7-Week Kindness Challenge

As a Senior Instructor at my martial arts school (and a candidate for the upcoming Black Belt test), I’ve wanted to do something different leading up to the test… something our students have never done before.

Fortunately, that’s about the time I saw this post from my friend (and fellow Ultimate Black Belt Test alum) Sensei Mike Oliver, owner and chief Instructor of Zen Martial Arts. I absolutely loved it and knew immediately that I wanted to implement the challenge in our school!

Sensei Oliver’s “Kindness Challenge” was to be done over the course of one week. Since we have about two months until our test, and since I have never tried to get so many people to follow through on something like this before a test, I have modified the challenge to take place over the course of 7 weeks (which leads right into the Black Belt test).

Brian Williams, Tom Callos and all of my fellow UBBT alum have changed the way I look at how martial arts and kindness go together… I always belived that respect was integral to martial arts, but it never occurred to me that spreading kindness can (and should!) be the mark of a “Master-level” Black Belt. For opening my eyes, I will be forever thankful.

So, while I am issuing this 7-week challenge to our Black Belt candidates, I am also issuing this to all of you readers: do the 7-week challenge, and post links to your completed challenges in the comments below!