Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Stop Hoping For Completion
"The masculine error is to think that eventually things will be different in some fundamental way. They won't. It never ends. As long as life continues, the creative challenge is to tussle, play, and make love with the present moment while giving your unique gift." -David Deida
A couple of weeks ago I decided to take a chance and hold a Natural Game Seminar for members of the LSS. Working closely with my good friend Opsa, we expected a handful of people who wanted to learn an alternative to routines and indirect game. Within a week of announcing the seminar we had 62 confirmed invitations. I had a strong belief we could pull off a 2 hour seminar, but the longest I'd previously spoken in public was for 10 minutes at a toastmaster event. The day came and nerves were running through my system, I decided to go for a run and forget the entire talk. 6pm came, I was at the venue with the room slowly crowding up... 55 people had arrived, their experience varied wildly, their expectations: unknown! The seminar went on for 3 hours, with the crowd getting highly involved in the Q&A. A sigh of relief and a sense of achievement. After the talk the venue was charged with energy: people stayed, opened up and socialized for another hour before breaking into smaller groups for night game.
Listening back to the seminar, it was far from perfect: we missed parts out, told our experiences in a rush and even left sentences unfinished. Yet the immediate feedback we got included:
"If you held bootcamps I'd pay for one"
"More charismatic than David DeAngelo"
"Look at atmosphere you've created"
"I connected with you as soon as you told your Tube experience"
"A brilliant thing you did for the community; altruistic and truly genuine - which is the best one can hope for in life."
So next time you tell yourself: I cant say hi to this beautiful blond queuing in front of me for coffee... hmmm... maybe tomorrow I'll be in the zone. Stop and realise that perfection is another form of self-pity and low self esteem. Opportunities will never be perfect and there is no time when its not right now: go for it!
-Aero (in the cowboy shirt)
