In class, the students read the Seven Steps to Inner Power Book on Page 69.  Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim shares, “Here is an example. I met Scott when he was in his twenties when he came to me for martial arts training. For many years Scott had believed that one of his “weaknesses” was that he was a terrible singer. As part of the training I give my students, I encourage them to examine where their limiting ideas have come from and whether those ideas are really based on true facts. Oftentimes, these beliefs are based solely on the opinions others have fed them. So Scott asked himself where the idea that he was a bad singer originally came from. It turned out that when he was in the fifth grade, Scott and his classmates were singing the song “Mr. Moon” with gusto when suddenly his teacher looked up at him and said, “Scott, your voice is terrible. Sit down and shut up.”

Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim is teaching us that it is important to realize that what we sometimes perceive as a weakness is really a fear to try something because others have convinced us that we are not good at it.

With the example given, we also realized that unfortunately, there are many environments out there that don’t provide us the right support for us to learn more about the truth of who we really are. Just like the example of the teacher who scolded Scott to sit down because he had a terrible voice, many times we faced similar situations where we give the power to other people to engrave their own opinion of who we are when really it is just their opinion and has nothing to do with the truth!

At Jung SuWon Martial Art Academy, students are given the opportunity and support for them to really know the truth about themselves are as they get to know their own strengths and weaknesses. One of the most common weaknesses that students have is low confidence or the fear of speaking in public or people that we don’t know. In class, we have exercises such as “Meeting and Greeting” where we dedicated a time in class to have the chance to talk to students they have not met and get to know each other. We then asked a few students to speak in front of the class to share about who they met and what they learned about them. For some, this experience is easy but to others, it’s quite nerve wrecking. But in the end, everyone has the opportunity to step out of their comfort zone and step forward toward their goal of gaining more confidence! Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim provides students a positive environment to support the growth that they need!