The Great Gordino Newsletter – Apr 3rd 2012

Hi,
Gordon here and I hope all is well with you.

In this week’s newsletter I have an update on the goal, I’m also talking about two subjects that sprang up in the news over the last week, to do with taking responsibility and independent thought…

So, on the goal front, I had found a performance course that appealed to me, held on a weekday evening for a few weeks, with a final performance showcase. It seemed to offer some great learning for me, at a reasonable cost, and the timings seemed to work.

Then, I came across what stops so many people on their goal paths – a hitch!

In my case, the hitch was that the final performance fell on the same day as a family birthday celebration.

Bugger.

That meant I had to find out if there was anything planned on that day, and then I would have a decision to make. A couple of emails told me that there was indeed something planned, and to be honest, my decision was a fairly easy one.

Although the course looked great, it was not a ‘then or never’ situation, as the course would be held again, and unlike my acting degree over 3 years, this area of performance and the path to get there is less age critical.

If I had got onto the degree course (still not bitter), then I wouldn’t be doing this new performance course anyway, and I wasn’t about to miss the birthday celebration for it.

It does mean a delay, but in the big scheme of things, it’s not a disaster.

As for the subjects of responsibility and independent thought, there was a report released last week about the causes of the riots in the UK last year. The cause picked up on by the media, was that there is a growing class of society that felt they had no stake in society and wanted one.

Rubbish!

Yes, jobs might be hard to come by, but hard times does not mean it suddenly becomes ok to break into a shop and help yourself.

Yes, there was a case of getting swept up in the moment for some people, but for the vast numbers of rioters, it was simple criminality – take what you want because no-one seemed to be stopping you.

Wanting a stake in society? Give me a break!

Having a stake in society means taking part, making a contribution. That means getting up at unsociable hours to travel in bad weather to do a job that might not be your ideal.

That’s what a stake in society means.

The growing group of society would hate that, and not last a week, because it would break their habits of lazing around and watching daytime TV on big TVs that are paid for by state hand outs, funded by the people that go to work and have that stake in society.

I think a cause of this laziness and ‘me, me, me’ thinking is bad education.
Bad education about responsibility, bad education about not having to follow the crowd, bad education about self esteem and belief that you can change your own direction.

When it comes to following the crowd, how about the petrol crisis is the UK last week!

As there was a possibility of a strike by tanker drivers, the government advised people to top up their tanks. That advice was badly handled, and it caused queues at the pumps. Those queues in turn caused more queues as supplies failed to keep up.

So a strike that never was caused massive problems, and it was only when the union involved said they would not strike over Easter, that people finally stopped the mad queues and things slowly got back to normal.

Why did people queue even though there was no strike?
Sheep mentality, that’s why. Sheep mentality coupled with an inability to think independently to realise that just because others were panic buying, that didn’t mean there was any fuel shortage!

These 2 stories sum up why the self improvement and personal development niches are so big – people gradually realise that they can forge their *own* path, that they don’t have to do what their peers do ‘just because’. People realise that it’s ok to think differently to your friends, and it’s ok to say so too!

Then they do something about it, and it can unleash some amazing adventures!

Ok, that’s it for today, do let me know what you think!

‘Til Next Time,
Health & Happiness,
Gordon
P.S. If you want to read how I’ve used these ideas to go on some great adventures over the years, then grab my book ‘Transform Your Life in 21 Days!’

Do leave a comment!

Leave a Reply to Edward Baines X

2 Comments

  • Just a thought: You may be wrong with your analysis of the Fuel Situation.

    How’s this for size: The Government broke the Tanker Drivers Strike by getting the Motoring Public to fill their tanks before the Strike was called. The Union backed down and in an attempt to regain the high ground, said that they would not have been Striking over Easter anyway.

    • Possible Eddie, possible indeed. I was surprised the union backed down, they do normally try to cause as much disruption as possible, so I suspect possible public backlash could have been a reason behind it. On the other hand, they could have piled the pressure on the government by going ahead with an Easter strike, which really *would* have caused problems considering the supply line pressure created by the government.

      Interesting, and it will be interesting to see what happens if there is a strike eventually.