Salut! Hi everyone…
Hope January was a great month for everyone… so much happened!
Three thoughts for this note… TIME being the central topic.
1) The Super Bowl was this past weekend. I’m sure many of you were not able to watch what turned out to be a great game. The Arizona Cardinals were in the process of making the largest comeback in the game’s history. They came from 17 points back to be leading the game 23-20 with only 2.5 minutes to go. The quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers then orchestrated a very purposeful drive that resulted with a phenomenal toes-just-barely-touching-catch to win the game. When asked immediately after the game what he said to the guys to begin the drive the quarterback simply said, “It’s now or Never”.
This ties in with a speaker I heard the other day, Eckhart Tolle. He spoke about how the mind likes to clutter ‘Now’ with thoughts of the past and the future. That we can so easily miss the opportunity to be present because of our wandering mind. (I am SO guilty of this!) He spoke about creating space for Now by first letting go of our opinions. These come from our past experiences, hurts, successes etc… and our expectations of the future – the chatter in our minds about what will and won’t work. Focus on Now.
Because… “It is Never not Now.”!! Eckhart Tolle
2) How long ago does New Year’s Eve seem to you right now? Did you go out with friends, choose to stay in for better training or competition? It kind of seems like forever ago. I’d like for you to really think about the amount of time from January 1st to today… how much did you train? Did you have some great training days? bad training days? Great competition? A bad competition? Were you sick at all? Has it come around?
So many ups and downs in that time. So much learned and so much accomplished.
Remember all that for next year. Next year when January 1, 2010 rolls around – Feb 12th – the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics- will seem like tomorrow! It may weigh on you that you have no time, but it will be an illusion. Remember that you have time; it does flow by … but you have time. Okay… file that one away.
3) On that note… Last month I suggested that you watch for inspiration from other sports and career paths and I even directed you to a movie. ( btw.. the Documentary ‘Dogtown and Z-Boys’ is different from the Hollywood drama ‘Lords of Dogtown’.) From Tennis at the Australian open this week… Nadal played a 5.5 hour semi and STILL was able to beat R.Federer who had an extra day of rest. “Maybe,” he said, after a pause, “I like more fighting to win than win.” ).
So today…this point is a question to you all… what movies, perhaps more specifically, which scenes in movies speak to you about sport and or real life lessons? What is the lesson? I’d like to share yours around, here are some of mine…
Bull Durham (baseball) has lots of great bits on staying focused and being professional
Rocky IV – (boxing) is a great lesson in not getting lost in all the BLING and hype around you
And you either love or hate them but… Monty Python’s movie “The Holy Grail” has some great ones…
Scene with the Dark Knight who’s had his arms taken off in battle, “I’ll bite you knee caps off” = Perseverance!
Scene with Sir Lancelot.. .on today’s topic of TIME and its ability to sneak up on you…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJoM7V54T-c (strange humor perhaps…the clip I like is from 35sec. to 1.20. slight GORE warning!!!)
Wishing you all to be “no ordinary rabbit!” (another Monty Python Scene)
Have a great February! Hope to hear back from you… what’s your favourite movie??!
Tennis article, Nadal gets Number 1 by thinking he is Number 2… http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/02/sports/TENNIS.1-421027.php