12/22: COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS
This past week has been full of people that have made me realize how truly fortunate my life has been. It's very easy in the trials and hardships of life to forget how well off most of us are. We are all going to have trials in our life that push us to the brink, which is where my personal faith in Jesus carries me through. I often feel a twinge of guilt when I fret over the challenges of my day when I am often surrounded by people going through much worse. But we are also human, and we are all going to have things that push us to our limits.
On Tuesday, I visited a friend who had a stroke in his early 50's and is paralyzed on one side of his body and not able to forumulate more than a couple words, although he understands everything people say. This weekend while visiting my wife's side of the family, I was talking to a woman that my wife's niece took in a couple years ago that has some mental challenges that said she never opened a Christmas gift until they essentially adopted her. She is in her 20's. We have our own student who is continually working to improve himself after a brain tumor removal left him in a wheel chair. We have had students, both children and adults, that were blind. I see families all the time dealing with financial challenges, child custody issues, family dynamics and legal issues. My challenges pale in comparison, which is why I try to help where I can when I have my own life mostly in order.
The holidays are a time to reflect and re-calibrate. I was talking to one family recently, and as I often do, and mentioned that this business has always been about much more than teaching martial arts. It's been about helping people. Sometimes that help is learning the actual martial art, sometimes it's just about getting in shape, sometimes we can help out financially, sometimes it's emotional or spiritual support, other times it's providing benefits to children that parents can't do on their own. I myself, have received incredible support from the coaching staff and many individual members when life felt like it was crashing around me. Many of you may not realize that even as the owner, I need some of the same outlets in my own gym that you do!
As the holidays are upon us, it is a time to reflect on the blessings that we do have. It's taken me a while on this particular one, but even as bad as the separation from my former business partner was in opening up GB Northville, it was a blessing that we did open a gym together because without that step, GB Northville would not exist. Sometimes we have to go through the fire to be purified and molded into the person we are supposed to become. The trials we go through, I believe, are meant to be to refine us, not punish us, even if it's hard to realize in the process.
This week, focus on the blessings in your life. Look at the challenges you've faced over the last year and instead of asking why they happened, ask yourself what you are supposed to learn from them. I made that mental change 10 years ago and it has been nothing short of revolutionary in my life. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukkah, Happy Kawanza, or just Happy Holidays. Enjoy time with your friends and family over the coming weeks and I look forward to starting the new year off with a bang with all of you!
