Just do it!

Hi All,

Can I start off by wishing you all a very happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful and restful break over Christmas and I wish you all, health, happiness and much success in whatever you endeavour to do. Here is to a great 2011. For all of us!

Back in October, I wrote a blog on ‘The Secret’ a book full of inspirational teachings and something I had been meaning to read for a long time. This book has elicited many responses from the good, to the bad, to the downright cynical. In response to my blog and analysis of ‘The Secret,’ a very generous and insightful Jon Rhodes wrote the following:

“Firstly, your writing style is excellent and I wish you all the best with your fencing and journalist pursuits.

In response to the blog: I read The Secret 4 years ago and was initially impressed. The “Law of Attraction” is an excellent way of perceiving the world, working on Quantum levels that pull or push people, aligning us to a common goal. This blog is an example of this “Law”, you wrote the blog, I read the blog due to my interests and now I am writing a comment!

In my experience this book requires some modification. Perhaps the new chapter should be called “The Law of Unattraction”.

Before I explain my critical chapter, I work as a sport performance consultant and have had the opportunity to work at the top end of Sports Psychology and Life Coaching with coaches/athletes working in a variety of professional sports…and fencing!

Perhaps I want to become the best Foilist in the world. I send my Quantum signals out and they are received by coaches, fencers, family…who all align to help me achieve my goal. Brilliant! But there are people who don’t want you to achieve your goal or people who don’t care about your goal – what happens to them? My view is that you need these people. These people will provide the balance (perhaps Rhoda Byrne will name it the Quasi Universe Continuum or the Seesaw Effect!?!).

I worked with a football manager who lived by the Law of Attraction. He would suggest outrageous training for the squad then inform them that if they didn’t do it “your not aligned to MY Law of Attraction!!” and members of the team would be dropped. He gave the metaphor of a Bus. He was the driver and he picked up passengers to help him get to his destination. If you couldn’t help him you were off the bus because you were no use! Needless to say, eventually after many months of riding the bus in circles, I reached my stop and a couple of months later the organisation sacked the bus driver.

In summary, you need people who aren’t aligned to you because these people will be critical and often push you further.

Although fencing is an individual sport, you can only train with another fencer/coach so theoretically fencing is a team sport!

I would direct you (and blog readers) to Belbin’s team roles to discover your personality traits and how to work effectively within a group. Furthermore, NLP is an interesting area heavily used in Life Coaching and Sports Psychology which may benefit performance parameters such as presence on the piste.

Finally, the real secret is what makes Anthony Robbins, along with all the other platinum selling personalities working in “Life Coaching” popular; the “power” of now…or as Nike say – “Just do it”.”

Jon, I hope you don’t mind me sharing your comment on my blog (for some reason, it hasn’t uploaded onto my comments section). But I thought it would be really useful and interesting to share this with my fellow fencers, athletes and bloggers alike.

Jon’s proposal of the ‘Law of Unattraction’ is an interesting one. I too agree that everybody needs criticism at some point in their career, albeit perhaps not in excessive amounts! As much as you need to gravitate towards people who are good for you, who will pull for you and push for you to succeed, you also need someone who will point out your weaknesses, probe you and spur you on to prove them wrong. These people may push you to your limits, but they prepare you, and ultimately empower you, ready to go on. Equally, I believe you should always welcome your fiercest opponent, the better your opponent, the better you have to be.

As for Jon’s final comment on the “power” of the “now” or as Nike say – “Just do it”...this is my New Year’s resolution! To remain in the present and not to worry about what has happened or what will happen. And, of course, to enjoy the moment.

So thank-you Jon for your insight and for sharing your thoughts on ‘The Secret,’ it is very much appreciated and welcomed by myself and many others, I am sure.