You Can Only Play What's In Front of You
Welcome to the one day at a time podcast where we forget about yesterday. We don't worry about tomorrow. It's what are we going to do today? This all matters because you've only ever had or will ever have the fantastic twenty four hours a day you're about to embark on. Hopefully this episode is going to give you some daily dose of wisdom that you can take action on today to improve your life.
Speaker 1:Remember, all it takes is one day at a time. Good morning everyone, I hope you're enjoying your walk listening to this voice note. If you're still in bed get up now, get started on your day, twenty four hours let's do it. But anyway today I'm going to talk about the Blitzkrieg. Now I think it's Scott, what are you on about?
Speaker 1:You lost your marbles. It's week six of the challenge. I think you need to go away. I've had enough for you. I've had enough, but bear with me.
Speaker 1:So one of the book clubs someone mentioned, can you read too many books? And is it is it is it a point to read knowledge books? Do you learn anything new or you're just rehashing what people say? And the important thing about reading books is that you read similar books of the same genre, and then you actually connect your notes. Now, saying all these four books by four bestselling authors, they've done their research over decades, you read all books, you write your notes, you start connecting your notes and looking at them, seeing patterns, you're seeing insights those authors haven't even seen themselves.
Speaker 1:That's the gold. And that's the benefit of reading multiple books of the same genre, look at the similar topic. I don't think you should read one book in one topic, it doesn't give you enough depth. But you should do more books in the same topic, connect your notes, and then come to your own conclusions. Now I found a connection between The Blitzkrieg and Bee Water, my friend, by Bruce Lee, by Shanley's by Shanley, which is Bruce Lee's daughter.
Speaker 1:So before we actually go into that, I need to explain what the Blitzkrieg was. It was a German offensive strategy in World War two that completely annihilated France and Britain in 1940. So it was the Germans didn't have better tanks, they didn't have better weapons, they didn't have more people, and they didn't surprise attack either. France and Britain declared war, and then eight months later Germany attacked. Now the French even knew it was a possibility the Germans were gonna try and go through this like forest part of the border.
Speaker 1:They were like, they might go through the Ardennes Forest, but probably won't. I don't think they could maneuver tanks through there. So they thought they're gonna attack through Belgium. That's what Germany did. They did a few they did a small attack through Belgium to the north, but then they did put their main attack through this forest.
Speaker 1:But France kind of knew what's gonna happen. So it wasn't a shock, but they put all the tanks through it very fast. And they basically went around France and Britain and pushed them to the sea. And you've seen the film Dunkirk where you see the elastic effort to get back over the sea. So whilst they were doing this, the success wasn't because it was a surprise attack because the French were basically not panicking and the British.
Speaker 1:They tried to retreat, but the Germans knew what they were gonna do. So the Germans pressed on to their next retreat point. And when the French guard then saw the Germans who were already there, that was even more panic and chaos. And in that chaos, the Germans were given the orders to work on intuition. They weren't following a rigid strategy which the French and British were doing at the time.
Speaker 1:They weren't told you have to do this or that. They were said, our strategy is to go at them fast. When you get there, it's up to you guys. Intuition, play what's in front of you because it's going to be chaos and you take advantage of that. If you don't lose your head in that chaos, you're going to win this war easily.
Speaker 1:And that's exactly what happened with the Blitzkrieg. So, in Be Water My Friend, it talks about water and like it talks about like, you got to be pliable, you got be like water and he talks about water going through like a river and there's stones in the way and it just goes around them. It doesn't stop, just goes around them and he talks about water having a leak and it'll find its way down through your ceiling somehow and it'll keep going. So water just places us in front of it, you tip water down a stream, it's like mate, give me any boulder, and I'll go around there over it, whatever it takes. This is the strategy the Germans deployed when they said they're gonna they're like, Germans are like a massive tap being turned on, going down.
Speaker 1:And as the tap and the water was just flowing down, they were then given any plan a to zed to do to get to the overriding mission of winning that war, that battle. And so that was the strategy, it wasn't a how to guide or how to manual. And it wasn't attempting to create a step by step approach, right, which would contribute to rigidity and defeat the purpose of the overriding strategy. Now you're like, oh my god, if I knew Scott was on top of World War Two stuff and battles, wouldn't have signed up to strike and soul. Bear with me.
Speaker 1:So we're connecting out to that to be what makes sense, Of course it makes sense. So how does it about your fitness journey? How does this apply to you and your fitness journey? Well, the first things first is your strategy is, let's say for example, fat loss. My strategy you wanna lose weight, fat loss, boom.
Speaker 1:Okay, now you've got many plans that can go ahead. You can follow macros, you can do live workouts, you can do 10,000 steps a day, whatever it may be. The next kind of thing is like you might be a parent. So the mornings are chaotic by the time you get home in the evening or work's finished, you're tired and you just can't get the works and you just don't get the steps in. So instead of being like, I can't lose weight, you have to adapt, you have to play what's in front of you and all of you are unique in this way, you've got your own lives, remember that you've got your own lives, seeing someone else's success doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be as easy for you, because you've got a different life man, you can't expect to follow someone else's advice all the time even mine like I'm not a parent, I know the people who have got kids say it's extremely hard and I do believe it's probably way harder than I even think but your kids are not going anywhere, are they really for now, until they're 16, 18 they go.
Speaker 1:So you can't change that. So you have to have different plans and approaches. So when it comes to it, there's no good doing the same thing banging your head against the wall, oh, I can't get my steps in, I can't do the workouts because I don't have energy in the evenings. You have to do them in the morning. Like you have to try them in the afternoon, maybe at lunchtime, you have to try different plans.
Speaker 1:Doesn't matter what plan works, whatever plan takes you towards your goal, and this is like the trial and error thing, be water, be pliable, be the blitzkrieg. When you get through and you start the plan, which is a blitzkrieg, get through, you start it, that's the biggest thing to do. You then have to play what's in front of you. And play what's in front of you is a common piece of advice given by rugby coaches as well. Know, in rugby, you practice moves, you practice, like, slice one, slice two, you practice taking the ball out wide, left, you the ball out wide right, the ball out wide left just to stretch the defense, and then you take up the middle or you do a cross field kick and as these strategies you play.
Speaker 1:But ultimately, the best advice I ever got or the best advice most coaches give is, look, you can only play what's in front of you. No matter the strategy, whatever's in front of you, you play it, and the best players are the ones who have the go ahead to play with intuition and be like, you know what? I know our strategy is a kick, but every time I pick the ball up, there's a huge gap by the rook, and they're not looking, they're looking at the kick all the time. If I go through there now, that might work, might get us to our goal of scoring a try. And you try it and it works, you're like, wow, that I felt that wasn't That's worked and it did.
Speaker 1:So you need to do it with your own days and your own lifestyle. That's why I think it's dangerous. Dangerous is a big word. That's why I think sometimes it's quite like, you look at other people's lives and you're like, how do they do and not do it? But there's so many different factors all our lives.
Speaker 1:Even like the weather, trying to get your steps in every day when the weather sucks, like what's the plan of attack after that? Is it to not do steps? Is it to maybe put like a boxing workout on? Is it more fun or dance workout? I don't know, there's something you need to do, you need to have more plans and one plan for each thing.
Speaker 1:And it might be the on some days you talk to people who are energy sapping. And to some days you talk to people who are energy given. And this is huge, like extrovert introverts is where you get your energy from. If you're an extrovert, you get your energy from other people. And you're not speaking to anyone on a day, right, you might feel terrible.
Speaker 1:If you're an introvert, and you've been on meetings, you know, 8AM till 2PM, you're gonna be you're gonna be worn out. So it does depend on the day. And like I say, it's one day at a time. It's the only thing you could do. You can only play what's in front of you.
Speaker 1:And that's only ever the 24. And yes, they might be the same twenty four hours most of the time over lockdown. But the likelihood is there's always small, subtle changes that we need to do every day. And you have to be able to you have to be willing to make them. You have to be willing to see yourself like water and, you know, adapt to the chaos.
Speaker 1:Use the chaos to your favor. It's the only thing we can do. And there is a lot of opportunity in the chaos for sure. So, yeah, I mean, don't be like the Germans obviously because that's the best thing to do. But that strategy was developed.
Speaker 1:If you wanna read out about him all by a guy called John Boyd of the Americans, and they used it in the 1990s Gulf War and stuff like that, and using it in business and in personal life as well. So these apply across so many different sectors. It's unbelievable. And that's kind of like the original point is like, was reading this, was like, this is very similar to like be water, like, this advice is very similar. Like, it's crazy how a lot of these truths are revealed in different parts and different writings.
Speaker 1:And you'll be surprised. So do open your eye out for those. That's why you should read with a kind of an awareness of what you've already read before and be like, you know what, I read something similar, let me go back through my notes and compare and you're gonna learn so much more that way if you want to do that, if you don't got time fair enough. But yeah, I'm gonna leave it at that, play what's in front of you today please, one day at a time, let me know your one big thing is and let me know how your day goes at the end of the time. But challenge is nearly over so do do your best that's all you can do and I'll speak to you soon.
Speaker 1:And that's it, thank you for listening to the one day at a time podcast with your host Golf Leer. Hopefully you understood something I said. I hope that some wisdom kind of distilled through into your mind, and I want you to now action it today. I don't want you to think about tomorrow. I don't want you to think about yesterday.
Speaker 1:I don't want you to think about leaving a review on this podcast. I don't want you to think about going to another website. What I want you to do is as soon as this podcast ends, you will take action and make the most of today. Ground yourself today. Follow the one day at a time philosophy, and your life will change.
