This story might raise some eyebrows:

I’ve taken part twice in Tony Robbins’ Unleash the Power Within.

A jamboree which Tony himself modestly calls “the greatest personal growth event in history”.

After my first UPW experience – and four days of power poses, fist-pumps and jumping up & down like a madman – I was so psyched up that I bought a pack of multi-coloured cue cards, spread them over my kitchen table, grabbed a sharpie and started scribbling short notes from the event.

I filled the cue cards with phrases like “I will find the way”…

…“No-one can take this strength from me”…

And my favourite of all:  “What does it feel like to give up?”.

Then I found some blu-tack and stuck these cue cards all over my walls.

My kitchen, in particular, was quite a sight.  And when Lauren visited the flat (it was the early days of our fledgling relationship), I’m sure she started to wonder what she’d got herself involved in. 

(maybe she still does!)

After a couple of weeks of raised eyebrows and head-shaking, she asked me to take the cue cards down.  She said it was disturbing the feng shui.

While I wasn’t sure that the energy forces in my kitchen would be that much different with or without the cue cards, I relented.  And the cards came down.

Anyway, turns out my crazy cue card antics aren’t all that unusual. 

You can’t move on Instagram, for example, without seeing motivational slogans clocking up thousands of posts, re-posts, shares and likes amidst the videos of adorable hedgehogs and daily sandwich challenges.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with slogans like these.  Especially if you’re trying to gee yourself up, or even calm yourself down.

But in case anyone thinks otherwise:

Lapping up inspirational sayings is a great way to kid yourself (or other people) you’re doing something useful, without actually doing anything useful at all.

See, I really thought that regurgitating all these sayings would somehow help me internalise them.

A perfect example of majoring in the minors.

Because it wasn’t plastering my wall with motivational cue cards from a Tony Robbins event which made any difference to my life.

It was going to the event in the first place. 

I can directly trace my decision to take a sabbatical back to Unleash The Power Within.  The sabbatical which led to me quitting my job, starting this newsletter, enrolling in coaching training, working as a coach and helping other people go after whatever it is they want to go after.

Don’t get me wrong – those cue cards felt good.  I liked getting a boost of motivation whenever I saw the words “You can do this” as I boiled my eggs each morning.

(that phrase got me through a few sticky egg-related challenges)

But any real, tangible difference to my life?

Nada.

Anyway, I’m not sure if many of you will relate to this.

But there might be one or two of you who can see a bit of your own majoring in the minors going on.

If that’s you and you’re ready to start majoring in the majors, here’s a potential next step:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com

That’s all for today.

- Tom