So, based on yesterday's email you know that I'm a proponent of teaching character education lessons in your kid's classes.

But what's the untold flip-side of offering character education and mat chats in your dojo?

Well, quite simply that people will hold you to the standards of what you're teaching. Now, you may not think this is a big deal, but it will become a very big deal for you if your business practices aren't on the level.

I never really had a problem with that... but I did often feel like I couldn't ever just let my hair down or relax anywhere in my home town, either.

I mean, at any given time I might have 100-150 kids who were looking up to me and hanging on my every word. So, if Mr. Massie stubbed his toe at the Wal-Mart and dropped an f-bomb, you could bet dollars to donuts one of my kids would be around to hear it.

Or even worse, one of their parents. 

And forget about going out and having a few drinks. The last thing I needed was someone gossiping about me saying I'd had a few too many at the local Chili's (which was the only place you could grab a mixed drink in that town, being in a "dry" county and all - yes, we're talking old school Bible belt living, here).

It got to the point where my wife and I would go out of town or drive to the town over just to hang out and relax on the weekends. Simply because I needed space to relax and unwind, without having some Nosy Nancy chattering to everyone about how Mr. Massie really didn't practice what he preached.

See, this is the problem with putting yourself in a position where you're up on the proverbial pedestal. Once you start teaching this stuff, you can easily paint yourself into a corner by setting the standard so high, you can never live up to your own standards of behavior.

This is dangerous territory, and a serious mistake. So how do you avoid doing this? 

Well, I'm going to tell you how I learned to avoid this mistake in the next email in this series on Monday. Stay tuned.