Negative is Positive

Do you ever have a bad and cranky attitude? If you don’t you should.

I openly admit that there are days when I feel that my life and everything in the whole world stinks and I am anything but positive. This may seem a contradiction to previous postings but these days are important to me. You sometimes need to have days like these also. Bad days can be good for you.

I can hear you right now “Jon this makes no sense, why should we need to be negative”

There are times when you should get mad at yourself, cranky at how you are doing things, running your business, treating others badly or just plain dirty on yourself for being the way you are. Sometimes to make change you first have to get fired up angry and upset.

Don’t fall for that fluffy old myth that a positive attitude is all that anyone needs to get to where they want to go – that really is BS.

Whilst attitude is very important it is not the only thing. It will help you deal with what happens to you but it won’t stop anything from happening to you.  

People often think if they get their attitude right they will have no problems and nothing will go wrong – again more BS.

Attitude on its own does not change things. Effort, thoughts and words combined change things. It takes more than being positive as you can be positively wrong, positively lazy or positively dumb.

Big Tip: Put down the rose coloured glasses. Negativity can be good. Use it to your advantage.

It is ok to get positively angry and positively truthful with where you are at. It just might drive you to take action to get yourself someplace else. Trust me it works.

Negativity is a driver for positive change.

Be YOU!

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw

A quick piece of advice if you want to be successful, enjoy life and have fun then don’t try to be someone else. It doesn’t work. Sure you might look at what successful people do to be successful and learn from them. That is smart. That does not mean that you have to be them.  We don’t want the world to be full of all the same type of people. Successful people create their own direction, do it their way and do not worry about what others think about them. They are their own unique person. Read the rest of this entry »

To be the best learn from the best No.2 – John Wooden

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” – John Wooden

As coaches, managers, parents and people we do not know it all and never will. Bad big headed mistake if we think we do.

Following up from the March 19 post “Learn from the best – Ric Charlesworth” I thought that it was appropriates to recognise and remember one of the sporting worlds greatest ever coaches.

Legendary UCLA Basketball Coach John Wooden died Friday June 4 2010 at the age of 99. He was the most successful US college basketball coach in history winning 10 out of 12 NCCA National Championships guiding the Bruins to seven consecutive titles from 1967 through 1973 and a record 88-game winning streak in the early 1970s. From the time of his first title following the 1963-64 season through the 10th in 1974-75, Wooden’s Bruins were 330-19, including four 30-0 seasons.

More importantly Coach Wooden was known as not just a coach but a great teacher. Read the rest of this entry »

Stuck – So what!

Feeling stuck, frustrated and going nowhere? So what?

You heard me – so what are you going to do about it? Have you read my previous post Get on with it! If not I suggest you do.  If you have read it (posted 3 months ago) and are still feeling stuck you only have yourself to blame.

No good waiting for someone to grab you by the hand and pull you out of the mud. Promise you it won’t happen. Life doesn’t work like that. Life is tough if you want it to be. If you don’t want it be tough then you have to make some choices. Read the rest of this entry »

Attack and the WOW factor!

I hate Buzz Words! Buzz words suck. Why – because if something is a Buzz Word that usually means everyone is saying it or more notably everyone is doing it or thinking of doing it. If everyone is doing it that usually means everyone is getting similar results or outcomes. You can’t tell me that is fun? (Unreasonable is Good)

The big Buzz Word in team sports over the last 5 plus years has been “Defensive pressure” Often stated and to me often underachieved.

So what do we get – everyone saying that they want to be the best defensive team in the game. Isn’t that great – 100 000’s of teams all playing defence at all costs and often poorly. Low scoring low skilled contests galore. To me not great entertainment. Would be more fun jamming my hand in a door! Read the rest of this entry »

Unreasonable is Good

Why do only a very small minority of people achieve true success? I will tell you why – because only a few have the balls to challenge convention and think unreasonably.

Being a reasonable thinker can be restrictive and trap us within “the square”, encourage us to be cautious, avoid risks and be non committal. Being reasonable is sensible stuff really but also dull and low on the excitement scale.

Most people do and only look to do what they know they CAN do. Therefore what they CAN do is what they WILL do. This is comfort zone stuff.  This is being predictable. It makes you feel safe because you know your actions will turn out the way you would expect them to. Predictable means it has been done before. If it has been done before “is it likely to make a difference to you in the future?” Read the rest of this entry »

Give up trying!

Don’t even think about trying. You either do it or do not do it.

If someone says that they “will try” to get the work done then don’t expect that they will. When you say to someone that you “will try” to get the work done do you honestly mean it? Unlikely. Read the rest of this entry »

To be the best learn from the best No.1 - Ric Charlesworth

One of the keys to achieving success as a coach, business owner, sports person or in general life is to watch, listen and learn from those who have achieved success in their own field. Makes sense doesn’t it.

No good asking for financial advice from someone who has no money or asking your fat doctor how to lose weight.

Ric Charlesworth (See Wikipedia) has done it all as both a player and coach in one of his many chosen fields of endevour the sport of Hockey. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you want to win!

What would be the one thing that I would say to coaches who wish for their team to be successful. Firstly there is little possibility I could limit myself to saying one thing however if I had to it would be this.

DO THE PREPARATION! – You must do the work beforehand or expect to fail.

This applies to everyone striving to go to further be it looking to pass exams, win a business contract, speak to an audience etc. Read the rest of this entry »

What are you saying?

Have you ever thought about the power of the words that you speak. If you haven’t you are not alone as most people don’t. Read the rest of this entry »