What is Excellence?

What is excellence?

Here at True Balance Karate, we have a social-emotional learning program called True Character. I’m Master H, owner and chief instructor here at the studio. I have two master’s degrees in education and we’ve developed this curriculum to meet the needs of our youngest kids who are three or four, and our oldest kids- not really kids anymore- our oldest student is 85.

And this month we are talking about excellence, working hard to reach our goals, striving to be the best that we can be. So when we’re talking about what excellence is, it’s basically just always putting in your best effort. That is excellence right there. And we’re all human, so we’re all going to make mistakes. We’re all going to mess up. We cannot be perfect. But if we are setting goals, if we’re working hard, if we’re putting our best foot forward, then we are demonstrating excellence, then we are demonstrating motivation and a drive to be better than we were yesterday.

Getting Better

And when we’re teaching this idea to younger kids, and if they don’t catch the ball or they don’t score the goal or they’re not doing well in school or they’re not understanding how to spell words or whatever it might be, you’ll often hear them say, I’m bad at this, or I’m not good at this, or I can’t do it. And so teaching it to them, it’s explicitly showing them, let’s set a goal. Let’s see how far you’ve come. Let’s take it one step further. It’s not about what you think you’re going to achieve, it’s about what you will achieve and all the pieces that go in between. It’s that growth in between the actual goal being met, not like the I am perfect goal met.

And so teaching them, look, you came a lot closer. It bounced off of your glove when you tried to catch that ball. Or, look, you came a lot closer. When you kicked the ball, it was headed towards the goal. The goalie just stopped it.

Look, you’re spelling it a lot better. You’re using the right vowels. You just missed this one letter. It’s teaching them that every time they make themselves a little bit better than they were yesterday, they are demonstrating excellence.

Gradual Improvement

And for adults, it’s reminding ourselves that if we can show up a little bit better than we showed up before, we are on the path of being excellent. We are all going to mess up. We are going to forget a project or to pay a bill, or for our teenagers, do their homework or insert whatever it might be. We’re going to forget. We’re going to mess up. We’re going to drop the ball. Last month we were talking about composure. We’re going to lose our cool. If we find ways to make ourselves one little bit better every single time, we’re demonstrating excellence because it’s about setting those goals and constantly striving to meet them. If we’re at home, what goals could you set? What goals could you set at home? Is the goal to make sure that the kitchen counter is cleaned off every night before you go to bed?

Setting Yourself up for Success

I believe some of us might call that a reset so that when we wake up in the morning, everything has been reset the way it needs to be. And I know that there’s no magic elves that are going to come in and do it for us, and we actually have to put in that little bit of work. But if we have a goal that the whole kitchen’s going to get cleaned up before we’re off doing whatever, it goes a lot faster if we stay on top of it over time, rather than just trying to tackle it all in one day at the end of the week or whatever that might look like. And so it’s a matter of setting ourselves up for success, giving ourselves realistic goals that we can achieve that we can make ourselves one little piece better every single day. And it’s about looking at things on a positive wavelength, if you will.

Reflecting Back

Maybe around the dinner table every day, what was something positive that happened about the day? What was a win that you had? Where do you feel accomplished? When we’re working on keeping a positive attitude, when we are working towards our goals and working on not getting upset if things aren’t going the way we want them to, we’re working on our excellence.

And so, this month we’re going to talk about what all of that looks like over the course of the whole month.

Thanks. And I’ll see you on the mat!

True Balance Karate was founded in 2012 by Master Sue and Paul Helsdon.

We offer kids karate lessons for pre-school children ages 3-6 and elementary age kids ages 7 and up. These lessons are designed to develop the critical building blocks kids need — specialized for their age group — for school excellence and later success in life.

Our adult martial arts training is a complete adult fitness and conditioning program for adults who want to lose weight, get (and stay) in shape, or learn self-defense in a supportive environment.

Instructors can answer questions or be contacted 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week at 630-663-2000. You can also contact us here. True Balance Karate is at 406 Ogden Ave Downers Grove Illinois, 60515 (next to CVS) Check out our Facebook!