7 Hacks to Get More of What You Want
We teach so many skills, principles, and attitudes to help students succeed at Krav Maga Martial Arts.
Today I set out to share 7 hacks to help anyone get more of what they want and less of what they don’t want out of life. I’ve been meditating on the subject for a few days now, and I think this will be useful. Read on. I hope you’ll like it and find it useful in your own life.
- Focus– Focus is the ability to block out distractions and concentrate on what’s important. It’s not only the first of the 6 Blackbelt Superpowers that I teach about in my book, which you can get at amazon or my author site or best yet personally from me when you visit my dojo, but it’s also one of the most important attributes necessary for success at anything in life. We teach Focus at three levels, much like we teach the martial arts:
- The basic level of Focus is already rare and elusive to many. We teach basic students The 4 Laws of Concentration to train them to focus their eyes, ears, body and mind. This of course allows the student to concentrate better, for better attention and retention at the dojo, in school, at work, home, wherever.
- The intermediate level of Focus is where students can begin to be more in control of what they focus their time, attention, energy and emotional power on. We learn to focus more on things that educate, edify and assist and less on that which distracts, detracts and demoralizes us. We also get better at knowing what to say no to.
- The advanced level of Focus is where the magic happens; where we create our realities through the laser beam application of Focus. At this level what we think, believe and do combine to shape our life- to take us in the direction of our dreams. As the title of this blog promises, indeed, this level of Focus, combined with the others, gets us more of what we want and less of what we don’t.
- Choice– Everything in life is a choice. We choose what we Focus on, we choose our actions and reactions and we choose our attitudes. Now, I realize you may have thought that this isn’t true and, to some degree you’d be right. Not everyone has honed their power of choice to the point that they can really do so yet. But the choice of rather to get training to do so is a choice; as is your choice of association, which is one of the most important choices of all to hack the skill of getting more of what you want in life. My team and tribe and I can help with both of these by the way.
- NET– You may have already heard that there is no such thing as multitasking. In the 80’s and 90’s we believed that the productive professional could actually do many tasks at one time and do them well. It turns out this is impossible. Referring back to hack number one, we can only focus on one thing at a time and we only effectively affect that which we effectively focus on. But there is a hack to this truth! While it’s true of activities requiring mental focus, not all useful activities really do. Exercise is an area, for example, in which certain forms of it don’t require much mental focus. This is not true of all of course; the Krav Maga Martial Arts that we teach in my dojo for example requires you to be there 100%- it’s one of the things that makes it so great for mental and spiritual as well as physical improvement, and also stress relief. But take, for example, my 3 mile walks around my lake. My dog loves it, I love it, and it’s good albeit relatively low intensity exercise too. The point of the story is that it does not require much mental focus though. So I get like an hour of extra personal and/or professional development done 2-3 days a week when I do it. Usually, I’m listening to a great book on Audible; most recently Napoleon Hill interviewing Andrew Carnegie about the 16 Laws of Success in Think Your Way To Wealth. The point is, you can take advantage of NET (No Extra Time) learning while exercising, doing house chores, driving or just sitting (perhaps in lieu of some screen time and perhaps akin to the first two hacks as well).
- PARI- Another of the life hacks that I use to get more of what I want and less of what I don’t want, and also teach my students at my Blackbelt Leadership Academy is PARI. PARI stands for Plan, Act, Review, Improve and is a process of creating plans, taking action, analysis and scoring and then trying again, whether to tune a plan that didn’t work or just make one that does work even better. Like all of these hacks, it can be used personally, professionally and in relationships, to get more of what we want and less of what we do not in each and every area of life that we care to do something about.
- CANI- I learned CANI from the great Tony Robbins and have been teaching it to developing Blackbelt Leaders at my academy for decades now. CANI means Constant and Never-ending Improvement. It is a knowledge, skill and attitude that keeps us growing, getting better every day in every way. Without it we may fall into complacency, which is the enemy of achievement. Like my teacher Grandmaster Jeff Smith always says, “you’re either green and growing or ripe and rotting”. We should never arrive; never be satisfied. Tony Robbins says progress is happiness. We have to be hungry and apply CANI to get more of what we want and less of what we don’t in life. Closely related to CANI, and essential to it, by the way is another Blackbelt Leadership principle of Life-Long Learning (L3).
- Resilience– How many people know that life isn’t always easy? It’s a somewhat rhetorical question I’ll sometimes ask when teaching and, in a large group of people of course all adults and most kids will raise their hand. Crazy things happen- in our personal and family lives, in our places of work, our government and in our world. Sadly, some allow that truth to create negative thoughts, feelings and emotions in them, which then create negative results. The key is to steadfastly apply the hacks above, and all of the Blackbelt Superpowers and Blackbelt Leadership principles that we teach, learn, study, practice and apply at Krav Maga Martial Arts consistently and without quitting. It’s like our Blackbelt test- the physical and mental challenges students face over the 3 day test are vigorous, but the student has prepared for this for years and is ready. He or she will still make some mistakes, and may still pass. The only thing the student can do that will guarantee failure is that he or she quits. And so it is for all of us in everything; indeed in life.
- Voice of Truth– My wife and I love this song by Casting Crowns- it’s one of our go to for inspiration and motivation. I chose that title hear to represent the voices we should listen to in contrast to the ones we should not. You see, just as bad things happen to everyone, as do good, and we get more of what we focus on; all also have positive and negative voices making noise all around us, and within us too. Inches apart in our own minds each and all have a positive voice of empowerment, faith, action and “yes I Can” and, at least as loud, a negative one of no you can’t, who do you think you are anyway? That one says you’re not good enough, smart enough, rich enough, good looking enough…too young, too old, too stupid, too…you know the one I am talking about. The great news is that with training, you here the good voice more and the other one less. Listen enough to that one, and especially in conjunction with other empowering voices in your life, and you’ll begin to think, believe, and act as if you can do anything: and then, you will.
If you’d like to meet in person and see how my team and I can help you start mastering these hacks in your own life, we’d love to have you. Just feel out the form at TampaKravMaga.com and my wife will give you a call.
Whether you’re ready for that next step or not though, thanks for reading this far and good luck applying these hacks in your life.
I felt inspired writing this morning, so thank you for taking the time to read what I had to say.
If you are already in my Blackbelt Leadership Program, thank you and congratulations! You are working on you in all these areas and more and, depending on where you are in the process, perhaps even helping us help others too.
God I love what I do!
See you tonight at the Leadership seminar at 6:30.
We got some great work to do, don’t miss it!
I appreciate you!
Grandmaster Stephen J. Del Castillo
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About Grandmaster Stephen J. Del Castillo: Grandmaster Del Castillo is the founding Master Instructor of Krav Maga Martial Arts and has been empowering lives in Pasco and Hillsborough Counties since October of 2000. He is a 7th degree Blackbelt, MBA, author, mentor and success coach, a US Army Veteran and a proud father and grandfather. He is married to Ms. Barbara Del Castillo who helps him run the school. Grand Master Del Castillo began his training in the early 80’s and has high level blackbelts in Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Premier Martial Arts and Krav Maga Martial Arts as well as experience in kickboxing, Jeet Kune Do and Jiujitsu. He has high level instructor certifications from BBSI, IKMF, and KMG and has been featured in numerous Martial Arts publications and also Success magazine. He was a competitive sport karate and American Kickboxing instructor until he enlisted in the US Army where he served in the 82nd Airborne Division, where he won an Army Green to Gold scholarship and proceeded to ROTC and the University of Tampa. He was commisioned in 1992 and went on to serve in Germany with the 3rd Infantry Division and then in several other posts in the US until he left military service to pursue his dream of creating KMMA in 2000.
The Krav MagaMartial Arts Headquarters is in Lutz, FL at 1900 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., 33549. Krav Maga Martial Arts serves Lutz, Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel, and surrounding areas.
See stephendelcastillo.com for more information and to order my book, Developing Your Superpower, Meditations on Mastery, Volume 1.
Also, check us out on Fun4TampaKids & on Go2Karate.com
