Respect and controlling impulses

When deciding what the first story in my book would be, I had to think of the perfect topic. Since the book is a guide for life which includes deep lessons, martial arts techniques and healthy attitudes for success, I couldn’t just choose any concept. The topic needed to be both a life lesson and a core principle for the other lessons to be built upon. I couldn’t decide between “Respect” and “Controlling impulses”. On one hand, no academy could ever thrive without there being mutual and reciprocal respect between the Sensei and the students or between students. On the other hand, without people being able to “control their impulses”, chaos would erupt and people would constantly and exclusively focus on their own desires as opposed to the needs of others or a higher purpose. Fortunately, the two concepts actually compliment each other. While having respect for others, you will be required to control your impulses and vice versa- controlling one’s impulses will lead to respecting the people around them. Therefore, the first story in How To Be A Ninja Of Life, which is titled, The Humble Dojo, includes “controlling one’s impulses” and “respect” as one unified goal to achieving a successful academy and society. The name “Humble” in the title adds another dimension which is actually the road to achieve “control” and “respect”. Humility is absolutely NOT thinking that you “can’t” or are “not important”. People often make this mistake. The aforementioned definition is for the word “self-conscious” or “low self-esteem”. Real and authentic “Humility” is the understanding that we all have different skills and abilities and our mission is to figure out how we can enrich other peoples’ lives with our talents.