Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants

FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

I've taken on board a fair amount of knowledge over the years from reading and listening to advice from those that have achieved success. There's so much out there it seems - especially these days - so much inspiration from 'gurus' to be found on the internet. There's 100's of success stories and many opportunities to see what can be achieved: how greatness can come from humble beginnings etc. There's no excuses why we can't also be winners....but seeing all this info and looking at some of the footage (a bit of envy creeping in here?) of smug winners has almost the opposite effect for me. Having so much of it in your face can give you inspiration overload - there's just so much to take on, it can wear you down.

All About The Journey

The reading/listening to advice/wisdom is the easy part. It's applying the necessary action that's hard. Following in the footsteps of successful others can be easier to do if you take on board the sometimes omitted fact: attaining success can be a long and challenging journey of a 1000 steps. A few small steps can feel insignificant in the grand plans. But if there's a written journal, focussing on what's immediately in front of me, a way to tick off the small victories, there can be marked improvements seen over time. Geoff Thompson has been a real inspiration on this subject. Reading Warrior this morning, I can see it's taken many small steps over the years to attain the experience and wisdom for Geoff to evolve. It's been very hard work - and he makes no bones about it. And that's also what makes it worth doing! Daily assessments: discipline and focus morning and evening, to measure the small successes - following a routine for consistently ticking off the milestones and setting up the tasks for the following days ahead.

Geoff tells us to write down our fears and goals - then use the fears to motivate ourselves and to visualise the goals that help us stay on the right path. Anthony Robbins and other inspirational speakers preach similar strategies for personal growth and success - but, coming from Geoff, to me it feels more 'real' in some way - not preaching but like he's purely relaying learnings gleaned from his first hand experiences and resulting success - applied learning has integrity. His wisdoms back up some of the stuff I already know, give fresh insights and learning for the stuff I haven't yet learned and because he's been doing personal growth for a good 10 years or more longer than I have, he's going to have so much more of that first hand experience that I can learn from. Learning from others will help me get where I need to be so much faster.

Self Mastery Takes Discipline
Taking on something that requires commitment/focus and that is both physically & mentally tough - out of my comfort zone, will give me a sense of achievement and greater strength of character.
I don't want to plagiarise from Geoff by cutting and pasting from his book - you need to read it for yourself! I will get round to thanking him for his wisdom – I'm sure he won't mind me putting this one sentence in here - something fundamentally at the heart of what I've started.
So, here's an excerpt from Geoff's book, Warrior (free to download):

"The power base of the warrior is control of palate: What he eats, drinks, ingests, reads, listens to and is influenced by. This is the start."

Self mastery. I hear it spoken in the mantra by the teacher at the end of my yoga classes. I know this to be truth. I can already see and feel the results since starting the new year. Through my diet and exercise routine, I've lost 7lb (half a stone) or roughly 3.5k in just a week! From Tuesday I'll be stepping up the routine to include a weekly early morning boxing training session and working on a strength and stability routine for my injured shoulders to compliment the yoga and pilates sessions.

I'm really looking forward to the week ahead!