Monthly Themes & Yearly Calendar 🍂

Whether it’s discipline in January or humility in November, the Level Up Life™ program adds depth to our jiu jitsu curriculum and gives your child the edge to succeed—on the mat, in school, and in life.

January – Focus

Start the year with clarity and intention.

After the holidays, students need help tuning back in—focus is the launchpad for growth.

Focus, which is sometimes referred to as concentration or mindfulness, is our ability to carefully listen and pay attention to the task at hand. Being mindful is a quality that will yield great reward in all areas of our lives, and this is especially true in marital art training.

It takes a keen eye and sharp hearing to fully take in what your instructors are commutating to you. Being mentally present during your training allows you to learn faster than a distracted student. Therefore, an attentive student has the opportunity to accelerate their progress.

February – Respect

Build stronger connections by honoring others.

With team dynamics and friendships growing, it’s the perfect time to teach empathy and boundaries.

Respect can hold a variety of meanings and interpretations. In martial arts, and in our studio specifically, being respectful means to show politeness and consideration towards everyone we interact with. When we ask our training partners about any injuries they may have before beginning a sparring session, we are showing respect for their current condition and safety. The touch up before the match, the awareness of our body in space during the roll, and the pat on the back afterwards are all ways we can show respect towards our teammates.

Being respectful also means to convey an understanding of the importance of something, such as the rules or policies in place. This means, keeping yourself and your gear clean and well kept as a means of respecting your training partners and facility. Respect is the key ingredient to the harmonious atmosphere we have on our mats.

March – Responsibility

Own your choices and follow through.

Spring brings more independence—this month emphasizes being trustworthy and dependable.

Responsibility refers to the job or duty that is expected of you. Being a responsible person means you hold yourself accountable for something or someone. In martial arts, being responsible means to follows the rules and protocols that are in place. It also means remembering to bring all of your gear to class and turning in your worksheet at the end of each month. As you move up in belt rank and gain the privileges that come with it, you also gain responsibilities as well. These responsibilities include helping newer students, setting a good example for others to follow, and being available to help the instructors when needed.

In life, being a responsible person will help you to reach goals and earn the trust and respect of others. While responsibility may appear to be “extra work” for us at first, in time we will come to see that it actually provides us with a sense of purpose and meaning and therefore enriches our lives.

April – Perseverance

Push through to the finish line.

With spring in full swing and big goals ahead, students learn the power of grit and follow-through.

Perseverance is the ability to continue our efforts even when things become difficult or take longer than expected. Having the ability to persevere, or stick to our goals, means that we will have the gift of actualizing our dreams.

There will be times throughout our training when a move or technique feels awkward or sloppy or we simply cannot execute it well. There may also be days where we “tap” to more submissions than usual. Additionally, we may even have times in which we enter a competition and loose. These are all examples of situations in which our ability to preserve will take us through the obstacle and lead us to the other side where we find ourselves stronger and better for it.

May – Patience

Stay calm and steady in times of growth.

As summer excitement builds, patience helps students stay kind, grounded, and focused to the end.

If perseverance is one side of a coin, patience is the flip side. Failed attempts to execute a technique that you’ve been working on for weeks, or months, can bring about feelings of frustration and defeat. While perseverance helps us to keep working on it, patience allows us to do so without the harmful, judgmental thoughts that try to creep into our minds throughout the learning process.

Patience is also useful in our relationships with others. Patience allows us to show kindness and understanding and exudes a general calmness about us as we interact with others. Therefore, patience is ultimately our ability to surrender to what is.

June – Positive Attitude

Let joy and optimism lead.

Summer fun is here—this is a great time to show how mindset shapes the experience.

A positive attitude can be cultivated through the practice of gratitude. Gratitude is a focus on the good and the beautiful in our lives. There is almost always something to be grateful for or positive about in nearly every situation. And our ability to find it, acknowledge it, and express it will make our lives, and the lives of those around us, brighter.

In martial arts, we can practice maintaining a positive attitude for all the areas of our training, even the areas we like the least, in order to make the most of our session and to help the atmosphere of the dojo to be welcoming and productive. We can express gratitude towards our parents for bringing us to class, or towards our instructors for passing on knowledge to us.

Having a positive attitude can help us, and others, to see situations in a new light and provide a sense of hope and optimism.

July – Teamwork

Accomplish more together.

Camps, events, and free time create perfect opportunities to build bonds and learn cooperation.

Although many consider martial arts to be an individual sport, it is actually a team sport. A martial arts team is comprised of instructors and training partners. This support system helps one another to develop the skills and techniques necessary to reach a competitive level. This team of people will help one another to prepare for competitions and cheer one another on.

Our ability to work together as a team is essential in all aspects of life, spanning our immediate family units all the way through our workplace environments. Teamwork in a martial arts setting is beautiful and fulfilling for all involved. Teamwork is what fosters a sense of belonging and community among the practitioners. This is the heart and soul of the art - camaraderie and connection.

August – Confidence

Step into new challenges with belief in yourself.

With back-to-school and new students joining, confidence sets the tone for bold beginnings.

Confidence is essentially the ability to trust yourself and your environment. In martial arts, honing the skills necessary to protect yourself and the ones you love helps to build your confidence and therefore allows you to live your life more fully.

Confidence is built each time you accurately execute a technique taught in class or each time you help a teammate to master a move. Confidence a muscle that is built over time as feelings of fear and anxiety are slowly replaced by feelings of trust and valor.

September – Discipline

Success starts with structure and self-control.

Routines return—this is the ideal time to rebuild good habits both at home and on the mats.

Discipline is the ability to control and maintain our daily habits in order to achieve our goals. Having discipline allows us to accomplish the things we want to achieve in life. Discipline can feel easy during the beginning stages of a goal we set. However, overtime, when the excitement of the goal has waned, our ability to stay disciplined can become more of a challenge.

It takes discipline to go to a martial arts class on a day when you’d rather sleep in or go straight home after a long day. You need even more discipline to do the actual practice and drilling required in class that will take your game to the next level. Therefore, discipline means holding yourself accountable without repeatedly depending on someone else to tell you what to do.

October – Integrity

Do what’s right, even when it’s hard.

As peer pressure rises and independence grows, integrity keeps students aligned with their values.

Integrity means doing what’s right—even when it’s hard, even when no one is watching. It’s about aligning our actions with our values and being someone others can count on. At the heart of integrity is honesty: the courage to tell the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable. When we’re honest with others and with ourselves, we build trust, take responsibility, and open the door to real growth.

Living with integrity means we choose truth, keep our word, and stand up for what we believe in—because our character matters more than convenience.

November – Humility

Stay grounded and grateful.

Thanksgiving season is perfect for teaching humility, gratitude, and recognizing others.

If confidence is one side of the coin, humility is the other. In being humble we notice and acknowledge our own shortcomings and limitations. With humility we are able to appreciate the strengths of others, giving credit where it is due, and highlighting the team's success over our individual achievements.

Humility also allows us to be open to learning from new individuals and situations and fosters a sense of curiosity in us to continue our learning. Most importantly, humility offers us the opportunity to be more attuned to the feelings of others and therefore allows us to be a better teammate and practitioner.

December – Improvement

Finish strong and reflect on your growth.

As the year wraps up, this theme encourages self-assessment and goal setting for what’s next.

Improvement is the process of moving towards excellence. Any black belt will tell you that the development of their skills did not stop once they received their black belt. This means there is always room for improvement. Making strides towards excellence has a cyclical effect; as we ourselves improve, so do our training partners. We all our working towards the same goal in our own creative ways and on our own timelines, but we are all looking to improve.

On the path to improvement, we need to harness all the Level Up Life themes taught at Elevated Studios. These character development traits will serve us well in all areas of our lives and can be experienced and practiced in the dojo each time we step onto the mats and outside of the dojo in our everyday lives!

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