The 4th Tenet

In Tae Kwon Do, one of the first things you learn are the five tenets: Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverence, Self-Control, and Indomintable Spirit. As martial artists, we are to practice the tenents both inside class and out. Last night, the kids were really having trouble with the fourth tenet, self-control. Too much talking while the instructors were trying to teach, talking back, complaining, not following instructions, and in general having a poor attitude. I think we have been letting these things slide a bit this semester, mostly because there are just so many new kids, and we let some things slide with new kids as they are reminded of and get used to the rules. The problem is that because we let new kids slide, the more experienced kids have been sliding with them and being poor examples.

I understand the difficulty of following the fourth tenet. In some ways, it's the most difficult of the five to follow. I find it relatively easy to be kind, to be honest, to not give up, and to believe in myself, but when it comes to controlling my actions and keeping my temper, it's just a little bit harder. Not just in my love/hate relationship with food, but that's the foremost one that comes to mind, because I can point to the times when my head tells me to stop stuffing myself, but find myself eating anyway and hating myself for not stopping.

Part of self-control is knowing what your limits are. I know it's easier for me to eat no Halloween candy than to stop at one, and I know it's easier for the kids to not talk at all than to know what it means to talk quietly. I also think an important part of self-control is sometimes allowing yourself out of those self-imposed limits. Sometimes you just need a reminder of why you set those limits in the first place. I treated my body like crap this last weekend, and it rebelled. I can't think of a way it didn't rebel, and let me tell you, this has been the easiest two days of staying within my limits I've ever had.

So I'm going to apply these lessons to Thursday's classes, and see if I can't head off Monday's problem. I don't particularly like the way Monday's problem was handled (and I'm not sure I like V.'s teaching style in general but that's another post all together), so since I'm in charge of Thursdays, I'm handling it differently. I'm almost positive it's a matter of reminding the kids about our expectations for their behavior. We'll see if I'm right.