Many professional websites have a duplicate website that is used for testing and development. New plugins are tested to be sure they work with the rest of the site and are compatible with other plugins. Graphics are examined to be sure they have the look desired for the site. Any problem that arises, anything that doesn’t fit the goal of the website is corrected and removed. Then once the changes have been perfected, they are added to the real, live, website for the world to see. The whole point of this process is to keep some new change from confusing visitors, causing minor glitches, or worst case scenario, causing the whole site to crash.
Imagine if there was a way to do this with self-defense, with self-empowerment, with personal growth. Imagine there was a place where you could try out various strategies, test yourself out against different inner and outer challenges, and if you fail in those tests, there are no consequences, because that’s the whole point of this place – to test things out. Only when you feel comfortable you have a working, effective tool do you take the strategy or concept out into the real world. Well the good news is, there is such a place! We call it a dojo.
The idea of practicing self-defense skills in a safe environment before having to use them in real life is obviously important. But having a development site, a self-development site, goes well beyond the physical skills. Verbal skills, leadership skills, internal fortitude skills … on and on … all get tested out in the dojo. To-Shin Do has systems in place to help purposefully grow those skills. Which is a good thing because there are a lot of ways our words and actions can cause problems in our life, can confuse visitors, cause minor glitches, or cause the whole site to crash.
In the To-Shin Do dojo we get to practice cause and effect in countless scenarios. And the broader the spectrum of personalities and viewpoints at the dojo, the more possibilities we face and can train for. We get to practice finding the good and bad consequences to our own actions, as well the consequences of other people’s actions, without there really being consequences. Where else can you do that? Just something to think about at your next visit to the dojo. What skill are you practicing in this dojo session so that you can both get the results you want and still keep the world around you ‘crash-free’?
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