Get ready for an insightful look ahead as Senior Master Zach Hayden discusses the importance of setting meaningful goals for 2025. He introduces a valuable resource called Life Focus, designed to help individuals and martial arts instructors define their core values and mission. Throughout the episode, he shares his experiences from recent events and highlights the new podcast, Business Beyond the Mat, aimed at supporting ATA licensees. With the holiday season approaching, Sr. Master Hayden emphasizes the significance of gratitude and reflection on personal journeys. As the year wraps up, he encourages listeners to embrace a mindset focused on growth and purpose, setting the stage for a successful new year.

Takeaways:

• Setting goals for 2025 is crucial for personal and martial arts development.
• The Life Focus tool helps individuals define their core values and mission effectively.
• Perseverance, courtesy, and integrity are essential values for becoming a black belt leader.
• The new podcast Business Beyond the Mat aims to support ATA licensees with professional growth.
• Reflecting on personal progress and goals during the holiday season is highly beneficial.
• Engaging students and instructors in the goal-setting process fosters a supportive martial arts community.

Links referenced in this episode:

• atanationpodcast.com/focus

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Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:00:01

Are you ready for: 2025

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:00:04

Let's talk about some goals.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:00:06

So let's get started, sir.

ATA Nation Host: 00:00:08

I will live with perseverance in the spirit of Taekwondo, courtesy for fellow students, integrity within myself, and to become a black belt leader.

ATA Nation Host: 00:00:21

Welcome to the ATA Nation podcast.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:00:30

I was just talk talking to somebody at a event recently and they were talking to me about how much that intro kind of freaks them out because you're doing the oath in different orders and it's just a little confusing for them.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:00:44

Welcome to episode 131.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:00:48

This is the Ata Nation podcast.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:00:50

My name is Senior Master Zach Hayden.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:00:52

be our very last episode for: 2024

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:00:57

I hope you've been enjoying your year.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:01:00

Got to see so many of you guys at Worlds and Nationals and events and things like that.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:01:04

I've been sending out stickers left and right.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:01:07

I've got a couple more I got to send out still and we usually take a break over the holiday season and I'm going to give you a little, a little input on what's been going on.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:01:17

We missed an episode last week as well, and just some things going down that are keeping me extra busy and, you know, you just got to relax a little over the holidays.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:01:26

We got Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:01:28

I'm thankful for you, ATA Nation.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:01:32

Really appreciate you tuning in each week, sharing this out there.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:01:37

and better things planned for: 2025

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:01:41

Can you believe 132 episodes?

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:01:44

That's nuts.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:01:44

I can't believe it.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:01:45

Hey, if you are going to miss my voice over the holiday season, go back and listen to some of those old episodes.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:01:52

You can watch them, listen to them all online.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:01:55

Don't miss it.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:01:56

Now we're, we're broadcasting this right now live Facebook in our private Facebook group, which is just going to lead us to some cool things that we're doing.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:02:09

Last week I missed an episode because it was the very first episode of a brand new podcast that I am hosting and doing, partnering with ATA headquarters.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:02:19

It's their podcast, it's their show.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:02:22

I'm just hosting and bringing my, I don't know, some people call them skills, but my voice to the platform.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:02:31

So it is called Business beyond the Mat and it is just for ATA licensees.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:02:36

ATA headquarters does just an amazing job of trying to find ways to support their licensees, the school owners, the instructors out there.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:02:44

And this is a kind of an evolution of something that came during COVID During COVID we started these weekly for a while webinars that were just there to help licensees get through Covid and then this turned into Thrive, these monthly.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:03:02

They were bimonthly webinars that we would do online.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:03:06

And we basically Headquarters has been doing these, having guests on and presenting these webinars over the last, what's that like, four years now?

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:03:17

And I talked to them.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:03:19

We, we worked together and just thought about evolving it into more of a podcast style show.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:03:26

And so we are now doing business.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:03:28

Beyond the Mat is the Evolution.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:03:30

It's a live video show that goes to the ATA licensees only every other week.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:03:37

We had our first episode last week, new episode next week, and then they, the licensees can download the replay on their favorite podcast player.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:03:48

So if you're a student, sorry, it's secret.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:03:53

It's top secret because we just want to bring the licensees some extra, you know, great education, good talks, things, you know, coming from headquarters, those kind of things.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:04

And so that started last week and getting that ready has taken a lot of my time.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:09

And there's another project that you might have started to hear about from your instructors.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:15

They were introduced to it last week on that first episode and we're going to be talking about it in the next couple episodes.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:20

And they've been putting, getting emails about it.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:23

That's really neat.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:24

Launching in January, some of the licenses, you guys will be hearing about it in December as well.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:30

But I've been helping with some of that and the launch and creating some content for that.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:34

That's been taking up a bunch of my time as well.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:37

So it just has been a little bit of craziness out there.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:40

Look at that, Alaska tuning in.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:42

I love it.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:44

Very nice.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:44

And Tulsa Martial Arts, I love.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:46

Thanks for tuning in live, guys.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:47

I really appreciate it.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:49

Now this is going to be a little bit of a different episode.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:52

It's a solo show.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:53

I want to give you an episode update, excuse me, on what I've been doing, why you've missed me a little bit.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:04:59

And then I wanted to bring to you an idea that I got earlier this year.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:05:05

I like to do this legacy retreat with my legacy students, my teen and adult legacy students.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:05:11

We go, we rent an Airbnb, we stay, we train, we do different things.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:05:15

And I like to do some personal improvement kinds of things there as well.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:05:21

And so I have been a follower of a gentleman named Michael Hyatt for a long time.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:05:27

I've used some of his materials in the past and he came out with this thing called Life Focus.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:05:33

If you're watching the video, you can see I've got the box here, Life Focus and what this does is helps you make a plan.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:05:41

It's kind of like goal setting.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:05:43

So we're getting ready to hit the holidays and we hit January.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:05:47

We want to look at our own go as martial arts instructors, as martial artists.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:05:53

I know for myself, I just hired a personal coach to make sure that I am working on a trainer that's giving me programming to help my martial arts skills, you know, improve my speed, my reactivity, you know, my springiness, strength and power and those kind of things.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:06:14

But we need to be looking at the goals that we want to set for ourselves and having this life focus, this plan.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:06:20

So let me.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:06:20

Let me just talk you through this a little bit, and I'll tell you what I really like about it is it's got all of these cards.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:06:26

So what you do is you get this box.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:06:28

I'm going to.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:06:29

I'm going to lean over for a second in my fancy podcast room, and it's got this box with all these cards in it.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:06:36

If you watch the video in our group, you can see it there.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:06:40

And you start with, you know, a direction book that goes through this and what you can expect.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:06:46

Let me read this to you.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:06:47

It says, life focus addresses four primary questions.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:06:51

Who am I?

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:06:52

This addresses your personal values.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:06:55

Why am I here?

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:06:56

This describes your personal mission.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:06:59

Where am I now?

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:00

This captures your current reality.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:03

And where am I going?

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:05

This charts your future course.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:07

You know what made me really think of this too?

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:09

I had done this a little over the summer with some of my students, and then at world championships, ATA announced their core values.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:17

And I was like, wow, this really goes right to kind of the.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:19

Some of the stuff we work in personally with my legacy students.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:23

And I went back and actually used this box with these different cards and the values and things to work on coming up with some of the core values for my business, my school as well.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:34

And I'm still revamping that.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:35

I haven't announced those or anything yet.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:37

I'm doing some work on that.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:39

But I think this is a valuable tool because a lot of times you don't have the.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:43

The words or there's just.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:46

It's easier to say what you're not than what you are.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:49

And this gives you an opportunity to leaf through some things and really it helps you define some goals, some thought about yourself.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:56

So let me, let me give you a little walkthrough about how this works.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:07:59

So you start with who you are.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:01

So you take these, this deck of cards that are just value cards.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:05

So each of the cards has a value on it.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:08

And then four words that kind of describe that value.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:11

So empathy is on this card.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:13

And the other describing words are tolerance, caring, respect, kindness, advocacy is the next card.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:20

Engagement, empowerment, education, activism.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:22

And they go on.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:23

Curiosity, entrepreneurial, faithfulness, simplicity.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:26

There's a whole giant stack of cards.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:28

And what you do is you go through those cards and you lay them in three different piles.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:32

You lay them in three different piles.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:34

You have the powerfully resonant.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:37

These are the ones that like, oh, they call to me a little bit.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:39

They like, oh, that's a word.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:40

Yes, I totally get that.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:41

A maybe pile and then a less resident.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:44

They might matter to you, but they're just not as motivational to you as usual.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:49

And then you come back and you kind of shuffle through them and try to rejigger and go through.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:53

And you end up coming up with how many do you end up picking at the beginning?

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:08:58

I think like five of them in the end that you.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:09:02

You end up picking.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:09:03

And these, these end up being your core values.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:09:07

And you use these as you work down, like more and more specific in how you go.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:09:15

So you start with more of them and then you whittle it down and then you refine the words a little bit as you go with who you are, those core values.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:09:23

And then why you're here has your mission, and there's a role, there's an impact, and there's an activity.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:09:30

So that you have this whole stack of cards that have impact on them.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:09:37

So these are the impact ones.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:09:39

Have a kind of a neat setup.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:09:41

So it's like, promotes justice, combats iniquity, promotes dignity, combats self hate, promotes clarity, combats confusion.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:09:52

It's just a really neat way to phrase these goals.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:09:55

Your role might be humanitarian or.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:09:59

And it gives examples like leader, mentor, coach, that kind of thing.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:10:03

And then your activity is something like this one says, identify one unconventional solution you are positioned to create, or let's go to another.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:10:17

Identify people or communities you can access to join you in your cause.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:10:22

So it gives you these really great phrasing where you might not be able to come up with these thoughts yourself, but once you read it on the card, you go, oh, yes, that's.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:10:34

That's me.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:10:34

That's what I want to do.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:10:36

And it takes you through a whole process where you get to do that.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:10:39

And then from there there's just these more ways in which you redefine it, kind of simplify the wording so it really works for you.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:10:50

And then you go through and take a little quiz about how, where you are now in these different areas of life.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:10:55

So your body, your mind, your spirit, love, family, community, money, work, hobbies.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:11:00

And then you see if you like where you are and where you're not.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:11:04

And then each of those have their own set of cards then too, that you go through and do some work with.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:11:10

So there's like, I stay young at heart by playing.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:11:15

I leverage my hobbies to meet new people.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:11:18

I try a new hobby every year.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:11:20

I have a hobby that energizes me.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:11:22

And you go through these.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:11:23

There's a whole process.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:11:24

Anyways, I just wanted to bring this to you guys because I think it's a really neat resource.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:11:29

I really enjoy doing it.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:11:31

I think it's really cool to do with.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:11:34

For one, it could be for your business, definitely for you as an individual, but then even more for like the students you're in, your staff, your instructors, things like that.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:11:47

And as we get ready for the new year, defining, instead of just setting these random goals, setting, you know, these.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:11:57

I want to lose this many pounds.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:11:58

I want to do that which you need actionable goals like that, don't get me wrong, but you've got to define, like, what's your mission?

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:12:04

That's where you really get excited about things, is your, your mission, your purpose, who you are, those kind of things.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:12:11

And I just, I just thought this was a great, a great product, a great thing to check out.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:12:17

They've got a lot of neat organizational things over there for you as well.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:12:22

Michael Hyatt's really good at this leadership, this kind of planning, your life, those kind of things.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:12:28

So I did set up a short link and this is an affiliate link for some of these things.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:12:33

So I did, because I bought it and whatnot, like it.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:12:36

If you like it and you buy it through my link, I get a couple of bucks.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:12:39

I don't know what the deal is exactly, but if you go to atanation podcast.com focus@anation podcast.com focus, you can check out all of their stuff there.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:12:51

And right now is a great time to do it because, you know, Friday, all those things.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:12:55

t to use for your planning of: 2025

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:03

I know I'm going to be going through it especially for my, My business, my stuff.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:07

And, you know, we want to continue to grow.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:10

We want to go beyond the belt.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:12

That's what we're.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:13

We're doing as martial artists is going beyond the belt.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:16

And I think this is a tool that you can use to help you with that process.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:20

So I invite you to check that out.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:22

It's called Life Focused.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:24

I love the way it's set up because of the cards and stuff.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:27

It's very tactile.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:28

Makes my ADD brain happy when I do it.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:32

So atanation podcast.com focused.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:35

g to about wrap it up for our: 2024

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:43

We've had some amazing time, some neat things.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:46

We're going to be.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:47

You're going to see some lives from the AtNation podcast next year.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:52

Don't I can't give you too much but we're going to be doing some lives.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:55

We're going to some some neat things coming.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:13:57

We're going to continue to work on the business beyond the Mat podcast for licensees.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:14:04

So if you're a licensee, make sure you check in that out.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:14:07

Feel free to send me any messages and we want to just encourage you, inspire you to continue to work beyond the belt, become the person you know you could be outside of that regular.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:14:19

Just like I do more than kicking, punching, I'm a martial artist.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:14:22

What's that mean to you?

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:14:23

And maybe you know that that Life Focused box can help you with.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:14:28

Ladies and gentlemen, that's going to wrap it up for us today.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:14:30

re on the AtNation podcast in: 2024

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:14:37

I really look forward to: 2025

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:14:41

I'll see some of you guys in Little Rock next week for Camp Jiangsu.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:14:45

Say hi to me if you're a podcast listener.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:14:47

podcast and then we'll see in: 2025

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:14:54

I plan, I think to go out to Dallas.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:14:56

You'll see me at Worlds as always, use this time over the holidays, you know, be, you know, express that gratitude to each other, to your family, to your friends, to your instructors as you go through, you know, the holidays where you can, you know, just express that gratitude for them.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:15:14

Take some time to rest, take some time to think about your journey, where you've come from, where you're going and what kind of plans you've got for the future.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:15:24

We look forward to an awesome: 2025

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:15:29

Then get out there.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:15:30

Go beyond the belt.

ATA Nation Host: 00:15:34

Thanks for listening to another episode of the ATA Nation podcast.

ATA Nation Host: 00:15:39

Be sure to subscribe and share with your ATA family.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:15:56

Secret part.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:15:58

Bunch you guys already you're on the part.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:16:00

And if you're watching the video.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:16:01

Obviously, it's not that secret because, you know, the video's not over yet.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:16:04

ou would like to hear from in: 2025

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:16:09

I've got a couple of planned.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:16:10

I know.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:16:11

I'm talking to some ATA guys, some non ATA guys, people we want to talk to.

Senior Master Zach Hayden: 00:16:19

holidays and we'll see you in: 2025