Originally published September 8 2008
Move Away From Fear and Into Success, by Author Geoff Thompson
by Kevin Gianni
(NaturalNews) This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni's Fountain of Youth Summit, which can be found at (http://fountainofyouthworldsummit.com) . In this excerpt, Geoff Thompson shares on moving from fears to success.
The Fountain of Youth World Summit with Geoff Thompson, martial arts guru, best selling author and BAFTA winning screen writer.
Kevin Gianni: Let's get started. I'm here with Geoff Thompson. Geoff Thompson is a BAFTA winning screen writer and out in the U.K. that's similar to the Oscars, right or Academy Awards Geoff?
Geoff Thompson: Yes, it's classed as the British Academy Award.
Kevin Gianni: That's fantastic. He's also a Sunday Times best seller and a martial arts guru. And he's here to talk about how he's gotten this fantastic success. Basically Geoff, and he'll tell you himself, he was just an ordinary guy and he's brought himself to just fantastic, fantastic success. So Geoff I want to welcome you aboard.
Geoff Thompson: Thank you. Thank you. It's great to be here.
Kevin Gianni: So why don't we start. Why don't you tell me your story and then we can start to get some idea of what everyone else can do to reach some of this fantastic success.
Geoff Thompson: Well, what's great about my story is that I used to sweep floors in a factory and just did lots of menial manual jobs and I was told by the people around me that I should be grateful for that; that jobs like that didn't grow on trees and I shouldn't get above my station. So my great story is that I didn't believe that was true. I've always believed anyone can do anything if they're prepared to step into their fear. So I started working as a nightclub doorman because I have a lot of fears. I started working to overcome my fears. This is what the poet Rumi called night traveling. He said that we should go out into the night and hunt down our fears. And he said that the moon shone for night travelers so that if you went out and hunted your fears you would get light.
Kevin Gianni: Okay.
Geoff Thompson: So I started confronting all my fears and did what I really wanted to do, which is become a writer. And I've gone on, as you said, to become a BAFTA winning writer. My first feature film is actually in production as we speak. We're two weeks into production. I've got another three films that we're making this year. I intend to make a film a year for the next 30 years. That's my intention.
Kevin Gianni: Wow.
Geoff Thompson: I intend within five years, with God's help, to become one of the top five screen writers on this spinning blue planet. That's my intention.
Kevin Gianni: That's fantastic.
Geoff Thompson: And when I stand at the Oscars after thanking God because I connect to this unseen hand, that's where my power comes from, but when I'm at the Oscars I'm going to hand my Oscar up and I'm going to say this is for the likes of us. You know that lovely thing from the Ragged Trousered Philanthropist where the character says this is not for the likes of us, which is what I grew up being told. So I'm going to say to all them kids out there, that want to be screen writers or want to be sculptors or whatever they want to be, whether they want to be healthy, I'm going to say to them this is for the likes of us.
I want to be there to prove to myself and to prove to everybody else that thinks they can't that they can. That we can access any dimension, any sphere, any level we want if we're prepared to just turn into our own sharp edge. And so I think people believe they can't do anything but I know we can. I look at things from Carlos Castaneda when he's training with Don Juan Matus and Don Juan Matus says to him, "your reality is like one room in a house of a hundred rooms". He said if you train with me I'll show you how to actually fill the 99 rooms. He said actually if you come and train with me I'll show you how to get out of the house. So my whole life has been about accessing different rooms, accessing different realities, accessing, you know, actually getting out of the house because I know I can. I know that we all can.
Kevin Gianni: Um-hum.
Geoff Thompson: And to do that it's been a process of growing my consciousness, getting more information, which is what I love about your program because it's full of empirical information. And just turning into my fears because I've always recognized that the growth is where the discomfort is; where people feel uncomfortable, where people feel hurt, where people feel they can't go. That's where the gold is. That's where the alchemistic change happens.
Kevin Gianni: Okay.
Geoff Thompson: So I just encourage people wherever they are to turn towards their discomfort, overcome their fears and they can become and do anything.
Kevin Gianni: That's a challenging thing to do. I know a lot of people experience fearfulness every single day. What are some of the techniques that someone can use to actually turn into their fear and not feel like they're going to get hurt?
Geoff Thompson: I think the main thing for me was I wanted to develop a desensitization towards the feeling of adrenalin.
Kevin Gianni: Okay.
Geoff Thompson: Because it's mostly the feelings that stop us from growing. And anticipation is normally much worse than actually the thing we want to do. So I find that if I can get the anticipation out of the way, actually doing the thing isn't actually that difficult. You know, we always tend to blow things out of proportion. So we've got to make sure that the discomfort we turn into is anabolic and it's there to help you grow and not catabolic, which is a discomfort. You, know, like if you put your hand over the stove -- that's a catabolic discomfort.
Kevin Gianni: Um-hum.
Geoff Thompson: It doesn't help us grow but injure us. And every individual has to, you know, has to listen to their gut and their gut will tell them when it's catabolic and when it's anabolic. So, obviously, we don't want to do things that are a discomfort, that are going to create atrophy or injure us.
Kevin Gianni: Um-hum.
Geoff Thompson: We just want to turn into the things, into the discomfort that can help us to grow. And everybody really knows what that is. They just have to be very brutally honest with themselves. For me what I did initially, my initial thing, was I drew a pyramid on a piece of paper.
Kevin Gianni: Um-hum.
Geoff Thompson: And on each step of the pyramid I wrote down one of the things I feared. Now, first of all that takes a lot of self honesty because you have to be very honest about your fears -- a lot of people say "I'm not really scared of it, I just don't want to do it".
Kevin Gianni: Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
Geoff Thompson: But you have to be very honest.
Kevin Gianni: And I wonder if anyone out there has heard them say that before?
Geoff Thompson: I've said it so many times when I was younger; "I'm not really scared of it. I just don't want to do it".
Kevin Gianni: Right.
Geoff Thompson: You've got to be brutally honest even if it's just to yourself. Write the fears down and then systematically confront them one by one until you gain desensitization over it. They call it flooding.
Kevin Gianni: Okay.
Geoff Thompson: Because you just flood yourself with the thing that you're uncomfortable with. Now, you can do this very gradually or you can just dive in according to your character, according to how you are.
Kevin Gianni: Okay.
Geoff Thompson: Sometimes you can confront the thing once and you will overcome it and other times you may have to confront it three or four times.
Kevin Gianni: Okay.
Geoff Thompson: One of the things I learned Kevin is that fear didn't actually go away. You just learn to use it as an alchemistic fuel.
Kevin Gianni: Okay.
Geoff Thompson: So you just learn to manage it and to drive it. It's a difficult fuel if you don't do anything with it because it's caustic. If you do something with it then it will take you out of the stratosphere. So I don't really see it as fear anymore. I just see it as part of the chemical cocktail. You know, for me it's an indicator that I'm going in the right direction because most people are always turning away from discomfort and I'm always turning into it.
Kevin Gianni: Okay. So when you're writing them down in a pyramid form I mean are you arranging them in any particular order?
Geoff Thompson: Yes I would arrange it so that my least fear is at the bottom; my biggest fear is at the top.
Kevin Gianni: Okay.
Geoff Thompson: So my least fear when I started was a fear of spiders but it was a debilitating fear. If there was a spider in the corner of the room I couldn't sleep.
Kevin Gianni: Okay.
Geoff Thompson: So I started to get a few utensils together like a broom with a crop on the end and started to kind of touch a spider at a distance and got closer and closer until the end I could pick a spider up and handle it and let it roam around my arm. And recognize that the majority of spiders are completely harmless. My biggest fear was a fear of violent confrontation.
Kevin Gianni: Okay, and now you're a martial artist?
Geoff Thompson: Yeah, even as a black belt I still feared violent confrontation because as a black belt I was still training in very controlled environments.
Kevin Gianni: Oh, I see. Okay.
Geoff Thompson: I was frightened of the actual eruption of violence; you know the expletives, the aggression.
Kevin Gianni: Um-hum.
Geoff Thompson: So I became a nightclub doorman so that I could expose myself to violent confrontation. Now, that's extreme and that worked very well for me. I mean I spent ten years as a nightclub doorman and developed a security mentality because of it and that worked for me. I know with the people who become security men or that climb mountains or have done other things they've developed to, you know, they've overcome their internal fears but that's the one that worked for me so I became a nightclub doorman. I've always been a night traveler. I didn't know that's what it was at the time but that's what I've always been and that's what's enabled me to go from living in a bad sect sweeping floors thinking that was my lot to, you know, share in a conversation with LL Cool J at the BAFTAS and, you know, having my photograph taken with Renee Zelwegger and Peter Jackson and, you know, that's just the reality that I've accessed. And that reality sat just beyond my fear. That's the big secret. The big secret is that everybody turns away from discomfort but actually if you turn into it you'll find that the gold is hidden just beyond it. And the confrontation itself is never as bad as the anticipation. And it's not like you've got to jump in all in one go. You can do it a little bit at a time.
To read the rest of this transcript as well as access more information by health experts on abundance, optimum health, and longevity just like Geoff Thompson, please visit (http://fountainofyouthworldsummit.com) .
About the author
Kevin Gianni is a health advocate, author and speaker. He has helped thousands of people in over 85 countries learn how to take control of their health--and keep it. To view his popular internet TV Show "The Renegade Health Show" (and get a free gift!) with commentary on natural health issues, vegan and raw food diets, holistic nutrition and more click here.
His book, "The Busy Person's Fitness Solution," is a step-by-step guide to optimum health for the time and energy-strapped. To find out more about abundance, optimum health and self motivation click here... or you're interested in the vegan and raw food diet and cutting edge holistic nutrition click here. For access to free interviews, downloads and a complete bodyweight exercise archive visit www.LiveAwesome.com.
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