Dear Students, Teachers and Parents,

Congratulations to Jessica, Rachel and Ryan to their recent promotion
to shodan-ho or probationary black belt and to Debbie for her
promotion to 1st degree. They did a great job on the test.

We are having an in-house tournament next Saturday – please see Mary
if you are planning on competing. Also don't forget our Halloween
party the following weekend held from 6-9 pm.

Message of the Week

Strategy - Senryaku

The famous Chinese general Sun Tzu, author of the classic The Art Of
War, said that the greatest general is not the one who can defeat 100
armies in 100 battles. Rather, it is the one who can control things
so well that the need to fight never arises. Stephen Covey in his
book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People identifies being
proactive as the first step of success. Both of these ideas are based
on the same age-old principle. This concept is using proactive
thinking and strategic planning to put in stop actions before a
problem develops in the first place.

In Japanese the kanji of the word Senryaku means war-shorten. There
is not a better strategy than one that will shorten a war, unless it
might be one that would prevent it all together. This concept is the
foundation of our Streetwise Self-Defense, and later, our Streetwise
Success programs. At the core of this strategy is the ability to
analyze any situation and decide what is the worst thing that could
possibly happen, and then create or implement action plans to ensure
that it won't happen.

This threat assessment is an on-going, never-ending process. Combat
is fluid, with thousands of variables changing every minute. A true
warrior develops the uncanny ability to identify the most crucial
challenge and neutralizes it right away. This process is imperative
in warfare, but also in other areas such as business, personal
finance, and legal tactics and even in personal achievement or goal
setting.

For example, a business may identify a competitive advantage that
will insure a profitable niche, but if actions are not taken in
advance, a competitor may soon adapt and take over this niche, thus
destroying this competitive advantage. In order for a person to
become financially successful, he must recognize the biggest threats
towards wealth accumulation such as taxes, law suites or poor
management, and put actions into place to minimize these threats.
Proactive solutions may include proper use of business entities to
lower taxes and protect assets from lawsuits, as well as proper
investment strategies.

Currently, what is your number one goal? What one thing can you
identify as the greatest threat from you reaching that goal? Now,
what can you do to make sure that threat does not become a reality?

In the martial arts we constantly train to move out of the way of a
threat, and then take control of the situation using a variety of
talents and tactics. As martial artists, we train in the hope we will
never have to use our skills physically. However, when we do use our
knowledge to avoid or neutralize a dangerous situation, we are called
lucky, disregarding the years of training that lead up to that
successful action. The truly successful person identifies key goals
in the major areas of his life for future achievement, but also
identifies worst case scenarios in those key areas, and then develops
action plans to ensure those things don't happen. It is this
simultaneous working on these two opposites, the yin and the yang,
that is the key to proper proactive tactics. At this level one begins
to understand what being a great general is all about, and can begin
developing and implementing successful tactics in all areas of their
lives.


Respectfully,

Terry Bryan, Kyoshi