Burnout and a Year-End Montage:
Say Hello to Kaizenkan Aikido Dojo
Inryoku Volume 6 Issue 12
By Josh Paul Sensei, AOSB Head Instructor
I started 2024 celebrating my 25th year in aikido. I intended to write about changes in the art, dojo culture, and the market. I revisited my dan essays, my thoughts on testing, and dojo etiquette, and I started making plans for the future.
However, about halfway through the year, while on vacation and super stressed about the dojo, I accepted that what I needed more than anything was a change. I say “accepted” rather than “realized” because the thought had been lurking in the back of my mind for sometime.
I was suffering from a classic case of burnout. Indeed, on the Hamburg Burnout Inventory test I scored “complete burnout.” It made sense. After all, I’ve been teaching 10-15 classes per week, 5-7 days per week for more than a decade. In addition, I managed all of the behind-the-scenes work—book keeping, marketing, social media, recruitment and retention, facility maintenance, correspondences, special events, etc.
This all led to the creation of Kaizenkan Aikido Dojo. Classes at KZA start in February 2025! Be sure to follow us on IG to stay current!
In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy this month’s video post. It’s an AOSB photo montage from 2011 to the present. It’s not exhaustive: not everybody and every event is represented. It’s also not chronological. However, you’ll be able to distinguish the old from the new photos by the image quality and by my hair. I had a lot more of it in 2011!