Posted on 29th October, 2010 in: General
Last week I found time to attend one of my favourite business networking groups – Coast 2 Coast Networking, founded and run by Tina Quincey (Quincey’s Upholsterers of Sway) and Lea Rock (Measures Curtains and Carpets of Pennington).
As a veteran of business networking events (I co-created a successful Business Breakfast Club in Westerham, Kent in the mid 1990’s) what I find most appealing about C2C… is the unique combination of meeting monthly; in the afternoon – for cream teas, would you believe? – in a delightful New Forest Hotel; and with very little in the way of formality, rules or regulations, etc which these days have tended to permeate many other business networking organisations.
Notwithstanding the genteel setting and informality of procedure, significant amounts of business are referred between members.
And at most meetings, we’re treated to an interesting and informative talk from a local business leader.
At this event, our speaker was Jon Adler – a Performance Coach based in Bournemouth.
I was interested to meet Jon having recently spotted an article about him in a local business publication stating that he specializes in coaching golfers. My good friend (and fellow Hypnotherapy Diploma student at the Adam Eason School of Therapeutic Hypnosis) Andrew Fogg has also made his niche in the world of golf and has a great website at www.golf-hypnotist.com so I’m familiar with many of the concepts.
The central theme of Jon’s excellent presentation was that the key to improving performance in golf (and life) is having the ability to consciously become detached from our desired outcomes.
Jon explained that, sometimes, when we are too rigidly attached to the idea of achieving our goals this can lead to anxiety/fear at the thought of failing resulting in a consequent drop in our levels of effectiveness.
He proceeded to give a demonstration of this principle by inviting an audience member to join him in some “arm-bending” activities, which yielded some interesting results regarding the power of “altered focus”. The rest of us were then encouraged to conduct these same experiments with a partner.
What helped to make the talk so compelling was that, using on himself the same techniques/strategies he shares with his clients, Jon not only won the prestigious Bournemouth Open (the only 72 Hole Amateur Handicapped Competition in the UK) in 2009, he then successfully defended it in 2010 … a feat not hitherto achieved!
And as I so often find when investing the time to attend these types of event, Jon’s message was one I especially needed to hear right now!
I have a number of ambitious business goals currently bubbling along … unfortunately all too slowly. In such circumstances it’s very easy to begin to feel pressurised and, although as we all know a certain amount of stress is healthy and acceptable, too much can certainly have a detrimental, almost paralytic effect – the “Rabbit in Headlights” syndrome.
So, receiving a timely reminder that equanimity (even ambivalence) towards my desired outcomes can produce better results, has encouraged me do some much-needed reassessing and refocusing this week … which in turn has already led to some surprisingly fruitful consequences.
Thank you Coast 2 Coast Networking … and thank you Jon Adler!