Friday, November 28, 2008

Difficult, Difficult, Difficult Easy

I read this at on Alwyn Cosgrove's Blog and it stirred something in me that I took action on 4 things that have been on my list of "things to do" but where never done due to my own little "fears" about them!

Hopefully you find some truth to this and it moves you in a way that you really get it! Here's some examples of me making difficult, easy choices in my life and justifying it in a way that I thought was difficult, difficult!

Training in the gym for me is Difficult, Easy!
Speaking to groups of people about health is Difficult, Easy!
Telling myself, that I'm overwhelmed with stuff is Difficult, Easy!
Posting on the blog about "intellectual" stuff is Difficult, Easy! Posting from the heart is Difficult, Difficult!

In order for this to make sense, I'll leave you with the article below!


Difficult difficult, difficult easy
Geoff Thompson

I bumped into an old friend from the distant past. In my early days as a hard-nosed knuckle-dragger he was one of my compatriots, and one of the hardest working martial artists around. He had always prided himself on his sinewy mentality when it came to all things physical, and he had a prolific work rate. After a brief (and predictable) catch up (how’s the work, the car, the kids, the wife and the mum – in that order) he said ‘hey, you still doing animal day?’
Animal day, for those that do not know, is a form of knock-out or submission fighting (any range, any technique) that I pioneered in the mad, bad (and often sad) 90’s. A time I absolutely loved, but a time I am also grateful to have left behind.

I shook my head in the negative. It had been a many years since I engaged in my last animal day fight.
‘Why not?’ he asked, adding, ‘I’m still mad for it.’

‘Because it is difficult easy,’ I said, ‘and in order for me to continue growing my character, I don’t need difficult easy. In order for me to grow my character I need difficult difficult.’
He gave me one of those loud, squinty eyed confused looks that shouted from a hundred feet ‘Explain!’

So I explained.

Even as a veteran of thousands of fights, animal days were still a scary experience for me, it was violent and dangerous and extremely difficult. But because I had fought so many times and knew the terrain well it no longer stretched me.

Whatever it was that I needed to reap from that hard period of my life had been well and truly harvested; there was nothing left for me to learn there. Animal day was still difficult, and from the outside looking in it probably looked as though it was mad difficult, but for me it wasn’t, in fact it had become difficult easy.

My friend was still in love with the ground-and-pound style fighting and whilst his physical prowess was evident he had not grown even a single inch in any other area of his life, probably not for the last ten years. His was the mistake made by many; they presume that if something is difficult then they are in the arena. But experience has taught me that the only time you are truly in the arena is when you are (ever so slightly) out of your depth.

Difficult easy is when you are on familiar terrain, not matter how hard the going.

Difficult difficult is when you find your self at the bottom of someone else’s class with three crazy training partners; fear at your left, doubt on your right and (that big bastard) uncertainty squaring up in front of you.

Difficult easy is treading water whilst kidding yourself that you are swimming against the tide.

Difficult difficult doesn’t need to employ pretence because it is drowning and swimming for its life.

I see many people suffering stalled development because they are so busy occupying themselves with very worthy, respectably, difficult easy tasks that they use to avoid the difficult difficult areas of their lives.

I am doing it right now as it happens. I should be doing a re-write of a difficult (difficult) film script that is over due, but instead I am busying myself with a piece of difficult (easy) work that is not really due to be in print for another fortnight (damn, caught myself out again!)

Some (more) examples; you bury your relationship problems (difficult difficult) under hundreds of miles of road running (difficult…but easy).

You fill every spare moment with hard lists of worthy causes (difficult easy) so that you don’t have the time to invest in the book that you were always going to write, or the film you would love to make (if only you were not so committed in other areas) or the (difficult…very difficult) painting career that you had always intended to create.

You immerse yourself in course after course, book after book (so difficult, and yet….so deliciously easy) on becoming a life coach/property developer/master chef instead of just getting out there (difficult, oh so difficult) and actually doing it.

Listen. Let me tell you, the moment a task becomes difficult easy you stop growing. That is a fact. In order to re-establish your vital development you need to take an honest inventory (difficult very difficult – I have done it) of your life, ditch the pretence, and embrace the black that is….difficult difficult.

And stop chasing ostentatious challenges (that are difficult easy for you) and sort out your health; you are three stone over weight and your blood pressure is off the scale.

Kill the worthy endeavours that you think other people will think are impressive and do something truly and uniquely impressive; take your (secret) addictions to task and kill the porn (in all its forms).

Stop collecting trophies and certificates and belts that tell the word how successful you are and actually BE a success, by taking a hammer to that creepily burgeoning fear that you are harbouring.

And don’t, please (like my old mate) fall into the trap of mistaking hard work – even extremely hard (easy) work - for progress. Because, let’s be frank, difficult easy is really just another way of saying ‘easy’, and there is no growth in easy.

We aspirants are into the hard game, the long game, the difficult difficult game. What we are not into, or what we should not be into is the game of easy

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

What I Believe....

My man Dax Moy has started a "I Believe" post and I thought I would follow it up with my own version here.

Basically I'm going to post what I believe right "now" with what I "know" and "see"! However first let's define what a belief is and a few other things that I feel are important to cover;

Beliefs:
  1. The mental act, condition, or habit of placing trust or confidence in another:
  2. Mental acceptance of and conviction in the truth, actuality, or validity of something:
  3. Something believed or accepted as true, especially a particular tenet or a body of tenets accepted by a group of persons.

We also need to "clear up" that we can have POSITIVE beliefs that can serve us in a way that we have our life and we can have negative beliefs that don't serve us and provide results that we don't want.

To my understanding most negative beliefs are unconscious because if they were conscious we would no longer believe/do them, this works on the premise that if you actually KNOW you are doing something that doesn't serve your life then you won't do it as a habit!

Right, now that we have that out of the road let's move on to what I believe!



6 Beliefs on Health:

  1. I believe Health & Fitness is FOUNDATIONAL to a Optimal Life, however "health" to me is Mental, Emotional, Spiritual and Physical. The fitness world is driven by the "physical" health of appearance only, this is part due to our own insecurities and what we allow to be "true" to us!

  2. I believe that when embarking on a fat loss journey you need to ensure that you take note of the "journey" not the just the end result. If you have 2 versions of success then you will be twice as wealthy in knowledge of truly understanding the process relative to what you got in return!

  3. I believe that we separate Mental, Emotional, Spiritual, Physical Health! I call these the 4 Pillars, yet they are so closely related that how can we separate them as "parts"? E.g. If I train a client, depending on how I put together the programme I can take them on a journey to discover "things" about themselves that they never new they had in them. Physical training can "tap" into mental, emotional and spirituality and vice verse with any of the 4 Pillars!

  4. I believe health is built on Increasing your Health & Fitness I.Q! This does NOT come in the form of FREE forum's where anyone can be an "expert" on health. I believe in foundations and we all need a good understanding in foundations of all aspects of the 4 Pillars. From having foundations you have more "informed" choices and can "see" things more clearer then what they may be from just a surface choice.

  5. I believe the body is a whole of integrated processes that we have just touched on in the human development. This means to me, yes you can get back pain from emotional trauma and or muscle strain and or over use and or mental trauma and or straight out external force. So please don't throw all your eggs in 1 basket and just say it's a "posture injury" and or "sporting injury" etc... yes you may be weak in particular muscle groups that have not helped your body. But what about "how you think" towards the injury pre and post? Did that play a role of "attracting" it? If you are "injury prone" then I believe you need to look bigger then just "muscle strains" or "muscular imbalances"!
  6. I believe with conviction that I can get anyone down a dress/clothes size in a month! If they have the "will" to succeed, the "desire" to do, the "belief" of I can/will. Then the HOW at my end is what I know!!!


5 Beliefs on Life:

  1. I believe that being connected to the consciousness of the present moment i.e. NOW as you read this, is the "missing key" element in human development! We are bombarded with lots of things that have very little substance but lots of "instant gratification" we have lost touch with the present moment of the things that truly matter, to allow this to happen we need to clear our mind of "thinking" and allow ourselves to sit and "see" what ever you can with what you "know". What ever that is for you, just let that be okay! :-)

  2. I believe that in order to make a difference in this life you have to start with YOU and YOU first only! Don't do it for the external gratification of "changing the world" do it for you and allow those around you to be inspired to move in a direction that is progressive for ALL HUMAN KIND not just their own ego! For me to believe in YOU, I want to SEE you live it, HEAR you talk it and SEE you stuff it up as well so I know you are human! :-) I'm not after a "god" like figure just someone who know's how to turn it "on" and "off" when the consciously choose too!

  3. I believe we are too "intellectual" around having to KNOW everything, this is part of the 1st point of increasing your "awareness" or "consciousness"! The reality is we don't know jack crap epsically on how to bridge the gap of the 4 Pillars of Health!
  4. I believe currently we have an Inverted Relationship with Values & Things. I'm not saying we shouldn't value things or swing the pendulum the other way by being value orientated only, however I do believe we need to have a greater grasp on both rather then an extreme of one or the other. Isn't one's "awareness" the ability to bridge the gap of the 2 to have them both in harmony with each other.

  5. I believe we play a hard game of Black and White, Win/Lose, Love/Hate etc... I believe with conviction if we are to lighten up on this game we will have less of the darker side of life. After all I firmly believe we have it in us to perform the most ugliest forms of acts that you can think of and if you can "accept" this thought then we can look upon those that have performed acts that are devastating through a different set of eyes rather then the eyes of revenge/hate only!

Conclusion:
What I have written above in beliefs are some that I live and some that I aspire to have. Remember beliefs can serve you and they can give you results of what you don't want, always look to question beliefs because like most things in life they change with more awareness and understanding of "things".

What do you believe? Post below to let me know.....


Thursday, November 20, 2008

Alpha Training & 5 Reasons NOT to reach your Fat loss goals

Today’s newsletter I’ll discuss a few things for you to learn, ponder and expand or push your threshold for where you are today.

Alpha Training

Alpha: Being the highest ranked or most dominant individual of one's sex.

We all need a bit of Alpha Training occasionally and the last few weeks I’ve been training John Erskine for his fight this weekend in MMA.

This is John’s first time training EHP style and there is nothing like it when you have NOT done it before. My motto “hurt in practice so you don’t bleed in battle”! I can’t guarantee you John will win (although knowing John and his ability he’s a bit of a machine!!) however I can guarantee you that John will be in great shape for this fight and we’ll see if he has his first fight go the distance!

Here's John here doing a fighting protocol called Back Breakers:


My predication; it won’t go the distance because John will do what he always does which is take him down and pound him into submission.

6 Rules on Alpha Training;

1) It feeds the Ego and if you don’t have it in check you become a bigger prick then you already are!

2) You CAN’T live on “hard core” training all the time, the more I learn/see the less I actually give to clients. To all the men and woman who think “more is better” read this again.

3) If you are a male read rule #2 again!!!!!

4) Your ability to recover will determine your intensity/volume/speed/how much you can lift. So guess what RECOVERY IS KEY for optimal results!!

5) Because you train like a demon DOES NOT mean you can drink like a demon, although due to not having your ego in check this can happen. What do I mean? You justify to yourself from creating a bigger “iron will” in training that you can drink like an alpha person as well! "I've earn't it" type thinking.... Get over yourself!

6) Did I mention recovery? Well nutrition is part of recovery. Nutrition is vital or you will burn, maybe not straight away but eventually!


Here's 5 Real reasons (perceived real) to people who can't get there fat loss goal!


5 Real Reasons to NOT reach your Fat Loss goals!?!

1) “I’m too busy to make my food”

The truth is, you don’t value your health

2) “My kids come first” Spida!

Personal favorite of mine, the truth is, for you to be the BEST parent you can be you need to be healthy. But Spida I will die for my kids, that’s great but how about you show your kids how to LIVE rather then say subconsciously to them, I don’t value me enough!)

3) “My wife won’t make it for me”

Truth is, you are a lazy shyt that expects your wife to do everything for you, oh you must be the money maker in the home right? Get over yourself ya jerk!

4) “We can’t afford it”

Truth is, your not prepared to give up some of the “things” you consider important in your life, like smokes, alcohol, coffee, bling bling, brunch with mates, muffins, lifestyle etc…

5) “My partner and kids don’t want that “healthy stuff” for dinner”

Truth is tough love, put that healthy stuff i.e. veggies and protein on the table rather then something manufactured from a list of ingredients that you can’t even pronounce.


Okay, this is a bit of a "alpha" way to look at what I've pointed out in both views of Alpha Training and 5 excuses and I know there is grey area to all of this where it can be "justified", however I'm not talking about the grey part because 99% of people are not "grey" they are a very Hard Black & White and if you believe in something with absolute conviction then post below to say, after all who said "I'm right" or "wrong" :-)?

"Your eyes can only see what the mind can comprehend"

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Food Matters

Watched this movie last night, if you are looking for more knowledge to increase your health then you MUST see this movie!

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Side Note:
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More and more doco's are comming out of the "truths" about ___________, don't be a hater of the dark side to drug companies, because like anything in life we have just "lost our way", sure we may have been manipulated to some degree however it's still YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to take owner ship of what goes into your brain both from an information stand point and food stand point.

We must learn from those that are about the $ and take what is useful rather then swing the pendulum the other way and be completely "natural" and HATE all drugs!!!

If we turn into a hater we have learnt nothing from those that are ALL about the $ and actually we have become them by being just as extreme but a "natural" extreme!

Look, I'm a "natural" type of person and always will be, all I'm putting "out there" is look at this film with an open mind of HOW do I intergrate what they say relative to what I'm prepared to give? Let's not throw the baby out with the water so to speak....


"Let thy Food be thy Medicine and thy Medicine be thy Food." – Hippocrates

"With nutritionally-depleted foods, chemical additives and our tendency to rely upon pharmaceutical drugs to treat what’s wrong with our malnourished bodies, it’s no wonder that modern society is getting sicker. 'Food Matters' sets about uncovering the trillion dollar
worldwide “Sickness Industry” and giving people some scientifically verifiable solutions for curing disease naturally." - James

Foodmatters


The difference between the "norm" and athletes...

What is the difference between success or not? Watch to find out.....

The 2 Best Questions to ask EVER....

I wanted to share with you today an email I sent the people who are participating in the 6wk Online Fatloss Group that I feel more people need to "understand".
All people who are in the group are getting results both in terms of fat loss and life. 1 person has reported a drop in clothes size in 4wks!!! Others have said they noticed clothes looser ALL have said that it's transfered to there life in positive ways!!
While fat loss maybe the focus, you can't put a price on improving the quality of your life!! To all those that are kicking butt, you are awesome I have posted the last video's for you as well.
=======================
The MOST IMPORTANT
questions you can ask EVER!
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I believe with absolute conviction at this point and time in my life that if you ask 3 basic questions you can MOVE yourself up the ladder of success if not jump up the ladder of success!

I believe that most people get caught up in the "wrong" questions due to focusing on "things" that don't move them in a direction of success! I also believe that people regardless of where you are in life these questions will pay dividends, however if you can "see" more and then follow through on what you "see" then you will get more from the questions that you ask.

So what are the questions?

Before I give them to you, please understand that you "may" get what I'm saying at a "intellectual" basis and this is GREAT (although if you don't get it, it's still ok because if you keep asking the questions it will come), however "intellectual understanding" is ONLY 1 depth of learning and sure it's better then not getting it (even though you still do at some level).

However the REAL learning is observing and watching with curiosity of HOW you follow through on the questions; by now you maybe lost so let me explain what the questions are.

If you get "stuck" on something i.e. something is holding you back in this fitness journey then the BEST questions to ask yourself are;

  1. HOW can I over come this?

  1. WHAT can I do about it today?

  1. WHERE does it come from? (Only needs to asked if you are unhappy/sabotaging yourself)

Before we carry on please do NOT ask the WHY does this happen questions because that opens up a box to never never land, we want questions that move us forward not make us peel back layers of us that will take forever to understand,if at all!

How = asking the unconscious to find the answer

What = moving from "dreaming" to moving in a direction towards what we want to achieve.

Where = Where in your life have you "let that be okay?"

Okay please take note of this;

You DO NOT HAVE TO KNOW THE ANSWERS to the questions, more then likely if you are asking them you have NO IDEA, that is why you are asking them because you are asking your unconscious part of your brain to find the answer. If you have a perception of control then this will be very hard for you! But basically you are wanting to ask the questions then just "let it go" and allow it to come to you!

Call it Law of Attraction/The Secret or what ever, the reality is I want you to ASK the question BUT ALSO to follow through on what comes to you with out letting your conscious part of you say "No or Judge" you for what ever reason. This is the part to "watch with curiosity" to what happens next and or how you feel about the situation.

Please don't over analyze everything in this email just read it and ask the questions next time a "situation" arises and then just "let it be"!