Authentic Coaching for Athletes

Most are athletes in some way. The young mum who is taking a walk to keep fit an healthy, the old man taking a walk to collect his paper or the working father heading out for a hard day, it's all exercising the body, the whole body, which includes the heart and soul. Our attitude of mind will help our progress as athletes seeking to get best performance from these fragile frames. Even the strongest and best receive regular reminders of their bodies mortalilty in injury, fatigue or lack of motivation. So the question I want to address in a series during March is how do we make the most of these bodies in such a way that we can be healthy, improve our performance and most importantly, achieve a level of satisfaction with our experiences that whatever obstacles, struggles and difficulties come our way we have the strength to deal with them.

Charming and पेद्द्लिंग lies to the point of destruction

I understand your confusion. You've been taught be all you can be, fulfill your potential, have strong self esteem and awareness. You have the liberty to choose so why on earth should you accept one particular nonsensical truth claim that your rational mind knows is fable and myth? Besides, there's nothing to attract you.

On the one hand you have the likes of the retired General Richard Dannett. Respectable, suited and writing tiring prose in the old Daily Telegraph about the military covenant. He's reportedly a Christian, meaning that against all sensible thought, believes that a man who was dead, was then alive, walked through walls and spoke to hundreds, mmmm...? If he does believe that then the depth of his faith can't be that stong if despite his public platform he singularly misses many opportunities to share this belief in Jesus's deity.

Then you have Mr Bob Geldoff. Having read a profile/interview with him in the same newspaper I would rather hang out with Geldof, who seems altogether better company. He's not afraid to tell you his worldview, what he thinks is the truth, that humanity's got the answers and how to get through the life's devastating events. He waxes lyrically about love, laughs and swears a great deal. The interviewer shares in the laughter and evens cries a bit, which is kinda touching. If you were going to empathise with anyone's worldview surely Bob Geldoff offers far more than Dannett?

However, here's your dilema because you know that lies and liars are attractive. Dannett has been married, loyal and faithful to the same woman for 33 years, he's been dilligent, respected authority, and been a servant. Bob Geldoff's Wiki entry says he was committing adultery with Claire King when his first daughter was born and subsequently his wife left him for the arms of Michael Hutchenson. Now, I am open to persuasion but you'll have to have a strong argument to convince me that Paula Yates would have left him had he been loving her well. You can pour millions into charity work, be a successful multi millionaire businessman come rock star but if you drive your wife into the arms of a another man, who ends up committing suicide, then you are an abuser. The fact that Paula later died of a drugs overdose reinforces my belief that Geldof is no man - yet. And this is why I want time with Bob Geldof not Richard Dannett.

It breaks my heart that he has daughters. This man is a cultural icon, people listen to him, he helps form opinions and until a few years ago I would have been a fan. He represented living a full life, challenging convention, shedding a few tears and doing good work for charity along the way, a worldview that so many seem to respect. The suffering he leaves in his wake must be just an unfortunate by product of the kind of man he is. Do not be confused. These are the people, successful, wealthy, popular, charming and convincing that are peddling a lies to the point of destruction.

Real liberation come through truth found through genuine humility and submission. You want to be radically counter cultural, a rebel for the new age? Then be submissive to authority, get a job, love one woman and make her your wife. have a few kids and provide for them. Admit to your friends that you have been believing lies, that there is Truth and that you are going to give up your ideas and philosophies that you have seen cause so much hearache and destruction in your life and others. Get to the know the character and nature of that truth. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

Here's the Big Issueहियर'स थे Issue

Here's the Big Issue for a friend who is an atheist. For him his team are the only sane ones on the planet. Humanity's only hope is to denounce their religions and embrace science which is truth. Atheism offers objective reality.

The only problem with this worldview is that it could be wrong. There have been too many articulate, well read, thoughtful and humble people that believe differently to dismiss God at the testimony of a man who reads and loves all the Richard Dawkins has written. He has yet to read any CS Lewis, Tim Keller, John Piper or George MacDonald.

Just supppose there was a God who was above time, the universe and everything. Just suppose he did speak the world into existence, don't worry about the how, remember He works beyond anything you know. How would he best communicate. A book would seem a sure way of getting the record straight. Now there's always the appear before your people option, but then if you are a God of Love who has created people to reflect your Love with all their heart, soul and strenth, then bullying or bribing them really wouldn't be love, would it?

Have you ever gone into a popular bar in town, approached someone you really like the look of and being stronger, and with the element of surprise on your side, taken the person outside, forced them into your car and taken them back to your place? Have you then taken them into your home and invited them to share in the domestic duties, spent time in conversation, watched your favourite movie together and then got naked and made mad passionate love? Did they stay the night, wake up with you the next morning, share your breakfast then kiss you goodbye, told you that they loved you and promised to have a bath run and a candlelit dinner ready for you when you got home from a hard day in the office? Do you honestly think that love was sincere?

If that seems to you far fetched consider, that's just what my atheist friend wants from God. Not satisified with the wealth of evidence presented in creation, not impressed by the historical, circumstantial and annecdotal evidence of Jesus Christ's life and the personal witness of those first Christians and millions since, he want God to personally pay him a visit drag him from his metaphorical popular bar, then he'll believe in him. Belief is not enough, God wants a relationship, he's a father (Abba), he loves his children.

However, there's the paradox because if your don't know the source of love you cannot, it's just not possible, to truly Love. You think you love, but that's a construct of love from your mind developed through the prism of what the world has taught you. You can sense and see love, have an idea of what it is but to actually know love, to be motivated by true love takes a miracle, a miracle you have to ask for. Adam is being offered a miracle but he can't really be bothered. God is relentlessly pursuing him, just as he is relentlessly pursuing you but you want more evidence, God doesn't quite fit your view of what you want so for now........

Spar विथ the Devil

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

I replied to a question from a friend on FB, thought I'd record it on here.

The piece was challenging the ISAF op in Afghanistan suggesting that there was strategic stalemate. My response is in tune with teh it's about what we are becoming mindset. There really is too much at stake not to take these matters seriously. The lives of our children for starters and not just the ones that we may send out to fight our wars.

The author fails to contextualise military operations within the development of governance and infrastructure piece. The NATO strategy is investment in authentic Afghan capabilities, civil and military, while conducting aggressive forward d...efence. Working the numbers has limited application and misses the long term effect of the Combined Team's efforts, that being the Aghan National Security Forces, ISAF and civil organisations. The population's confidence in the security of the police will not increase until they experience security over the course of several seasons. In Northern Island we defeated Republican and Loyalist armed organisations militarily, socially and politically, it took at least thirty years and you could not yet report that the people of Ulster are living in complete peace and harmony.

It's far from perfect, there is much that can be done to get better. The politics is sectarian, there is so much more to learn from the culture and there are ways in which we can understand Islamic theology better so we can meet people where they are when we communicate. It's a classic VUCA environment that undoubtedly benefits from Paparonian divergent thinking. So keep feeding us officers with the capacity to challenge technical rationality, who have an insatiable appetite for history and are willing to put love for a neighbour ahead of personal gain. If my son comes here to spar with the Devil, hidden in Improvised Explosive Devices, I need him led by men who are careful listeners, thoughtful, merciful, and courageous. See Joshua 1:9.

If God had a name, what would it बे?

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epow4VXhnW0

Here's a song that takes you back to 1995 and what amazing lyrics that blissfully washed over my ignorance. Just read them, what wonderful questions:

If God had a name, what would it be
And would you call it to his face
If you were faced with him in all his glory
What would you ask if you had just one question

And yeah yeah God is great yeah yeah God is good
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home

If God had a face what would it look like
And would you want to see
If seeing meant that you would have to believe
In things like heaven and in jesus and the saints and all the prophets

And yeah yeah god is great yeah yeah god is good
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
He's trying to make his way home
Back up to heaven all alone
Nobody calling on the phone
Except for the pope maybe in rome

And yeah yeah God is great yeah yeah God is good
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

What if god was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
Just trying to make his way home
Like a holy rolling stone
Back up to heaven all alone
Just trying to make his way home
Nobody calling on the phone
Except for the pope maybe in rome

What do you think, pretty amazing eh? God did become one of us. He set aside his divinity to become a man. He had a young mum, probably only about 14 or 15 years old when she gave birth, a hard working construction worker for a step Dad, from who he would have learned the family trade. He had nothing that would have attracted us to him, he was that stranger on a bus making his way home from church where he studied and grew in wisdom and understanding. And it's right, many catholics do reckon the Pope is somehow closer to God than them with a direct line to heaven, which breaks my heart.

Don't waste your life blogging

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Don't waste your life blogging when you can blog with purpose. How on earth do you get the humlity to admit that you have been believing lies for much of your life? You can't that's the point. I really hope you are reading this and you will at least see the rational. To pursue humility you need humility and because you see the world through the prism of your own prejudice then your humility, if you claim any, is a constuct of your own mind, it's false humility. You are pretending to be humble with comments like, "I really am not all that bright" or "look I may not be that clever but..." or "you are much brighter than me but I have common sense and I can see..." or "I am just a simple worker/LE officer/fireman, but". You say these things but in your heart don't you think you have it worked out, the truth, you have confidence in what you believe? If not that's a good start, if though you think you have humility it's a construct of your mind, you are living a lie in a destructive circle and need help. The trouble is that I or any other man cannot help you, I am just as corrupted, prejudiced and foolish. Even those who have the world's credentials are likely educated beyond their intelligence. Look at the Dali Lama, bright guy, apparently, but believing a lie, bright people believe lies have to be sharing lies, is that loving? You need outside help, the love of a pure father who loves you despite your vanity, ego and arrogance. Sweep away all the world's advice and look to your God who relentlessly pursues you.

हिंडो कुश Whistle Blowing from the Hindu Kush

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

When men are put in positions of modest authority, let's say as a colonel in the US Army, get angry, loud and overbearing it is pathetic. I mean that in a kind way. He is displaying his own vulnerability, weakness and flaws; all that is pathetic about mankind. Believe me I am surrounded by it. You may ask what makes me so special that I can see it? Because I can see it in myself and seek to live, as Martin Luther put it, a life of repentance.

I confess that at yesterday's outburst, directed at a colleague, my first reaction was a mix of apprehension, tension and instinct to fight back. "How will I retort if he dares to speak to me in such patronising terms?". Only on reflection did I realise that this man needs compassion, help and prayers. What a dark place to be, where the thing that gets you most fired is some trivial staffing crisis that with patience can be readily resolved.

My greatest concern is for his wife and any children, especially daughters. How do you love well when your passions, energies and talents are so immersed in work? From the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. Here is a man who relishes his position as a leader, amusing with entertaining anecdotes, razor wit and valuable experience. Oh pity the wife and daughters of a man of such vanity. Life is more taught than caught. Is it any wonder that girls go in search of similar men offering their bodies for a share of control, seeking the affections of overbearing men? Is it any wonder that wives seek distractions? Is it any wonder that there are so many wrecked lives in my family, my wife's family and beyond? Did you know that the stench of man's vanity lingers even into death. Is that a legacy to proud of or to repent of?

Imagine a British low grade staff officer reflecting on how he is missing the opportunity to brief on a subject that he has researched thoroughly and dedicated time and energies to produce. That officer is keen to have the opportuntiy to show his briefing skills, and the work he has done; he fears another taking his limelight. Is the 'man' here loving the people of the Hindu Kush or loving himself and his career?