Originally published September 15 2008
Geoff Thompson on Making Permanent Changes Today for Tomorrow
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 resources and tips for making changes today.
The Fountain of Youth World Summit with Geoff Thompson, martial arts guru, best selling author and BAFTA winning screen writer.
Kevin Gianni: That's great stuff. If you were to give someone three books to read what would they be?
Geoff Thompson: The Doudhi Gi.
Kevin Gianni: Okay.
Geoff Thompson: I would have to say The Shake Shifter as well. I know it's my own book. It's the only book at the moment that goes heavily into palette and the actual real process of success, which is about fully immersing yourself into what it is you want to become and get an expert tuition and dedicating your bones to it. So I will say Shake Shifter; and the third one Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz.
Kevin Gianni: Absolutely.
Geoff Thompson: You know, my friend -- I won't say his name because it doesn't matter but he sold his business for 50 � million and he put his whole success in business down to the principles in that book about seeing what you want.
Kevin Gianni: Um-hum. It's a fantastic book. I recommend it to just about everybody.
Geoff Thompson: One of the all time greats.
Kevin Gianni: Yeah.
Geoff Thompson: And all of this stuff's in the Bible. It's in the Bhagavad-Gita. It's in the Koran. It's in all the great religious texts but it's also in great books like, you say, from Maxwell Maltz and people like Normal Vincent Peale spoke just so much truth and it's unfortunate sometimes that people kind of think it's whimsical to think positively but to me that's how you create your world, how you think.
Kevin Gianni: If you were to want someone to take one thing from this call moving forward what do you think that would be?
Geoff Thompson: Lift the self by the self.
Kevin Gianni: Okay.
Geoff Thompson: You know, stop looking outside. Look in. Everything you want and everything you need is contained within you and the moment you start to use that and take responsibility for yourself, your whole world will change. It will change so dramatically that it will shock you. I think something Nelson Mandela said; people aren't afraid of failure. They're really afraid of success because success means change. They're not frightened that they can't do something. They're terrified that they know they can. They know they're powerful beyond their belief. People really are. They call it the Jonah complex. It's called the fear of success.
People are afraid to succeed because success means change and change creates discomfort and people avoid discomfort. But when you recognize that change is the only constant, is the only constant then that encourages you to embrace change and to go out and hunt change and be the change rather than wait for things to come to you and wait for things to happen. Actually go out there. Not for me. I was very frightened of sending my scripts off to people for whatever reason. It just created a tremendous amount of fear in me of rejection and also of success because of the responsibility of that. So what I did was I just kept sending my scripts out to everybody until in the end, the scripts would come back -- some with good points, some with bad points but I was indifferent to it. If it came back I'd put another name on it and send it back out again.
Kevin Gianni: Took the front cover off and...
Geoff Thompson: Yes and just start all over again because it's not personal. You know, everything that comes into your life is not difficult. It's there for you to grow. It's just another disc on the bar. It's developing a relationship with our discomfort or with that suffering. There's a really great book actually by Victor Franco called Man's Search for Meaning.
Kevin Gianni: Okay.
Geoff Thompson: Which is amazing and it talks a lot about developing our relationship with discomfort and understanding discomfort and recognizing that within that discomfort there is always a massive growth within that restriction. When life restricts you it's giving you the opportunity to really, really break out of your stratosphere. A typical life restriction is when someone like Lance Armstrong had cancer, a huge life restriction but within that not only had he found that he could cure himself, he went on to win, I think, eight Tour de Frances. He was so good at the Tour de France that they actually changed the route several times just to give the other competitors a chance. You know, he was just so effective at what he was doing and that's because within the restriction he had, which was cancer, he found huge growth.
I do it in training. I fight people when we're doing, say, boxing training. I force people to sit on the floor and punch because they can't use their hips. They can't use projection. You know, and when they sit on the floor and punch they're forced to find something else. They're forced to develop power and find another resource. So that's what I call restriction training and when they do that, people suddenly find the ability to punch harder from a seated position, which is very restrictive, than they do when they're standing up. But if you think of life as exactly the same if you have an illness, or financial worries or relationship problems with that restriction, if you're prepared to immerse yourself into the belly of it, you will find gold.
Kevin Gianni: That's fantastic. That's a fantastic message. If someone was to write something down or do something right now tangible what would that be? Would that be to put together their pyramid or to grab a particular book or...
Geoff Thompson: I think everybody's a little bit different. I just think the first thing people should do is to write down the things that they perhaps don't want to acknowledge. You know, the things that are uncomfortable that they don't want to look at.
Kevin Gianni: Um-hum.
Geoff Thompson: And then just the act of writing these down and looking at them is an act of turning in that direction.
Kevin Gianni: That's pretty easy to some degree.
Geoff Thompson: Yeah and once you've done that and turned in that direction, just gradually keep moving towards it. So if you you're frightened about sending a script off or if you're frightened to talk to your partner then just gradually start seeing yourself doing that. Start to see yourself doing it the way you want to do it. Again, that Maxwell Maltz, Psycho-Cybernetics is a great book to read because it's all about seeing the outcome you want, seeing what you want to happen and just start moving towards it.
Kevin Gianni: Hmm, that's great. Well, Geoff we are running out of time here though I want to thank you for that. I know I'm going to... actually when we're done with this call I'm going to sit down and I'm going to write down some of those fears that I have too. I think it's just a fantastic exercise. I'd never heard of that before.
Geoff Thompson: See, because that's where everything gets hidden behind because everybody turns away from that and it's like they're thinking, 'so where's the secret? Where is success?' It's right where that discomfort is. That's where it is. My children ask me, "what should I do?" And I say see all them people, you know, all them 95% of people walking that way. And they say, "yeah". Then walk the opposite way because you don't follow the crowd because they're all looking for comfort and you will not find any growth in comfort. And once you develop a relationship with discomfort and you become comfortable with discomfort, it's no longer uncomfortable. It's like a body builder. When a body builder lifts weights, he knows that the growth is in the burn. That's when the muscle tissue breaks down and builds back up again.
Kevin Gianni: Um-hum.
Geoff Thompson: And because he developed a relationship with the burn he knows that the burn equals growth. He will find the burn very quickly and he will stay in it long and he comes out of it saying "oh, that was fantastic. That was a real good burn". So he learned to really like the burn. You know what they say, that the top five percent of people in the world, the top five percent in business and sports, particularly, are the people that have developed a relationship and have become comfortable with discomfort. And the top one percent are the people that have learned to like discomfort.
Kevin Gianni: Okay.
Geoff Thompson: So I love discomfort.
Kevin Gianni: That's a fantastic affirmation.
Geoff Thompson: Yeah.
Kevin Gianni: I love that discomfort. That's a fantastic thing to say I think.
Geoff Thompson: That's where all the growth is. That's what I've found and that's what I continue to do. But, you know, what they say in the Kabala, we all experience the forgetting. So two or three days down the road we're in some discomfort and we desperately try to get back out of it again because we forget that there's a message within the discomfort of our growth. So what we have to do is keep reading, keep studying, keep talking to people or keep reminding ourselves that everything that happens to us is good.
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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