|
The Secret is to Let Go, Let Go, Let Go... by Roland Fishman
Like Mark Vale, the main character in William’s book, The Magician’s Way, I first discovered the power of magic through sports. For years, I’d be one of those sports people who’d be brilliant one minute, bordering on pathetic the next, and I knew it had nothing to do with my athletic ability.
I had to learn to let go and access another side of myself. Perhaps the best example of this lesson for me came through tennis. When I was at high school, I used to challenge to get in the tennis team every year. The same pattern repeated itself every time. I’d warm up like a champion, start strongly, get ahead 4- 2, then, I’d start thinking. Pretty soon I’d choke and go into my shell, forcing the play and missing easy shots till I snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
This pattern continued in all sports until one day in the early eighties, I walked into a bookshop in Santa Cruz, California and picked up a book called The Inner Game of Tennis. The author, Tim Gallway, spoke of how everyone has two parts to their makeup - Self One and Self Two.
Self One was that controlling, manipulative, analytical part of us that tried to figure everything out in a logical intellectual manner and was terrified of making a mistake. Then there was Self Two, the part of us that accessed the magic within, that just had to let go, be wild and daring in the moment. According to the author, if a tennis player relied on Self One, they wouldn’t even be able to make all the computations necessary to hit a tennis ball, let alone make a good shot. The secret of the inner game was to learn to listen to the magic of Self Two.
From that simple concept, I started to change my approach to sports and life. In terms of tennis, I went from being a choker, to someone who learnt to enjoy the challenges of a tight contest and live in the moment. As a result, unless I played someone who was significantly more skilled and practiced, I’d play my best tennis when the pressure was on and win.
A few years later when I became a sports journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald, I discovered that practically every elite athlete I interviewed had consciously or unconsciously learnt these lessons. Great performances came from being in the magic zone. And of course, as William’s main character learns, sports isn’t just a metaphor for life, it is life.
I was forced, kicking and screaming, to let go and trust magic when I became a cadet journalist in 1981. For two years, I’d struggled to rationally and intellectually write perfect newspaper stories through misguided willpower. The results were nil. I got banished to Wollongong where I became a one-man bureau chief. I thought it was the worst thing that could ever happen to a young journalist, but it turned out to be for the best. I’d reached a point where I realized I had to stop doing what I’d been doing or else find another line of work.
With the pressure off, I was able to silence my inner critic, connect with my inner voice and write a first draft from that magical place and then edit the results. After this simple breakthrough, I started getting stories in the paper, people started complimenting me and within a couple of months of returning to Sydney where I was put on the sports desk, I was given my own column. From then until I left I was given free range to write whatever I wanted.
I got to learn the lessons at a deep level, yet again, when I started writing fiction. I learnt, like Mark Vale, that we have to keep learning the lessons at a deeper level. My experience, as a writer and leader of writing groups since 1992, has taught me that writing fiction throws our shadow up in our face and demands us to learn the art of magic.
To write to our potential we need to get out of our own way, let go of self-judgment and access the magic within. When someone asked Thomas Keneally where his stories came from, he replied, “Somewhere over the rainbow.”
 I have learnt over the years that all the lessons of William’s book apply to sports, to writing to life. We have to let go and trust, we have to open our hearts, we have to take practical action, develop a structure and work within it, be daring, take the plunge and follow our higher purpose no matter what, and help others to do the same.
This is the magician’s way.
For more information on Roland and his great writing programs visit www.writerstudio.com.au
Roland Fishman
Back to newsletter homepage
Click Here for more information on Magician’s Way events
THE MAGICIAN'S WAY: A spellbinding book that helps you discover the gold in your life! Download your free chapter or order your copy now!
** Attend the FREE Introductory Talks & WIN! **
The first 50 people to arrive will win:
- a free CD of William White Cloud's most popular meditations to take home
The Magician's Way Training
An 8 month training in creative freedom
If you are ready to step into the unlimited dimension of your soul, then
book into a FREE evening talk and experience the power of The Magician’s Way
Training NOW.
Click here to reserve your seat or call 1800 030 855
|
