Monday, June 12, 2017

Leverage: The Science of Turning Setbacks Into Springboards.


Many of my followers have commented negatively on the 90 mile straight road that I walked along couple of weeks ago. For it hadn't even got a single curve or even a bend.
Some readers even called it 'The Highway to Hell' and wondered if I was bored.
A couple of years ago Dr Claire Nana sent me a copy of her book "Leverage: The Science of Turning Setbacks Into Springboards" and asked me to write a review for it. 
That's exactly what we can do.. We can program ourself to jump  back from a defeat to achieve. Or even make a positive out of a negative.
For that long Nullarbor straight I was not bored for one minute. Why? A couple of weeks before that I was near a small town called Norseman. On the way there I had walked four days almost dead south. A bit frustrating as I am ultimately walking east. And later the highway will take me another two days north-east direction. Yes, with that southerly walking I didn't advance much. With that in mind there is nothing bad about a 146 kilometre/ 90 mile dead straight easterly road? Especially when every metre I walked was one hundred percent in my direction 😀 Who cares if there was not a bend in sight, I loved it
Many year ago after my 48 hour treadmill world record a journalist asked me this question. "So, is everything you do, every race you run like a separate ingredient in a big pot of stew?
My answer.. "Absolutely, it will cook away, simmer and one day when you need it most... It will come out and mature." On that Nullarbor straight road, I was eating my treadmill ingredient. I remembered back all those years ago when I hit difficult patches how I focused on a black bin liner which I had attached to the wall of the expedition hall. I used that focus to clear my mind of negative thoughts and replaced them with inspiring thoughts. That bin liner could mean anything you wanted it to mean. For me it meant only one thing.... Succeed. Nobody knew what that was for, only me and my handlers. Many people are limited by their mind and are not prepared to push it. To me my mind holds the key to my ambition. My body is lazy, a slave to its master. Our mind must always rule supreme.
Often it is in times of adversity, when the chips are down, and with our backs to the wall that we discover our true potential.

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