June 2008

Some people I just can’t help being impressed by.  They are the ones who always seem to make their decisions based on what they really want. Without paying too much attention to the outer world it is like the only guide these people have is the compass they carry inside. You know the little voice that we have all heard but very often screams itself to death as most of us just get on with what we do without listening to it. The people that impress me the most seem to have a mechanism of constantly doing a reality check with themselves and making sure that every decision keeps them on the right path, towards where they want to go. I would think that this is particularly difficult in certain sports and probably also in other areas where the remuneration is directly linked to how we perform or how quickly we climb the ladder towards higher ranks or future steps. In situations like that it is not all that easy to stop and think whether the ladder I am climbing is actually the right one, or even if it is raised against the right wall.
 
Lately I have come across a number of examples of this where that impress me. One is a Swedish track and field athlete; Carolina Klüft was dominating the world in her sport, women’s heptathlon, and the road to the Olympic gold in Beijing was laid out for her. However, one day she decided this was not really what she wanted to do and stepped away from it. Her strongest motive of being involved in sport is to have fun and enjoy what she is doing. That enjoyment wasn’t there in heptathlon but she knew she could find it again by moving to the long jump and triple jump. Will she win an Olympic gold in any of those sports? I don’t know. Does it matter? Not to Carolina Klüft anyway.
 
Two great people that I love speaking to about things like this I think would call it to understand your intentions and to be true to them. After an hour and a half with Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott yesterday (thanks Skype!!!) I am again reminded about just how important this is and how great it can make our lives. Pia and Lynne could easily make their top ranked and award winning schools of Vision 54 into multi-million pound companies with franchises in every corner of the world. The simple reason to why they don’t though is that they do not want to. That is not the intention of doing what they are doing and if the only thing that matters is to be true to our intentions, we, like them, just need to find a way to allow these intentions to come true every day. To me, that is very often the difference between doing what is expected and doing what we really want. I have a feeling that is what Annika Sorenstam is doing when she chooses to leave the tour after this season and it may also be what David Beckham is doing when he says he wants to be around for the 2010 World Cup. The first step for most of us though is probably to find out what our true intentions are. If anyone else shares my experience of trying to lay out the direction with a compass in the school orienteering long ago – you know that it takes some serious practice!
 
Pia and Lynn are taking their schools to the UK this summer and will hold a Coach 54 (23-24 July) as well as a Golf 54 (25-27 July) programme at Goodwood in West Sussex. I don’t think I need to mention that I would highly recommend joining them.
 
I have done one thing to follow my intentions over the last couple of weeks. I have started a blog! Had I followed everybody else I would have done it a long time ago, as the most common move is probably to stop blogging by now. After finding that blogging didn’t automatically give the 15 minutes of fame that Andy Warhol spoke about, it seems like a lot of bloggers have realised how much hard work it is to keep the blog up to date and they have probably found something new to get involved in. As I am a late developer though, I have come to the conclusion that I need a forum to express my thoughts and display information to interested and involved people. So even if it is not what you expected – it actually follows my intentions! It is a public blog so feel free to visit it on the link below.  
 
And I am sorry England, but “Go Sweden in Euro 2008!”
 
Regards,
 
Peter
  
“To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart.”
– Thomas Watson, Sr.