Catalyst

Posts Tagged ‘perspective’

Sometimes your life just needs a good “kick” to get it moving. It happened to me at age 45.

That’s a little old to start something like karate classes, but I got the yen to try it. I went to a local karate school and asked about classes. After several seconds of strange looks (like I was had four noses on my face), the teenager at the desk said that the appropriate class met on Tuesday night.

When Tuesday came, I went back to the school, enrolled and looked around at the rest of the class. The next youngest student in the oldest class was 16 years old! Here I was, a graying middle-aged man in a sea of limber, energetic teenagers.

I stretched, hurt, exerted, and sweated. I’m sure I was a sight! I even cracked a rib trying to do a flip that I would do poorly at age 8.

Why would anyone put themselves in such a terribly difficult and embarrassing situation?

I needed the challenge. Routines are both effective and deadening. I needed routine to keep my life together, but I needed a new set of experiences to stir my thinking and my body. Karate had a discipline element in it so it fit with much of my personality. When you do something different, you become something different. Take the challenge to be different.

But the serendipity was that it influenced others. A father brought his 10 year old to the class and watched weekly. He witnessed a crazy grown-up trying to act like a child. (I’m sure there were plenty of snickers.) After about 2 months, he enrolled in class. We struck up a conversation and he told me that he was afraid of looking foolish. He wanted to do something with his son and this was the avenue. He explained that watching me gave him the courage to take classes. I never intended to influence anyone, but all action is on display for examination by others. You never know who you will touch.

I took classes for four months, earning (yes, earning!) an orange belt. I moved to a new job and had to leave the class. But the experience was priceless. While I did a lot of kicking, it got a real “kick” out of the class.

While karate might not be your “kick,” find something that will make you “kick” up your heels!