Rabby’s Ramblings have RETURNED!!!!

Yes once again Rab has taken to the keyboard, flexed off his fingers, gripped his head tightly and squeezed… sprouting out some of the nonsense that lurks around his crazy brain.

So crazy that I, once again, started my blog in the 3rd person.

 

Well I thought I’d kickstart my rambles once again now that I’m back from my travels and have enjoyed plenty of free time to think. As we described in our video “distancing yourself from a problem” I’ve got the creative juices flowing once more. Not that there was a problem to leave for, well perhaps the whole mafia situation and the witness protection scheme we were forced to…. ah I’m just messing with you ๐Ÿ˜‰

But it’s true, once you get at least 200 miles from home your mind opens up to many more possibilities and, more importantly, allows you to observe situations with a fresh set of eyes.

And I’ve done a fair bit of people watching this trip!

I’ll start the main part of this piece with a simple statement, “play is a universal language.”

I mean it really is. It is the one constant or common ground that, if everyone relaxed, you can achieve with anyone.

It was said that on Christmas day during the first world war, soldiers from both sides of the trenches lay down their arms and played a game of football in no-mans land.

Can you believe that? For months on end these soldiers were aiming solid bolts of lead at one another in the aim to end life and gain ground and here they are, unarmed and playing with a pigskin ball and, amazingly enough, they all played by the rules!

Incredible!

My two year old daughter is the perfect example of this in a slightly less hostile environment. We took her to a little playpark down from the complex where we were staying and there was a little spanish boy maybe a year older than her at most. There were severe language barriers due, in part, to my daughter not being able to say very much and this boy speaking a completely different language! But, with faces full of smiles they chased each other around this park, climbed, hid from us parents and achieved all of this within a maximum of 3-4 minutes of arriving! Possibly even less as I wasn’t wearing my cheap watch like I usually do!!!

So there we were, my new wife and I, watching our daughter instantly make friends and having fun. There were no prejudices based on skin colour, clothing, wealth or any of the other barriers we use as excuses not to mingle. It was just pure and simple acceptance. It was beautiful and it got me thinking as to why these two were so successful in bonding so quickly.

I watched for a bit longer and realised it was simply breaking the ice with a smile. A real genuine smile. My daughter ran up really excited and her positive energy was reflected onto the young boy who instantly smiled.

In another situation later that day she repeated the same thing with one child who, for whatever reason, didn’t want to play. He was standoff-ish and it took my little one an entire five seconds to analyse the situation, realise she wasn’t getting the desired response and then move onto the next child whom responded with smiles and giggles.

She didn’t hold a grudge! It was as if she made an instant decision that the lack of positive energy was the other kids fault and didn’t dwell on trying to change the situation. It was so refreshing to watch. She literally just brushed it off and moved on. How often do we sometimes in life approach someone with honey and get vinegar in return and then, crazily enough, we DWELL on it trying to understand why we got vinegar. I mean it’s vinegar, VINEGAR!!! The stuff is only really good for putting on your chips or treating hard skin on your feet! Who gives a flying frog about vinegar…and yet we do…

I am genuinely quite a smiley person. I am easily excitable and when I meet people I like its fairly obvious. Stephen once joked to me and said something along the lines of “I love it when we are meeting for a beer and when I see you, your face lights up and it makes me smile.”

I joke in that, if I had a tail, it would be wagging! When Stephen and I meet up we always have an awesome time so when I see him I genuinely get excited! Starting your day/night on that foot always leads to one of those awesome times!

So where I’m going with this ramble is this, If you meeting a friend/family member, or a business partner or anyone that you want to have a good meeting with, take a few minutes to yourself before you get out the car. Remind yourself why this awesome person is in your life, the laughs they bring, or the help they give you, or the opportunities and kindness they show you. Keep that thought in your mind and when you see them, let it flow! You’ll smile ear to ear and the meet will start off on a positive tone.

And don’t panic if the person says “wow you’re chirpy” what that means is they picked up on it and it still struck a good chord with them, they are just perhaps too tired to show it but nonetheless they noticed and therefore job well done!!

And when meeting strangers, approach with honey much like my daughter did, and if they give you vinegar, oh well… nobody gives a flying F%^& about vinegar ๐Ÿ˜‰

 

Have a great week folks.

Coach Rab

 

p.s I have to give a big shout out to my boy Anthony Joshua for last night! Man that was an epic fight!!! Don’t get me wrong, it was not a perfect fight from him but he is still young and learning. There was talk before the fight that perhaps it was too big a step too soon and i’d maybe have to agree there a little, particularly when he blew a gasket round five and survived on heart alone to get through it. I was on the phone to my canadian cousin during the fight and I said “if he can hang on here this will be the making of him” and boy was I right. He came out round 11 with a fire up his arse and boom!!!

That’s how winning is done!!

 

 

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