As I mention previously an important life event for me was when I met the team from Advance Performance. Simon Clarkson of Advance has recently published a book which contains a number of gems from his extensive experience as a performance coach.We caught up the other day and I had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about the book;
What inspired you to write the book?
I had always wanted to write a book but had never even considered it an option as I didn’t believe I had anything to write about. My wife and I went travelling for a year and I kept a diary, which I started to type up when I returned home. It was going to be a Bill Bryson-esque travel book – but for backpacking. The problems was, as I was writing it started to become a fairly ‘cynical’ view of people, life and society – I didn’t like that. When I got involved with Advance I decided to write a book about people we had worked with that had done inspirational things. I ran a load of interviews and the book would simply be made up of those conversations – ordinary people explaining that there is no magic to doing extraordinary things. I realised that over half of those interviews focused on people having a goal and creating a vision for that goal, something we teach people how to do in order to stimulate the right pathways and chemicals in the brain. It was at that point I knew what the book should focus on. Those stories, along with the learning as to how visualising a goal works and how to do it.
Showing that it isn’t some sort of mystical thing - where you picture a million pounds and it drops through your letter box! Most people agree that is just not practical. I wanted to focus on the practicality of how seeing something inspires you to behave towards it.
How do you suggest your readers use it?
Lots of people who have read it have read straight through once and then gone back in to use it to help them actually form their own goals and pictures of those goals. Firstly enjoy it and be inspired but then take the tool, understand you already use it anyway and so just apply it to yourself in bigger, better ways and for more things. Consider it an extension to what you already do.
What makes this book different from other "self help" books?
This isn’t about how Branson made his first million, or how Hamilton won his first championship (actually it is but at first sight it isn’t). The stories that intertwine the learning are very inspirational as they are ordinary people achieving ordinary things. This is about how the same processes that no doubt helped Branson and Hamilton do those things are used in everyday life, to overcome a fear, to lose weight, to change career path etc. I have taken what we usually associate with the extraordinary and hopefully explained that it is no different in your situation.
Do you live the principles in the book yourself?
You will only live it if you believe in it. I am a practical person. No matter how many times I ‘visualise it’ I do not believe that I will suddenly ‘fall into ‘ a formula one car and put it on pole in a grand prix – that is just fantasy. However, if we can tread the line carefully, and understand what happens physically in your brain when picturing something and how that drives you to behave towards it then I am much more comfortable with having that evidence. It’s important to understand that just because I have written about it and learnt about it, doesn’t make me perfect at it. I need it more than anyone.
People achieve goals all the time, everyday. I am no different. We don’t often think of them as goals because we consider them ordinary. As soon as I began to understand this process of seeing something properly, I knew immediately that this would help me do things that I have previously procrastinated on, or decided I couldn’t do.
It takes effort, and I can’t say I have achieved everything I want, far from it, but I am trying and the help this gives me works. I have seen it work for me and others.
You can buy Simon's book HERE at Amazon
1 comments:
Thankyou for the kind comments Scott. I met with a client today who was the gazillionth person to tell me about a goal or daydream they have written and since achieved. It was simple but powerful. They wanted to hit their sales target (as most people do I would hope) but needed a clear picture of what that would look and feel like in order to drive them to put the hours in. He said that in the toughest time his business had ever faced, he had worked harder than he had ever worked and sold more than he had ever sold. He put it down to the strong picture he had that drove him day to day.
Start daydreaming everyone - what could be better than imagining your dreams on a regular basis, knowing that doing them in this way actually drives you towards them. Its a great tool. You can also buy the book actually at a discounted rate direct from Advance as we are a stockist (as it is written by me, I suppose we should be really!). Contact us at sc@advance.tv. Happy Daydreaming....Simon.
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