At Determined Martial Arts, we are on a mission to encourage, challenge, and inspire you to be Strong & Confident. To be Strong & Confident is to trust in yourself enough to face a big challenge, obstacle, or opportunity head on.
Time and time again in my life, I have grown into a stronger & more confident person when I decided to face a challenge head on. Now, that’s after hiding or running from it for a while. I don’t want to face it head on – that’s scary! But when I turn, stand up straight with my shoulders back, and face that problem head on, I have always grown.
Almost all of us are the same way: We don’t like to face hard or frightening things. So what do we do? We hide or run away by spending our time on activities that make us comfortable (binging Netflix, doom scrolling on our phones, overeating) or that we know we’re good at (working, exercising, homework). Those may make us feel good at the moment, but deep down we know that we’re hiding from what we know we really need to do: Finishing that project, having that tough conversation, or starting what we’ve always dreamed of doing. All the while, that challenge becomes bigger & bigger, more & more frightening. But as soon as we determine to face it, we are choosing to be Strong & Confident.
For me, one of those challenges has always been being shy. When I was in my first few years of school, I had very few friends. I was also homeschooled – which was great, but I did have less interaction with my peers. Throughout high school, I never wanted to admit this insecurity – even to myself. Even now, I have to be very intentional about stepping outside of my comfort zone to interact with people. But every time I have done that, I’ve grown into a stronger & more confident person. Because I KNOW that I faced a challenge head on and overcame it.
And this is why we’re so passionate about our work: Because I have been encouraged, challenged, and inspired by those in my life to be Strong & Confident, to face life head on. Our goal is to have the same impact on others.
So, what do you know you need to do? Go DO it!
