Are you on Offence of Defence

Happy New Year

Well 2016 is now behind us.

Let us hope that everyone has a healthy and prosperous 2017.

We all find December and January are natural times of reflection in our lives.

I personally have spent a good amount of time reviewing the year and documenting what went well, what didn’t do too bad and what I didn’t do well.

It is a very cleansing experience.

The result of my review lead me to a few un-earthed jewels/ findings and one of them which I think which will pay great dividends, is what I have dubbed – Offense Vs Defence.

My definitions of Offense Vs Defence is in reference to my mindset.

I noticed last year when I was thinking about how to negate the change in the economy, and how it was impacting the businesses – my mindset was Defensive. I went in to a “lets bunker down and ride out this storm” mode. That thinking caused me to find ways to “tread water”.

I believe it to be true that if you are not moving forward/ or your idle playing the defensive game – that you are actually moving backwards.

Hows that? Well the other half of this game is Offense – and when people around you are moving forwards and you are idle – they are pulling away from you – so you are falling further behind. Going backwards actually.

Now in the second half of the year I was already thinking differently. I remembered 2007/08 and that during those challenges after the initial shock I went on the Offensive.

We ended up improving our businesses – through investing in better systems, trimming the fat from our business and by doing everything to protect our staff.

We stayed on the Offensive and expanded the businesses into other locations and improved our business model.

Smarter businesses – hungrier businesses.

Today I know Im on Offense again. I can feel it! I want to go and get it. I want out of the external environment controlling me – I want to be in control of my destiny.

So we have been looking at ourselves from the inside out. Hired external consultants to work with us and hired Coaches to coach us to success

Development of new training systems, softwares, technologies, branding & imagery is all happening right now.

We are attacking how we did things, and re-deploying how we will act, look and feel for the next 5, 10 to 15 years.

Thinking about this and writing excites me – I can feel the surge of energy, of adrenalin running through me.

It is time to shine again.

I have referenced business in the passage above. But it is the exact same in my health and fitness. This time last year – when I did my 2015 end of year review I reviewed my outcomes for what I did well, what I did ok and what needed to be added to my habits.

I found I had a really good year with my training. I came back from some back injuries and felt I was improving all year. What needed to be done better and what needed to be added?

The improvement had to be my mobility. Not flexibility. Instead in how well I could move, bend, twist – basically I wanted to be able jump, play like I could in my early 20’s with no fear of not being able to move well over the coming week. I’m really proud to say that I had a wonderful year of effort – I say effort because I sucked at the moves. I’m still average at best – but I’m patient – I’m undoing a couple of decades of not working on my mobility – so it’s going to take some time. The results have been worth the discomfort as my bodies ability to bend and move at weird angles, to have a run and kick of the ball is similar to years ago when I was younger. Perhaps most importantly my back does not hurt like it did for so many years.

My focus on my mobility has to be there for the rest of my life and I don’t view that as a jail term anymore – I have seen the benefits – and I’m not going back to where I was.

I have learned you don’t have to put up with the aches and pains and blame it on ageing. Like everything you have to get on the offence with it – and just start and work towards improvement – not excellence.

What did I add?

Before I did my review, I knew there was an imbalance in how much time I spent training on my body and the little time I put into what I had dubbed the year to “train the brain”.

I found an App called – Headspace. I started easy – setting yourself up to win is the secret behind any new goal/ habit – so I began with 10 minutes every morning Monday-Friday.

I was really good with this and hit my 6 month mid-term goal.

I then wanted to continue to explore and started looking at mindfulness.

I researched, explored and then enrolled and completed an 8 week course of learning and practice.

It was just like the mobility training – some days I enjoyed it/ or looked forward to it – others it was a struggle.

Today – the benefits are starting to show. I believe it is why I am going on the Offense again.

My body feels strong and my mind is feeling better and stronger. Not where I want it yet – but I know with practice I will continue to get better/ improve.

Finally this year, I have reviewed what I didn’t do or what I didn’t do well enough. I spent some time feeling the pain for not doing what I know I can or could have done. Then I forgave myself.

Next step I took the feeling I wanted to feel, this same time next year, defined what would need to be done to feel the way I want to and I created my Map for what I am going to do.

There are goals in all areas of my life, personal, health, business, wealth and my family/ friends.

I will share my health and fitness goals:

Morning ritual:

The daily practice of movement + mindfulness
Up early 5am Monday – Friday.
Litre of water + Movement/ Mobility + dip in pool + Mindfulness practice.
Then an Espresso + Journaling – 1-2 pages of whatever comes out of my head.
I read about this over the break. It helps clear the brain of the 101 thoughts, I’ve done it 6 days now and it is already showing me some benefits – so I am excited to see where this takes me. (I have named this activity “unleash the beast”)

Injury free body – shoulder is not right, same with elbow – rehab these back to normal
strength
new training programs
There you have it.