UBBT Team 6

As of August 28, I have officially become part of Team 6 of the Ultimate Black Belt Test. While I continue to struggle to find the time to manage all of my personal and professional responsibilities while simultaneously running a full time school, I expect I will benefit from the self imposed structure the UBBT journey will provide.

I have been contemplating taking this challenge for a couple of years now but I have constantly deferred my enrollment to a future date in the hope that several aspects of my life would align such that the risk of failure would be zero. Well my life isn’t getting any simpler and I’m not getting any younger so Thursday was as good of a day as any to bite the bullet and jump in head first.

I haven’t finalized all my requirements but there are definitely some benefits I expect to come from the UBBT experience:

My personal training will become a higher priority in my life. Over the years I have concentrated on producing top martial artists and have not put the same effort into my own physical training. I use my words to motivate and inspire my students now I hope to take their training and focus to another level through the example I set with my actions.

The business affairs of my school will become more systemized and efficient. Lack of structure has allowed my school to drift along by the seat of its pants while I make decisions based upon my gut feeling and intuition as opposed to hard facts and statistics. I have access to a lot of expertise that I am not exploiting and I have a bunch of strong leaders in my school that I am not fully utilizing. The structure of the UBBT will definitely encourage me to get help when I can use it and delegate tasks that do not require my direct involvement.

If at a minimum I realize these two benefits, the long term effects on my students and school will be very positive. We’re already a big family at Silent River Kung Fu and there is no doubt that the UBBT will bring us even closer together.

“It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.”
- Adlai Stevenson (1900 - 1965)