CANI and the Law of the Process

Two of my favorite Blackbelt Leadership Principles are Constant & Never-ending improvement (CANI) and The Law of The Process.

Thank you to Tony Robbins for teaching me the first and John Maxwell for the latter.

I have been teaching them both in my program for many years, but I acquired them through application of them in my own life; by being the student seeking greater knowledge, reading the books, attending the seminars, listening to the audio programs and watching the videos.

I have always been a voracious lover of knowledge- probably why I chose to be a Philosophy major in college.

I still am today, but also today live the extreme joy of sharing my knowledge with others.

That’s one of the great things about knowledge; once you really have it, you can also give it.

Which is not the same as giving knowledge that you really don’t have. We’ll reserve that conversation for a different time. 😉

In the meantime, just be careful who you listen to on facebook.

But back to CANI and The Law of the Process and how they are interdependent principles that can work together to help us live our best lives and make this our best year ever!

The Law of the Process says that excellence happens daily, but not in a day.

Everyone has the potential to be excellent at whatever they choose to- music, martial arts, parenting, leading, sports, teaching, or any other thing.

But the secret is that excellence takes focused work and study, over time.

Most people never get to experience true excellence for one of two mistakes:

1. Thinking they aren’t good enough, smart enough, fit enough, gifted enough or whatever other enough that keeps them from trying, or,
2. They think they’re good enough before they ever get to experience the joy of excellence; they quit too soon.

Both are erroneous and violations of the law of the process.

I can honestly tell you that some of my greatest Blackbelts and Masters at Krav Maga Martial Arts were not the most “naturally” gifted when they began.

But they persevered and kept learning while others quit; and thus became great.

But there’s one catch to doing something for a long time. That alone won’t make you great.

1. Practice doesn’t make perfect; it makes permanent. Only perfect practice makes perfect, so it’s important that we have good coaches and teachers to help us study right.
2. To achieve excellence at anything we must keep getting better over time.

And that’s where CANI comes in.

Now, this process can be applied to anything but, for the purposes of illustration, I will use the martial arts.

Two students in the very same class will have different rates of progress based on the following criteria:

1. Do the students try their very best to be their very best every class? The one who does is improving faster.
2. The student who craves both positive feedback and constructive critique from their Sensei will also get better faster. He or she will pay attention, ask questions and consciously seek to improve in every class.
3. The best of the best will even take what they learn new or make better in every class and practice at home.
4. They’ll also take advantage of all the additional training tools outside of class, like our Google Classroom, where Shihan Harley posts videos of all the techniques we are working in class each week.
5. They embrace and improve in the supporting attributes that make the learning of the core curriculum better, faster and easier. For us, at Krav Maga Martial Arts, that’s the Blackbelt Leadership Superpowers: Focus, Respect, Discipline, Confidence, Gratitude and Vision. As the student masters these they can also master the kicking, kickboxing, krav maga self protection and all the rest of our awesome martial curriculum better too. Quite frankly, they’ll master anything and everything better with these powers in their life.

Of course, my KMMA Sensei are well trained to help the students do all of this.

And, as I’ve alluded, the same is true with everything. I personally applied the process exactly as I have shared it to achieve excellence in my military career and academic education, and then towards becoming a great teacher and communicator.

I am still very actively engaged in applying the process to my own CANI as a leader, a father and as a businessman.

Today I invite each of you to ask yourself a few valuable questions that will assist in taking this from just an interesting read (I hope) to actionable information to help you be better?

1. In what areas of my life, or work, would I like to be better?
2. Am I trusting the law of the process and doing the work?
3. Do I have a coach and do I regularly evaluate to ensure that I’m really improving? How do I measure that?

I also invite you to comment. There are a few of you who regularly reply with your thoughts about my writing, and I am grateful.

After all, I am trying to constantly improve at providing great content for you.

And, especially if you’re a student, feel free to ask questions about your training, your class or your goals.

My job is your success coach.

And if you’re not yet my student but would like to be, please visit TampaKravMaga.com or call us at 813-948-4844.

The law of the process and CANI is waiting for you!

Oh, and speaking of CANI, thanks to Ruth Baumann for making a comment that she sometimes has a hard time understanding what all they should be studying in the google classroom while they are away. (they live in Georgia half the time and prefer the google classroom to the live virtual to keep up).

From her comment I had the idea that we could start including our instructors’ lesson plans for each week of classes on the google classroom, so that anyone using it for class credit, or even homework (and credit towards that character stripe) could better understand and follow the plan for what they’re supposed to be learning.

CANI works for everything! We just have to be looking for the opportunities to improve!

And we are.

Prepare To Live; Empower To Lead!

Grand Master Stephen J. Del Castillo

Founding Master Instructor, Krav Maga Martial Arts

TampaKravMaga.com

Author of Developing Your Superpowers  Meditations On Mastery Vol One

Check out the Meditations On Mastery Blog and Podcast too!

TampaKravMaga.com and Krav Maga Martial Arts have been empowering lives through the martial arts in the Tampa Bay area for 20 years!

Founded in 2000 by Grandmaster Stephen J. Del Castillo, a 7th degree Black Belt and Sr. Master Instructor, Krav Maga Martial Arts and Karate lessons for pre-school children ages 3-6 and elementary age kids ages 7 and up are designed to develop the critical building blocks kids need – specialized for their age group – for school excellence and later success in life.

Krav Maga Martial Arts Adult Krav Maga training is a complete adult self defense, fitness, and conditioning program for adults who want to learn real world self defense, lose weight, and/or get (and stay in shape).

If you have any questions about our program, or would like to go ahead redeem your 2 weeks FREE, you can call us anytime at 813-547-6368 or visit our Krav Maga Martial Arts website.

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.

Also, check us out on Fun4TampaKids & on Go2Karate.com