How My Lousy Attempt at an AFL Career Led me to Create an Online Course

For most of my life I’ve fought with the laziness gremlin.

My school report card in year 3 read “if Travis spent less time talking with friends and spent more time focusing he could achieve a much better grade“. Or my U17 footy coach told my Dad after I won the best and fairest that “next year will be the real test for Travis to see if he’s serious about making a career out of this sport“.

(here’s a pic of me from those early footy days. Check out the guns! LOL)

Well, turns out, both my teacher and coach knew more about me than I did.

And they were right.

Reaching right back to my childhood, most things I did I started with great intention. I could tell you about the time I designed an epic fitness regime to get me ready for elite AFL football. It included doing a variety of physical exercises, a healthy eating plan and even building my own set of goal posts on the family farm.

Or maybe I could tell you about the time when I was trying to get fit, spend more time with my kids, read the bible more, save money, start a new hobby, read one new book a month or even, get this – hold my stomach in as I walked to build up more core strength!

Yep, I love to start new things. I love to create the plan and strategy for my goals and habits to happen. Then, I thought, I’d just sit back and watch the magic happen.

But it didn’t.

Everyone of those desires I listed above has never happened. Not one.

The source of my inability to succeed

To this day, I put my lack of success in football down to laziness, giving up to soon and an inability to know how goal achievement happens. Sure there were other things at play in nearly all those examples, but the core of it relates to my inner self, poor planning, overwhelm at the size of the task and an inability to persist.

Strangely enough however, my desire for personal development has never gone away. I pride myself on being a lifelong learner, so continuing to grow and become a better person is important to me.

It’s this desire, coupled with my strategic skills that I’ve brought into my work today. It’s part of who I am, and having been through the school of hard knocks and learnt a gazillion ways not to do something, I’m much better for it.

I tell you all this because it’s the sum of these experiences that was the catalyst for creating (and launching) my free online course.

The struggle is real and we all have it

Back in the early days, I was roadkill on the road of complexity. My goals were too hard, to complex and had no real strategy, (or science, for that matter) behind them.

Now, I’m much more clued into what it takes to achieve goals and create lasting habits.

The more I work with people, the more I realise that my experience is not unique to me at all. People, both as individuals and in groups, struggle to make successful changes to their daily habits and complete their personal goals.

Why?

Well, it has little to do with will or desire, as they wrongly believe. But more to do with the process they use. It lacks structure, is flimsy, most times overly complicated and binds them up more than it frees them.

As a coach, I’m sick to death with the self-help bollocks that promise winning results almost immediately.

It’s absurd.

And most of the claims they make are false. Sure, doing 5 jumping jacks each morning may get you awake, or writing down a few things you’re thankful for might make you happier for a moment, but they offer little hope in providing long term transformation.

Which, if we’re all honest, is what we’re really after.

The short-term happiness cycle is akin to yo-yo dieting. We do something whilst our wills allow us, but when it gets really difficult, we fall back into old and destructive habits.

A changed life, not just for today, tomorrow or next week, but for the next 5, 10, 30 years is what we truly desire. And to get that, it takes time, effort, patience, simplicity, strategy and small steps forward – with the occasional steps backwards.

That’s life.

Which is why I created my free online course: Baseline Living.

I’m sick of watching people be led up the garden path by the latest wave of self-help techniques or by taking the path of least resistance to your ideal future.

There are no short cuts, and any short cut you may take will likely lead you to a place where you do not want to be.

And yet, those short-term solutions are what we often get sold.

My course aims to provide you with a simple path to walk, without the promise that it will be easy. For example, it takes about 66 days for a habit to truly be created, not the 21 that most people have been led to believe. Now think about it; 21 days is easier to market than 66 right? So no wonder those in the self-help industry who want to make a quick buck espouse this as their data!

*facepalm*

So I want to invite you…

That if you’re like me and struggled to make changes, create positive habits and set goals you really want to pursue, then my course can help.

I don’t promise certain results, but I can guarantee you that I’ll be walking with you as we try and figure this thing out. I’ve learnt some things which will be helpful and add value to you.

I’m in the trenches of life with you, and together we can make the necessary incremental steps forward to move us toward where we want to go.

Please, come along for the ride. A seat is waiting for you.

Follow this link for more information: Baseline Living: Free, Online, Self-paced Course

Travis.