Onegaishimasu Parents,

Welcome Back!!!

NOW it's time to do what all Black Belts do, and it is so important for your child’s development. It is the critical success habit of STARTING STRONG!

So now it is time to get to work, and success is just a habit, just as failure and struggle are habits. Here at Keiko Martial Arts we know what habits result in high achieving, successful, happy, children and adults.

Here is your first assignment of the New Year…

Students - This habit will make your success in life so easy. But you will need your parents help.

Parents - We can develop these habits in your child but we know that YOU are a critical part of this. We have a major learning opportunity coming up on Monday. Both SCHOOL and KARATE restart on Monday, and you need to make sure you START STRONG in both. Black Belts, and leaders, start strong at everything they do. It is a habit and the only way they know how to do things!

Students – We want you to help your parents and work with them on these critical factors…….

Parents - Just do these three simple, but critical things, and equally important, allow your children to be active in the process:

1. Prepare - It is always hard to restart anything. You are out of your school/day routine. Just like trying to restart a diet or workout program you fell off of, or that first day back at work after a lengthy vacation. This is even worse or more amplified for our kids.

So here is all you have to do:

a. Start talking about, and talking up Monday. Be extremely positive about the restart of school and karate.

b. Get them back into a school sleep/wake routine. Start today!!!

c. Pre-plan everything. Get everything ready for Monday morning...their clothes, backpack, breakfast. lunch...everything! Do not leave anything for the last minute. And don't forget anything.

d. If you are an over achiever or really a Black Belt parent...do a dry run Sunday morning!

2. Get Excited - This is one where you can only lead by example. Get your child excited for the restart but....the best way to do this is YOU!!! You need to get excited and give off the emotion and energy that you just cannot wait for Monday morning! Get so excited you cannot stop talking about it. Your child feeds off of your emotions and energy. You need to be ten times more excited than they are!

3. The intial start of Monday - The most critical hour of this whole process will be your initial start to Monday morning. Do you know a family whose typical morning sounds like this: They try to get their kids up for school but it takes 15 minutes of yelling at them to get out of bed because they stayed up too late playing video games. Then once they finally get up, it takes forever for them to find their clothes and get dressed. Once they are dressed they don't like what Mom made for breakfast as she yells at them to hurry up and eat because they are going miss the bus or be late. They complain about everything maybe even saying those dreaded words "I hate school!" Then they cannot find their jacket or the things they need for school. Any wonder why the kids (and Mom) start the day in a cranky mood?

But you and your family are going to be the opposite!!!! Be intentional with your attitude of “this is going to be our best re-start ever!!” That first couple of hours sets up the whole day. So envision the "perfect" morning then make it happen.

How?

Here are a few tips:

a. Take care of you first - Make sure you get to bed at an appropriate time, wake early, and are fully ready, energized and excited before the kids even get up. I am always the first up….It allows me to zero myself in mentally and prepare for my day while it is still QUIET in the house.

b. Get them up strong - Get them out of bed right away. You probably are doing this already, but in case you aren’t, teach your kids to set their own alarm clock and to get up the first time it goes off.

All highly successful people have one thing in common - they get up early, they get up strong, they have a strong morning routine, and they start their day energized and excited.

c. Stay ahead of the game- Most of the stress of a school morning is caused by one thing - being late.

d. Gratitude and the Big Picture - When you catch yourself thinking this is too hard or "why", just remember this - you have one of the greatest gifts in the world and one of the greatest responsibilities in the world: Your child. Take a very deep breath and go into your heart and remember how lucky you are. Go to gratitude, then look into your child's face, and do this: remind yourself that greatest thing you can do as a parent is replace these frantic moments with moments where you just "emotionally connect" with your child. This is what every child needs most from you - for you to be fully present with just a moment of emotional connection. Do this and your children will look forward to getting up, and will touch in you what is truly the most important thing you can give them as a parent.

Are you ready to step up? Are you ready to raise your standard? Are you ready to make 2019 your BEST YEAR EVER?!!

See you Monday!

Sensei

Keiko Karate – “Actually we do make Ninjas and Superheroes here………………we turn kids into Ninjas and we turn their parents into their superheroes!”