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A Better Option Than Hitting “Jim”
If you have been in the workforce for longer than about 19 minutes, you have probably worked with someone you wanted to hit.
Badly.
And hard.
Real friggin’ hard.
I have a running list from past jobs myself.
But today’s focus is Jim.
Everybody Has a “Jim”
Jim was particularly difficult to get along with. And in someone’s infinite wisdom, they decided Jim should lead an entire department full of people with pre-existing anger issues.
Myself included.
Jim had no tact.
No empathy.
No class.
He was incredibly easy to dislike.
Unfortunately, Jim also had another quality that did not help his situation:
He had a highly hit-able face.
A lot of people wanted to hit Jim based solely on appearance. And things certainly did not improve once he opened his mouth.
Why Boxing Helped
Around the same time Jim entered my life, I started boxing.
And honestly, it could not have happened at a better time.
Boxing gave me an outlet for frustration.
Beyond being an exhausting workout, it allowed me to hit things repeatedly and hard.
Real friggin’ hard.
The better I got at boxing, the harder I could hit.
I was one of the smaller and older guys in the boxing gym, but people told me I hit hard.
Eventually, nobody needed to tell me anymore. I could see it on people’s faces.
Thankfully for Jim, I never completely lost my self-control and punched him in the nose.
I did make his life difficult from time to time. I did clench my fists at him more than once. But I managed to keep things from crossing the line.
Mostly.
Frustration Needs an Outlet
The reason I tell this story is simple:
Everybody has frustrations.
And generally speaking, the more people you deal with every day, the more frustrations you collect.
That is life.
The problem is when those frustrations have nowhere to go.
When stress, anger, resentment, and exhaustion keep building without an outlet, eventually they tend to come out somewhere else. Usually not in a productive way.
Martial Arts Can Be a Healthy Outlet
Before you let frustration boil over and end up hitting your own personal “Jim,” consider giving yourself a healthier outlet.
Cardio Kickboxing can be a fantastic way to burn off stress while also getting into better shape.
One student in our Cardio Kickboxing classes works in an extremely frustrating profession. Beyond getting to work those frustrations out on the heavy bag, and occasionally on me, she has also lost over 50 pounds in the past year.
Just by hitting things.
That is pretty incredible.
Karate can offer a similar outlet as well.
In Karate classes, we are constantly moving, hitting, kicking, kneeing, elbowing, and working through physical challenges.
Sometimes we hit heavy bags.
Sometimes pads.
Sometimes each other.
And sometimes imaginary enemies surrounding us from every direction.
Nobody worries about looking foolish because everybody is doing the same thing.
Building More Than Physical Strength
The deeper goal behind martial arts training is not simply learning how to hit hard.
It is learning self-control.
It is learning discipline.
It is developing a stronger mind alongside a stronger body.
That process takes time, but the progress tends to be steady for people who stick with it.
And along the way, many people discover something unexpected:
They become calmer outside the dojo too.
Final Thoughts
So before you completely lose your patience with Jim, Suzy, Dan, Karen, or whoever else is currently testing your sanity...
Consider giving yourself a better outlet first.
If you try martial arts or Cardio Kickboxing and hate it, no big deal.
You lost nothing by trying.
But if you love it, you may discover a healthy outlet that helps you physically, mentally, and emotionally for years to come.
