Big Idea: Bill Russell and Barfing.
Posted on Oct 7th, 2007
by 
Brian
Brian
Bill Russell and Barfing.
Someone help me out here, please.
Why do we have this insane notion that our heroes are fearless? That they don’t feel the same amount of fear that we do? That they somehow become immune to the stuff that would freak out us mere mortals?!?
Hogwash!
Or something.
Seriously. All the greats feel the same fear we do. They just know how to smile with it and rock on in spite of any fear they may have; whereas too many of us tend to never even try to step thru it.
In the words of Dr. John Eliot, in his (brilliant!) book, “Overachievement”:
“Butterflies, cotton mouth, and a pounding heart make the finest performers smile—the smile of a person with an ace up their sleeves…They definitely would agree with Tiger Woods, who has often said, “The day I’m not nervous stepping onto the first tee—that’s the day I quit.”
“Bill Russell is one of the great names in basketball, an all-American…
the only athlete to ever win an NCAA Championship, an Olympic Gold Medal, and a professional championship all in the same year—1956…But Bill Russell had this one problem:
He threw up before every game.”
John Eliot, Ph.D.
From “Overachievement”
the only athlete to ever win an NCAA Championship, an Olympic Gold Medal, and a professional championship all in the same year—1956…But Bill Russell had this one problem:
He threw up before every game.”
John Eliot, Ph.D.
From “Overachievement”
Someone help me out here, please.
Why do we have this insane notion that our heroes are fearless? That they don’t feel the same amount of fear that we do? That they somehow become immune to the stuff that would freak out us mere mortals?!?
Hogwash!
Or something.
Seriously. All the greats feel the same fear we do. They just know how to smile with it and rock on in spite of any fear they may have; whereas too many of us tend to never even try to step thru it.
In the words of Dr. John Eliot, in his (brilliant!) book, “Overachievement”:
“Butterflies, cotton mouth, and a pounding heart make the finest performers smile—the smile of a person with an ace up their sleeves…They definitely would agree with Tiger Woods, who has often said, “The day I’m not nervous stepping onto the first tee—that’s the day I quit.”
Access: PublicTagged with: big ideas, thinkarete.com, inspiration, john eliot, overachievement, fear, tiger woods, courage, bill russell, barfing
barfing
August 2008 
I have experienced nearly any kind of fear in my life myself. Having seen it in all facettes during my over 10 years in HealthCare too. The toughest dimension of it is for me the sense of separatedness and separation as long as identification in body-mind and even subtle dimensions isnt transcended.
Ernest Beckers Pulitzer Price winning book “DEnial of Death” points to the root. Ken Wilber quoted several times in “Up from Eden”.
So the big terrifying fear of loosing ones ego the fear of ego death is the root of all. Thats my deepest truth. No physical or emotional or intellectual drama in itself has this frightening power.
Ken Wilber drastically and rightly! describes it in foreward to Andrew Cohens book “Living Enligthenment.”
There is beauty and truth in feeling fear every day.
Fear is a part of us to survive. The fear of dying when standing on a street keeps you on the pavement till the way is clear to cross. But fear also keeps us away of doing things. When people would have less fear (you can learn that) we would see more interesting things showed by them. Imagine a form of education which is called 'Fearless' 'No sorry, tomorrow evening I have no time, I am going to Fearless!'Where you can learn to express yourself by the people who have less fear or nknow how to cope with it, where you can learn not to be afraid, to develop your talents. It is about exploring yourself, about doing things you never did before, about following your dreams. I would not even call it spiritual in terms of proposition of the formula. It's a clear way of how you can get the best out of you. Straightforward.
love it, guys. And just added two book to my shopping list, albert. Thanks!!
Have you read the book Feel the fear and do it anyway.? It's an emotion we all have in common, the problems arise and are magnified when we try to avoid or run away from it.. Fear lessens when we face it.. Death is probably a major fear whether literal or of the ego, an experience where we have a brush with death an NDE can alleviate this if it is a good experience. It also helps to have someone caring and loving, close when facing fear, as a nurse I always made sure that no one died or went through trauma, without a caring hand to reach for, not all have close relatives. I always admired what the human spirit was able to cope with and it was an honour to be with them through those times, It was at times quite hard, not for the faint hearted, I was never ashamed if they saw tears in my eyes too, and stayed with them, I would move heaven and earth to alleviate what we could.
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway is a great book. We used it extensively in our business to help us all get through the doubt and challenged self talk.
The fear of stepping out on our own, doing something a little different. We are not alone as we do our inspired work in the world. We are all in this together.
Shine Your Light!
:)
book is now on the “to be ordered” list! :)
thanks, guys!