I started teaching adult martial arts classes when I was young.
I remember being in high school and college, getting in front of a class of parents, higher ranking black belts, and business professionals thinking to my self, “Who am I to be giving these people lessons?”
But, I was thrusted into the position nonetheless and forced myself to add as much value as I could to make myself feel better.
And most of what I taught was essentially just copy-pasted techniques, tactics, and strategies from my instructors.
…But, I can remember a few very distinct moments in my journey when I decided to take a risk and do something of my own.
Once such moment was a time I decided to completely change the format of the class and do self-defense first rather than last. My thought being that’s how it’s going to be in reality, so why do a warm-up for self-defense in class?
Another such moment was a time I decided to create a 12-week strength training program that would assign specific exercises, reps, and sets in each class (instead of just doing spur of the moment, arbitrary exercises) that could replace resistance training at the gym.
And another moment, one I still remember vividly to this day even though it has been 15+ years… is the moment I decided to give an off-the-cuff speech at the end of class highlighting things I learned from study… to hopefully inspire these people who were two, maybe even three times my age.
…And I’ve been working on that last one ever since.
My point being: don’t pray for easier jobs; challenge yourself to do the hardest ones… better.