Learning a new skill any time in life has so many uplifts that you might not expect

I’m in my forties and until 2 months ago had never done any martial arts.

Then as part of my “New Year, New Challenge” I chose karate as one of my new hobbies for 2026 🥋.

I signed up for 6 months of classes in my local dojo and away I went 🤜.

Within 2 months I had earned my first belt 🥷 and it’s been a great experience but all has not been straight forward — I mean, I’m one of only 2 adults in a class of 30 people aged mostly 4-15 and all the 6 year olds are better than me 😳

That said I’ve benefitted a lot by enhancing my:

1️⃣ HUMILITY: having to embrace the learner mindset on a new skill can be very humbling, especially when you’re 10 times the age of some of the other students

2️⃣ ABILITY TO OVERCOME FRUSTRATION: realising you are crap at something you thought would be easy is very, very frustrating [who would have thought throwing a sequence of punches without making a mistake would be so difficult] so you have to suck it up

3️⃣ FOCUS: for 3 hours every week, I have to concentrate exclusively on just one task. No phones, no emails, no distractions whatsoever — this is a far cry from the rest of my life

4️⃣ DISCIPLINE: karate is about respect and the sensei is tough so every time you do something wrong it is 20 press ups (or similar). If you’re late it’s 20 press ups, if you forget to bow it’s 20 press ups, if you talk out of line it’s 20 press ups, and so on…

5️⃣ FITNESS: it turns out all those press ups help with your fitness along with 3 hours of throwing punches and kicks

6️⃣ FLEXIBILITY: it turns out kicking and punching for 3 hours also helps make you more flexible

7️⃣ CONSISTENCY & SKILL IMPROVEMENT: there is something deeply rewarding to see progress in a skill on a weekly basis but only because you are putting in the hard work

8️⃣ CHOREOGRAPHY/SEQUENCE LEARNING: learning karate reminds me of the dance classes I attended years ago; once you go beyond the basics it’s about the fluency of combos and then you can start adding a bit of flair

9️⃣ SELF CONFIDENCE: the ability to learn a new skill when a bit older is immensely rewarding for my confidence and gives me small wins every week

🔟 SENSE OF COMMUNITY AND INSPIRATION: because the dojo is local (it’s actually the local hall) and all the participants come from the local area, it’s been a great way to meet more people from the local community.

It’s also a very inspiring environment; the students are an equal mix of boys and girls, come from all sorts of ethnicities (we have Indians, Iranians, Jamaicans, Italians, Bulgarians, Brits, Egyptians, Irish, Greeks, Nigerians, Chinese and more) and come from different economic groups. What’s more, several of the students are neurodiverse and one even is recovering from a brain injury which makes their participation even more impressive. Every week I stand in awe of how we all come together as one inclusive group united by karate.

Will I be going all the way?

I don’t think my future involves me making it to black belt in karate but that’s not the point.

When I signed up, I knew it was much more than about the karate itself. I was looking for something that would provide me with a new challenge and transmit benefits to other parts of my life.

It has certainly done that and much more.

I don’t think I’ll ever be troubling the World Karate Championships (or becoming a younger version of Mr Miyagi) but I fully intend to learn for 6 months and make a decision then about whether to continue or not.

Who knows: maybe I’ll earn my second belt by then.. Or maybe I won’t and it’ll be time for another new challenge.

I highly recommend everyone immerse themselves in at least one new challenge each year; it could be karate or it could be something else. That’s entirely up to you

If you do pick up karate then let me know and maybe we can have a bit of kumite.. Or maybe we get coffee instead 😊

Faris

Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness. Connect with him here

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Originally Published on https://farisaranki.medium.com/

Faris Aranki Strategy & Emotional Intelligence

Having spent over 20 years delivering strategic change for the corporate and non-corporate worlds, Faris has experienced first-hand the fine differences between strategic success and failure.
His work has spanned numerous companies (from global behemoths to small start-ups), in numerous countries, across a range of sectors, supporting them all to unlock strategic success.

He came to realize that often what hinders institutions from achieving their goals goes beyond the quality of their strategy; it is their ability to engage effectively with others at all levels and remove barriers in their way. This has led to his passion for improving strategic effectiveness within all businesses and individuals and the foundation of Shiageto Consulting.

Over time, Faris has worked to distill his knowledge of how to solve complex problems in a structured manner combined with his skill on engaging effectively with others and his ability to quickly determine the barriers to a strategy's success. This knowledge has formed the foundation of Shiageto’s workshops, courses and methodologies. Faris believes that any firm or team can adopt these improvements; all it requires is a little of the right support -something Shiageto provides!

On top of leading our business, Faris is now an accomplished speaker and contributor for a variety of outlets.