Strong Heart Academy’s Student Creed - 8 Principles to Live By

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third degree black belt, talks about Strong Heart Academy’s Student Creed. The 8 principles to live by.

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Okay. So today I want to talk about, our student creed and our eight, principles of strong heart jiu jitsu or strong heart academy. We go over these with the kids a lot, but I feel like these are great for everybody. Adults included. Sometimes we need to be reminded as adults, things that we already might know, or maybe in depth explanations of what, what these things mean. So, we have service loyalty, balance, integrity, health, diligence, respect, and courage. So I'm just gonna run through 'em pretty quickly here and, what they mean to me and what I want to, help our students and our kids understand, you know, I teach Brazilian jiu jitsu and kids striking.

But part of this is like, I want to in explain things that I think are important as a person, to be a strong person, a reliable person, a person that is respected and, respect for others. And these are principles that I try to live by. And, I want to share with my students and I feel like they're helpful, no matter what your stance on morality or your stance on, you know, no, it's not even a religious thing. It's just, these are things that I believe that people should be proud of and work on.

Service

So the first one is service and the way we talk about this is service to others. You know, I try to encourage the kids to, do community service and, and understand that you are part of a community as humans and helping the people around you.

So we give pins out, awards out for 10 hours, community service. And the goal is just to get you in the service mindset. And I know for myself, all the service things that I do, I mean, they hugely impact my own life. Not the people that I help. Like obviously they help the, the people that I help, but I get something out of it. There's something about being a human and helping others. And, what it does for yourself. Like you have a sense of gratitude, for the things that you have that maybe others don't. And, it sets a community, you know, when you're working with others. So we highly encourage service. I encourage this with adults too. And you know, my, we, we even say that, you know, I allow for these community hours of community service, some of 'em don't like, what, what can I do as a kid?

I'm like, you could pick up trash in a neighborhood. Sometimes we think if it has to be like this complicated thing, it really doesn't, you know, you can go at school, you could pick up trash around the playground afterwards, just ask for a bag. I guarantee you, the teachers will say, absolutely, I'll give you a trash bag. You go out there, wash your hands afterwards. And, and, and thank you. So these are just things that we, we try to encourage, encourage, encourage, you know, be a part of the community, help your community, help people around you. And I think that's something that we're missing right now in, in society is everyone's very me, me, me, me, and you're encroaching on me. And, and it's like, how about us? You know, us? And the other thing I encourage kids is to help their grandparents.

You know, America has a, a very strange relationship with grandparents. Um, you know, they're separated like a lot of countries in the world, grandparents live with you. Okay, now, now grandparents live separately. Either they have their own place or they're maybe at a, a nursing home. So I encourage, you know, helping your grandparents, wash their car, pick up dog poop at their house, help them with their laundry pick weeds. Um, there's many things that kids even young as four can do and get these, this, this helping your grandparents out. And, um, you should be, and your grandparents will love it because you're hanging out with them. Um, it's kind of the way I believe that things should be okay.

Loyalty

So the second, uh, the second one that we do is loyalty and loyalty. I'm not gonna say a ton about loyalty, but loyalty is, um, earned, just kind of like respect is earned and I'm not, um, one that is, um, forces people to be loyal to strong heart.

You know, we, I allow people, you know, I don't own, my students is the way I look at it. There's a lot of schools that are like, you don't, can't go to any other school or whatever. You know, I, I, I encourage them to be part of the community of jiu jitsu as well, go to open mats, go to seminars. Um, you know, there are certain things where look, if you're competing, you have to be a little bit careful with what you're going out and showing others, because just like any team, the sons don't hang out in practice with the Lakers or whatever, you know, whatever team they're opposing team, you just don't do that. So there's that, but the loyalty aspect is kind of an earned thing. Kind of like trust is earned. You know, if you would be loyal to strong heart, if I, if you think that I am worthy and you think strong heart is worthy of your loyalty, that's how loyalty works.

And then, you know, if we've built trust over the years, if I were to make a mistake, um, you would give me a little bit of, uh, wiggle room. If I'm, you know, if apologetic about something, um, to keep your loyalty and you, you know, you're loyal to your family, you're loyal maybe to your country, to your school. These are, these are not a bad thing. Um, sometimes we get confused with nationalism and it's like, oh, it's a bad thing. And not necessarily we are, we are a people groups. Um, and there's nothing wrong to be loyal to a certain group, but it needs to be deserving of the loyalty is the way I would, I would say that. So, um, you know, you're lo loyal to your relationship with your spouse or your girlfriend. Um, but until that relationship, the loyalty is gone. If there's a cheating aspect or someone that's trying to ruin your, your, your life alive, you know, you shouldn't be loyal as much as like it's time to separate from that person.

And, um, and I, I, I, you know, if you expect people to be loyal to you, you need to be the, understand the same concept. Like, am I worthy of loyalty? Okay.

Balance

Uh, the third thing is balance. This is the hardest, okay. Balance for me is hard. Uh, I really try to balance my life as much as I can. And this is like all aspects. Like people think sometimes when I say balance is like, oh, can, are you on balance? Like, um, athletically? And that is important too, because that is, uh, balance is a aspect of athletics. And, um, you know, some people will only go to strength, training, endurance, training, stamina up, but I think sometimes flexibility, but balance is huge. Um, huge for Jitsu, uh, huge for almost all sports, really. So that is an aspect of it, but I'm talking about the balance of life.

You know, we try to talk about kids like, you know, and even adults really honestly, uh, is with, you know, video games are video games bad. Absolutely not. If you're playing eight hours a day. Yes. I had a student one time, years ago that, uh, he lost his job because he was playing world of Warcraft, uh, until like four in the morning had to go to work at like six or seven. And he would call in his work, his work dropped, and then he ended up losing his house. Um, you know, these, these are, that's a dangerous thing. You're not having balance in your life, you know, like you need sleep. And that's the thing thing too, like not just video games, but sleep, sleep is a part of balance. Part of the health too, is a healthy person, is someone that gets their sleep.

You know, you work X amount, you, you have X amount of time with your family. You know, sometimes for myself, I, I struggle with, you know, a small business, uh, staying with my family and, and making sure that they're giving time. My kids, my wife is getting the time that they deserve. Uh, and then I also have to work, you know, like if I'm just only hanging out with them and I'm abandoning my, my school, my, my business, it's gonna start to degrade, not do as good. So like, it's constantly like checks and balances of balance in your life. You know, work it out all the time. Your body will break down, you need rest. That's part of the balance. And, um, you know, with school, like you gotta study, you know, if you're not gonna study, then it's gonna be difficult to get good grades and achieve the things that you're trying to achieve.

Um, so, so that's kind of my, my, my take on balance is you need to be wor thinking about it. You can even write it out, like what you're doing. If you write out your day, like at the end of the day, what did I do at this time? What did I do at this time? You'll start seeing the hours of the day. We only have so many hours of the day and you know, you gonna have to get your balance down. What, what are you gonna do? And there's gonna be sacrifices as far as balance of concerned. You know, there might be one month, like I gotta work a little extra hard, but you need to make sure that you're gonna come back and work with your family, see your family, you know, maybe take a weekend off with your family, something like that.

Okay. Um, but these things are important. So even with jiu jitsu, like I'll tell people set the days they're gonna do jiu jitsu. Okay. Sometimes, uh, our spouses are like, why are you always with these people? You know, like, but it'll make you better for your family because you get this, um, respite in doing jiu jitsu and you're being healthy and doing something positive. And then you're gonna go back to your family. And I promise, you'll be a better person. You need to explain this balance to your parent, to your spouse, but your, you also need to be with your spouse. So like, if you're training every day, six times, you know, if I'm training twice a day, five to six times a week, and maybe you're not seeing your, your, your, your spouse, this could be a problem. Okay. And you know, a lot of the champions that I've known in my life, their balance is a little off.

And a lot of times families, um, take the brunt of that. And, and professional athletes is the same thing. You know, the door horse rate is so high because their balance is outta whack. And so to, in order to achieve the levels that they need to achieve, there's a lot of sacrifice. And sometimes, unfortunately, the family is the first thing to sacrifice. So if you're a competitive athlete, you need to be asking yourself, are you willing to make these sacrifices to be the champion? Is it worth the sacrifices? And then, you know, I've known some people that they find out that later, it's not, it's not worth it. You know, like, man, they look back and like, I, I didn't see my kids. I didn't see my wife. And now I'm, you know, I had these gold medals, but what does that mean? Um, so it's a tough one.

It is a tough one. And, um, work and balances for, for me is the toughest on this list, the toughest on this list.

Integrity

Okay. The next one is integrity for me. This is the easiest one. Uh, for a lot of people, it's it, it's hard because sometimes you're gonna have to, um, when you're doing what's right, it's sometimes it's gonna be painful. And this is just, uh, I'm fortunate that the way that I was raised, I, I, this is just part of my, the way I was raised. So I, I I've always had integrity. Um, and for me, my, uh, reputation is very important. Um, and not a false sense of reputation, a, a real reputation. Um, I try to do what I say I'm going to do. Um, and that's why I try not to, you know, I I've expressed this as a biblical concept for me, that I, that very few people I think talk about, but, you know, Jesus used to say, make your, yes, your yes and your no, no.

Don't make promises. Don't make proclamations, you know, it's yes. If you say, so, I'll say, let me think about, let me, I'll try to do it, but I try not to say yes or no, because I, I want to try to do it. And I don't want to give you a false, you know, I know certain people, I tell them, don't tell me they're gonna be there unless you're gonna be there. If you're not gonna, you know, I give people a lot of breaks, but after like three I'm like, I don't don't tell me you're gonna be here. Okay. Just be here. And then I'll, I'll be thankful that you showed up or Mike, I'm gonna do this thing. Great. And then they don't show up and kids really, this is a big one with kids. If you're a father or a mother, you know, you tell them you're gonna be somewhere or do something, you, you know, this you'll lose trust with this.

Okay. So integrity is about doing what you say you're gonna do, even if it's gonna be painful. Okay. And, um, and honesty is, it's part of the honesty. You know, I have integrity. I'm not, I'm not gonna be, uh, dishonest with people, you know, you know, and if you do, you need to apologize and take and, and make amends. And part of our current zeitgeist is a problem with, um, forgiveness right now. Um, but, uh, it's, I think we need to bring it back. And, and with honesty, if, if people are honestly, um, uh, you know, apologetic and they wanna make it right, then you should be willing to have forgiveness because understanding that you make mistakes as well. But, um, you know, there's a level of trust when someone has integrity and you see someone and like, man, I know, you know, Mike, he says he is gonna do it.

It's gonna do it. You don't even, people have a tendency to just believe them because you've built up integrity. You've built up a, a level. And it's kind of like a fuel tank, you know, like, you know, you, you, you, every time you don't do what you say, it goes down and down and down and down, and you start looking at your fuel gauge. You're like, mm, I don't know. There's not much there. Um, you know, you want to trust that someone's gonna do what they say, and it's a big one for me. Um, and it's, I judge people a lot for this one. You know, this is a big one for me. So it's easy for me. I know some people might be a little bit harder. Um, but I, I, I, it's a principle that you should be work working on that if someone, if you were to die tomorrow and they're at you at the funeral, they would say, you know, John DOE, he was a man of integrity.

Jane DOE. She was a woman of integrity. Um, that is something that I want said when I die, but, but an honest version, you know, I wanted to say it. And they mean that I actually had integrity, not just because I'm, I'm dead and they wanna, you know, make me look good. I, I wanna earn, earn that. Um,

Health

The next one is health. And you know, this is kind of mixes with balance. A lot of these mixed together, which I think is important too. But health is, you know, eating right, sleeping, exercising, and mental health as well, working on mental health. We have a serious mental health issue in the country right now. Um, and so I think jiu jitsu's a huge help for it, but it's, it's just an aspect of your mental health. You need to be working on other things and ex, and be a, be a person that self examines yourself and be brutal with yourself.

You know, am I working on the things that I need to do for my mental health? You could have anxiety, depression, um, you know, you know, how are your relationships? That's part of your health too. Okay. Stress leads to physical ailments. It's proven. Okay. So dealing with your stress in a positive way, instead of drinking or drugs or medicating, you know, everyone's so many people taking Xanax. Oh, it's legal. Okay. But, and, and maybe you need it if you're having severe panics. Okay. But you need to deal with the root cause. What is causing the anxiety and maybe therapy might be a thing that you need, okay. Or a psychiatrist or psychologist maybe read on these subjects. Is there something that, a book that might help you, you know, faith, um, I think is a huge part of this too, you know, like not everyone has faith, but I, I believe, um, a good part of balance and health is your mind, your body and your soul.

And, um, health, I think is an important part of that. You know, that Trinity of, of health and balance, um, uh, so, you know, making, making sure you're, you're eating properly, you know, myself, I have a, I have a sweet tooth, you know, and I, I drink way too much soda. And, uh, our doctor, you know, I, I drink, uh, pop, whatever you wanna call wherever you're in the country. Uh, I call it soda, but, um, it's not good for you. It's not healthy. I need to be drinking. I drink a lot of water, but I need, I would like to cut out as part of my thing. Like my list, you get cut out more. Um, I'm trying to cut down on my carbs a little bit. I'm decent at that. You know, my, my, my, uh, my food intake is probably where I suffer the most.

I, I do exercise. I do have, I am a man of faith. I do work on my mental health. Um, I am very conscious of my mental health. Um, and all those things are struggles. You know, not, no one's saying that any of this stuff is easy, but it's, if you don't work on things, um, they don't change.

Diligence

So, so, um, the next one would be diligence. And this is, I think out of, on the list of kids, for kids, this is the one I want to teach them the most. And if, and if they don't get any of these other things on here, I feel like diligence is the most important, uh, it's important for success.

Consistency

Okay. Consistency kind of, I almost wanted to put diligence, diligence slash consistency. And when people join jiu jitsu, what's one of the first things I tell them, like, there's no secret sauce.

The secret is to show up, okay. And be diligent. And you know, when you're getting setbacks, diligence pushes you through the setbacks it's in, you know, people say quitting is not an option. Quitting is the easiest option. So, you know, this is for me too. I'm, I'm trying to work on my mandolin. Uh, I've been doing it for about a year. And, um, you know, I try to be consistent and be diligent with my practice every day, and then try to push myself things that I don't understand. Um, things that are difficult. I try to do the difficult things and be diligent with, with my, with myself and the same thing with kids, with their work, their schoolwork is being diligent, you know, like set this time, which is also balance, um, to set a time, to get, get your homework done. Okay, get your studying done.

You have a test. You gotta get on it. Understanding the, the subject. You could be very frustrated. Sometimes you're not understanding, but diligence. You have to keep pressing at it. You know, the grand canyon was built by water just to, you know, the, the Colorado river cut that thing down. If you've ever seen the grand canyon in person. Uh, and if you haven't, you know, you should work to do that. I promise you it's a seven wonder of a world is I look at it and, and it's wondered it's beauty, but I also see the diligence of a river can cut a canyon and, you know, water can cut anything. It can dissolve literally anything. So, um, it's and then, and in that process of thinking is like the diligence of it. It's just continually, continually, even it takes a millions and millions of years.

It still did it. And we don't have that much time on our life. But if you are consistent and have diligence, and when things get tough, you press through, it's only going to help you. Okay. The next one is respect. And the respect is kind of similar to, uh, loyalty in the fact that, uh, you give respect where respect is, is, is, um, earned. And I also try to respect people that I don't know now, respect. I try to give instant respect and then tell it's lost. So I'm gonna assume that you, as someone I don't know, deserves respect, and then the way that you treat me or the other people around you that I also see is gonna determine how much respect I'm giving you. Okay. So it's like same thing, gas tank, uh, analogy, uh, a hundred percent respect. And then I say, oh, you do this.

Oh, I do that. Oh, you do that. And then you get less and less respect or you maintain, or you get more. I'm like, oh my gosh, this person is, deserve so much respect. And, and, um, and right now, you know, and living in a big city, it's easy to not give people the respect, cuz there's so many people and um, respecting people's space, faith beliefs, you know, right now everyone wants to fight beliefs, right. Left, you know, like, ah, you're right. Ah, you're left. I can't, I can't respect you. It's um, a dangerous game of dividing everybody. And um, so again, if you say you are left, you know, and something that I, you do that I lose respect and I'm gonna lose respect. If you say that you're the, on the right side and that's fine. But then maybe certain things that they, that the person on the right does that might lose respect.

That's just the way it is. You know, I don't, but I, it's not an immediate thing for me. It's not like, oh, you're a right wing. I can't respect you. Oh, you're left wing. Oh, I can't respect you. It's your actions. Uh, okay. So I try not to categorize you right away. You, you know, the content of your, of your character, you know, uh, uh, Martin Luther king said, you know, don't judge by color of skin, but the contact of character, it's not just color of skin though. It's contact of everyone's character. You know, you can categorize, you know, he was talking, dealing with civil rights, with, you know, unjust to people of color, but there's unjustice of everything. Um, not just that. And I'm not Blitt that at all, but like, um, you know, how do you treat others? You know, you say you're a man of faith and then you, you, you belittle people, you know, you, you, you put people down, you know, I will lose respect for you.

You know, you say you're a man of faith, but then you, you, you, you choose to the tenants of this faith and you, um, you know, you, you give to charity, you help others. You try to help people with their problems. The, the, then I just get more respect for you, you know, but you just try to put people down and then degrade people and you're unwilling to help people, you know, and you're living in an ivory tower and then people, you know, are, are, are starving and in poverty and you, you're not willing to, you're not helping them out. You're driving, you know, fancy cars, but yet you, you, you, you look down on people below you. I, I lose respect. Okay. So respect is get is for me, it's instant. And then it's something to be lost. Okay. Um, and I also try to give respect, even if someone says something about someone, I try to meet them first, you know, and give them the benefit of the doubt, prove, prove me, right, please.

Um, that, that you should be respected. Okay. And then that, that's how I go for it. And, and that's another thing that I don't think people should give me right away. And when I first, um, came up with a black belt and I got my first degree, you know, the first degree you're supposed to be called a professor. And I was like, really weird about that. Some people used to call me sensei too, or coach, uh, coach is a little bit easier for me for whatever reason. But professor was like, I felt like, I don't know. And, and I remember Kyle told me like, Mike, you, you need to ask people to call your professor because it's a sign of respect. Okay. And this is true. Like whoever's teaching the class should get respect. And, um, but I also feel like I should be earning that respect.

And, you know, one way I earned it is 22 years of jiu jitsu. But, and, and my knowledge, you know, that you could respect me because I, I know what I'm talking about. I teach, well, you know, that's a sign of you should, you could respect that if I start showing up late, if I'm not giving my best, if I'm not teaching well anymore, if I'm being losing all my patients, you know, it's easy to lose patients here and there, but, you know, if I'm just not patient with kids that don't understand it, or adults respect can be lost, you know, even as a professor and sometimes, uh, black belts, they think they just need per, you know, they don't wanna roll with others. You know, it's very common. Um, I don't do that in my school, but like, you can't ask a black belt unless you're a black belt to roll.

I don't really care about that, um, at my school. But I understand that that many schools traditionally, you can't do that. You know, you have to, they have to ask you. Um, and, but I, I feel like respect is earned there's purple belts that could beat black belts, you know, you could mess up and you're outta shape. You're old, whatever. And, and young guy's a blue belt catches you in. Something happens, you know? Um, it, it, I respect all people and my opponents as well. Same thing when I'm rolling with a blue belt, I'm like, mm, I try not to get too lazy. Okay. Uh, because I'll catch you.

Courage

Okay. Uh, so last one is, uh, courage and courage is another great one, especially for today's generation. I'm finding, um, you know, the isolation of the pandemic and just the way that kids interact now, more online versus in person with people.

Um, courage is becoming more difficult to do things that are difficult. Um, and people get confused with courage that it's like a lack of fear. It's actually the opposite. It's doing something in spite of your fear, because you know that it's worth it and, and worthy of your courage. Um, you know, it's not that firefighters aren't, uh, afraid to go into a burning building, only psychos. Aren't afraid, you know, only people that, um, don't respect their own life or others. It are not afraid of things. And, um, you know, you could be a level of fear for sure. And, and, you know, my, my father used to say, I'm not afraid of dying because I, I, I, I try to live my life where I, that I know I'm where I'm gonna go when I die. And I always be like, man, always like, man, I'm afraid of dying.

You know, when I was a kid, I was like, I'm, I don't wanna die. He's like, I don't want to die. I'm not afraid to die. Um, I have courage in my life, the way I live my life with courage and, um, and the way that I live, I, I, if I die, I'm not afraid of where I'm going to go. And, uh, you know, an atheist might say, well, it's, it's P you know, there's no, there's nothing, but we hang on life. You know, the Buddhist would say the same thing. Don't hang onto life. Um, but, um, courage is not the absence of fear it's, um, doing what is right. And facing your fears, even though you have fears. And, uh, competition is great for that. Public speaking is great for that. Um, you know, sometimes I try to get the kids to speak in front of the other kids in class.

It's one of the number one fears is public speaking. Um, we collect a tennis card. Sometimes I allow certain kids to collect tennis cards. I make sure they shake them at everyone's hand and look, 'em in the eye because this's a skill that a fine is going away in society. Again, you know, when you do a zoom meeting, you meet someone in zoom. There's no shaking hands, but people will re go back to the list. Again, respect is gained off of a first appearance, shaking the hand, looking me in the eyes and speaking clearly. Okay. And sometimes that takes courage. Like people have anxiety meeting, two meeting, new people. Okay. Even the simple thing is that there's some people that are having difficulty leaving the house. The anxiety levels are so high and I encourage to have courage. Okay. Attempt, attempt it, small steps. Okay.

And it's not big steps like, oh, I'm gonna go out and speak to thousands of people. No, but like a small step. Can you speak to three people at a time, you know, two people at a time, um, because it's important. If you have something to say that you're heard, and if you don't have the courage for that, that could be a problem too. Um, you know, for job sake, it's important when you're doing sales. It's important when you're leading with a team, you're working with a team with your job, it's important. Okay. And you know, you, you, people don't wanna be, look like a fool. It's, that's the fear. Okay. Same thing with competition. People don't wanna look like a fear in front of their peers and family. You know, what if I lose, what if I lose? First of all, everyone loses is what I try to let everyone know.

You know, Caio Terra's a 12 time world champion. He lost he's lost. Okay. Now not a lot, but it happens. Okay. And those are just mistakes and we work and we fix mistakes and we go back out again. That's the way you look at it. Okay. And as far as like the, the real courage of, of someone that has to go to combat or fire or saving someone, you know, understand that if you do perish, you know, you are doing what is right. And someone might be saved because of your actions. And it is a worthy case for courage. It is worthy of your courage to do those things. And people hopefully will honor you in that. And, uh, at least your family will honor you in that. And that's a, you know, that's worthy of your courage. And again, courage is, is not the absence of fear, but your ability to do something in spite of fear. So that's all I have for today. Uh, those are my eight, um, principles. Someone say, why do you have eight? Well, uh, you know, the octopus is a logo. So I kind of broke it down into eight principles, uh, distilled them down. We still have this that I don't think I've ever talked about is my 21 truth. So jiu jitsu, but eight principles. And those are just, uh, principles to live by, um, in your life. And so hope you enjoyed it. And peace.