As martial artists, our art and training is part of our lives. Because of this, we should include our art and training in our annual review and reflect sessions as well as our goal planning.

This New Year's weekend, take a moment to review and reflect on 2006. How did you advance in your art? What goals did you achieve? What were your accomplishments? What things did not turn out quite like you wanted, and what can you do to make those things happen in the next year?

Maybe your goal was to achieve a certain belt promotion. Maybe it was to win a local or national tournament. Reflect back and revel in your accomplishments for a moment, and determine what you could have done differently for goals you may have fell a bit short on. Do not be too hard on yourself. Placing second or third is quite an accomplishment too. Heck, just getting in the ring is more than most people. Training period is more than a lot of people do.

After reflecting a bit on 2006, change gears and make some goals for 2007. What do you want to get out of 2007? What do you want to accomplish? If you are a student, what do you want out of your learning and training? If you instruct, what are your goals in this area?

Once you determine some of the goals you want for 2007, take a moment to define why you want to achieve those goals. When you know why you want something, you are much more apt to achieve it. A powerful why helps you stay the course even when things get difficult and thoughts of quitting enter your mind. Do not quit, persevere because you have a powerful why as to what you want.

Then, when you know what you want and why you want it, develop a plan that will get you there.

Train Hard, Train Safe, and Have a Fantastic New Year!