Black Belt: Awareness

Time to complete: 30 days

Black Belt is awareness of your mental patterns. What does that mean? Every day, you think countless thoughts. Just like you lift your fork with the same hand every time, you have thoughts that you think again and again. To earn your Black Belt, you must show that you can think about your thoughts and pick out some of your thought patterns.

Ask yourself: Do you usually think confident thoughts? Fearful thoughts? Are there certain patterns of thinking that you have? For example, when someone asks you to do something you don’t want to do, what do you think? Do you back away and think, “I need to do this to make them happy.” Or do you stand up for yourself and say, “I need to tell them that I don’t want to do this.”

To earn your Black Belt, you must demonstrate an ability to think about your mental patterns. You must identify one thinking pattern that is holding you back, and one way of thinking that is helping you to become your best. Then you must write out a plan for the kind of mindset you want to have for the next thirty days and keep a journal of how you are thinking for thirty days. With the power of Black Belt, you can actually start to control the way you are thinking!

To earn your black belt, you must also learn Mental Karate Survivor Mindset, and explain how it works to at least two people who have never heard of it, using examples from your own life.

Here are examples of what two students did to earn their Black Belts:

Examples

Example 1: Mary

Step 1: Learn about your current mindsets

• Mary approached a teacher, her mom, and her best friend and said the following to them:"I am trying to improve the way I think. Do you see any thinking patterns in my life that are keeping me from being successful? Also, can you tell me one way of thinking I have that is really positive?"


• Mary kept a journal for one week and wrote about her attitude and her mindsets, trying to learn more about the way she was thinking.

Step 2: Choose two mindsets you want to focus on

• Opportunity to improve a mindset
  Mary realized she was afraid of conflict, afraid to stand up for herself. Whenever people wanted something or attacked her, she almost always backed down. So she decided to work on standing up for herself.


• Opportunity to continue with a positive mindset
  Mary realized that one of her strongest qualities was that she was cheerful. All three people she interviewed her told her she was a highly positive, cheerful person.

Step 3: Choose two people you want to teach the Survival mindset to.

• Mary explained the system to her parents and to her younger brother.

Step 4: Work on having a better mindset and journal about it for thirty days

• Write down the mindset you want
  In her journal, Mary started by describing the kind of mindset she wanted to have for thirty days. She included standing up for herself, and continuing to be cheerful.


• Journal for thirty days
  Every day, for thirty days, Mary journaled about the kind of mindsets she had. She described how she was pushing herself to stand up for herself more and to be even more cheerful.

Example 2: Tyrone

Step 1: Learn about your current mindsets

• Tyrone approached his track coach and his best friend and said the following to them: “I am trying to improve the way I think. Do you see anything I can improve about the way I view the world? Also, can you tell me one way of thinking I have that is really positive?”


• Tyrone kept a journal for one week and wrote about his attitude and his mindsets, trying to learn more about the way he was thinking.

Step 2: Choose two mindsets you want to focus on

• Opportunity to improve a mindset
  Tyrone realized that whenever he didn’t perform well at track meets, he threw a fit, didn’t talk to anyone and sulked for several hours. He realized he needed to change how he though about failure.


• Opportunity to continue with a positive mindset
  Tyrone realized that he was very kind to the underclassmen on the team and that they really appreciated him.

Step 3: Choose two people you want to teach the Survival mindset to.

• Tyrone visited a class of students who were in the sixth grade and explained the Mental Karate give-up indicator to them.

Step 4: Work on having a better mindset and journal about it for thirty days

• Write down the mindset you want
  In his journal, Tyrone started by describing the kind of mindset he wanted to have for thirty days. He included having a better attitude after failure, and continuing to encourage the underclassmen.


• Journal for thirty days
  Every day, for thirty days, Tyrone journaled about the kind of mindsets he had, and recorded how he was improving his attitude. Each day, Tyrone also pushed himself to reach out to underclassmen even more.