For some reason, the awareness of the necessity to persist has come to the fore recently. I’ve had about seven emails over the past few days asking me to repeat the email of a couple of years ago on ‘persistence’.
The email was based on a quote by Calvin Coolidge, who was President of the United States in the 1920s. I can very well understand the desire to reread his inspiring quote, but I’m wondering what instigated this awareness of it, at this time, that compelled people to ask about it. Any suggestions? Is there something in the news that I’ve missed? Have you noticed anything that might trigger this? Here’s the quote. Read it and enjoy it and think about it. 'Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.'
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Gentle stretching, done frequently, with attention, and intention, can make a world of difference to your life.
That is no exaggeration. “He’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders“, is one of the classic phrases used to describe the person who worries, overreacts, and can be generally besieged by problems in life, many of which don't exist. Marcel Proust, the French, philosopher, and writer said on his deathbed, “my life has been a series of catastrophes, most of which never occurred“. The inner shoulders, known as the area of Primary Control, can create tension, stress, and even massive distress. Inappropriate stress often comes from seemingly insignificant small events. A missed phone call, a red traffic light, a parking ticket, being late for an appointment, all relatively small things in themselves, but they can accumulate into a massive force. The cosequence is physical tension and distress. When we train, and when I say train, I mean teach, or inform, when we train our minds and bodies to adapt to a particular state of being loose, composed and calm, we lessen the effect of physical reaction to life’s events. Much of the stress experienced today comes over time from our physical reactions to events that take place daily. When we become even mildly alarmed, our shoulders tense, our muscles tighten, adrenaline pumps our systems in readiness to fight or flee. Tense muscles act like clamps on the circulation system, and place massive pressure on the heart and on the arteries. This can become habit. The wrong kind. It creates inappropriate tension and as we continue to do it frequently, we get good at it and suffer chronic tension. We can reverse this. By teaching our bodies to be at ease, composed and free from conditioned tension, we unlearn the wrong habit and begin to reteach ourselves to be free of much, if not all, of the stress we place on ourselves. If we are in agreement that life is not so much about what happens to us, but about how we react to what happens to us, then we have a clear path to reacting, and even responding, to circumstances that can change the quality of the lives we lead. Learning the state of composure and the condition of mindful attention to how we are using ourselves allows us think more clearly in any situation. As we know, what undoes us in stressful events is not so much the circumstance with which are faced, as it is how we react to it. Which is another way of repeating that venerable adage, 'Life isn't so much about what happens to us, as it is about how we respond to what happens to us.' For information on the innovative and effective workshops coming up in the latter end of June, see HERE. It's everywhere.
'The next level'. You can't open any of the Social Platforms without being exhorted to bring whatever it is you do to the 'next level'. While it's tiresome to read the same old scripts masquerading as copywrite, there are times when the phrase is apt. Never more so than in the area of Personal Development. Recent experience has reiterated the importance of learning basics. Just like the alphabet, or basic chords on a guitar, or basic scales on a piano, or being in contact with people if you expect to do a business, there are fundamental to every skill. Without the fundamentals, the more sophisticated moves, systems, procedures, have no substance. In any activity. Which brings us back to the 'next level'. On a programme about six months ago, in which I was teaching the value of Human Contact and Customer Care to a gym' team, the emphasis was on communication skills. Most of the team had NEVER been taught the basics of communication, the core of Customer Care. The retention rate of members in the premises was very low, which was why the Management had asked me to deliver the programme. Now, the boys and girls on the team were more than adequately qualified to instruct their charges in safety and procedures. But, as in everything, it isn't so much what you do, as it is how you do it. The premises had outsourced courses previously, but the delivery either assumed a knowledge of the basics, or wasn't aware of them. Over the following immediate months of completing the programme, there was a marked increase in Renewals of membership. Fundamentals work. The same goes for being Fit, Healthy and Well. The 'next level' is usually reached by a diligent application of the principles that apply at EVERY level, for the accomplished athlete or the complete beginner. It's not in the 'Magic Bullet', the 'Silver Sword', or the 'Gound breaking Discovery' of the latest Guru on the scene. It's usually by the painstaking, attentive, intelligent application of personal resources. That's where we tend to discover, with the benefit of practice and experience, other values and aspects to what we've already learned. We see things that could not have been seen before because we didn't know what they were. We weren't aware of them. And you can't learn what you don't know exists. But once we understand the potential that is within the realm of possibility, then our horizons broaden, our minds open and we can truly, take ourselves and our lives, to the next level. Keep it simple. Do it well. Every Friday evening without fail, Maurice called in to Larry Murphy's.
Remember Larry Murphy’s? His intention was to have one gin. It usually went to two, or three, sometimes four. Whenever Maura thought about going for a glass of wine, or a coffee, she saw a very clear picture of herself, with the glass, or the coffee, invariably smoking a cigarette. Though these habits are physical, they’re generated by mental images. These images are so strong that when Maurice arrived at Baggot St., even if he was late leaving the office, he parked, without thinking, at the nearest spot he could find to Larry‘s. As Maura journeyed to her place for the glass of wine, or the coffee, she unconsciously searched her bag for cigarettes. If she didn’t have them, she went and bought some, in order to complete the picture in her mind. These images are so entrenched that they determine our actions and behaviours without our even realising it. Once aware of this, Maurice bypassed, Baggot St., and within a month had changed his route, his drive home on a Friday night, and kicked what he saw, was becoming an insidious habit. Maura practised seeing a different image when she thought of her glass of wine and coffee. She made an outrageously different picture in her mind of herself taking long deep breaths as she sat in the wine bar and sipped from her glass. In her underwear. This gave her a different picture and a different feel about the whole event. And of course, a new perspective. That’s a way to change a mental habit. Alter the pattern of the habitual image and see what happens. Maura taught herself to see the cigarette she was smoking was a soggy butt, taken from the street. Her reaction to this idea was disgust. The association of ideas with smoking grew more revolting by the day. Now even the thought of cigarettes is nearly enough to make Maura nauseous. A whole new range of projected activity comes into view. The picture changes, the thought pattern changes and the response to it changes. Then persist with the change. That can take a bit of time, determination, and the power of decision. The real change is in the thinking about it. Constantly. Think about the new image, one that you can clearly imagine and that you can develop till it becomes the dominant force. As in ALL skills, it’s the attention to the process that makes the change; the daily indomitable determination to use each day to apply the thinking that revises the viewpoint. It may take time; a day, a year, a minute. But once the picture clears and settles in the framework of the imagination, the course is certain, the destination assured. What do you feel is the most important thing to you in your life?
Why is that? The significant words in the first question are “you“, feel', and the final two words “your life“. I recently did a project with seven people, and that first question was the project. For each individual in the project, there were a myriad of answers. Not one of the answers was conclusive in the early stages, that is, the first couple of weeks. Few of us take the time to ask ourselves this question, and then even less time to consider the answer. There is no one answer. So many things in life are interdependent that to single out one thing as the most important, can be futile. That said, look for what you feel is the most important thing to you at this moment anyway. This exercise has the effect of settling priorities. Decided priorities give meaning and direction to our lives. So, take some time, five, maybe 10, minutes, and scribble down, as fast as you can, as many things as you can, that you feel are important to your life. Set a clock, an alarm. When your allocated time is up, stop writing. Then spend some time looking over what you've written, and considering what you flushed out. Do this exercise for seven consecutive days. See which element repeats itself and becomes the dominant force. Have a Great Day and Do Well... Getting anything done is about taking the decision, getting started, doing it , and seeing it through, isn't it?
That's the Universal Formula. Nothing works as well. At the age of 10, I first heard that. At that age, I felt there was something to it, but I wasn't sure what it was. My mind wasn't attuned to abstracts. What I saw and heard was a tall, gruff, lovable man of whom I thought the world, saying something to me on which he obviously set great store. Because it was he who was saying it, I believed it, but I didn't understand it fully. Or the significance of it. Later, in my late teens and early twenties, the original statement I'd heard in my early years, came to me again. "Whatever ye do, Boy, Take a decision, Do it with a will, See it through." The magic is in the simplicity. It's a clear path, no confusion, no equivocation, no doubt about the objective. And I've never known it to fail. In anything. Try it. Learn the words. Yes, do that. Learn those words and repeat them till they're part of your thinking in any decision you make. Then follow your own advice. Tell us how you did when you get around to doing what you may have been putting off for a long time. Have a look here for more information on this: Have a Great Day and Do Well... We spoke before about the “next level”.
In that note, I expressed the view that it was important to always, always refer to the basics. Nothing has happened since then to change my view. However, a point was made that along with referring to the basics, we also need to extend ourselves and push beyond the limits of current performance, and explore all possibilities. I believe this to be a great point and one which we should all bear in mind. Since the early 70s, I’ve always advocated the idea of training with intensity, but never straining. I still believe in that principle. The fundamentals of any skill practised diligently and rehearsed again, and again, will seep into the mind, and have a powerful anchoring effect on the performance. We all know how the mind affects the body, but not everyone is aware of the reciprocal effect of the body on the mind. So when we learn a new move, whether it’s in swimming, martial, arts, weight training, or any other activity this approach will give a holistic depth of perception to the entire movement. You’ll see how you experience the movement and how it translates into a complete and accomplished action. It is then no longer something you do, but it’s part of who you are. This is when the move becomes internalised and can be performed without thought, performed instinctively. It’s at this level of performance, and with the repeated attention to the fundamentals, that the body, the nervous system, the physical brain, assimilate the movement and can perform it with an accomplishment that raises it to the level of artistry. I think it was Anthony Daly, who first said to a team of Dublin hurlers, “Just go out and express yourselves” in a game in which the team then went out and did just that, beating the Princes of hurling, Kilkenny, in the process. Watching accomplished performers, be they singers, racing drivers, tennis, players, camogie, teams, or anyone else who has practised, learned, rehearsed, and internalised the fundamentals of their skill, is one of the most uplifting events in the human experience. A friend of mine from the UK, an accomplished weight trainer, unwittingly gave me lessons in how to train with his companionship in the gym sessions we had. Watching the precision, balance and coordination, which allowed him train with such speed and effectiveness is a memory I will hold to the end of my days. It was also instrumental in applying what I knew to teaching others who came to my gym. This man didn’t just do the movement, but performed at a level that amounted to muscular choreography. There may be movements, activities, events, which you may have forgotten about or have fallen into a humdrum routine of merely going through the motions. Perhaps you worked really well at this activity sometime ago before it became a mindless routine. If that is the case, it might be something you’d like to start again. You might like to think about what it means to your life, to your performance in any particular activity, indeed to your performance in every area of your life. When you apply yourself with intensity and focus, add clear intention to any activity, you also develop the habit of unfaltering attention. This habit is a mental one and spreads over into everything else that you practice . You may wish to take it up again with that different viewpoint, and let it become something that will enhance your life immeasurably. Have a Great Day and Do Well... The couple of emails on the “next level“ has struck a chord with a lot of people.
That’s good, because practising basics is something that has become overlooked in the universal rush for development. An example of the value of practising one thing really well was the statement Bruce Lee, the Martial Artist, made about how the opponent who knew 10,000 moves did not worry him so much as the opponent who had practised one move 10,000 times. Back in the 1960s, I had the pleasure and privilege of attending a clinic given by the drummer Joe Morello, who played with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. During the clinic, he demonstrated techniques and passages of exquisite timing, rhythm and dynamics. He then went on to show how he practised the basics; rolls, paradiddles, flams, et cetera, fundamental exercises to learn in the catalogue of percussion. And then proceeded to show how they were employed to construct the beautiful and seemingly complex pieces with which he had dazzled us earlier. Most of the display was a combination of basic drills, sequenced into a permutation in a tempo that emerged in the rhythmic musicality that was stunning. Asked how often he went back to these basic exercises, he answered ‘Daily’. Frank Zane, the only bodybuilder to seriously challenge Arnold Schwarzenegger during his reign as the Greatest Ever, spoke of doing the basics well, with such mental concentration and singular attention to the movement that he regarded his training as his own personal Meditation. Which brings us nicely back to the phrase, ‘it ain’t whatcha do as the way whatcha do it’. Think on that. See where you can resurrect some element in life at which you can excel, or be very good at, or even develop a basic competence, which could make an enormous difference to your life. You need to look for it. There is always something there, something in your life that may have been forgotten in the relentless imperative we experience as living. Take the time. Find it. Do it. Talking with an athlete of no mean accomplishment recently, we hit on the topic of time in a workout.
Now, we hear every day about the hours spent in the gym'. We hear 'Well, I go to the gym two hours a day, at least three times a week. I can't understand why I'm not getting the results I feel I should be getting. It's a problem.' The problem is not the time spent in the gym'. The problem is that the person equates time in the gym' with time being productively active. People go through a routine of 20 or more different exercises. They put the time in doing them all. They even pay some attention to technique. This can be verified by the amount of time they spent talking about the merits or otherwise of doing some particular exercise in a particular way. The fact is that they spend more time talking than doing. Which is why they're not getting the results that they should be getting, or could be getting. We can all do it. I have at times. And that brings me back to the gentleman with whom I'd been talking about time spent in the gym'. I had suggested that he reduce the number of exercises he was doing, that he could work with five basic exercises, with more attention, more precision, and at a rate at which he could perform every repetition as closely as possible to perfection. A few things happened over three months. He spent less time in the gym'. The precise training at first exhausted him and he had to rest a bit more in between workouts. That is, he learned to recover effectively. The next thing that happened was that his muscles got noticeably stronger, his speed increased in the field, and a great advantage to him was that he had more power in his game, won more ball and he found that he repelled many more tackles. He was fitter, stronger, faster. The less time he allocated to being in the gym' meant he had to make more use of the time he was there. He was focused, more intent, more attentive. The quality of his training improved greatly. Now, instead of just attending the gym' premises for nearly two hours, he was in and out in 45-50 minutes and making every minute count. I've seen this time and again over the years. And because the quality of the work improves in that area, it tends to wash over into other areas life as well. We become more conscious of our use of time and how we apply ourselves when we're attempting something. We develop the reluctance to waste time doing anything that isn't getting us closer to our goals. The foregoing is a clear and indisputable example of making more use of less time, isn't it? Give some thought to this and see if it might apply to something in your own life. It's one way of getting more for less. to edit. In conversation with a man last week, I was told that a recent post had struck a voluble chord with him.
He’s well aware that his life, his business, his personal well-being and happiness, all depend on the decisions he takes. He was lamenting the fact that he had not taken steps to get himself into better shape, mentally, physically and emotionally, much sooner than he had. I was pleased to reassure him that a decision taken even later, rather than sooner, is fine. It is still a decisive move on his part and one that will stand him in good stead for the rest of his life. We’ve all done it at times, haven’t we? We’ve put off, procrastinated, dithered, sat on the fence, and delayed our decision to commit ourselves to a direction in our lives. And to this day, I am convinced that most people, myself included, put things off, not because we are afraid of failing. We put it off because we fear succeeding. Success means maintenance. It means we’ll have to work, apply ourselves, to sustaining the new level at which we have arrived. It means we’ll have to think in a way that we may not always like. It means we may have to make unpopular but necessary decisions. It means taking responsibility for what we have achieved and honouring it with the responsibility it deserves. Ask any politician. Ask any business builder. Ask any full-time artist, sports person, any one who has chased the dream and established him/her self. Ask the successful weight loser, figure toner, bodybuilder, spiritual leader. Everything has its price. But. But. How do we see the price? Is it a cost? Or a privilege? Your decision. What's your aim in life?
How do you feel about what you do? About what you want to do? About what you can do? About your potential? How do you feel about that? Your own potential? When you don't come up with an instant answer, don't worry. Neither does any of us. These aren't facile questions. What we aim for and what we do, are Life Directional activities. Truly. Frequently people can only think of what they might like to own materially, or what they want to possess, or get, or have access to as an amenity in their lives. But these are means to an end. They're things that get collected along the way. And they're useful in that context. They can be a measurement of choices available. Or of an affluence. Or influence. Or of a status. And they can be used like that, reflecting where you are in a social setting, or business achievement, or of personal ability. It depends on how you choose to interpret them. But there's another aspect to your aims and goals, your aspirations. Who do you believe you are? What image have you of yourself as a Human Being? When I was asked this in the 1960's, I thought the question was irrelevant. So much so, that I nearly dismissed it. Of course, then, when I'd thought about it for all of five minutes, I saw that what I was being asked was what I believed, really believed, my life was about. What was my purpose? Was I conscious of one? Did I believe in it? Was I up to it? What was I doing about it? How was my life going in relation to it? These questions came to me over weeks, not minutes. They set me on another road to thinking about what I was, and in my own case, largely wasn't, doing about it. They questioned basic thoughts, actions, activities which I'd taken for granted. A lot of what I was doing was because 'that's the way things were'. That was what we did in life. And mostly because I hadn't questioned why we did it this way, or that way. So when these questions began to bring up answers I'd never before considered, there was a strong element of surprise, wonder, and mainly of a kind of quiet excitement at the possibilities that began to surface. It didn't mean that life turned upside down and instantly changed into raging success and rabid achievement. The transformation was more subtle, much more subtle. And much more real. The fact that we even consider an alternative to what we see as the current existence, opens the mind. We don't have to do anything. There's no obligation. However, the fact that we know we can do something about where we are, or where we want to go, brings choice into our lives. Then we make our own decisions. And stand or fall by them. As a matter of interest, in my own case it meant a complete change of life; giving up what was considered a safe, secure and pensionable career, and one at which I was competent, at age 25, to go into an area of work that wasn't even a recognised industry at the time. My friends tried earnestly, and sincerely, to dissuade me. My family nearly disowned me; they thought I was getting into the 'Massage Parlour' business. And frankly, I'd no idea on how it'd turn out. Was it worth it? That depends on your definition of success. It's a different criterion for everyone. But more on this later. Stay posted. Writing goals is a beginning.
It’s a start to a process. A start. Goals are a means to fulfilling a purpose. Our purpose could be, for instance, to make the most of our lives in doing something that we see as worthwhile. A very simple concept, as many a worthwhile purpose is. The goals we set are a means to that end. So the goals need to be compatible with our values and with our beliefs. What we value and what we believe in contribute to our sense of purpose. Understanding this helps us set goals that agree with our deepest convictions. This is why we need to write our goals and then re-read them every day, to make alterations as we see fit. They need to be modified as our thinking progresses. As it will do. Re-reading the goals is like mental practice. By repeatedly reminding ourselves of what our aims are, we begin to bend our minds in that direction. The goals begin to become part of our thinking. And one of the abiding tenets of psychology is that we tend to become what we think about. So the more specific the goals are, and the more we think about them, the more they begin to influence how we think, how we feel, and what we do. And when they conform to our sense of purpose they become a resource in our lives, a plentiful resource and a powerfully driving force. So, take the time, invest it in yourself and your potential. The return will repay you out of all proportion to your investment. More quality.
Not so much quantity. People are becoming more aware of this in their exercise activities now. A few of years ago, I was training a couple of hurlers, county players, who were spending one and a half, to two and a half hours in the gym. They were tired. They weren't just physically tired, they were mentally tired from the boredom of pressing a weight in a desultory manner through the movements they were doing. They'd been taught that to get benefit from weight training, you had to 'spend time in the gym'. To a point, that was true. But the problem was that they weren't training. They pushed a few weights, took a break, chatted, talked about the weight they were using and added another bit, or did another couple of repetitions in the hope that they'd get stronger, faster, bigger, more muscular, more powerful, and achieve indomitable strength on the hurling pitch. Now, in one regard they were on the right track. If they kept on doing that, there would likely be an increase in muscle strength, size, and eventually, efficiency. However, physical training is a skill. And to exert an effective result on the body, the skill needs to be learned, practised and developed. So it isn't so much what you're doing, as it is how you're doing it. What's important when training is what goes on underneath the skin. it doesn't matter what you've got in your hand. You can get as much from a concrete brick as you can from a Solid Gold, Designer Dumb-Bell. So, every now and again, it's vital to go back to basics, ask yourself what you're seeking as you train, and tailor your programme accordingly. But whatever you do, you need to learn the skill of thoughtful training. That's learning to focus on the movement you're performing. You need to think about the stance, the positioning of feet and hands, the element of balance, the tempo, the style of action, that suits you. You're the one doing the exercise and when you take these things into account you can alter the effects of the movement dramatically. And it doesn't mean that you have to become encyclopedic about physiology or anatomy. It means that you try small adjustments as you train. You can shift a foot forward, or alter the angle of your body, or grip a bar or rope a bit tighter, or looser, or alter the tempo, or experiment with your breathing, shorten or lengthen the range of movement, or any number of other small changes that can make a big difference. I've seen this hundreds of times over the years; where a body has made some small change in technique that doubles the value of a movement. Never forget, training is a skill. It has fundamentals. They can be learned, and then adapted, modified to suit the style or the shape or the temperament of the person doing it. This is what turns the activity into a developed skill, sometimes even to reach the level of artistry. I often describe physical training as a type of muscular choreography. It can be a form of dance, with the same thought, focus and rhythm brought into it that blends the mind and the body and the spirit into a movement in which the entire Being becomes the doer of the act, and the recipient of the benefits. It makes for efficiency, for effectiveness and a developed interest in application and progress. Try this on your next exercise session. Think of it as an exercise in Concentration and Personal Development. “This will transform your life.“
Practically every advertisement, we see today promises personal, mystical, financial, even spiritual, transformation. I don't deny them. What we have to bear in mind though, is that the knowledge that is going to transform us, is only as good as the use to which it is put. You hear it, said all the time that knowledge is Power. It isn’t. Knowledge is potential power. It’s by bringing our potential to what we know, or to what we have, that allows us discover and exert the power. Breathing can be transformational. Over 55 years, I’ve seen people actively put it to practice and reap great benefits. I’ve also seen people learn about it, read about it, write about it, talk about it, plan it, with beautifully drawn maps and preparations, and then relegate them to the drawer. Again, it’s the use to which the knowledge, the writings, the plannings, and the preparations are put, that brings about the transformation. The transformational power that regulated breathing brings to the nervous system alone, makes it an unrivalled practice to study and to do. Whatever you do to bring your fitness and wellness and your life, do it frequently. However great, or however small, the result may be, bear in mind that it will be inevitable. Inevitable. No exaggeration. Start with your breathing exercises. Bring them into your life as part of who you are, not just something you do. Many people look on fundamental health and wellness as something that is “nice to have“. It is more, much more, than that. If we are unfit, out of shape, even moderately unwell, life is hard, hard going. When we are fundamentally fit, healthy, and well, we will do things, try things, and achieve things that would otherwise be outside the realm of possibility. So whatever your preferred activity is, do it. Do you trust your gut feeling?
What is it anyway? This gut feeling? It’s far more powerful than logic, isn’t it? I've seen this over the years, when people have taken decisions that flew in the face of all the logic, all the advice thrown at them, and found that they'd taken the right decision. For them. Gut feeling is a peculiar thing. It's so strong that it often trumps considered reason. And we do well to listen to it. There are times, aren't there, when everything points to a particular decision, and yet, and yet, there's a voice in the back of the head that speaks to us with such conviction that we feel compelled to follow it. This is a thought pattern that comes of experience. Experience can suggest a move that seems illogical. Experience often sees what inexperience doesn't. Life skills and ‘know how’ account for a lot. Most life skills are born of experience. They're the result of personal decisions that have taught us something. But only when we're watching and listening. It's not always the case, but it's frequent. Experience, the 'doing' of something, gives insights that no amount of theory can begin to give. We can experience in a second what takes minutes, sometimes hours, to read and understand. Even then we've only got a theoretical take on it. The doing of something gives a living sensation of acting, facing challenges, using our resources, that imprints itself on the mind, the body, the nervous system, that cannot be got otherwise. And there is the added power of the emotion felt in the encounter. This is what imprints it decidedly in our minds. A lot of the learning in experience is so fast it hardly registers consciously. We don't sit and analyze move by move, thought by flashing thought, what happened. Or what we did. It's as much a reaction as an action. We're reacting to our own split second perceptions and responses. This is what gives experience. It gives the confidence of having faced the unknown and responded to it. And found that we're still here. Some people learn instinctively. They can see a situation, and in the beat of the heart, see what it's about and decide which way to go with it. This is what 'awareness' is about; a conscious thoughtfulness of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, and searching for a way to deal with them. This has been one of the discoveries of the past decade, where people have found the time and discipline to meditate, calm the mind, to just 'be', and quietened the mind of the bustling noise that assails us. When we let it. Mindfulness, Meditation, Quietening, have brought a level of observant thought to very many people. As activities, they overlap and bring a balance into our lives. They give us time to reflect, stand back and observe ourselves in the act of living. At a recent workshop, there was very strong evidence of individuals who had gained benefit from this practice. The benefit was real, not some woolly wishful thinking conjured up to coincide with their intentions. It's a skill. It can be learned. And then needs to be practiced. Take the time.
Indecision is a huge factor in stress, worry, fear and doubt. Friend, good morning. Persistence is a fine quality. But so is knowing when to quit. The truth is that most of us are never really sure , are we? When we're pursuing an elusive end, we tell ourselves to persist and stick at it, that we're almost there. That another step, maybe two, will bring us home and it'll all have been worth it. Or we may see in our hearts that 'this isn't working', that it's like throwing money at something that is not going to respond. And we quit. There are questions here which can be useful to ask. The first is to take the nature of the project on which we're working into account. Is it something dependent on our application? Or is it something dependent on some outside factor over which we've little or no control? If it's the former, and we're experiencing no progress, the fault is no one else's but our own. We either need to change our practice, or modify our goal to be more compatible with our life, and present style of life. But either way, even asking this question has often reinforced the goal in the mind of the questioner, and inspired Herculean effort, or made the goal more realistic in terms of achievement. When we're dependent on outside factors, we need to be able to influence them to our aims, or continue banging heads on stone walls. But there's a third question here. So often, we attribute control or influence to a circumstance that really has none. An instance of this could be , 'I'll start the diet on Monday. My son is having a party on Saturday, and the grandchildren are coming to the house on Sunday.' Or 'The holiday season is starting now, I'll begin the course studies in September.' We all know that there's no good or bad time to start something about which we feel strongly and intend to bring into our lives. Weekend parties and holiday seasons do not deserve the honour of being elements of influence. Not if we're in earnest. So have a look at your current decision-making. Spend some time considering whether you're genuinely looking at an influence about which you can do nothing, or whether you're elevating an excuse to the level of a reason. We all tend to do it at times. It's good to be aware of it. Then we can reconsider our decisions and bring a much more favourable influence into our lives. My friend lives in a village in the country. There's a calm about him that reflects the life he leads, and the pace at which he lives it.
It's in his voice, the easy movement as he walks, conversing in a sonorous tone and comfortable rate of words so that everything is clear, considered and articulate. So, when I met him recently, and saw that he was experiencing some turbulence in his life, I was curious. 'It's the celebs', he said, with a kind conspiratorial tone that suggested he didn't want anyone else to hear him. 'They're everywhere.', he continued. 'You can't move for the Celebrities and Famous People that have emerged in the country.' He then went on to tell me of the number of people in his village who had become minor, medium and major celebrities, courtesy of the Internet. They were running everything from local podcasts to jumble sales to blog sites and each of them was an Expert, a Specialist, in the scheme of things, particularly the world and its problems. 'Now', he said, 'Most of them talk a good story and seem to have a sound grasp of facts. But my concern, Dave, is that there'll soon no ordinary people left. Everyone is either a celebrity, or on the way to being one.' 'So, there'll be no ordinary people. No audiences. No one to listen. Everyone will be too busy giving their own celebrated opinion.' I wondered whether he was exaggerating, whether or not his view had become a bit skewed as a consequence of listening to too many 'influencers'. But he did have a point. There exists a 'Celebrity Culture' today. Apart from the Showbiz crowd who are asked for, and give, their opinions in the various media outlets, there are sports stars, business types, politicians, all of whom once stuck to their various milieux, now all queuing up to expound their expertise on everything from coarse fishing to coarse humour to how the country, the media and the world should be run. There's even a splash of it in the Criminal Fraternity. Someone was telling me of an article in which he read about a vicious psychopath, couched in warm, fuzzy cuddly terms by the diminutive pet name by which the miscreant is addressed by his associates. One wonders if he may be the next interviewee about the severity and unfairness of sentences for murder, torture, intimidation, protection, and terrorism. Yes, he's a rogue. A likeable one, of course. And he loves his Mammy. Celebrity is indeed a strange phenomenon. It courts the worst in many who'll do anything to be seen, heard and noted in the media. Though sometimes it can come about accidentally. Or unintentionally. I asked my friend if there were any particular instances that worried him. He said there was concern about the planning for a Windfarm in the area. The money on tap for land was staggering. There were mixed and strongly contentious feelings about it. There was a meeting being held in a local pub' which would be broadcast on the local radio, and on Social Media too. He then revealed that he was off to get coaching on Presentation Skills for this event, He'd been asked to make a statement and he was aware that a couple of Provincial Papers would be sending reporters and photographers. 'So,' I asked mischievously, 'Shall we be seeing you on the Six O'clock News? Or Primetime?' 'I doubt we'll make that kind of mark', he answered earnestly. Then, he lifted his eyebrows, broke a charming smile, and said, 'But you never know, do you? You just never know what could come of a simple event like this.' He then nodded to himself in affable and bemused agreement, 'You just never know.' A truly refreshing interview from Brendan O'Connor a couple of days ago.
Listen to this https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22244340/ Have a Great Day and Do Well... It's everywhere.
'The next level'. You can't open any of the Social Platforms without being exhorted to bring whatever it is you do to the 'next level'. While it's tiresome to read the same old scripts masquerading as copywrite, there are times when the phrase is apt. Never more so than in the area of Personal Development. Recent experience has reiterated the importance of learning basics. Just like the alphabet, or basic chords on a guitar, or basic scales on a piano, or being in contact with people if you expect to do a business, there are fundamental to every skill. Without the fundamentals, the more sophisticated moves, systems, procedures, have no substance. In any activity. Which brings us back to the 'next level'. On a programme about six months ago, in which I was teaching the value of Human Contact and Customer Care to a gym' team, the emphasis was on communication skills. Most of the team had NEVER been taught the basics of communication, the core of Customer Care. The retention rate of members in the premises was very low, which was why the Management had asked me to deliver the programme. Now, the boys and girls on the team were more than adequately qualified to instruct their charges in safety and procedures. But, as in everything, it isn't so much what you do, as it is how you do it. The premises had outsourced courses previously, but the delivery either assumed a knowledge of the basics, or wasn't aware of them. Over the following immediate months of completing the programme, there was a marked increase in Renewals of membership. Fundamentals work. The same goes for being Fit, Healthy and Well. The 'next level' is usually reached by a diligent application of the principles that apply at EVERY level, for the accomplished athlete or the complete beginner. It's not in the 'Magic Bullet', the 'Silver Sword', or the 'Gound breaking Discovery' of the latest Guru on the scene. It's usually by the painstaking, attentive, intelligent application of personal resources. That's where we tend to discover, with the benefit of practice and experience, other values and aspects to what we've already learned. We see things that could not have been seen before because we didn't know what they were. We weren't aware of them. And you can't learn what you don't know exists. But once we understand the potential that is within the realm of possibility, then our horizons broaden, our minds open and we can truly, take ourselves and our lives, to the next level. Keep it simple. Do it well. Have a Great Day and Do Well... Life seems to be a series of decisions, doesn’t it?
Some of them are conscious. They are the ones we contemplate before we decide. “Will I stay at what I’m doing? All I change direction in life? Will I keep this friendship? It’s a time to get this person out of, or into, my life? Well I challenge that statement? Will I change the car? Shall I do that course? Is it time to end this relationship? Should I be wary of what I see happening here? Should I report what I’ve just witnessed? Would it be hard on the person I am reporting? Does he deserve it? Should I let it go? Should I get involved? And there are any number of questions which need conscious, considered answers. But, they are a very small part of our daily lives. Ninety five percent, (95%) of our decisions, and subsequent actions, are unconscious. They come about as a result of habitual, conditioned thinking. Driving to work, eating breakfast, greeting our colleagues in the morning, how we think on Monday morning, how we think on Friday morning, these are conditioned habitual ways of thinking. The save us time and trouble. As we drive to work, we can consider the day ahead and what we have to do, instead of having to think our way through every gear change and every clutch depression. Some conditioned thinking, serves us very well, some not so well. Checking, the bank balance regularly, planning the week ahead, checking tyres and other systems on the car, ringing mum, dad, granny, grandad, children, are all good habits and serve us well. Dropping in for a quick one on the way home on Friday night, knowing that one will become two or three, and then continuing the half mile drive to our home in the belief that we are “home and dry“ is an example that doesn’t serve us well. We’ve turned ourselves and our car into a lethal weapon. Running the credit card limit as if it’s a target, and using another card to pay it off, isn’t a good habit, as we are creating our own potentially bottomless pit of developing debt. Cutting corners on safety procedures and vital policies, in daily living or the work environment is not a great idea. We are making ourselves vulnerable with all the possible consequences, not to mention what we’re doing to our self confidence. Many of the unconscious, habitual decisions, if not all, can be changed. Some of them can be small decisions. But with huge effects. Next post, we’ll show how to examine these decisions and get them working for us; how small changes can ring big differences into our lives. Have a Great Day and Do Well... |
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