To dream......

The Impossible Dream

About three years ago I realised that I had achieved all the goals I had set myself.

I was goal-less and drifting, so to speak.

For instance........

I had set out to create an organisation that taught people to feel good and strive for more in their lives, using firewalking as the vehicle for this change.

Achieved it.

Set out to raise over a million pounds a year for charity every year from 2000 onwards.

Achieved it.

Set out to train people who were unemployed or recovering from drug addiction to work within my organisation. Aimed to equip them with the confidence and skills to strike out on their own and set up their own business's as well.

Achieved it. (Actually over-shot my target on that one on a couple of counts.....they know who I am talking about)

That was three years ago.

Three very hectic years in which I seem to have spent most of my time looking at my feet rather than at the horizon.

So, I have been doing a lot of searching of late.

I have been asking myself  "If ANYTHING were possible and I knew I could NOT fail, exactly what would I set out to bring into my life?"

This question I ask myself reflects one of my core beliefs.

There is NO SUCH THING as either 'success' or 'failure'.

There are merely RESULTS.

That's all there is.

Sometimes we get the results we like and we call it SUCCESS.

Other times we get results we don't like and we call it FAILURE.

I will let you into a little secret here. The universe does not give a rats ass about you. It does not care WHAT you call the results you get. Only YOU do that.

This is a lesson I learnt from reading a biography of Thomas Edison, the famous American inventor. He was in the process of developing the incandescent lightbulb. He had tried thousands of different materials to make it but without success...yet.

A reporter asked him "What does it feel like to have FAILED so many times in a row?"

Edison looked at him for a long minute and said slowly "You clearly do not understand. I have not FAILED. I have simply discovered many, many ways of NOT achieving SUCCESS...yet."

I love that attitude.

That's why I ask myself  "what would I set out to achieve if I knew I could NOT fail?"

Because I know I cannot fail because 'failing' is as much an illusion as 'succeeding.'

Its just a label I put on my results.

I firmly believe that there are only TWO sorts of experiences in life.

You could call them WINNING experiences and LEARNING experiences.

It can all drop into one box or the other.

You either get a result you like and say you WON or you get a result you are not satisfied with. Well, that ones a LEARN.

You find out what actions that needed fine tuning and you set out on the path again armed with superior knowledge this time around.

In fact - and this is just my belief - the only way you can really LOSE is to NOT take the learn on board.

Dont throw away the experience without extracting the'learn' from it.

After all......you have just paid what I call the 'Idiot Tax' on the experience by not getting the result you wanted.

Take the 'learn' and move on.

Originally posted on Tuesday, November 28, 2006 at 04:00PM

And the point is?

"I would rather die standing up than live on my knees"

I guess the reason I am telling this little detail is NOT to elicit sympathy - though all donations to the 'buy another jag for the fat guy' fund will be gratefully accepted :-) - it is to make the point that I believe that being 'Spartacus' is the ONLY way to live a self actualised life.

You have to stand up when the chips are down.

Not step off. Like the people I was working with.

Sometimes you have to take the bullet because the others around you just don't have 'the stones' to do it.

They say that a hero dies only once but a coward dies a thousand deaths.

In their minds, they run scared all their lives.

Poor, poor things.

Never taking responsibility for their actions.

Or their feelings.

or their attitudes.

Forever blaming those around them for their decisions or outcomes or attitudes.

For 'making' them feel bad or sad or whatever.

Coward talk all of it.

I still am 'Spartacus' in my life and very proud of it.

Always will be.

And I will always encourage others I meet to be 'Spartacus' in their lives too.

The amount of people who are waiting for SOMEONE ELSE to liberate them.

To be 'Daddy'.
To take the pain away.
To make them a fortune.
To make them happy/slimmer/taller/smarter etc etc.
They never realise that the key to their power is in their own hands.
Always has been too.

They say that "real power cannot be given, it has to be taken".

A beloved friend showed me the meaning of that phrase. I will always remember them for that.

There has to be a moment when you stop waiting for your 'boat to come in' and you jump in and swim out to meet it.

You have to give up the LUXURY of being weak.

Originally posted on Tuesday, November 28, 2006 at 03:56PM

IF.....

IF..... by Rudyard Kipling

IF you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. 

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,but make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting or being lied about, don't deal in lies, or being hated, don't give way to hating and yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master.

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim.

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same.

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, and stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, lose and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone and so hold on when there is nothing in you except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch.

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you.

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run, yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,and - which is more - you'll be a Man in Black, my son! 

Originally posted on Tuesday, November 28, 2006 at 03:53PM

Running up the down escalator.......

Life after DEBT.

"Incy Wincy spider climbing up the spout,
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
Now Incy Wincy spider went up the spout again!"

Now THAT'S what I call an inspiring tale!!

I have heard it said that we did our best learning when we were children.

Now I dont know if I agree with that but I do know that SOME things you pick up as a kid can help you later on in life IF you have the courage to apply the 'learn'.

King Robert the Bruce I was born at Lochmaben Castle in 1274. He was Knight and Overlord of Annandale. In 1306 he was crowned King of Scotland and henceforth tried to free Scotland from the English enemy.

After being defeated at a battle, Bruce escaped and found a hideout in a cave.

Hiding in a cave for three months, Bruce was at the lowest point of his life.

He thought about leaving the country and never coming back.

While waiting, he watched a spider building a web in the cave's entrance.

The spider fell down time after time, but finally he succeeded with his web.

So Bruce decided also to retry his fight and told his men:

"If at first you don't succeed, try try and try again".

-Old Scottish legend.

Now, sure, IF I had been there, I would have told him not to use such a weedy word as 'try' but it seemed to do the trick anyway...

"Everything I learnt about success was taught to me by a spider" - snappy title for a book, eh?

Originally posted on Tuesday, November 28, 2006 at 03:50PM

Who's Spartacus??

Don't know if you have ever seen the movie Spartacus however, there is a very famous scene towards the end of the movie when the Roman General addresses the defeated slave army and says they will all be spared being crucified as long as they give up their leader called Spartacus.

In the movie they all say that THEY are Spartacus.

They recognise and embrace that they all acted as one man so they are all equally involved in their actions.

A touching sentiment I think you will agree. Always brought a tear to my eye.

Real life however is very different.

You could not see them for dust.

(From underneath various stones and behind various chicken hutches, you could hear a dozen tremulous voices saying "He is Spartacus. Him over there! The one NOT running away. It was all his idea" etc etc...... again, another touching moment. Well, it would have been if only any of them were in touching range...)

The day the bill for one point one Million pounds arrived, I had forty four quid to my name.

That was not really going to make a dent, was it?

So, going bankrupt and taking ALL the debt on with me was the only option open.

I WAS Spartacus.

I took the 'bullet' for everyone that had ever worked there.

I saved their skin by 'self-destructing' so I would never be forced to hand over their details.

Still no 'thank you' from any of them.

Surprise surprise.

Let me tell you something lest you are fostering any illusions.

Going bankrupt is not an 'easy' option.

Seeing everything I hidden striven for, broken down and sold off was not a pretty sight.

Losing my car, my home and my relationship at that time was pretty traumatic for me but looking back now, I realise it was the pain of birth I was feeling. 

Looking back across the gulf of time though I realise now it was one of the best things that has ever happened. It’s strange to say but true.

Got a nicer home, better relationship and better car now.

Learnt a vast amount about the English legal system.

Learnt a huge amount about the human dynamic too.

And I learnt that money really does talk.

Its says "Bye bye!" :-)

Originally posted on Tuesday, November 28, 2006 at 03:48PM

See how they run.......

Every one's your brother till the rent comes around.

Let me ask you to imagine something.

You are out at a very expensive restaurant with about a dozen of your bestest friends in the whole wide world.

You are all having the time of your lives.

The wine is flowing.

The food is sumptuous and there is a seemingly limitless supply of whatever anyone wants.

You, as a dutiful host are spending your time tending more to your guests needs than your own, making sure your friends’ cups are never empty and they have a bountiful amount of whatever they need.

The one thing you have not noticed however is that very subtly, almost without you noticing, one by one your guests are having their fill of everything on offer and then wiping their mouths and leaving the table, and the restaurant.

Some of them never even say goodbye and none of them say thank you.

Things have broken in the restaurant and some have stolen the silverware.

At the end of the evening you find yourself alone in the restaurant and the waiter brings you the bill - as you are the only one left there. (Maybe you were not smart enough to run off like the other cowards of your acquaintance. Or maybe you had a bit more about you to do that...)

They have stiffed you for the bill too.

How would you feel?

This happened to me a while ago.

The 'restaurant' was a business I had started.

The 'meal' went on for 10 years.

The bill I ended up with on all our behalves was for 1.1 Million Pounds.

Big fucking OUCH, eh?

Originally posted on Tuesday, November 28, 2006 at 03:45PM