Sometimes
I’m asked as a motivational speaker, if one should bother making New
Year resolutions. Well, it turns out that the last two weeks
of
December is one of my favorite times of the year. Not only
because it's a festive holiday season, but also because it's a time for
personal reflection on how my year went. It’s also the time
when
I set my New Years resolutions for the upcoming year. My
resolutions are my personal goals that I want to achieve during the
next twelve months and one of my major ones for 1999 was to try my very
best to win a world championship in karate. Another was to
get
certified as a ski instructor.
By 1999, I already had many years
of successful martial arts competition at the black belt level so a
world title was realistically within my reach.
Achieving
such a goal would be symbolic for me on a personal level because I was
never athletic during childhood. I was the little kid who
always
got bullied by the other kids because of my non-athleticism.
But
when I started in martial arts, I finally found a physical activity
that I was able to excel in. Winning a karate world
championship
would certainly make up for all those younger
years. My
training throughout 1999 was consistent and progressed well.
Qualifying competition went well and I was ready for the world
championships in December.
The world championship event I was
competing in that year was held at Niagara Falls. I breezed
through the elimination rounds and then three days before the finals, I
tore my anterior cruciate ligament or ACL during a practice session
(this incident is also described in my book, The
Life Champion In You).
Fortunately,
Niagara Falls was only about an hour away from where I was living near
Toronto so I rushed to my doctor to see what can be done. He
said
that surgery was the only way to fix a torn ACL. I told him
that
since I've come so far making it to the finals for the first time, I
wanted to at least try to continue competing if at all
possible.
I didn't want to bow out and quit.
My doctor was a sports
medicine physician so I guess he understood the psychology of
athletes. He knew that sometimes athletes just don't think
straight especially when world titles are on the
line. The
divisions I qualified for were not combative ones and didn't involve
any contact, so my doctor agreed to let me continue. He taped
my
knee up really tight, put me on strong painkillers and wished me
luck.
I went back to Niagara Falls and ended up going
against last year's world champion in the finals. Being
faithful
to my New Year resolution, I performed with everything I had and ended
up winning as a karate world champion in my division. I could
barely walk afterwards but for me, it was well worth it. I
felt
that I had finally redeemed myself after all these years.
As
for my skiing, I didn't make it as an instructor that year.
Even
though both martial arts and skiing were part of my New Years
resolutions, I didn't have the same commitment to the ski slopes as I
did with martial arts. I scheduled time for martial
arts
and actively monitored my progress on a weekly
basis. Even
if I didn't win in Niagara Falls, I would have still achieved my New
Year resolution since I really did try my very best. However,
I
couldn't say the same for my skiing, at least for 1999.
I
learned that in order to be successful with New Year resolutions, one
must make total commitment to them. This involves scheduling
dedicated time each week of the year to work on goals progressively and
continuously monitoring the results making adjustments as
required. This active approach ensures forward momentum over
time
to achieve success. As a motivational speaker, I spend a good
portion of time during my motivational speeches on explaining this in
detail for achieving goals whether they are New Years resolutions or
other goals set during other times of the year.
To possibly book me as a speaker for your event, see my Speaking Programs.
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