"Are you going to make your kids do Martial Arts?"

Since I had my son a couple years ago, people often ask me if I will make my kids do martial arts.  It is an interesting question, and one that I have spent a good bit of time thinking about.  Luckily, this is one thing about parenting that I am actually pretty certain about lol.

First off, it is my hope that my kids will love HapKiDo as much as I do and I wont have to make them train because they will want to!  I am realistic though and am aware that there is a good chance that at some point in their life before they leave my care they will lose interest and want to stop.  Now of course I do not have a crystal ball so can't say with 100% certainty what I will do when that time comes.  At the time that I am writing this though I feel pretty certain what I will do and why I will do it.  So without further ado, here is why I WILL make my children participate in Martial Arts.


Any time someone asks me if I will make my kids do Martial Arts, my initial thought is always "Of course!"  To me, that question is the same as "Are you going to teach your child to read? Will you make them go to school? Do you care if your child has to tools to succeed in life??!!" I imagine if you ask any parent those questions they will all answer in the affirmative! To me, Martial Arts training is just as imperative to the development of a person.   Now I do not believe that someone needs to be as involved in Martial Arts as I was as a kid, and am now as an adult, to be successful.  I do however feel very strongly that the benefit of having a regular and consistent training regime is invaluable (especially in the formative adolescent and teen years.)   So, now that you know how I feel let me explain just a few of the reasons why I feel this way!

Martial Arts is the perfect teammate to parents! 

This first point may seem a little self serving, and it is in a sense, because martial arts makes the job of a parent easier!  But this is not just for the effect of making a parent's life better.  In my opinion one of the most important job of a parent is to prepare their child to be constructive and contributing member of society.  When this is done it ultimately leads to life being better for the child, and the world as a whole.  The parent's responsibility is to raise a child that is well adjusted and self sufficient, and to develop the child to hopefully be a part of humanity as a whole bringing us as a planet to a higher level of existence.  Martial Arts is the perfect aid to the parent in this task!  A good martial arts program will instill values that are universally considered to be valuable to having a strong and positive character.  Traits such as compassion, discipline, focus and respect just to name a few.  The classes will also teach kids the importance of taking care of our bodies, starting children on their journey of a healthy life.  Imagine if adults grew up and were even 10% healthier than they are now!  The benefit that would bring, not just on an individual level but to society as a whole, is mind boggling!  Good parents attempt to teach their children all of these things, and Martial Arts has been here for thousands of years to help, and in this day and age it is much more accessible than ever before!

Lack of Confidence is a HUGE cause of many of society's problems, and Martial Arts is the CURE!  

So many of society's problems such as depression, bullying and drug abuse can be improved if not completely resolved through increasing confidence at a young age.  Whether it is the strength to stand up for yourself or the positive self image required to not feel the need to "fit in" with the wrong crowd,  confidence will help a child make the right choices to steer their life in a positive direction.  Some people are naturally born with confidence, and others are not.  Some peoples' lives cultivate confidence organically, and other's seem to smother any semblance of confidence before it blossoms.  Martial Arts has the power to help everyone, not matter what their level of confidence is, learn to believe in themselves and not be drawn in a negative direction due to a lack of confidence.  The result of this confidence flows over into all areas of a Martial Artist's life.  This is a benefit that I personally have experienced through my martial arts life, and I look forward to martial arts helping my children having confidence in themselves as well!

Martial Arts will teach your child how to control ego and emotions. 

So as an equally important counterpart of the increased confidence discussed above, Martial Arts teaches kids and teens how to control their ego and emotions.  Being extremely confident without also staying humble is a recipe for disaster.  Just as not having belief in yourself is destructive, having an inflated image of yourself is going to lead to problems socially and emotionally.  These two lessons must be learned in unison!  In my opinion, and from my own personal experience, martial arts is perfect for this.  As a teen boy growing up and figuring out my place in the world as a man, it was invaluable to me that no matter how great I felt I was at the skills I was learning there was always someone there to put me in my place if needed.  No matter how much of a bad@$$ I felt like I was becoming, if my ego was ever out of line there was always someone bigger, stronger, more skilled, etc.  The best part about this is that in the moment as you learn that you aren't God's gift to the fight game, you also quickly learn that getting upset wont help the situation at all but it will actually only make it worse.  This teaches you to control your emotions and use them constructively.  There are not many things in life that can provide this for us, and I think it is crucial to the development of an adult to know that you cannot just do whatever you want just because you want to.  A good martial arts instructor can (and will if needed) teach this lesson in a safe and controlled environment, which is much preferred to learning it as an adult in their career or worse in the streets from someone who may be willing to seriously hurt or kill them.

Martial Arts is hierarchical. 

Traditional Martial Arts is set up in a way that teaches us how to be a follower as well as a leader.  All great leaders are exceptional students, they know what it takes to be a good follower and that knowledge is one of the factors that makes them exceptional.  I think this skill is something that is invaluable to anyone hoping to be successful in life.  I want my son to be a leader of course, but if he doesn't know how to be a follower when he is supposed to be then he will never reach his potential.  Traditional Martial Arts is a great teacher of this skill because it is a very hierarchical system with a rich history of tradition and etiquette.  Learning to follow a system like this may seem outdated to some, but from my experience being involved in traditional Martial Arts since the age of 6, the best students who have the most success are the ones who use this system as a way to develop and demonstrate their strength as a person.   

Martial Arts teaches compassion and the value of life.  

Learning how to effectively hurt people teaches the importance of not doing so.  Many of the kindest people I have ever met are very skilled in the martial ways.  Through training Martial Arts you learn the importance of kindness and compassion, and are able to practice those character traits on a very deep and personal level.  The idea that Martial Arts, learning how to be fight and being skilled in violence, promotes compassion is difficult for some to grasp.  But those who understand it see a very deep connection.  I want my sons to understand compassion on the deepest level possible, and I know Martial Arts will help them with this. 

We use the hashtag #HapKiDo4Life, and that to me means that HapKiDo is for the entire life, of myself and every around me.  Now.....you have had a glimpse into my brain ;)  

 

Resistance Training with Shape Up Kickboxing - Cumming Ge

Resistance Training at Shape Up Kickboxing - Cumming Georgia

When wanting to get in shape, fitness kickboxing should definitely be a part of your plan! But not all fitness kickboxing programs are created equal! The Shape Up Kickboxing Program has a few key components that really set it apart from what you will find at most gyms. Although most kickboxing classes are a good cardio workout, Shape Up Kickboxing has the aspect of resistance training added to H.I.I.T. (High Intensity Interval Training). This is one of the biggest differences between what Shape Up Kickboxing Cumming, Ga offers and "cardio kickboxing." The cardio style kickboxing class where the kickboxing moves are preformed in the air can be a great cardio calorie burn, but once your heart rate drops after the class ends then the calorie burn stops as well. The combination of the H.I.I.T. workout with resistance training will quite literally turn your body into a calorie burning machine! Without the muscular strengthening, a kickboxing workout will provide a great calorie burn during the session, but with the addition of the resistance training your body will begin to burn more calories every minute of every day. In short, the stronger and more tone your muscles are the more calories you will burn on a daily basis and the more you will be able to push yourself during your workouts. You cannot just cardio yourself to a healthy body, and Shape Up Kickboxing can help complete the whole picture to get you results!!

In the Shape Up classes you will be taught real kickboxing moves, and will train those moves on a heavy bag. Hitting a heavy bag has a variety of benefits, such as:

• Resistance Training
• Cardio
• Stress Relief
• Self Defense Skills
• Fun!
• Heavy bags wont hit you back 😆😆😆 lol

These are just a small handful of the benefits, and when you come in and try a class we would love to hear what your favorite part about hitting a heavy bag is!

Shape Up Kickboxing Classes in Cumming Georgia

Shape Up Kickboxing - Cumming, Ga

https://www.facebook.com/ShapeUpKickboxingCumming/

http://www.ShapeUpKickboxing.com
https://shapeupkickboxing.com/cumming/
https://shapeupkickboxing.com/cumming-starter-packs/
https://www.facebook.com/ShapeUpKickboxingCumming/

1614 Peachtree Parkway
Suite 100
Cumming, Ga 30041
(678) 919-8824

Make Love Visible - A mantra for 2020 and beyond

Make Love Visible

Make Love Visible!  I think this is going to become my mantra for 2020.  I read a post on Facebook the other day that really hit home for me. It was in one of those silly posts that says to copy and past it into your status (you know the type of post that I have always sworn I would never do.....) Well, this post had a line in it that I found so powerful that I actually copied the post as my status 😨😲

The sentence that hit deep for me was "I will not stand idly by and live in a world where love is invisible."  The text in the post gave examples of simple kindness, the type of things anyone can do, to improve peoples' day and show love.  When I read the post it instantly hit me like a light went on in my head, and I felt that many thoughts that were floating around in my brain were now nicely tied together with a ribbon. And the ribbon read "Make Love Visible"

The many thoughts that now make up my Make Love Visible philosophy come from so many different places, people and organizations.  I can hardly take credit for this idea.  I do however feel that this is a concept that is worthy of spreading and making famous!  I am a firm believer that there are more people who are basically good in the world than there are evil.  There is way more good, or at the very least neutral, in the world than there is evil.  I believe this with all of my heart. The issue it that people are more likely to perpetuate negativity than they are to spread positivity and because of this the evil people of the world get all the attention.  Think about it in your own life!  On Facebook you see people post something bad that is going on in the world, and the whole internet has to comment about how horrible it is!  But when something good happens people just go about their day like it was nothing.  We seem to have become numb to positivity.  It takes a drastically positive event to get noticed, but something as minor as getting cut off in traffic is worth posting about on social media.  People are much more likely to share a negative review than they are a positive one. At the surface that makes it seem like things are all going to hell, but I do not feel that is the case at all!  It is just that positivity, and LOVE, have become abstract ideas that people think about, talk about, post about on their Instagram, but seldom manifest into reality.  That is why it is so important that there is an army of people taking up the mission to Make Love Visible.  Every little bit is more important that anyone can imagine.  Hold the door for people, let them go ahead of you in line, smile at EVERYONE! These little acts make the love that is in the world visible and will begin a contagious reaction that is our only hope to a peaceful and bright future.

In the rest of this post I will briefly share a few of the ideas that make this statement powerful to me, and why I chose to share my thoughts here when I read the words "I will not stand idly by and live in a world where love is invisible."

I am going to start by talking about one of the most influential things in my life: HapKiDo!  HapKiDo,

simply translated, means the Art of Coordinated Power.  Like most things, a simple definition doesn't always do justice and there can be many interpretations and applications.  The definition of HapKiDo is no different, and you can use it to explain how the martial arts techniques themselves work, or you can dig into it and use it to explain a philosophy for life itself that a HapKiDoist lives by.  HapKiDo is actually 3 words: "Hap" means Coordination/Harmony, "Ki" means Energy/Power, and "Do" means Art/Way.  So what does all this have to do with Making Love Visible?  Well one way to look at the meaning of HapKiDo is that it is the way of coordinating the potential power that is inside us all with the actual power that we express outwardly.  One example of this is when we take the love that is inside us for our fellow humans, and make it visible through our actions.  HapKiDo gives us the physical, mental and spiritual strength to turn the potential we have into reality.  A good martial artist is a person of action, not theory. Thinking about love towards one another is not enough, there has to be action on those thoughts.

The next influence I want to mention in the cultivation of my Make Love Visible idea is a powerful demonstration of what it looks like when people Make Love Visible. I work with a non-profit group here in Atlanta called Project Live Love whose mission is to influence culture through love in action.  Project Live Love aims to find people who are motivated by Love, and provide an opportunity for them to put that Love into action!  This organizations mission is making love visible, and the amazing men and women who participate blow me away time and time again.  The founder of the organization, Drew Benton, told me that one of the reasons he started Project Live Love was because he was constantly finding himself talking with people who wanted to do something meaningful and good. The issue was that they did not know how or what to do, and because of this they rarely mobilized.  That is where the term Live Love comes from; it is not enough to talk about loving your fellow man, you have to live it!
(If you are interested in donating to Project Live Love, Click Here: https://projectlivelove.com/donate/)

The final influence I would like to discuss is last in this post but definitely not least!  A huge influence for me striving to live out my life with a Make Love Visible mindset is my family.  Growing up my family was always very close knit.  I was able to spend a lot of time around both my immediate family as well as many uncle, aunts and cousins.  All of the varying perspectives these people brought into my life, along with the fact that I am the youngest of five kids, allowed me to gain first hand experience of real life from a very young age.  There was my Dad always telling me to work hard, stand up for what is right and never sacrifice your values for what is easy.  Pairing perfectly with this there was my Mom stressing the importance of being kind, teaching me that with the support of family you will never feel alone and there is nothing you cannot do with their support, so never take them for granted.  Possibly the most impressive thing about my parents is that not only did they teach and instill these values in me, they lived it in their own lives!  They shared with me the things they thought were important to living a good life, then they showed me what it looked like in their lives.  Growing up my parents always made sure to not just say how they felt but they showed it in their actions.  They showed me how powerful a force it is when you Make Love Visible, and that experience has given me the motivation to reach heights that without it I wouldn't dream would be possible.

My hope and request is that after reading this you take a deep look at your life.  Look within yourself, and at the people around you, and see that there is a lot of love in you and in the world.  I hope that you will see there is a lot more love out there than there is hate.  The problem I see is the few evil people in the world, the ones filled with hate, are not holding that in.  Love is not an abstract idea, or something you have save inside of you.  Let it out, make it visible, drown out the hate, and brighten the world!

With Love,

RJ LoPresti
www.RJLoPresti.com
#NextLevel

Show Some Passion, Live With Passion

Show Some Passion Love With Passion!

Have you guys ever listened to this? You know at the end of every video I say "Show Some Passion, Live With Passion" Well that came from me listening to this.

I can honestly say that listening to this changed my life. I was assigned to write a paper on this audio when I opened my first HapKiDo school. It surely set the tone for the trajectory my life is on now. I highly recommend it!! Thank you Tony Robbins!

Check it out here: https://amzn.to/2Lyb9Ih

Do you Step Up or Back Down? Martial Artists develop an Indomitable Spirit!

So...Are you the type of person who steps up to a challenge, or do you back down?!

As a HapKiDo instructor I see tons of people on a daily basis who are faced with challenges of varying levels of significance, both on the mat as well as out in the "real" world.  These challenges range from struggles as simple as struggling to remember a technique in class to things serious such as losing a job or the death of a loved one.  It doesn't matter how serious the challenge is, it is important that we attack any challenge that stands between us and reaching our goals.  This is one of the countless reasons that I feel martial arts is so important, not just for kids but for adults as well.  HapKiDo Martial Arts teaches its students to have an indomitable spirit, meaning that nothing can hold us back. When an individual has an indomitable spirit they can achieve higher levels of success and reach their goals more easily because things that would stop most people are merely speed bumps to them.  

In HapKiDo class, from the very beginning, a student is regularly presented with challenges that they are asked to overcome.  They start out easily, maybe remembering a set of techniques or kicking above their head, but as they progress they are presented with much more difficult tasks such as staying disciplined in their training over many years to achieve mastery of the art.  The act of overcoming these struggles teaches the student that if they stay focused and try hard, they can move past the obstacles in order to get to their goal.  

This may seem ordinary, and like nothing special, but a good Martial Arts instructor works with the students until they see that they are able to overcome the obstacles that are presented to them.  This is a simple yet important realization to give the student the mentality of stepping up instead of backing down.  There are so many areas of life that allow people to just back down from a challenge instead of pushing through.  So many parents and coaches see someone struggling and they swoop in to help them out, but what does this teach them?  By doing this they learn that if something is hard they can just sit back and wait, and someone will do it for them.  Unfortunately, the world doesn't really work like that.  

Having the "Step Up" attitude can positively effect many areas of life.  It will allow HapKiDoist to get good marks in school, it will help you gain the favor of peers and supervisors at work, and will be the gift that takes your life to a level that you are proud of.  When you are not afraid to step up to a challenge you will find that you have the capability to accomplish way more than you thought possible, and will be able to achieve successes that are far out of reach for anyone who backs down in the face of adversity.  

So the question you have to ask yourself is this....

Do you want more for yourself or your loved ones?  Then it is imperative that you learn how to step up to life's challenges, and not back down when things get tough. I love HapKiDo Martial Arts because it teaches people to have the indomitable spirit like nothing else I have ever seen!  Take a look at your life and honestly see what is holding you back.  Is it something you could overcome with a disciplined effort? I bet it is!

RJ LoPresti

Choe's HapKiDo

www.RJLoPresti.com

How important is the ability to focus to you? And how does Martial Arts Help?

"Always remember, your focus determines your reality."

I have been a student of the martial arts for as long as I can remember, honestly I have very few memories of my life before I started taking martial arts.  I was lucky enough to be able to get enrolled into an excellent martial arts school at a very young age, and with the support of my family and friends I stuck with it to this day, where I make a career out of helping people live better lives through the benefits of Martial Arts that I have enjoyed.  One of the character traits that was stressed in Martial Arts from the day I first stepped foot onto the mat to this day is focus.  I always learned that with focus and effort, anything we set our minds to can be accomplished.  As I grew up, I continued to train and studied people who were successful, not only in Martial Arts but in all areas of life.  One of the many things I found that was common with every successful person was the ability to focus on the right thing, and control their focus with laser like precision.

In my opinion there are two areas of focus that needs to be trained. First is the ability to develop and maintain focus, and the second is the ability to control and direct that focus.  The ability to develop and maintain focus is like the strength of a muscle, it can be trained and cultivated, and determines the level of concentration that can be mustered at will.  The ability to control and direct your focus is how you use this power of focus; intense focus in the wrong direction will of course do more harm than good. These two areas of developing focus are both important and must both be trained, they go hand in hand and must be cultivated in unison.

So the development of focus, the power of your concentration, ultimately comes down to the ability to keep a specific thought/intention/message/etc in the forefront of your mind, without being distracted or diverted away from that desired end result.  A basic example of this is if you are working on a project at work, you cannot keep checking your Facebook account to chat with people unrelated to the task at hand.  We all fall victim to this in our daily lives, and it is something that can be avoided by strengthening our ability to focus.  There are countless ways to develop focus, but for the purpose of this blog I will use Martial Arts for our examples because, well frankly, I am a Martial Artists and that is what I like to talk about :) While I will use examples from Martial Arts, it is not a far stretch of the mind to be able to relate these concepts to many other areas of life in order for everyone to benefit, whether training in Martial Arts or not.

In Martial Arts, well any good Martial Art anyways, the instructor will require their students to focus, and from the very first lesson they will begin to teach the student ways to improve and strengthen their focus.  These lessons are sometimes explicit and obvious, but many times they are subtle and the student does not even realize they are learning the secret on how to become a focus master!  There are physical techniques the students learn, such as punching and kicking, that require the student to focus in order to complete.  They have to hit a target, with the right angle and accuracy, and of course this takes physical and mental focus.  On the next level, the student has to focus in order to have the right timing and distance to execute a technique, often made even more difficult when being practiced on another participant in the class that moves and makes it their purpose to add difficulty to the proper execution out of their own self preservation.  All of this requires the student to concentrate their entire energy to accomplishing the task, and the degree of focus needed builds as the techniques grow more difficult with the student's advancement in skill and rank.  Aside from the physical techniques that require the student to develop and grow their focus, Martial Arts has many aspects of training that are less obvious but really allow the student to develop and discipline their ability to focus.  An example of this is standing at attention.  In traditional Martial Arts, when your senior or instructor talks to you, you stand at "attention."  This stance varies based on the specific system, but the concept is the same.  You stand still, with good posture and eyes focused on the instructor.  This stance allows you to focus on the instruction, and prepares the student to learn.  Standing at attention is an easy concept, but in application it is not always as easy as you may at first imagine.  After some time training though the student learns to be able to focus their bodies this way, and this discipline teaches them how to control their bodies in a way to focus on exactly what is important at that specific moment.

These are a couple basic examples, but when done over time and with increasing intensity, the effects are profound!  The next aspect of focus is the ability to control the power of the mind, to guide and direct the focus in the right direction.  The first thing to consider in the ability to control your focus, is being aware of it.  Many times in a Martial Arts class I am instructing, I asked the students if they focused, and many times their answer is yes, when in reality it was clear they were not.  Now I do not think it was the students intention to lie, but I feel that many people are truly not aware of where their focus is!  What I mean by this is that often people do not even realize when their minds wander.  The mind being flexible and able to think of things in many different ways and from different directions is a good thing, but it is important to be aware of these wanderings so that we can decide if it is beneficial or not, then decide if we should give any attention to the thoughts.  For example, the thought of "I am hungry, I have not eaten all day" may be a good thought to have, nourishing the body can help the mind work, but constantly thinking about last nights episode of Lost may not be as beneficial.  Taking an honest inventory of your thoughts and the direction your mind goes is the first step to guiding the focus of your mind toward success.

Once you have developed a powerful focus, and have an honest inventory of what your mind focuses on, you can begin to steer and guide your focus in the direction it needs to go, and this is when you can truly begin to experience amazing results.  Knowing what to focus on is the thing that sets apart individuals who excel past what those without this power of focus can even begin to imagine.  It is something that takes constant concentration, attention and effort.  You have to decide where you are going, then focus all of your efforts in that direction.  It is not an easy task, but we have seen time and time again with the Bruce Lees, Michael Jordans and Mark Cubans of the world that this type of disciplined focus yields unmatched results.

So, take the time to develop focus that has purpose and lasting power.  Focus is a muscle that has to be worked out and trained, it has to be practiced and maintained, then its strength has to be applied in the right direction to accomplish the specific tasks needed to reach the end goal you are striving toward.  Train Hard, Stay Focused and SUCCEED!!

Are you a problem solver or a problem finder?

Do you know the difference between a problem solver and a problem finder?

It is all about mindset; do you think like an entrepreneur or an employee?  In this day and age the way you think plays such a HUGE role in the outcomes you experience.  The way you think about and overcome life's problems will determine the level of success you are capable of achieving.  Life will always have problems, things will always try to stand in your way, but the most successful people do not let problems stop them.  With just a slight adjustment in the way you set your mind each day you can go from someone who is controlled by your environment to a person who is in control of your environment.  Below I will outline 2 different types of mindsets, that of a problem finder and that of a problem solver.  The difference between these two things may not seem to be very profound at first, but I hope to convey the great impact this can have on your level of success!

Problem Finder:

A problem finder is someone who always sees how things are not working.  They are great at seeing things that could go wrong or could potentially not work, and they focus on these problems they found.  Problem finders always have a reason why they could not complete a certain task or assignment, and unfortunately most of the time it is something that they feel is outside of their control.  Problem finders typically feel like things are others responsibility, and will often not take action on an assignment until there are no more possible "problems" to be found.  Problem finders are very linear thinkers.  They have a mission, but when something gets in the way they stop and focus on the problem instead of a solution or way around the issue.

Problem Solver:

A problem solver is someone who is solution oriented.  Many times they work backwards in the sense that they have a desired outcome, then find a way to get there.  A problem solver understands that there will be problems, and is prepared to find a solution to problems as the arise. Being a problem solver means taking responsibility for achieving a specific result, which includes accepting responsibility for all of the problems that come up while on the way. 

Which one are you?

The main difference between a problem solver and problem finder is that problem solvers take initiative to find solutions after a problem arises and complete tasks, where as problem finders come across a problem and stop there.  The problem finder mindset is typical in the employee position.  They are given a task, then when a problem comes up they stop and bring the problem to their supervisor.  "I found a problem and cannot complete the task." 

A problem finder mindset is found in people with an entrepreneurial spirit.  They are on a mission to accomplish a specific task, and any problem that comes up is just a speed bump that they move past.  "This is the problem I ran into, this is how I overcame the problem and the job is done!" 

So whenever you are working on something and come across a problem, find a solution and move forward! Do not let problems stop you.  You will not always be able to find a solution to every problem by yourself, and asking for help is always ok, but own your problems.  Take a personal responsibility for solving problems and you will be shocked how much more productive you will be as an individual and as part of a team.  Don't go to people with problems, go to them with solutions.  Whether you are a member of a team on a project, or the owner of a business, thinking like a problem solver instead of a problem finder will allow you to excel and achieve more.  If instead of focusing on the problem you focus on finding a solution to the problem, you will be shocked at how often the solution is something you can do simply.  Doing this you will advance in your personal and profession life, and can reach the highest level of success that you know you deserve!

R.J. LoPresti
Owner, Choe's HapKiDo Martial Arts
https://www.facebook.com/InstructorLoPresti