Rajko

Dec4th - Shebbear

07 Dec 2009 - 01:04

What an uplifting experience it was visiting Shebbear College in Devon these past two days. Teaching well-being seminars to the kids where I shared some advice on how to perform under pressure – and more importantly, what it means to feel pressure. I tried to be realistic and practical in my teaching, to remind the students that ‘feeling the pressure’, getting nervous or having personal struggles is entirely normal – it’s more about how you interpret those signs of pressure. I gave the example of when I used to go really RED in the face if I got embarrassed as a teenager. I remember it was really such a pain! I couldn’t control it & sometimes it made me lose my confidence cos I just couldn’t face going embarrassingly red in public! But the problem was not the ‘going red’. The problem was that I saw it as Terrible to go red in public. But when these signs of pressure (whether it’s extreme nerves, shaking, going red, the mind ‘racing’, feeling anxiety…whatever!) happen, the best thing is to just accept that they are a natural reaction & minimise their importance and their power of you. For instance…so what if I go red! In fact why don’t I make it into a game and see how RED I can go!! An absurd thought, but in fact it's so absurd that it makes you laugh at the whole situation...and then it seems smaller. And there is less fear or anxiety surrounding it & it loses it’s power over me, and before I know it I’m concentrating on the task in hand and performing well.

I gave lots of other examples and hopefully the kids took something from it – even if it was just remembering me making them do 30squats and 30push-ups in the middle of the class, or committing to taking a freezing cold shower the next morning!  I wonder how many of them did? I did!

Then in the afternoon and evening enjoying the friendly reaction of all the staff and students alike, and then (!) even performing a very special solo gig in the evening. Of course this is the second gig I’ve done since I officially stopped, but in actual fact I had arranged to do it many months ago…and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Such a responsive and lovely bunch of teenagers that it was genuinely a real treat for me to perform - & really not hard at all for me to get inspired. It was, for want of a better word, ‘magical’ – and the way I’d want my last gig to be. To leave in my mouth the taste of how much I truly love performing/composing and living music. Because that is the way I will be driven to make fitness work over the coming 12months. To then put myself in a position where I have the freedom to do music whilst knowing that our fantastic fitness method is a successful business and looking after itself. It may seem strange to ferociously attack one goal in order to achieve a completely different goal…but I believe it makes sense for me - at this time. And isn’t that the biggest hurdle: to believe in what you’re doing, know why you’re doing it and be passionately driven to do it.
And right now I really do. So I will :0

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Dec 3rd - Sven and Inverdale

04 Dec 2009 - 01:28

Just got back from the BBC Sports awards at Loughborough university where i was demonstrating Hour of Power, doing an interview and also a mini Challenge....so quite a full night. It was good fun being interviewed by john inverdale, someone who i've watched for many years hosting World's Strongest Man events or Wimbledon on the BBC. And during my interview I jokingly challenged Sven Goran Erikson (previous England football manager) to go against me in the dumbbell lifting. Little cheeky n my part, but good fun. I guess you could say that I shouldn't pick on someone of his age, but he's probably no older than my dad...and I can pick on my dad because he's actually still my main rival! In fact, just a few hours ago I was discussing with maximuscle the prospect of potentially setting an official Guinness world record in dumbbell lifting, at a famous London landmark (can't say yet!) early in 2010. that would be awesome, and such a landmark for what we're doing. It's one thing to know that you are probably the best in the world at an event, but it's another thing to set an Official world record, so I look forward to that. Actually I kind of dread it too, because it means the next couple of months my training is going to have to go up another level! But I've realised over the past few years that i just love challenges, and without them i get bored. I always need something to strive for, no matter how small. in fact, sometimes really small challenges are the most fun - especially the pointless ones. They can make a mundane thing quite entertaining. Sometimes i have even done some very stupid ones like seeing how far i could cycle with my eyes closed. Obviously not when traffic was around, and i didn't push it too far...but it was quite exciting even to do it for more than a few seconds. Not that i recommend it. (disclaimer!!!!)

So tomorrow morning....or in fact later this morning I head to Devon to Shebbear college to do some Well-Being lessons and hopefully inspire the students. They've also invited me to perform music for the evening, so although I've officially retired from performing for a while, I'll of course enjoy the chance to play...then next week sell a couple of guitars! and go back into retirement :)

Now time to retire to bed...quite an evening!

R

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2nd DEC - good people

03 Dec 2009 - 01:45

Some people seem to have goodness within them, and some of us have to really work at it. For example, I would naturally be quite selfish and would naturally want to be an outrageous flirt and would naturally be quite vain - and so I have to make a concerted effort to not do or be those things. And for the most part I win the battle - but it does feel like a bit of a battle. But I feel as if some people have more of an inate goodness and morality to them which means they don't seem to struggle so much with such things. Unless I'm just imagining it and giving people more credit than they deserve. But take for example men and women. Men have to really fight with themselves not to check out every good looking woman who passes them in the street, whilst I think many women do not really have to fight with themselves in that way. Why?

I guess a few things made me question my motives in various things today: my motives in my ambitions, my motives in my daily work, my motives when I go on 'dates'. I'd lile to say my motives are totally pure and I only want to find the girl of my dreams and settle down - but the truth is I don't think that's true still. And I wonder why it isn't true? What am i searching for, and would it be healthier to stop searching and just find someone to settle with like most of my friends? Why dont i feel ready to do that...

just a few thoughts that struck me today in between working on some great new music for the Hour of Power class with Colin from Ginglik club in Shepherds Bush. Also got a massage from my friend who is training up as a massage therapist and needed some guinea pigs. It was so professional and so effective that it affected me mentally as well as physically. Not in any way sexually, but rather in a very powerful way psychologically and physically. I told my friend that it was quite strange because it left me feeling how you feel when you stand in nature and observe something beautiful: it slows you down and puts life into perspective. And it was weird that the massage seemed to do that for me - which means she must be good at what she's doing. I guess there are different things that centre you - some people get it from exericse or yoga or religion. I usually get it from nature or music - but interestingly i got it from a massage as well. What a treat. And she is one of those good people i feel. I seem to have met quite a few good people recently...and it inspires me to be the same. If not inately, then through choice. :)

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