Juggling - Michele Normand

    Have you ever came across someone who could complete a rubiks cube, ride a unicycle, do a back tuck, or juggle?  If you are like me you are in awe of people who can do things like that because it's not something most people can do.  As part of one of our Black Belt trainings Master Nick handed us each 3 small colorful balls.  Our mission...with his guidance learn to juggle!  WHAT??!!! JUGGLE?  We all looked at eachother with bewilderment, excitement and some doubt.  He took us step by step.  When we were able to do the first step he added in the second step and once we practiced that then he add in the third step and so on.  Eventually some of us were...JUGGLING and some of us (like me) needed to keep practicing. With time, practice and determination we might go onto juggle 4, 5 or 6 balls or maybe juggle something more challenging. It was so much fun but learning how to juggle took us down a path of frustration, times of wanting to give up, self doubt, joy, and excitement, but what drove us to keep trying is knowing how we would feel at the end when we could JUGGLE!

      Looking back on our experience of learning to juggle I realized that it is a lot like training for our black belt. First, we need an amazing leader who can guide us through step by step. adding more as we acquire each skill. Second, it's not something a lot of people do.  Third, some of us will learn certain skills faster than others, but with perseverance and time we will all get there.  Throughout our journey we might feel frustrated, maybe at times want to give up, begin doubting if we can really do it, we might experience excitement, a boost in confidence or break down in tears. Like juggling what is driving us to keep going is knowing how we will feel at the end of this test and our hunger to learn more (add more balls) for the test after that.

 Michele Normand
1st degree black belt candidate
   

Comments

  1. Lia London, authorAugust 23, 2019 at 8:22 AM

    What a great analogy! So true of life. I imagine any new skill could be like that. Heck, for your next training, you could learn to play the guitar or skateboard or something! Learning about learning is sometimes more important than the skill itself. Awesome work!

    ReplyDelete
  2. SBN SamanthaAugust 26, 2019 at 12:45 PM

    And...Nick recently found his juggling rings...if you want to give that a try. :)

    ReplyDelete

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