$11.95
Paperback: 240 pages
ISBN-10: 0981935001
ISBN-13: 978-0981935003
Library of Congress PCN: 2008909902
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
Author: Kevin Brett
Paperback: 240 pages
ISBN-10: 0981935001
ISBN-13: 978-0981935003
Library of Congress PCN: 2008909902
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
Author: Kevin Brett
The Way of the Martial Artist
Achieving Success in Martial Arts and in Life!
Achieving Success in Martial Arts and in Life!
Introduction
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
Thomas Jefferson’s words echo to us across the centuries. Those words mean something very real to anyone who is serious
about realizing a dream or achieving a goal. They are the essential ingredients for success. If you are setting goals, then
congratulations; you are alive and you’re obviously interested in achieving your potential. You are not content with merely
existing. When you set goals and pursue them, you are embodying the essence of Jefferson’s words and capitalizing on
opportunities to achieve your dreams. Chasing a dream requires that you have freedom and that you exercise your liberty to
pursue that dream. Without liberty, your dreams will never materialize. While you are pursuing your passion, you will likely find or
make your own happiness. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “The future belongs to those with the courage to chase their dreams.”
Pursuing your dreams is a sign of maturity because you are taking personal responsibility and acknowledging that you are
solely responsible for your own happiness. Your happiness is not someone else’s responsibility. Happiness is not found in
some government-funded program or provided to us as an entitlement. It is found within, through individual effort and it does not
always come easily. The pursuit of happiness is the first step toward achieving success. The framers of the Declaration of
Independence and the U.S. Constitution believed that we should all be able to have the freedom and opportunity to unlock the
potential hidden inside each of us and to pursue our aspirations. Their goal was not to provide any of us with what makes us
happy. To do so would be an insult to the human spirit. To pursue happiness requires that we have an environment where we
are free to find or make our own happiness. That is the path to individual prosperity and that is the legacy and the quest the
framers left us.
Chasing a dream and working to achieve a goal is a very liberating experience as you free yourself from the doubt about whether
you have the mettle to accomplish something meaningful or remarkable. If you do not have goals and dreams, you are not really
living. Pursuing your dream will eventually set you apart from the crowd as you close in on your goals. That is the road to
success.
Martial arts is about reaching your potential and achieving personal success. In the course of pursuing a black belt or mastery of
a martial arts style, you are beginning to develop personal qualities that can help you achieve goals and success in virtually any
area of your life. You will learn to identify and set short-term and long-term goals and develop character qualities that will
transform you for life.
One in Ten-Thousand
I am one in ten-thousand. That’s right, approximately one of every one hundred people who sign up for a martial arts program
make it to first-degree black belt. That’s one-percent. Of that one-percent, about one in one hundred ever make it to second-
degree black belt. Do the math. One-percent of one-percent is one in ten-thousand or 0.0001 percent. The fact that I was one of
five founders of a successful martial arts school puts me in an even higher percentile like one in a million.
That’s a level of success that only a few people achieve in martial arts. Ironically, one of my early martial arts instructors told me
when I was a blue belt that he didn’t think I had what it took to become a black belt. Thanks for the encouragement! Guess I
proved him wrong. With that kind of encouragement, who needs detractors?
Am I the greatest martial artist ever? No. I am not on a par with martial arts superstars like Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee or Chuck
Norris, but I have achieved a level of success doing something I love that many people struggle to reach if only because they
lack the tools, strategy and mindset to do so. And I’m not done yet!
Setting goals and achieving them is critical if you intend to be successful in anything. And let’s face it, achieving goals makes life
more meaningful and rewarding. At United Karate, we helped many students achieve black belt rank and trained them to be
excellent martial artists. We not only taught them the physical techniques however, we emphasized development of their
intellect, their character and leadership essentials. With their newly developed skills and character traits, many of our students
translated these qualities into every aspect of their life; school, work, relationships, personal and professional goals and many
of them were excited to share their achievements with us.
Success is ultimately, what this book is about; achieving your goals in martial arts and in life. Success begins with finding and
following your passion. Doing what you love and pursuing your passion in a way that somehow helps other people is always the
best way to achieve success. By success, I don’t mean that you have executed the perfect formula to develop fabulous wealth
and riches; although that could be a beneficial outcome. I mean that you have dreams that involve changing your life or the lives
of others. Success begins with a desire to accomplish meaningful goals that help you grow as an individual or to help other
people in some capacity. Success comes in many flavors, but they each start with a dream; the unwavering and deep desire
needed to power that dream and the commitment to drive the self-discipline that is necessary to convert that dream into reality.
In the world of martial arts, merely achieving black belt rank is not the whole story. There is much more to success than that, but
it’s certainly a great start and achieving goals like earning a black belt, a college degree, or losing a large amount of weight
demonstrates that you have many of the qualities necessary to set goals and achieve them. Earning a black belt can certainly
help you develop great habits of success and help you reprogram your mindset and attitude so that moving forward after black
belt you will know that anything is possible.
So let’s talk success. I was one of the co-founders of the United Karate Institute of Self-Defense, Inc. in Alexandria, Virginia.
Three other instructors, my wife (also a black belt) and I decided that we had met way too many highly ranked black belts who
had earned numerous trophies in sport karate competition. Sounds great doesn’t it. Except for one small problem, virtually every
one of these black belt “champions” did not possess even the most basic skills to defend themselves against even a single
assailant, much less multiple assailants. What’s up with that?
They’re black belts. They should be able to leap over tall buildings, outrun bullets, stop a speeding train and run between the
raindrops! Right? No, but it certainly seems to the average person that a black belt must be nearly indestructible and probably
possesses some almost mystical power and knowledge. Wrong again. If you are not trained properly with a real emphasis on
self-defense and street application of martial arts techniques and if you have not developed a survival mindset where your are
prepared to respond with lethal force if necessary, then you are merely mimicking movements from your instructor.
Black belts are just ordinary people, but with extraordinary commitment and that’s what sets them apart. You will never achieve
success in anything until you are committed to it. I can’t tell you how many people walked through United Karate’s doors and
expressed great interest in martial arts. They would not think twice about spending a lot of time describing their fascination and
admiration of martial arts and those who study them. That is where their involvement in martial arts ended. They stopped in
essentially to tell us that they were interested admirers.
Other visitors simply walked in and said, “Where do I sign?” So what’s the difference? Simple, one was interested and the other
was committed. Now do you see? Our society is full of dreamers and doers, and a rare, lucky few are blessed to have both
qualities. Dreaming and doing ultimately lead to success; whether it’s earning your black belt, climbing the corporate ladder (or
building your own corporate ladder!) or achieving some other meaningful and challenging personal goal.
That being said, if you have already categorized yourself as either a dreamer or a doer, don’t let that deter you from your goals.
Just because you tend to have qualities that put you into the dreamer category and have difficulty actually “doing” the things you
dream about doesn’t mean that you can’t realize your dreams. And the same is true for the doers. You must have equal
amounts of both and if you do not, then you must strengthen the area in which you are weaker. Wax-on; wax-off. Once you find
your passion and pursue something you truly enjoy as we did at United Karate, and you are able to provide a service or value
that helps other people, then you can say you are beginning to experience success and achieving your dreams.
Speaking of dreamers, Walt Disney was arguably one of the greatest dreamers of the twentieth century. However, he was also a
doer and he surrounded himself with excellent doers to help him realize his dreams. Disney developed a process or a
methodology that he and his organization used for every undertaking and project. In fact, he coined the term Imagineer; imagine
something, engineer it.
This process is still used today and is taught at the Disney Institute. It is broken down into a number of detailed steps. At its
highest level the steps are: Dream, Believe, Dare, Do. There you have it. Start with a dream, whatever it is; believe in the dream
and your ability to accomplish it; visualize it; dare others and yourself to join in and work with you to accomplish your dream and
finally, do your dream; make it happen.
I could end the book here, but obviously there are a few minor, nagging details that are involved that can spell success as you
begin your martial arts studies or continue to an advanced level. This book is structured so that it really doesn’t matter if you are
a novice or advanced student. You don’t even have to be involved in martial arts to gain an appreciation and understanding of
some concepts and strategies that can help you in your quest to improve yourself. There’s an old saying, (notice how no one
ever says, “There’s a new saying.”) “The more you do of what you’ve done, the more you’ll have of what you’ve got.” Translation;
it’s time for change. If you want to excel in martial arts or in anything and reap the rewards of sweet success you need to institute
some positive changes that will set you on a definite course toward that success.
It’s About Survival
Martial Arts are about survival. When you study martial arts, you must learn about many qualities of humanity, both positive and
negative. Ultimately, at its core, is the need to survive; be it on the streets of New York City, the jungles of Asia, the deserts of the
Middle East or even a hostile business climate. To survive combat and harsh environments, you the martial artist must have
many skills and have developed many physical and character qualities. Among these are determination, patience, balance,
humility, respect, service, and even compassion.
A martial art is a system of self-improvement on many levels, not merely a library of techniques for kicking, punching and
throwing. In order to survive, you must improve yourself beyond your current abilities; physical, mental and spiritual. This book
will teach you how to excel in these areas.
This book is not limited to or even concerned with a specific style of martial arts and I do not go into depth on specific
techniques. It is a guide on how to study martial arts and how to approach them to gain both a broader perspective on this
discipline and at the same time bring into clearer focus the underlying details and concepts that often elude even advanced
students. However, most importantly it is about achieving excellence and realizing your greater potential. Becoming a black belt
or master in some style of martial arts requires a new mindset and an evolution of your character that will take you to new
heights in your art and in life.
As in any other discipline, the practitioner must have a good grasp of the concepts and most importantly the terminology. Many
practicing martial artists are too focused simply on technique and conditioning without really learning the actual meanings of the
terms they throw around. For example, while many might observe a skilled martial artist and say that he or she is really fast,
someone with better insight into the meaning of speed of technique might observe that same practitioner and realize that he is
not fast, but rather that the person being observed has excellent timing, which creates the illusion of speed.
Therefore, it is up to the student to learn what the difference is between speed and timing and with this new understanding
isolate the two qualities in his mind and practice improving his speed as well as his timing. With the understanding and
combination of both qualities the student can significantly increase his skill, strategy and knowledge.
A martial artist is concerned with many things in his training and in his life. He must learn all of the proper techniques for a given
style of martial arts; he must consider studying other styles and weapons. He must develop powerful technique and good
fighting ability and improve upon his character. There are thousands of training methods, drills, offenses and defenses, but
what this all boils down to is everything that a martial artist is concerned with is covered at some level within these pages. To
become a black belt or a martial artist with a master’s mindset you must seek excellence. Mediocrity is not acceptable.
It’s Also about Qualities
This book is all about qualities. The qualities needed to achieve excellence in martial arts and in life. The process of becoming
an honorable and purposeful martial artist consists of building on your existing good qualities and reducing or eliminating any
less desirable qualities. These qualities are physical, mental and spiritual. I do not mean spiritual in the religious sense, but
simply in the sense of a person’s character and attitude and impact on the world around him or her. These pages describe
these qualities and provide some useful insights about how to develop them, how they build on each other and why they are
important.
The Way of the Martial Artist explains the physical, mental and spiritual milestones all martial artists should pass on their way to
becoming a more mature warrior and an excellent human being. However, remember the best warrior is not warlike, but is able
to summon the warrior spirit within when it is required. The warrior spirit is not always shown through combat, but also through
compassion, tolerance and service. A warrior is a servant to society. A warrior who has learned the secret to achieving personal
excellence must serve as an example and inspiration to others and apply these qualities in all endeavors.
If you learn the language, study and practice the concepts you will improve your physical, mental and character traits and finally
in the last chapter as you learn about the psychology and mechanics of success you will be equipping yourself with the tools
and habits for success in virtually any undertaking!
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
Thomas Jefferson’s words echo to us across the centuries. Those words mean something very real to anyone who is serious
about realizing a dream or achieving a goal. They are the essential ingredients for success. If you are setting goals, then
congratulations; you are alive and you’re obviously interested in achieving your potential. You are not content with merely
existing. When you set goals and pursue them, you are embodying the essence of Jefferson’s words and capitalizing on
opportunities to achieve your dreams. Chasing a dream requires that you have freedom and that you exercise your liberty to
pursue that dream. Without liberty, your dreams will never materialize. While you are pursuing your passion, you will likely find or
make your own happiness. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “The future belongs to those with the courage to chase their dreams.”
Pursuing your dreams is a sign of maturity because you are taking personal responsibility and acknowledging that you are
solely responsible for your own happiness. Your happiness is not someone else’s responsibility. Happiness is not found in
some government-funded program or provided to us as an entitlement. It is found within, through individual effort and it does not
always come easily. The pursuit of happiness is the first step toward achieving success. The framers of the Declaration of
Independence and the U.S. Constitution believed that we should all be able to have the freedom and opportunity to unlock the
potential hidden inside each of us and to pursue our aspirations. Their goal was not to provide any of us with what makes us
happy. To do so would be an insult to the human spirit. To pursue happiness requires that we have an environment where we
are free to find or make our own happiness. That is the path to individual prosperity and that is the legacy and the quest the
framers left us.
Chasing a dream and working to achieve a goal is a very liberating experience as you free yourself from the doubt about whether
you have the mettle to accomplish something meaningful or remarkable. If you do not have goals and dreams, you are not really
living. Pursuing your dream will eventually set you apart from the crowd as you close in on your goals. That is the road to
success.
Martial arts is about reaching your potential and achieving personal success. In the course of pursuing a black belt or mastery of
a martial arts style, you are beginning to develop personal qualities that can help you achieve goals and success in virtually any
area of your life. You will learn to identify and set short-term and long-term goals and develop character qualities that will
transform you for life.
One in Ten-Thousand
I am one in ten-thousand. That’s right, approximately one of every one hundred people who sign up for a martial arts program
make it to first-degree black belt. That’s one-percent. Of that one-percent, about one in one hundred ever make it to second-
degree black belt. Do the math. One-percent of one-percent is one in ten-thousand or 0.0001 percent. The fact that I was one of
five founders of a successful martial arts school puts me in an even higher percentile like one in a million.
That’s a level of success that only a few people achieve in martial arts. Ironically, one of my early martial arts instructors told me
when I was a blue belt that he didn’t think I had what it took to become a black belt. Thanks for the encouragement! Guess I
proved him wrong. With that kind of encouragement, who needs detractors?
Am I the greatest martial artist ever? No. I am not on a par with martial arts superstars like Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee or Chuck
Norris, but I have achieved a level of success doing something I love that many people struggle to reach if only because they
lack the tools, strategy and mindset to do so. And I’m not done yet!
Setting goals and achieving them is critical if you intend to be successful in anything. And let’s face it, achieving goals makes life
more meaningful and rewarding. At United Karate, we helped many students achieve black belt rank and trained them to be
excellent martial artists. We not only taught them the physical techniques however, we emphasized development of their
intellect, their character and leadership essentials. With their newly developed skills and character traits, many of our students
translated these qualities into every aspect of their life; school, work, relationships, personal and professional goals and many
of them were excited to share their achievements with us.
Success is ultimately, what this book is about; achieving your goals in martial arts and in life. Success begins with finding and
following your passion. Doing what you love and pursuing your passion in a way that somehow helps other people is always the
best way to achieve success. By success, I don’t mean that you have executed the perfect formula to develop fabulous wealth
and riches; although that could be a beneficial outcome. I mean that you have dreams that involve changing your life or the lives
of others. Success begins with a desire to accomplish meaningful goals that help you grow as an individual or to help other
people in some capacity. Success comes in many flavors, but they each start with a dream; the unwavering and deep desire
needed to power that dream and the commitment to drive the self-discipline that is necessary to convert that dream into reality.
In the world of martial arts, merely achieving black belt rank is not the whole story. There is much more to success than that, but
it’s certainly a great start and achieving goals like earning a black belt, a college degree, or losing a large amount of weight
demonstrates that you have many of the qualities necessary to set goals and achieve them. Earning a black belt can certainly
help you develop great habits of success and help you reprogram your mindset and attitude so that moving forward after black
belt you will know that anything is possible.
So let’s talk success. I was one of the co-founders of the United Karate Institute of Self-Defense, Inc. in Alexandria, Virginia.
Three other instructors, my wife (also a black belt) and I decided that we had met way too many highly ranked black belts who
had earned numerous trophies in sport karate competition. Sounds great doesn’t it. Except for one small problem, virtually every
one of these black belt “champions” did not possess even the most basic skills to defend themselves against even a single
assailant, much less multiple assailants. What’s up with that?
They’re black belts. They should be able to leap over tall buildings, outrun bullets, stop a speeding train and run between the
raindrops! Right? No, but it certainly seems to the average person that a black belt must be nearly indestructible and probably
possesses some almost mystical power and knowledge. Wrong again. If you are not trained properly with a real emphasis on
self-defense and street application of martial arts techniques and if you have not developed a survival mindset where your are
prepared to respond with lethal force if necessary, then you are merely mimicking movements from your instructor.
Black belts are just ordinary people, but with extraordinary commitment and that’s what sets them apart. You will never achieve
success in anything until you are committed to it. I can’t tell you how many people walked through United Karate’s doors and
expressed great interest in martial arts. They would not think twice about spending a lot of time describing their fascination and
admiration of martial arts and those who study them. That is where their involvement in martial arts ended. They stopped in
essentially to tell us that they were interested admirers.
Other visitors simply walked in and said, “Where do I sign?” So what’s the difference? Simple, one was interested and the other
was committed. Now do you see? Our society is full of dreamers and doers, and a rare, lucky few are blessed to have both
qualities. Dreaming and doing ultimately lead to success; whether it’s earning your black belt, climbing the corporate ladder (or
building your own corporate ladder!) or achieving some other meaningful and challenging personal goal.
That being said, if you have already categorized yourself as either a dreamer or a doer, don’t let that deter you from your goals.
Just because you tend to have qualities that put you into the dreamer category and have difficulty actually “doing” the things you
dream about doesn’t mean that you can’t realize your dreams. And the same is true for the doers. You must have equal
amounts of both and if you do not, then you must strengthen the area in which you are weaker. Wax-on; wax-off. Once you find
your passion and pursue something you truly enjoy as we did at United Karate, and you are able to provide a service or value
that helps other people, then you can say you are beginning to experience success and achieving your dreams.
Speaking of dreamers, Walt Disney was arguably one of the greatest dreamers of the twentieth century. However, he was also a
doer and he surrounded himself with excellent doers to help him realize his dreams. Disney developed a process or a
methodology that he and his organization used for every undertaking and project. In fact, he coined the term Imagineer; imagine
something, engineer it.
This process is still used today and is taught at the Disney Institute. It is broken down into a number of detailed steps. At its
highest level the steps are: Dream, Believe, Dare, Do. There you have it. Start with a dream, whatever it is; believe in the dream
and your ability to accomplish it; visualize it; dare others and yourself to join in and work with you to accomplish your dream and
finally, do your dream; make it happen.
I could end the book here, but obviously there are a few minor, nagging details that are involved that can spell success as you
begin your martial arts studies or continue to an advanced level. This book is structured so that it really doesn’t matter if you are
a novice or advanced student. You don’t even have to be involved in martial arts to gain an appreciation and understanding of
some concepts and strategies that can help you in your quest to improve yourself. There’s an old saying, (notice how no one
ever says, “There’s a new saying.”) “The more you do of what you’ve done, the more you’ll have of what you’ve got.” Translation;
it’s time for change. If you want to excel in martial arts or in anything and reap the rewards of sweet success you need to institute
some positive changes that will set you on a definite course toward that success.
It’s About Survival
Martial Arts are about survival. When you study martial arts, you must learn about many qualities of humanity, both positive and
negative. Ultimately, at its core, is the need to survive; be it on the streets of New York City, the jungles of Asia, the deserts of the
Middle East or even a hostile business climate. To survive combat and harsh environments, you the martial artist must have
many skills and have developed many physical and character qualities. Among these are determination, patience, balance,
humility, respect, service, and even compassion.
A martial art is a system of self-improvement on many levels, not merely a library of techniques for kicking, punching and
throwing. In order to survive, you must improve yourself beyond your current abilities; physical, mental and spiritual. This book
will teach you how to excel in these areas.
This book is not limited to or even concerned with a specific style of martial arts and I do not go into depth on specific
techniques. It is a guide on how to study martial arts and how to approach them to gain both a broader perspective on this
discipline and at the same time bring into clearer focus the underlying details and concepts that often elude even advanced
students. However, most importantly it is about achieving excellence and realizing your greater potential. Becoming a black belt
or master in some style of martial arts requires a new mindset and an evolution of your character that will take you to new
heights in your art and in life.
As in any other discipline, the practitioner must have a good grasp of the concepts and most importantly the terminology. Many
practicing martial artists are too focused simply on technique and conditioning without really learning the actual meanings of the
terms they throw around. For example, while many might observe a skilled martial artist and say that he or she is really fast,
someone with better insight into the meaning of speed of technique might observe that same practitioner and realize that he is
not fast, but rather that the person being observed has excellent timing, which creates the illusion of speed.
Therefore, it is up to the student to learn what the difference is between speed and timing and with this new understanding
isolate the two qualities in his mind and practice improving his speed as well as his timing. With the understanding and
combination of both qualities the student can significantly increase his skill, strategy and knowledge.
A martial artist is concerned with many things in his training and in his life. He must learn all of the proper techniques for a given
style of martial arts; he must consider studying other styles and weapons. He must develop powerful technique and good
fighting ability and improve upon his character. There are thousands of training methods, drills, offenses and defenses, but
what this all boils down to is everything that a martial artist is concerned with is covered at some level within these pages. To
become a black belt or a martial artist with a master’s mindset you must seek excellence. Mediocrity is not acceptable.
It’s Also about Qualities
This book is all about qualities. The qualities needed to achieve excellence in martial arts and in life. The process of becoming
an honorable and purposeful martial artist consists of building on your existing good qualities and reducing or eliminating any
less desirable qualities. These qualities are physical, mental and spiritual. I do not mean spiritual in the religious sense, but
simply in the sense of a person’s character and attitude and impact on the world around him or her. These pages describe
these qualities and provide some useful insights about how to develop them, how they build on each other and why they are
important.
The Way of the Martial Artist explains the physical, mental and spiritual milestones all martial artists should pass on their way to
becoming a more mature warrior and an excellent human being. However, remember the best warrior is not warlike, but is able
to summon the warrior spirit within when it is required. The warrior spirit is not always shown through combat, but also through
compassion, tolerance and service. A warrior is a servant to society. A warrior who has learned the secret to achieving personal
excellence must serve as an example and inspiration to others and apply these qualities in all endeavors.
If you learn the language, study and practice the concepts you will improve your physical, mental and character traits and finally
in the last chapter as you learn about the psychology and mechanics of success you will be equipping yourself with the tools
and habits for success in virtually any undertaking!
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