Hello

I hope you enjoyed the weekend just as much as we did. Were you one of the world audience of millions who watched the World Cup Final?  I have to confess I’m not a huge footie fan and did need help on the off-side rule, but the World Cup final is a once every 4 years event and surely worth watching….

It wasn’t a beautiful match but what I loved about it was that after years and years of potential, Spain finally got their reward.  Unbelievably Spain had never made it past the quarter-finals before 2010 and yet each World Cup, their team have always been lauded with compliments – they have most talented players, they play the most beautiful football, they’re a joy to watch, they surely must do well…. And yet tournament after tournament they flopped.  When would they ever fulfil all that promise?

The answer is it’s never too late to fulfil promise and talent.  It’s just a matter of putting the correct system around your natural skill-sets.  Spain learnt that raw talent wasn’t enough – they needed a framework around it.  And that’s what they did.  They put the systems in place to unlock the talent and make it flow. And now look – they’re finally world champions!

So, the message I got from watching Spain as they celebrated wildly was one – the Spaniards sure know how to party and two, never give up on your dream! If you know you’ve got natural raw talent, and you’re still not making it, what business systems do you need to put around yourself so you too can reap the reward?

Talking of parties, check out my pics from our time in Surrey last week.  Our team had a week of post-event work in a gorgeous converted barnhouse.  We got a lot done and we also had a lot of fun…

I took my first kung fu lesson last night.  I have never worked so hard.  The instructor said that I would feel very sore today.  Oddly enough, I don’t…

Why is it that pyschic growth (for want of a better way of putting it) hurts so much more than physical growth.  I swear to God there are times in my life where I think I am totally going mad.  Am I the only one?  It forces you to consider all your assumptions and reconsider all the decisions you’ve made.

A friend of mine said today that you know when things are not right because your internal chatter goes through the roof. Monday my brain was like Toni and Guy on late night Thursday with the champagne flowing.  Talk about chatter.  Since about 1pm today it has been remarkably quiet.  Perhaps the boil has been lanced.

I guess we all go there.  Have moments off centre – we watch ourselves wandering from the path and wonder why on earth we started to ignore the signals (usually months ago).  Thank God for the tough love friends that call us on it. I personally just wish I was “enlightened” enough not to hurt them along the way.

They say in kung fu that the pain eases with training.  Maybe its the same in life-  you play at life, you will get hurt, you will feel pain, you will do things you think you can’t and in the end it’s only because you grow.  And they say growing is good.

Funny- it’s like why did the chicken cross the road… to get to the other side.

Why did the human being hurt… to get to the other side?

To all the friends I have ever hurt and all the friends who have hurt me – thank you.

(But I would prefer to get my arse kung fu’ed any day of the week- at least you can see the bruises!!)