To complete the two-year Ultimate Black Belt Test (UBBT) it’s not enough to do 52,000 pushups, 52,000 crunches, 1,000 miles of walking or running, and 1,000 hours of sparring. No, to finish California-based teacher Tom Callos’s life-altering martial arts regimen, you must also fix three of your relationships; “right three wrongs;” meditate daily; read 12 books on enlightenment, management, or philosophy; complete an Anthony Robbins course; and practice 1,000 acts of kindness. And more.

In addition to being unlike other traditional martial arts curriculums, the program, launched in 2003, is open only to black belt martial artists (many of his students are teachers who run a dojo). It’s designed to be “a hero’s journey,” says Callos, 45, in the current issue of What Is Enlightenment. The journey includes “exodus, epiphany, and return––and passing [the UBBT] requires a physical, mental, and spiritual transformation….” Appalled by what he sees as a cultural abundance of “mediocrity, lack of self-esteem, apathy, and ignorance,” Callos developed UBBT to tip the scales toward excellence. “When I think of Rosa Parks or Julia Butterfly Hill or anybody who’s out there pushing the envelope a little bit, I think ‘What about their limits? Am I comparing myself to the wrong people?’”

Callos, a sixth-degree black belt and well-respected coach, is also out to transform martial arts itself from a warrior-creating enterprise to an actualized human-creating one. “I’ve made my life out of self-defense, and I’ve come to realize that the average person like me is more likely to get wiped out by relationship issues than by a physical attack,” Callos tells WIE. He’s also big on eco-awareness as part of this paradigm of constantly reaching “for a sliver of perfection.” UBBT masters must organize and execute an eco-cleanup project as part of their training.

Even if this sort of program is merely armchair warrior fodder, it helps to hear a couple of Callos’s fire-under-you mantras no matter what color strap holds your pants up: “Testing your limits is like a muscle––if you don’t use it, it atrophies” and “What makes a master is not physical skill alone but mental clarity, emotional maturity, and spiritual awareness.”

To learn more: ultimateblackbelttest.com