LETTERS TO THE GRANDMASTER

One of  Caprio's many teachings is the formation of personal goals.  These goals may include small goals such as learning a new form or may include setting and planning a "Z" goal for the duration of one's life.  One day, the grandmaster asked his students to write about how they accomplished the previous years goals and what their plan is for the new year.   The following is just a sample of a few of these letters.  For privacy, all names of the authors of these letters have been omitted.

Since we started writing down our goals I have only found one pattern repeating itself.  The other goals were either correcting defects in my character or I was successful in completing these goals.  To this day I will be chipping away at the character defects.  read more...

            I’ll begin with work because at the start of the year my attention was focused turning the store from a negative to a positive.    So one of my monthly goals consisted of harmonizing with my father and brother, my relationship with my employees, performance at work.  None of the methods seemed to work.  I began considering leaving the store.  I went back and looked at my original goals, one being to open up a martial arts school.  Before leaving I gave the deli one more chance. read more... 

 I am fairly happy with the way that I progressed in 1992.  For the most part, the goals that I set, I did achieve, although it did open my eyes to areas of needed improvement. I did finally learn that what I put my mind to, I can definitely achieve, but this is not enough.  I have learned to set up the big picture, but I am very weak at setting up the smaller specifics needed to make the big picture.  I felt that as long as I set up the puzzle, everything else would just fall in by itself. read more... 

Since I started writing down my short-term goals, I’ve learned a few things about myself.  One thing I have learned was that I have been going in every direction but towards a long-term goal.  There were times when I didn’t know what my actual goal is.  There were times when I was scared to make a commitment toward a long-term goal.  Sometimes I feel like I was just wasting time.  read more... 

To start things off I would like to say that before Verbal Hapkido Classes I already had an idea about what I wanted to do with my life.  What the class has done for me that I have not done before is sit down and seriously think about my future and get it on paper so I can see where I am headed.  Now I practically know exactly what I am looking for and the steps I must take towards achieving my long-term goal.  read more...