I Am Project - A Leader

I have been thinking a lot lately about the concept of leadership. I’ve spent the majority of my life enabling people to become leaders through the principles of empowerment like self realization, empathy, and accountability via kung fu. As a teacher it is impossible not to have your chest swell with pride when a student is excelling in all aspects of her life because she has learned to apply excellence in all her endeavours.

Empowerment is really, well, empowering. Once you have mastered it, it can become easy to take it for granted. The most difficult task I face as a teacher is keeping my students, especially the younger ones, cognizant of everything that goes with empowerment, especially the gift of influence. While studying the martial arts empowers us in all aspects of our lives, our studies only give us the tools of leadership. To apply these tools requires you to have a voice that is heard. This is why the gift of influence is something to be cherished and should never be taken for granted.

Learning kung fu has allowed me to excel in all facets of my life and has given me the opportunity to develop my voice and my passion while instilling a sense of responsibility in me that compels me to take action wherever I can make a difference. However, teaching kung fu has given my passion a voice and has given me the opportunity of influence so that I have the insight and confidence to recognize that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, going on in this world that is immune to my influence.

“Be around the people you want to be like, because you will be like the people you are around.” - Sam Reichle (b. 1979)