Could I Do That? E-Book

Simon Hartley

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 198

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Yes you can!

Hands up who feels like a completely inadequate underachiever whenever you hear about someone’s great achievement. When someone in the office is off cycling around the world, or someone on TV has just launched a great new business which will save the planet? Most of us envy the drive and determination of these people. They’ve actually made this stuff happen rather than just day-dreamed about it. We all ask...Could I Do That?

Well Simon Hartley is here to show us that we can! Taking on a challenge – big or small - in your career or personal life, can be intimidating but also totally transformational. Simon will show us how to work out what it is we want to do and then how to make that happen. He uses examples and advice from others who have achieved big things.

The book examines how you should go about preparing for change, which problems you’ll face along the way, and demonstrates why and how your life will be better as a consequence.

• Practical and motivational, it’s about embracing change and defeating limiting beliefs
• It challenges readers to think big and take steps to achieving their goals
• It puts power in the hands of people who don’t yet realise that they can do extraordinary things too

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Endorsements

Title page

Copyright page

Foreword

Introduction

The Inspiration

Your Challenges

Do You Fancy a Journey?

It's Not Just Me

Finding Your Challenge

Chapter 1: The Inception

From Ground Zero

What If Your Challenges Choose You?

From Inception to Commitment

Chapter Summary

Chapter 2: The Why

So, What's the “Why”?

The Acid Test

What Difference Does it Make?

What's More Important?

Striking the Balance

Decisions, Decisions

Chapter Summary

Chapter 3: The How

What if I Don't Find the “Right” Answers?

Using Our Discomfort Zone

Where Do I Start?

It's Like Navigating in a Fog

Hey, Stop Moving the Goal Posts!

Chapter Summary

Chapter 4: Diving into Your Discomfort Zone

“That's Mental”

Could I Already Do This?

Boundaries and Milestones

Use Your Discomfort Zone

Baby Steps

Chapter Summary

Chapter 5: Taking Control

The Battle Between Your Ears

Am I really cut out for this?

Winning the Battle

Is That SMART or DUMB?

Those Serial Success Stories

Chapter Summary

Chapter 6: It's Not Just About You

The Negative Energy

It's Not Just Your Challenge

The Value of Negativity

The Importance of Balance

Your Authentic Response

Take the Wheel

Chapter Summary

Chapter 7: To Quit, or Not to Quit …?

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

The Challenges Change, They Don't Disappear

Is It a Setback or an Opportunity?

Thank You Mr Blister

Stop and Take a Moment

The Quiet Voice

Setbacks

What Happens if a Bombshell Drops?

Decision Time

What Now?

Chapter Summary

Chapter 8: Is Failing Really Failure?

Change Course

If You Want Great Answers, Ask Great Questions

Take Responsibility

Re-Group

Chapter Summary

Chapter 9: Infinity and Beyond

The Truth

Observe Your Thoughts

Challenge Your Doubts

It's Not How We Start, but How We Finish

Some Final Wise Words

Steve Williams:

Robyn Benincasa:

Jon, my brother:

Andy Reid:

My Journey

Your Journey

Could I Do That?

Bibliography and References

Image List

About Simon Hartley

End User License Agreement

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Start Reading

CHAPTER 1

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“A great question that all achievers ask themselves, and one which Simon helps us to explore with an in-depth look at the conversations that go on in the minds of some of life's inspiring achievers, who all answered that question … and did it!

If you are asking yourself that question, this book is a vital tool in your toolbox; it's a powerful team mate.

Buy it. Read it. Do IT!”

Andy McMenemy, world class endurance athlete and award winning inspirational speaker

“A refreshingly honest read and thankfully completely devoid of hype. Loaded with practical advice on how to achieve your potential that will both inspire and engage you.”

Paul McGee, The SUMO Guy, international bestselling author and speaker

“The mindsets, approaches and techniques in Could I do that? are exactly what helped me to win two Olympic Gold medals, and Simon has a great way of bringing these to life so anyone can take these principles and apply them to their world.”

Steve Williams, OBE, double Olympic gold medallist

“The average lifespan is 4000 weeks. And the chances are, yours are whizzing by in a blur! Read Simon's book and do something BIG!”

Andy Cope, bestselling author of The Art of Being Brilliant and happiness expert

“If you've ever had a dream which seems out of reach, or a challenge that seems too big or too daunting, this book is for you. Find out how to achieve what you once thought was impossible.”

Claire O'Hara, 5 times world champion, freestyle kayak and squirt boat kayak

This edition first published in 2014

© 2014 Simon Hartley

Registered office

John Wiley and Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom

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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hartley, Simon.

    Could I do that? / Simon Hartley.

            pages cm

        Includes bibliographical references.

    ISBN 978-0-857-08480-4 (pbk.)

    1.  Motivation (Psychology)    2.  Ability—Psychological aspects.    3.  Success—Psychological aspects.    I.  Title.

    BF503.H375 2014

    153.8′3—dc23                                                                                2013047981

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-857-08480-4 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-857-08477-4 (ebk)

ISBN 978-0-857-08478-1 (ebk)

Cover design by Mackerel Ltd                Internal pages designed by Andy Prior Design Ltd

Foreword

Gripping the reeds, I crawled out of the freezing water up to my neck on a pitch black night in the middle of Dartmoor. I'd fallen into a hidden crevasse during a night navigation exercise with the Ice Warrior team, training with for what will be my toughest challenge yet; an 800 mile, three month expedition to the centre of the Arctic. The expedition has thwarted many explorers and our destination remains a place which has never been reached by any human beings. If successful, we will not only enter the history books, but we will be able provide a greater scientific and environmental understanding of the impact we have on the planet.

I have not entered into this challenge frivolously; it is perhaps an understatement to say that it will be immeasurably dangerous. There are countless unknowns, not to mention the cost. We are hoping we will be able to mitigate some of these with acute preparation, planning and risk analysis. As this book will remind you, if you fail to plan, then plan to fail.

It wasn't always like this. By the time I left school, I'd been bullied, failed every exam and been arrested as part of a shop lifting gang of nine boys. I was a good kid, but I was easily impressionable and my self-esteem was non-existent. But, I guess there must have been an adventurous streak in me; I'd also completed two tall ships races, spent five years training as a high board diver and completed the Gold Duke of Edinburgh award as a sea cadet. These were my passions, being active and outside. At 13, I had a few jobs; including paper rounds and door-to-door lottery cards. It seems that being an entrepreneur was also in my nature.

I've noticed that life is never straightforward. Challenges are inevitable; it's how we deal with them that is important.

After my 17th birthday, I joined the Royal Navy. I signed a 22 year contract and I loved it, but that wasn't to be. After nearly 10 years, I was medically discharged with a severe respiratory problem, within a year I was a civilian. I was devastated, I felt institutionalized and very lost.

My answer was to use this experience as an opportunity to change my life. I made the decision to start running and set out to run the London marathon, which I did in less than four hours. I also needed to work so I became a highboard diving coach. But the money was poor, so I started my first business; a sports shop. To be honest, I didn't have a clue about running a business and fewer than 18 months later, the business folded and all of my savings were lost. So, whilst working in factories, I began studying business and accountancy and completed a software and IT engineering diploma. I started again for the third time. Within a few years I was thriving as an IT consultant in the Dot.Com Boom in London and what a ride that was!

My recovery was short lived and in February 2002 it all ended. Whilst out on my bike, training for the London Triathlon, I was hit head on by a car and broke my back. Life became very difficult and extremely painful. I was no longer active and this had a serious impact on my mental and emotional wellbeing. I was not just physically broke, but again financially.

Often the challenges we're presented with can appear daunting, sometimes seemingly impossible. It's tempting to wonder whether we can do it. We may contemplate whether we have the energy or the strength to overcome what we have been presented with.

Experience has proved to me that it is our mind and how we listen to it and act, which determines whether we succeed or fail. Without realizing it, I found myself using the approaches that you'll find in this book to overcome my own challenges throughout my life.

My recovery took nearly six years. I got back on my feet and ran the Chicago marathon in 2008. Since then I've run, swum and cycled over 6,500 miles. I've climbed the highest mountain in Russia in freezing temperatures of -30 degrees. I've completed ultra runs, long distance swims and an Ironman.

But life loves to continue to throw us challenges and change is inevitable. In 2012, all within 4 months of each other, I lost the business I'd spent a decade building, my long term, toxic relationship ended and both grand-parents died from cancer. Financially, emotionally and intellectually, I had a break-down.

I've been forced to start again many times. I've picked myself up, and turned break-downs into break-throughs. I took personal responsibility for my life; I got active, developed my spirituality, examined my passions in life, made plans and took decisive action. Being physically active has helped to keep me going and I now focus on helping others through the organization I founded, Take a Challenge. With over half a million visitors to the website since its inception, Take a Challenge has helped to inspire others to change their lives through the inspirational stories of everyday people achieving extraordinary things. Now, through the principles contained within this book, you can too.

Christopher Brisley

Founder and CEO of Take a Challenge

www.takeachallenge.org

Anything is Possible

Twitter: @CBrisley

Introduction

Human beings are capable of some truly astonishing feats.

On 30th April 2008, David Blaine held his breath underwater for a world record breaking 17 minutes and 4.4 seconds, live on the Oprah Show. Wow!

In 2007, Lewis Pugh swam a kilometre in the Arctic Ocean at the North Pole. It took him 18 minutes and 50 seconds. Conventional wisdom tells us that hypothermia takes effect when our body temperature drops below 35 degrees Celsius. The water temperature at the North Pole for Lewis' swim was 1.7 degrees below zero! That's impossible, right?

If you think that sounds bizarre, John Evans balanced a car (yes, a real, live 159 kg Mini Cooper) on his head for 33 seconds; no hands. Amazingly, it's a Guinness world record, not an April Fool (Guinness World Records, 2012).

It's tempting to think of these things as “impossible”, or that the people who have achieved these incredible feats are “superhuman”. How long can you hold your breath? One minute? Two? Three? I think I'd be surprised if I managed 60 seconds. Are these people made of “different stuff”? Do they have magical powers? I guess that depends on your definition of “magic”.

Illusionist, David Blaine (2010), said…

“I think magic, whether holding my breath or shuffling a deck of cards, is pretty simple; it's practice, it's training and it's experimenting while pushing through the pain to be the best I can be. That's what magic is to me”.

Have you ever said the words, “I wonder if I could do something like that”?

Even if you haven't said them out loud, have you said them to yourself? Have they been a part of the conversation in your mind? When I look around me, I see more and more people attempting, and achieving, incredible things. Did you know that there were 127 new Guinness world records established in the London 2012 Olympic Games alone (Guinness World Records, 2013)? Of course, world records are not confined to athletic events. In 2009, Dean Gould broke the world record by flipping 71 beer mats whilst blindfolded. As I sit here typing this, there is a radio station in Doncaster, UK, that is attempting to break the world record for the longest ever show. At 4 pm this afternoon they will have been broadcasting for 80 hours non-stop. Whilst I have never had an urge to flip beer mats or be on the radio for 80 hours, I have definitely thought of taking on a real challenge. As I look on, I can't help asking myself if I could do something exceptional as well. What's stopping me?

Do you get that nagging feeling that you're not completely fulfilling your potential? Do you suspect that you have more to give? Would you also like to close that gap between what you've achieved so far and your true potential?

As a sport psychology consultant, I have always been interested in elite performance. I have been intrigued to know what differentiates exceptional performers from the rest. For several years I have been studying world class performers, to understand what sets them apart and what common characteristics bind them all. I've been rubbing shoulders with some incredible people, who have achieved some pretty extraordinary feats; such as climbing all of the world's 8000-metre mountains, completing unsupported polar expeditions, running back-to-back ultra-marathons and winning mammoth adventure races. I had the great pleasure of getting to know them as I wrote How To Shine; the book in which I share the eight common characteristics that I found.

In fact, writing How To Shine was a mission for me. For many years, I've been fascinated by world class performance. I've been on a quest to find out how world class performers think, what they've experienced, how they've approached their challenges and what makes them tick. However, it seems that somehow I've become infected by them as well. Time after time I have heard world-class performers describe themselves as “ordinary people”. They all seem to have a very modest start point. They don't seem to have been imparted with any innate talent from birth.

Their achievements don't appear to be the result of luck or simply because they were in the right place at the right time either. If they can do it, surely we can too.

The Inspiration

As I wrote How To Shine I found myself typing the words, “Where is the limit?”, “Where are the boundaries anyway?” and “Do you know where your limit is?” As I wrote the words, and read them back to myself, I felt an uneasy realization starting to dawn. I suspect that I am very similar to many people. I have no idea where my limits are. I don't know where the boundaries of my potential lie.

It struck me that most of us have no concept of where our limits are. We know where discomfort starts, sure. But do we know where our ceiling is? Do we have any idea of what we are capable of? Although I've pushed myself, I also know that I've spent my life working well within my potential. If I'm honest, I have no idea where my limit is! It is unexplored territory and it's time I started to understand it.

The same is true of most people; even those of us who are on a quest for perpetual self-improvement are unsure where their limitations are. Even if we feel that some things are beyond us, we often do so instinctively rather than through evidence. Do you know where your true limits are?

And so, I have set myself a challenge. Powered by the question, “Could I Do That?”, I am going to embark upon a rather ridiculous endurance challenge. I'll explain exactly how ridiculous it is shortly. However, this book is not really about my challenge. In fact, the challenge itself is largely irrelevant. It is about how to take on challenges. In particular, it is about how to tackle those challenges that seem huge … daunting … impossible.

“I'd rather regret the things I've done than the things I haven't done.”

Lucille Ball, American comedienne and actress

Your Challenges

When you uttered those words, “I wonder if I could do that” (even if they were just to yourself), what challenge were you contemplating? Did you also say, almost in the same breath, “I'd love to do it, but there is no way I could” or “well, I wouldn't know where to start”?

Have you seen performers on stage, or on TV, or watched people running marathons, and thought, “I'd love to be able to do that”? Have you watched Masterchef, Britain's Got Talent or Great British Bake Off and thought “I'd love to do something like that”? Have you ever dreamed of turning your business idea into reality, or releasing your creative flair by writing the book that's been incubating in your mind or making a short film? Do you often hear the words, “I really ought to …?” or “one day I'll …” echoing through your mind?

If we're honest with ourselves, I'll bet we all have challenges that we would love to take on. But, for some reason, there is a gap between us and what we'd love to achieve. The question is … how can we bridge that gap? How do we overcome the “stuff” that currently stands between us and our potential?

In this book, I'd like to explore how our minds work when we engage in challenges. What actually goes on in those “little grey cells”? What does it think like and feel like? I'm going to learn about how to take on a significant challenge from the inside, and I'd like to share this first-hand experience with you as I go. We can learn those universal and transferable lessons, which can be applied to any challenge.

Do You Fancy a Journey?

Do you fancy a journey into a slightly warm, damp, dark and squishy place?

I'll bet you don't get invitations like that every day. Are you excited? Have I sold this to you yet?

The place I'm referring to is my brain. More specifically, I'd like to invite you into my mind and my thoughts. I'll walk you through the “challenges within the challenge” that I've experienced in my own endurance event, and help illustrate how they translate to any challenge – whether they are physical, mental, entrepreneurial or habitual. I know that my daft endurance event is going to throw up a host of challenges of its own. And yours will too – regardless of what your own challenge might actually be. Most of these “challenges within the challenge” will be mental wrestles. There is going to be a conversation going on between your ears; a battle for supremacy between your desires and your fears. There will be a tug of war between your dreams and your doubts, and probably a voice shouting “okay, stop now, I've had enough”. Part of this mission, then, is to conquer this internal mental territory.

Along the way, we'll reflect on how the mental attributes required for such a challenge are developed. In How To Shine, I noticed the toughness that many world-class performers display. Andy McMenemy ran ultra-marathons with a torn Achilles tendon. Bruce Duncan injured his leg two hours into “The Epic Tri” and still pushed himself for the next six days to complete the challenge. Alan Hinkes was convinced that he was going to die at the top of a mountain, but mustered the strength to descend. And Michael E. Thornton ran into a gun battle, and got shot twice, in order to rescue his friend and teammate.

Through my studies of world-class performers, and my work with elite athletes, I've consistently found that they are all mentally tough. The problem is, I'm not. The truth is, I'm a bit of a wimp. I have an incredibly low pain threshold. I squeal when my wife plucks in-growing hairs or squeezes a spot on my back. When I'm training, I tend to slow down when I get short of breath or my muscles start to burn. Am I cut out for this? Am I a tough person? Are you? When was the last time you pushed yourself to the limit and managed to push through rather than stepping back when things became painful? There's no shame in doing that – it's normal.

It's tempting to think that if I'm not tough right now, I'll never be tough enough. However, like any attribute, toughness is developed. How do we build the mental armour? This journey is going to help us understand the attributes required to succeed AND how we develop them.

It's Not Just Me