 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Here's a letter I sent to Kevin Billett, of The Journey, re my marathon plans, in April 2005. It describes my vision for this project, as at that time.
Dear Kevin,
Firstly, Susan and I send huge thanks for a life-changing weekend. I have been following spiritual paths and going to (and teaching and facilitating) workshops and seminars for 30 years. This was the best ever! Susan and I are about to sign up for the Abundance Retreat in
Now to the marathon idea. Here's my vision and my mission: a very ordinary, middle-aged man transforms himself and shows others that transformation is possible for anyone with the right help, and raises money to "spread the word" and do the work.
What I offer: me and my story, and my hard work (and some ideas that I hope turn out to be good)! I'm 57, 5 stone overweight, and I've never really been fit in my life. I'm very ordinary: I'm not blonde, beautiful, or American (even though Susan is!). I never had a major illness. I didn't go to university (at least, not till I was 30). I’m not poking fun at Brandon, or anyone, here. It’s just that I hear people make all sorts of excuses as to why this or that story doesn’t apply to them. And many of the great therapeutic metaphor stories are heroic; that’s why we think they’re wonderful. But at the same time, it allows some people to say “it won’t work for me”. You especially must know that, for many good old, staid, Brits,
But I’m ordinary, so if it will work for me, it will work for them. How ordinary am I? I didn't have an under-privileged background. I wasn't abused as a child. I’ve had no major heroic illnesses. I didn’t come from a broken home. My life story wouldn't make you weep—just yawn! But, like millions of other people, something stopped me achieving my potential. I tried dozens of different processes. They all worked a bit. None gave me all I needed. Some people seem to believe that it’s easy to achieve greatness if you’re born great, and it’s easy to achieve greatness if you have the “right stuff” to bounce back from overwhelming odds. But little Johnny Smith, of 85 Acacia Terrace, started in the lower middle, lived his life in the lower middle and died in the lower middle. I want to scream from the rooftops, “it doesn’t have to be that way: Johnny, and Jenny, Smith can be great, too”.
I passionately believe that the world—the universe—needs people to achieve all that they can achieve: I believe that if just 10% of the people of the world could achieve just 10% more of their potential than they do now, we would all be performing miracles. I see that
My intention is to transform myself, in the public gaze, and undertake an extraordinary task, just to show ordinary people what's possible for me, and for them, if we just have the key. For me, as for thousands of others, The Journey is the key. But I also believe that the team is a vital key for 90% of us, so I would really appreciate help from you in assembling my “winning team”!
Here's what I would like from you
1) A place in the marathon. Getting a place can be more difficult than running it! It’s a million times easier if a charity gets a, or some, places. However! I just called the London Marathon. They have closed, for ever, the charity list. They have 600 charities that get charity places in the London Marathon … and 500 charities on the waiting list. So I don’t know what we do about that. Maybe we pull strings to guarantee me a non-charity place. Maybe I run with another charity, and split the proceeds between them and the Outreach program. Maybe I run in a different marathon… (the Two Oceans Ultra-Marathon—34.8 miles—is in Capetown on April 15th 2006. 368 days to go!)
2) Publicity and PR support. It would be great if I could get on Richard and Judy, on breakfast shows, on chat shows—but it needs to be soon while I'm still fat and unfit. We get them to follow my progress, and to show the Outreach work in Kwa-Zulu Natal that I will be supporting.
3) Support from Journey Grads. I’d like to find some way to ask if there are any Journey grads with the skills, time, or resources to support me. I’m going to need trainers, sports physiotherapists, doctors, anyone who knows interesting and radical stuff about the body. I don’t want to survive this process; I want to cross the finishing line with the “Journey Shine” still in place! And I will need ordinary grads willing to swap process with me—or even just come running with me. In the next year I probably need to run 1500-2000 miles. At the moment walking 3 miles is a challenge! Companions would be a great help. I would like to run this aspect as a "co-operative inquiry" research project. It could be written up and published. The idea is that a small group get to together to “actively research” what it takes to get an “ordinary bloke” through a marathon in one, thriving, piece.
Next: as I said before, I am dedicated to scotching the attitude of "well that's all right for him or her, but it would never work for me". Here, I believe, is the real “killer” idea that could do that. When I get on TV I want to be able to throw out a challenge to the viewers: come and join me. I want people to write in for that opportunity. They have to be over-50, overweight, unfit, and out of work. We are looking for ordinary people who can just possibly conceive that, deep down inside them, there might just be the spark of the extra-ordinary. We will choose the ''10 most ordinary" and I would like The Journey to offer these 10 people a free place on the Journey Intensive. In return they have to commit to completing the program and to raising at least £700 each (and not from The Journey Grads community) for the Outreach program. This scotches the “but I can’t afford it” argument. In return, if any of them are smokers, I will work with them, using every means available (including EFT and Energy Medicine, and The Journey), to get them off of smoking, fast! And we will develop a way of working together as “Team Journey”, to make sure that each of us completes the whole program. I’m sure that you will have other ideas that will make this aspect even more powerful. This gives us 11 people raising £700 each, outside the Journey community, to which we raise whatever we can get from within The Journey community. May we set a target of £20,000. That feels about as scary as 23 miles!
People who don’t fit the profile can still join the team: but they don’t get a free place on The Journey!
Lastly, what I would like, is for the Journey to use its “weight” to see if we can get someone like Dr Gillian McKeith (“You are what you eat”) to support the project from a nutrition point of view. If we could get her on-side, then we might just be on our way to getting the whole thing set up as a Channel 4 documentary! That way, we’d get a huge increase in publicity, both for The Journey, and for the Outreach program. There are lots of programs of this type (“Celebrity Fit Club” for instance, where c-list celebs loose a few pounds over several weeks). We would be offering some lucky network a really awe-inspiring “reality TV” program that would show the world what anyone can do, when they’re given the key. The Source’s answer to “Big Brother”!!
I have written this up as a “set of ideas”, but nothing here is cast in stone. My vision is something that will grab the attention of ordinary people to transform themselves and do something extraordinary, using The Journey, and to raise loads of money so that the Outreach program can greatly increase the amazing work that it is doing. Within that, I’m completely open to any ideas that anyone might have to make this really successful!
And if you’d like a face-to-face meeting, brain storming session, anything … I’m happy to go anywhere, any time (provided it’s not too expensive … I haven’t done the Abundance Retreat yet … next task is to book that).
Much love, and with excited anticipation,
James
PS: I’m off for a run this evening with this local group, and every Sunday with this group.
Google's AdSense, crawls web pages, and works out what sort of adverts readers would be interested in. Here's what it makes of all this ...
(Click to see what the advertiser has on offer ... I make (miniscule) amounts of money every time some clicks the link, even if you don't buy anything!!
It goes without saying that I don't endorse any of these ads!)
