NEWTON!

This is the old logo from the time apple computer tried to get a march on the palmtop market!
I love it cos it reflects what I try to do when i'm working with people. Get the lightbulb to go off, so people can think...feck yeah... that's it.

Dirty morning.

The slipway, 9.30am.

Dirty Morning - It's a miserable morning in the west of Ireland, it's raining!
Maggie is gone to the states for the week and my knee is swollen like a small balloon, making simple things like walking upstairs a major challenge. I'm seriously going to have to think about giving up football, the knee is not up to it. It's going to be a time for changes again over the next few months.
Changing anything that has been part of your life for almost ever is really challenging. There is always going to be a period of grief for the "old" way, and a period of re-adjustment as the "new" will feel uncomfortable at first and take a bit of time to get "used to".
The most important things to have at that stage are committment and stickability. I have a lot of myself tied up in my footballing ability, even at 40 It's still what I daydream about at mass! Yesterday during the first half I scored points with left foot, right foot and fist and at half time I was glowing, so I'm going to have to leave all that in the past, I'm going to have to create new daydreams and I'll find that tough because I've been enjoying the same ones for years and they are almost automatic at this stage.
My work is great, have a lot of encouragement from various people who have been on some of my courses. Today is a day for invoices and ideas. Part 1 of the day is admin, which should take the next hour and that will free up some time where I can begin to design new programmes in both coaching skills and study skills.
time to rock and roll

Paul.

Cathy loving life!

This is my daughter Cathy enjoying life by the sea beside where we live.
That's her sister staring at america on the left. Watching them is a great lesson in the up's and downs that life just is.... about ten minutes after this there was a huge row.
It's wonderful to feel like this, but it's insanity to believe that you can have your whole life like it. Simply because it's the awkward and difficult times that give the good times thier context, In otherwords if we we're on a high all the time we'd simply take it for granted and it would lose it's power to make us feel like Cathy does in the picture.
I used to be amazed that people who we're very wealthy and who had all the things I admired as a young man, flash cars, celebrity, beautiful friends, huge houses, I used to be amazed that they would take to drugs, alcohol, despair or even suicide.
It's taken me years to figure out that it's not outside things that give you that feeling of elation (not unless you want a huge low afterwards) it's just the up's and down's of life.
You might as well try to live a life without kidneys or lungs as try to live a life without joy and pain, cos they are the stuff life is made of.

the man

the laws of physics - the laws of life

The more I read on the life of Issac Newton the more amazed I am with the relevance of what he came up with over 400 years ago to life today, and particularly in terms of coaching and peak performance. Newton looked behind the stuff that was happening for the reason it was happening and tried to use this information in order to predict future events. He discovered "universal laws" which always apply, whether you agree with them or not. For example if you jump of a building you will move rapidly in the direction of the ground, regardless of whether you believe in or accept gravity - you'll still get hurt.

there are also immutible laws of human behaviour,

• If you don't plan you cannot succeed.
• you will harvest what you have sown.
• Not trying hard enough will always ensure that you fail.
• Trying too hard at anything will decrease your ability to get it.
• We will continue to encounter the same obstacles until we change our approach.

The bold Issac had laws that are vital to human potential development.

• Nothing will change (inertia) unless someone or something (force) pushes it.
• Force = Mass X Acceleration which means the results we achieve are a consequence of the skills we have X how much we apply them.
• Every action has an equal and opposite reaction (nuff said)

I've just got a phone call giving me a huge amount of work for June...... life is good and busy, even though today I'm gloomy because of Martin O'Neill leving Celtic, We shared som many good times together - The inside of my head is like one of those slow motion soft tone memory scenes you get at the end of movies - where I remember the day he got the job, The 6-2 rangers day, the heartbreak of seville, the night at Juventus, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, This one little man brought us so much - and now he's gone to look after his sick wife - not to another bigger club or for more money or any of that - Martin you're one in a million.

This is Issac, the man who started it all off!

sport cruel sport

There I was, watching Man United suffer on Saturday after the penalty shootout, and I was beaming, gloating, delighted. Little did I know that the great god of Karma was looking down and taking notes, and that my team Glasgow Celtic were to suffer a far crueller fate before the weekend was out. 1-0 up with 2 minutes to play, the league flag ready to unfurl, we all watched in anticipation, wondering how best to celebrate this great achievement! and then 2 minutes later it was all gone, and gone to our deadliest rivals. Nobody could stomach watching them celebrate, it's funny how people deal with things like that, some people tried to laugh, some people cried, some tried to shake others out of it, but most just stood there - stunned - disbelieving - not wanting anything but to be left alone with thier pain -

I know it's only a game - but many people (including me at times) have given it the power of an emotional washing machine - where we can be tossed and wrung and sometimes spun to pieces. I had to go to two communion parties afterwards - I dragged myself to them - when people asked about the match i said things about it being "only a game" and "sure nobody died" and other such stuff - the fact is that to most fans it's much more than a game - it's a microcosm of life itself, where we get to experience the most acute ups and downs, where we learn about hope and expectation and dissapointment - where we understand that nothing is forever - that the only constant is change - and that for most of us - life just goes on - whatever mountain we happen to be on top of today - whatever valley we are slumped in tomorrow - all will change - everything passes.

so what have i learned - I've learned never to take anything for granted - the good times, my friends, my family, my health - to always appreciate what I've got right here right now-

And I've learned that the only failure in life is a loss of hope, to stop believing that we will bounce back, to accept that the way it is now is the way it will always be, it won't and I know why it won't, because that big fooking god of Karma is waiting way up there wondering what is the best test he can throw at you next.

Hail Hail - We'll be back.

ages and ages and ages

life's been a bit crazy and busy so I seriously need to get to a nice quiet place in the next while. I got a bit drunk on sunday evening and monday was a washout, i hate when i lose days like that, and then on tuesday the electricity was out again in the office, I am now 40, I am in the process of making big decisions on my life, I need to get more time with the girls before they are all grown up and i have that sad "cats in the cradle" syndrome. This summer we are going to do some daft exciting stuff, i am going to work very little in august, i will have several courses set up ready to rock in september. I am going to see a new coach about straightening out some of the stuf that has me in knots and I would like to do some sports work over the next few months.

on tour

out of the office all this week, all round Ireland, so not the normal level of access to e-mail and stuff which is great and bad at the same time. Have made a big breakthrough today regarding the minimising of distractions during coaching, people will turn to any "distraction" in order to avoid answering the "hard" questions, so it's great to get them to a place of little distraction.

I had the most wonderful weekend including my surprise 40th, it was really brilliant.

Am inspired by mick mccarthy.....more later

so so busy

Not in my maddest dreams did I really believe that I would ever be as busy as I am at the moment, I really thought when I started this blog that I would have a few minutes each day to write it up, but that time is really difficult to find on many days, I have a long drive in the morning and am looking forward to using it to relax and to catch up on some phonecalls. I love the work but still get humoungous butterflies when I am either speaking to a new group or am not just as prepared as I would like to be. I'm really being pushed into practicing what I preach on time management. The stuff that's not on the list just does not get done.

My daughter has her big confirmation day on Sunday and we are so keen that everything will be as right as possible for her, we are having a big party in the house and I'm really looking forward to it, I have an early start next day so I will be the perfect host, next week is going to be really interesting, I will be dealing with new companies and new people and must see the downtime at night to get prepared whilst I'm away.