to market your school today is FREE —and it’s not about YOU doing it, it’s about you organizing and orchestrating it. Every day you waste not doing this work, not paying attention, is another potential nail in the coffin of the energy and attitude that could get you out of the place you’re in. 

You’re not Talking About Your Future and How to Change.

When’s the last time you sat down with people you respect and really laid it on the line? When’s the last time you studied where you’re going —under the spotlight of people who might help you? Far too many instructors I know wait until they are in CRISIS MODE —and by that time it’s so painful and hard to turn the wheel that the owner may become her own worst enemy. 

Talk it out, endlessly (as it’s ever-changing), and with people smarter and/or more experienced than you are (if anyone like that exists in this dimension). 

Martial Arts Teachers, Molestation, and Community Activism: Real “Self-Defense.”

I’ve received 100 or-so e-mails / messages from martial arts teachers and practitioners over the last few days —after telling my personal story of childhood molestation at the hands of a man who happened to be a black belt instructor at a dojo I attended as a 12 year old. Many of the kind people who’ve written (and many have their own stories of molestation) have called me “brave” for telling my tale, but bravery doesn’t play a role in this story; compassion does. Compassion for others, for children and their parents and loved ones, is why I shared what happened to me. 

Growing up healthy, focused, and happy is hard enough as it is without throwing in the self-esteem, trust, and emotional issues that come with someone using you for their pleasure when that’s really the last thing you need. I don’t know about the scientific reasons that cause people to become pedophiles, in a day and age when it’s so absolutely taboo, but I do know that it’s just as much (or more) of a self-defense issue as is anything else we consider to be self-defense. 

This coming month, as her schedule allows, my sister-in-law, Tricia Sperry Jensen, who works for Utah’s Child Protection Services, will give us her perspective on what we can do —and must do —to work as advocates on behalf of young people who need the cautionary awareness and protection of adults. In the mean time, I am going to give martial arts teachers some suggestions as to how to becomea more active part of “the village” it takes to protect the innocence and health of the children in their sphere of influence.

• Right now, as I write this, people in your community are already working as advocates for children at risk of molestation —and with children who have already suffered at the hands of a predator / mentally unstable adult. I suggest you find out who these people are, as their are many of them, and connect to their work. You can help them. You can learn what they know. You can connect yourself to the stories, so that you don’t numb yourself to the reasons this kind of work should be at the top —or near the top —of the work a real “self-defense” teacher does in —and for —the world. 

• There are, right now, dozens of children (or more) in your community who have been removed from their homes or who have otherwise been traumatized —and who cannot, in their current situation afford the luxury of the care, attention, and education a martial arts teacher can offer. There’s no budget for it. Mom and Dad aren’t stepping up to enroll Little Johnny or Sally, for any number of reasons. This is something you can do now. You can step up and offer genuine loving, compassionate care for kids in need, profits be damned. I’d like to point out, too, that if you really go into this world and make a difference, without concern for your own needs, you will be crafting a “marketing and PR” campaign 1000 times more powerful and real than anything you could buy. All it takes is a genuine effort, without regard for return. 

• After you’ve really educated yourself —with your staff and loved one’s learning along with you —you can become one of the most vocal and persistent voices in your community about self-defense from abuse (sexual, emotional, physical, you name it). Self-defense isn’t about jumping into action AFTER an event occurs; it’s about prevention and education. Children don’t defend themselves from pedophilia with kicks and punches, they defend themselves with knowledge. What’s OK? What’s not? Who to trust? Where does one express concern if and when it’s warranted? I would challenge you, in the spirit of everything our training as martial artists is about (that’s not physical), to take 5000 action-steps in your community action and education program. Take 5000 steps with writing, with videos, with meeting attendance, with developing educational curriculum, with connecting with CPS in your area and other child advocates and social workers, with reading, with talking about the issues, and with finding just the right way to say the right things to children who need to know what to do, in advance, should they ever be in an unhealthy and dangerous situation. 

Oh, and never, EVER hide the fact that you know someone is a pedophile. If you have first-hand knowledge of an event, take action. Disregard your own ego —and do it for children who have not yet become victims.

That’s a good start. Why don’t you join me/us in a campaign to change the way martial arts teachers work in their communities —in and for a kind of “self-defense” that’s relevant to the world as it is today.

Tom Callos 

www.TomCallos.com

Imagine a martial arts association that your students could go to, see what was being said —and watch the videos…AND YOU WOULDN’T BE EMBARRASSED!

No talk about “upgrades” —no talk about “holding back curriculum —no talk about standing in front of elementary schools, in uniform, and waving big signs —no talk about students only lasting 18 months —no talks about how you run an “event” as a smokescreen for aggressive sales —and no talk about your wealth, your cars, his cars, his watch, or how many millionaires are in “the club.”

No inner-circle nonsense, no Dan Kennedy sales tactics, and, well…nothing but honesty. Imagine if your students were actually inspired by what they found; imagine if they thought more of you when they left the site. That’s the work being done at www.the100.us

This morning I heard about the horrible tragedy in Stamford, Connecticut. Three children and their grandparents lost their lives in a fire in their home on Christmas Day. The story is outlined here.

In the next few blogs I’ll offer free resources to teach fire safety to young people and their families —and I’ll also offer free help to any martial arts teacher and/or school owner who would like to execute a fire safety education self-defense program in his or her community.  

Feel free to phone me if you need/want more info. 

Tom Callos 530-903-0286

“There are Any Number of Reasons NOT to Join The One Hundred —-and for some unknown reason, some character flaw in me, I feel compelled to list some of them here.”

—Tom Callos

DO NOT JOIN THE 100 if: 

• You consider yourself too busy to read the posts here, regardless of their number (If you don’t come here to practice, what’s the use of joining the school?).

• You won’t get your own team involved, so you’re the only conduit into your school for ideas/methods explored here (Your staff get to join for free. If you don’t get them involved, your chances of successfully implementing a lot of the ideas here goes down, Oh, I’d guess about 50%).  

• When you read or watch the work here, you don’t understand you are in-training, that this is the equivalent of a master-level of study, that you can’t get these ideas, at the depth they are delivered here, or in the frequency, anywhere else in the martial arts community (If you don’t get how valuable and special the work is here, go join _______ [name your favorite purveyor of yesterdays ideas and methods here]). 

• Furthermore, you don’t realize that this work is creating an entirely new field of practice and purpose in the industry —and for serious teachers of martial arts. 

• You don’t respect me enough to pay attention —and in that case, my e-mails, the coaching, the messages, and the seemingly un-ending stream of material that comes to you through my effort is an annoyance, an intrusion, something you “can’t keep up with” (Don’t sweat it, I’m just not your teacher. My suggestion: Go find someone you DO respect enough to listen to). 

• You aren’t a person of action. You read a lot, you join, you have every intent of improving your lot, but at the end of each week your “action list” doesn’t reflect the level of involvement that brings about the change you are looking for (You can read 1000 posts here, but if you can’t DO, you’re wasting my time and your money). 

• You play on-line video games, but you don’t have the time to go to a Chamber of Commerce Meeting. You buy coffee at Starbucks, but when you see our tuition price you think you’re over-spending. You make posts on Facebook, but you won’t take 10 minutes to post something that might help others here in the association (I want people who do the work here, not people “paying dues”). 

• You don’t keep (or are unwilling to keep) stats for your business (Which means you will almost never get to the core reasons you’re not making enough income in your school). 

• You’re looking for quick money, a quick “fix,” an easier path, or something that’s “cunningly clever.” This work takes work, it takes intelligence, management skills, and foresight. If you lack self-discipline, you’re going to hate me, so don’t join in the first place.

Running a martial arts school business is both simple and painfully complex. Raising children is both simple and painfully complex. Maintaining healthy relationships is both simple and painfully complex. Living is both simple and painfully complex.
 
Simple
I rise every morning (so far), I show love and respect to everyone around me, I eat sparsely, simply, and for health, I practice good hygiene, I exercise my body with physical work and with the practice of the martial arts, I exercise my mind through reading, listening, discussing, and contemplating that which inspires me to think/learn, I exercise my spirit by turning what I consider to be spiritual practice into tangible action (compassionate thinking, words, and acts), I seek to do good for others; SIMPLE.
 
Complex
What am I here to do? Who can I help? What is the greatest thing (or things) I can tackle and/or engage in? How can I contribute to the work of others in a way that is the perfect use of whatever it is that I have inside of me —and/or within my reach —that could connect with the Divine?

What do I need to learn, do, and put into action that will cause me to transcend the limitations I carry in my own mind? How do I become a Master in the true sense of the word —and what is that supposed to mean for the people in my sphere of influence —and for the world? Am I living in the moment? Complex.

What I Think this Means for the Martial Arts Teacher (as I Exercise / Practice my self-appointed role as Teacher)

Understand that your school’s success (how that is measured is contingent upon your maturity / ambitions / experience / consciousness) is built upon very simple practices —and at exactly the same time, matching perfectly each simple issue —is a vastly (and perhaps “painfully”) complex counter-issue. This isn’t, in my opinion, a “problem,” but a wonderful crayon-box of potential for mental / spiritual / emotional growth and play-time.

And depending on where you choose (and ideally, we “choose” instead of being hooked into) to put your focus, “things” can look and be as simple as Steps 1, 2, and 3, and/or so beautifully complex, rich, and deep that you have to stop and stand still, while the tears roll down your face, in awe, in wonder, and connected to something that you just can’t find the words to express.

Martial arts school management is what it is. It is what you want to make it. It’s a “business” separate from “the martial arts,” or it isn’t. It is a place you make money or magic or both or none-of-the-above. It is your school (as in where YOU learn) —or it isn’t.

In my work, my only real job is to stay awake and aware of the simplicity and complexity of what I am doing and the potential of what I might/can do —AND, my intent is to cultivate the same kind of awareness / action in my students (my teachers).

Martial Arts Business, that’s my thing. However, it’s not business as usual —I’m in the business of taking the martial arts out of the dojo and into the world. I teach martial arts school owners how to bring authenticity, honor, and dignity to their chosen profession (after almost three decades of dance-school and health club sales strategies). See my work at www.the100.us