Towards the end of every year the team at CCK have a meeting around what the topics and themes for each month of the newsletter. The original topic for this month was going to be either about blokes and Father’s day; or around peak performance post Tokyo Olympics and heading into winter sport finals.
Plans change – The charity, I accidentally started, was meant to be having a crack at the world record for the biggest BBQ on Father’s day to raise awareness around the benefits of mateship but to also claim a BBQ world record for Australia as we currently don’t get a mention (un-Australian). Obviously, this isn’t happening either.
Personally, at the start of this whole COVID thing we found ourselves in an un-livable rental property, Jackson our son broke his leg and Katherine and I had a miscarriage.
Life happens – Suffice to say for most people 2020 has been a bit pear shaped, plans change, stuff happens.
So, rather than writing about Blokes or Peak Performance I thought I’d share some lessons I’ve learnt through all these ‘interesting’ experiences.
The lessons
Control
There seems to be a fair bit of stuff going on in the world, plenty of opinions, finger pointing, fear and everything else.
I was recently listening to some audio from Wayne Dyer. I love listening to and reading his books. I almost drove off the road when he said this:
‘It makes no sense to worry about things you have no control over because there’s nothing you can do about them, and why worry about things you do control? The activity of worrying keeps you immobilised.’
– Wayne Dyer
Adapt by asking better questions
The only constant in life is change. And, yep, 2020 has brought its fair share of change. We can try and resist or we can adapt to it, move with it and explore our own unique ways to benefit from it.
This doesn’t mean you can’t have a bit of a ‘dummy spit’ or ‘throw the toys out of the pram’ from time to time. I definitely have moments where I do both….usually at the same time, just ask Katherine. Sometimes it may be beneficial to let off some steam but that never really brings about a solution. The simple, little thing I do to move me out of that kind of behaviour is to ask myself questions.
‘The quality of your life is a direct reflection of the quality of the questions you are asking yourself.’
-Tony Robbins
Questions that are open ended and are looking for a positive, empowering answer. Questions like:
- How can I….?
- What/ where is the opportunity?
And, you don’t even have to force an answer. By asking that type of question your brain automatically starts looking for the answer.
Your Passion Project
Due to our circumstances (that I mentioned above) we ended up on a road trip spending time with family. Despite being a reasonably challenging time there were many benefits from that trip.
For me, it highlighted the most important things in my life: being with my family and to seize the day.
It also reminded me how much I like driving around our beautiful country. Driving on these long trips is where I get my big ideas. Those long drives gave me time to think, to reflect, to align myself to what is most important to me.
The trip shifted my direction and my ‘maybe, someday, we will do…’ To: ‘Why wait, do it now’.
Don’t put off your dreams, don’t step sideways around them, grab life and head straight for them.
What’s your passion project? What’s something that you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t yet got round to?
With everything going on right now, what have you got to lose?
Seriously – do it, do it now.
Carpe Diem,
Sam
