One More For...

The Boy was at his Karate class Friday night. He actually had two - one was the class where he student teaches and then he has his own teen class. I dropped him off and decided to grab dinner with Hubby before picking up The Boy. Hubby & I went together to pick him up. We went into the "little room" - which is where the karate school expanded and took over a Curves that shut down. There were about 8 or so kids there that night - about average.

We watched as they practiced their katas. I love watching katas... you have to remember certain moves in certain sequence... it looks like a dance, but very quick and with the intention to defend or attack. We watched for a bit and then Hubby decided to go next door to the main building to chit chat with the staff. The class was wrapping up and the instructor was getting ready to have them do the ending exercises. They generally do sit-ups, push ups, crunches, and things of that nature. Depending on what belt they are, they will have to complete more or less of each thing. That night the instructor had them do the same amount of everything...they did 15 crunches, 15 sit-ups and 15 push ups. The push ups were last. When everyone had counted off and completed the 15 in unison, the instructor asked them: "can you do one more for your mom?" and the kids replied: "Yes, sir!" and they went down to start the push up. As he was going down, The Boy said in a loud voice: "This one is for you mom - I love you!" and then completed his push up. The other parents and siblings laughed and I admit I laughed too. It was such a complete spontaneous moment - I knew he meant it and he didn't care if all the other kids and parents knew it too. I really wanted my husband to be there to have heard it - it was one of those things that in the storytelling loses its meaning - you need to be there to remember it the way it should be remembered.

Next the instructor said: "Now do one for your dad" and they did. Since Hubby wasn't there, there was no love for him. The instructor gave The Boy a bit of a hard time - "don't you love your dad too?", knowing that he does and that dad had just walked away.

Next the instructor said: "Now do one for your grandparents.". The Boy did four - one for each grandparent he has.

Then the instructor started to have the kids say who they should do "one more" for - brothers, sisters, friends, pets, school vacation, the instructor, Christmas....

Finally the instructor let them stop. He asked if the kids knew how many push ups they had actually done. The kids were laughing and really hadn't been keeping count... so no one had a real answer. The instructor told them they did at least 15 more push ups using the "one more for" method. He talked about how they got motivated by using that "one more for" as a way to keep going and focus one the goal, not the activity of getting to the goal.

I guess we all need to remember that sometimes... we can do just one more.. to get to our goals.

Let me know what you think.