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Health & Fitness

Finding Your Worthy Ideal...New Year, New You

Find your Worthy Ideal, realize your potential to be successful in life...personally, professionally, spiritually, and mentally. What makes your life worth living?

What is a Worthy Ideal and why is it vital to your success?

To the French, it is raison d'être...“the reason for existence.”

To the Japanese, it is ikigai...”a reason for being.”

This story will illustrate ikigai better...

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In a small village outside of Osaka, a woman in a coma was dying. She suddenly had a feeling that she was taken up to heaven and stood before the Voice of her ancestors.

“Who are you?” the Voice said to her.

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“I am the wife of the mayor,” she replied.

“I did not ask whose wife you are but who you are.”

“I am the mother of four children.”

“I did not ask whose mother you are, but who you are.”

“I am a school teacher.”

“I did not ask what your profession is but who you are.”

And so it went. No matter what she replied, she did not seem to give a satisfactory answer to the question, “Who are you?”

“I am a Shinto.”

“I did not ask what your religion is but who you are.”

“I am the one who wakes up each day to care for my family, and nurture the young minds of the children at my school.”

She passed the examination, and was sent back to earth. The next morning she woke at sunrise, feeling a deep sense of meaning and purpose. She tended to her children’s lunches, and planned fun lessons for her students that day. The woman had discovered her ikigai.

What is your “reason for being?” What makes your life worth living?

It is your Worthy Ideal. A Worthy Ideal is the deep passion we have that drives our actions, it can consume us, it is why we wake up in the morning, why we take on challenges...it is our sense of purpose...our meaning for life. It is the driving force in all that we do...to be successful in life...personally, professionally, spiritually, and mentally.

My Worthy Ideal is “to impact and create a better society for all people in the community through martial arts training and Taekwondo; teaching and living a Black Belt Life.”

Successful people have a Worthy Ideal. Have you discovered yours?

Let me be your Voice, as in the story above, and allow me to help you find your Worthy Ideal.

Look for my weekly blog every Monday providing tips and insights from UMAC Briarcliff, "Living a Black Belt Life".

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