Chris Peacock

HOW TO MEDITATE

Chris Peacock — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:44:31 +0000

In Zen Buddhism, meditation is considered the path to enlightenment. It clears the mind, oxygenates the body and gives you an enhanced understanding of both yourself and your surroundings. If there’s one skill that will help you to master yourself, meditation is it.

I’m no expert on the subject but I do enjoy meditation. I first learned it in a Sports Psychology class about 15 years ago and have practiced it with good effect ever since. When I’m meditating, I feel better. I’m able to focus more and have a greater sense of myself.

Maybe it’s the extra oxygen running through my veins. Maybe it’s the reduced levels of cortisol. Maybe it’s the ability to clear my mind on command. Probably, it’s a combination of them all.

When I do it regularly, I feel like I’m in control. When I don’t, I get agitated and out of whack too easily.

If you’ve never tried meditation before, that’s OK. It’s pretty simple to learn. All you need is some free time and a quiet place. Here’s how:

1. Find a comfortable posture, either sitting or lying down.

2. Close your eyes and relax all muscles in your body, including the face. Breathe in deeply through the nose and out through the mouth making sure that the belly expands and falls with each breath.

3. Let thoughts float in and out of your mind never fixing on any of them – always come back to your breathing.

4. Continue for at least 10 minutes, maintaining your stillness of mind.

5. When you feel ready, get up and shake yourself off.

Start practicing two to three times per week and see if you can build up to daily sessions. The more you do it the better you will get and the easier you’ll find it is to relax.

With enough practice you should be able to attain a quiet mind anytime and anywhere, even in a crowded place or stressful situation. You may also notice that calm feeling follows you into your day to day life.

That’s when you know you’ve nailed it.

WHERE TO FIND YOUR GREATEST ENERGY

Chris Peacock — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:20:53 +0000

When we are trying to get somewhere, we need energy for the journey. Especially if the destination is great. Undiscovered land. Publication. A title. Financial freedom. They all require much more than the average man can produce.

Even those beasts you see in the gym don’t have the kind of strength I’m talking about here. Yes, they can bench 400 and squat 500 but can they stand up to their boss? Can they leave the job they hate and start doing what they really want to do? Usually not.

There’s a higher level.

Any prize worth having has a thousand obstacles and a million competitors. We need something special to get even close. We need a fire in our bellies and almighty drive.

A healthy lifestyle helps. So does reading and spending time with people who have done it already. But, if you want to cultivate serious power you need to look to your addictions.

Your energy is tied to your addictions and the only way to release that energy is to dissolve them one by one. Drinking. Smoking. Eating. Television. Pornography. Kill the vice and you gain power.

The kind of power you need to win.

This is far from easy. It’s an advanced form of training. Not many people can do it and most won’t even try. But you, you clever savage, are going to be the example that everyone follows. Here’s what to do…

Get ready. Take a day or two to prepare yourself for what’s ahead. Things will get worse before they get better as your body and mind resist your attempts to free yourself. Make sure you know what your getting into. Why are you doing this? Keep that in mind.

Pick your top addiction. What do you do everyday that you know isn’t good for you? What do you want to be free of? Write it down on a piece of paper along with ten reasons why you need to stop.

Make a list of alternatives. Under your addiction write down a list of healthy and energizing alternatives. What’s an easy, fun and satisfying replacement?

Practice 30 day abstinence. For the next 30 days practice complete abstinence. If you get the urge pick one of your alternatives and distract yourself from the feeling. Keep busy leaving no room for your vice. The longer you can go the easier it gets and you’ll form a replacement habit with your new actions.

Get support. A support community will help you get there quicker so surround yourself with others with a similar challenge. Share your stories and your strategies for success.

Keep score. You have to be at one with your addiction before you can be free from it. Keep a log of your feelings and discoveries and star each day in your diary that you were clean.

It’s not going to be easy but If you can beat your addictions you’ll feel very different. Strong. Focussed. In control. With a confidence that’s deeply rooted. Get yourself to that point and you’ll have the energy for any journey – no matter how far you’re headed.

THE 100 REP CHALLENGE

Chris Peacock — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:41:19 +0000

I’ve been training in a structured way since my mid teens. Skill work, gym work, conditioning and regular stretching. I enjoy the routine and developed the habit early enough as to not make many excuses.

I do it without thinking much about it.

Many adults and working professionals, however, haven’t found that groove and they struggle to make fitness a part of their everyday life. They know how important it is but it’s low on the to do list. And then, it gets forgotten.

Thankfully, there’s a clever gentleman right round the corner with a solution to the problem.

His name is Rannoch Donald (an Edinburgh based fitness coach) and he came up with The 100 Rep Challenge to get people moving and cultivating the habit of exercise.

You get fit by hitting 100 reps. You choose the time. You choose the location. You choose the moves. You can do them anywhere, all in a oner or spread throughout the day.

The target is easy. You have no excuse. It’s a fun practice that fits nicely into your routine.

If you haven’t found a way to get fit yet, try The Challenge. It might be the catalyst you were looking for.

Here’s what to do:

1. Right now, give me 10 reps. Pushups, squats, lunges, step-ups, whatever. Choose your move then do it.

2. One hour from now, do the same thing. 10 reps of any move you choose.

3. Later in the day, do it again. 10 reps.

4. Before your evening meal, go for a walk. Make it nifty and if your feeling bold you can add in some bursts of fast walking. Ten steps equals a rep so you can keep score.

5. Get a pull up bar or TRX for your home. Every time you pass the bar you can do some body weight pulls.

6. When you get into bed tonight take 10 deep breaths. In through the nose and out through the mouth.

I love this concept because of it’s simplicity and flexibility. 100 is just a starting point. A basic target to hit and form a habit around. You can change the number and change the drills to suit you.

Breathe, squat, lunge, push, pull and run. It’s not difficult, when it’s part of who you are.

WHEN DREAMS COME TRUE

Chris Peacock — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:18:19 +0000

We all have dreams but no matter how hard we work some of them never materialize. Maybe we focus on the wrong thing. Maybe we’re in the wrong place. Maybe we just aren’t good enough.

Whatever the reason, reality can be painful.

But guess what? Reality can also be 1000 times better than anything you will ever picture in your mind.

I started playing drums at the age of 14. At the age of 18 I was dreaming of playing on stage with bands like The Police, Rush and Pink Floyd. 15 years on I get the call to record a BBC documentary with Jack Bruce, a musical icon and founding member of 60′s supergroup, Cream.

Those two days rehearsing and recording with Jack were true magic. The studio was crisp, the crew were on it and there was a stellar list of musos playing hard.

The adrenaline was flowing so much I had a high that a crackhead would be proud of.

Nothing I ever dreamt was this good. Or maybe I just wasn’t able to conjure up the intensity and emotion that the real experience gives you. It more than makes up for the years of practice, the blisters and the backache.

Jack Bruce: The Man Behind The Bass tells the story of Jack’s life through some of his favorite songs. There are a lot of great performances (watch out for a heavy Sunshine Of Your Love) and interviews with Jack’s peers: Eric Claption, Ginger Baker and Flea.

If you like your music and want to see one man’s climb to global stardom (as well as me on the drums) then it’s well worth a watch. The first showing will be on BBC2 Scotland on Monday 13th February at 2100. It will then go up on the BBC iPlayer.

You can learn all about it here.

THE 2012 MANIFESTO

Chris Peacock — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:43:59 +0000

It’s extremely difficult to set resolutions and to keep them. They require change, sacrifice and plenty of hard work. They make us uncomfortable and often lead to a mountain of extra stress.

Worst of all, we set them during the festive season when life is amplified and emotions are running high. In that moment we think we’re capable of anything but when the reality of the grind kicks in we’re not so sure.

That’s why so many people fall back into their old ways by the end of January.

Change is tough.

They give up as soon as they feel a bit of pain and by the end of the year they’re in exactly the same place (or worse off) as the year before.

That just isn’t cool, especially for my friends and readers of this blog.

So, here’s a manifesto that will help us dominate 2012:

Step Up: Until you accept full responsibility for your body, your art and your life, you’re not even in the game. You’re the boss, no-one else, so stop waiting for things to happen and make them happen.

Pick One Thing And Become The Best At It: One of my biggest weaknesses is taking on too many projects and existing in too many worlds. It’s impossible to excel or even get paid for anything that your not brilliant at. Good isn’t good enough, you’ve got to be great.

Get Obsessed: It’s not enough to love something. You need to have OCD over what you want to achieve. Only the athletes who can consistently eat clean get a six-pack. Only the musicians who practice >4 hours a day master an instrument. Only the entrepreneurs who live their business 24/7 make a million.

Form Habits: Instead of wasting your time with resolutions and short lived goals you need to form the right habits. Set up a routine that builds your chops and your confidence in a structured way. Do it everyday until the pain subsides and the excuses stop. Then, you’re on the right path.

Put The Work In: How far into your 10,000 hours are you? Well, what are you hanging around for? Get practicing.

Trim The Fat There’s a lot of excess in life that weighs you down and stops you from achieving your goals. Get tough and hack away the inessential – if it’s not valuable, lose it – you know what it is!

Take Shit From No-One: One of the best pieces of advice I ever received came from Mike Clark, the renowned New York drummer. People only put you down to either make themselves feel better or distract you long enough to steal your spot. Don’t listen to there B.S. and don’t give them an inch. Do you!

Put Yourself Out There Consistently: Your hard work can only be appreciated when others are looking at it. Your ideas can only spread when they are in other peoples hands. There are people much worse than you already doing it so don’t be afraid, get out there for the rest of us to see.

Be Remarkable: You might have learned in high school that fitting in was a good way to survive. In the real world, it’s suicide. You need to stand out and say something new if you want to be heard.

Every year you have the opportunity to get better, to make a change and unleash your ideas into the world. Is this going to be your year?

THE POMODORO TECHNIQUE

Chris Peacock — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:10:50 +0000

What happens when you work for long periods of time without a break? Correct, you get burned out and your work starts to suffer. If you keep doing the same thing over and over it gets pretty sloppy (and so do you).

You can keep fighting the fatigue and convince yourself that your grinding or you can structure your time a bit better and start producing a higher quality of work.

There are tons of productivity techniques out there but one of my favorites has to be The Pomodoro Technique. It was developed by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980′s and uses a timer to break down periods of work into 25-minute intervals called ‘Pomodoros’ (from the Italian word for ‘tomatoes’) separated by 5-minute breaks. Every four Pomodoros you take a longer break of 15-30mins.

My buddy Kev Glasgow uses a variation of this technique with his guitar & bass practice and that says it all… he’s a beast!

All you need to get started is a timer, a pen, a to do sheet and a records sheet. An A4 piece of paper will do the trick or you can download free PDF’s from the official Pomodro Technique website here.

Here’s what to do:

Write your top tasks on a to do sheet
Choose the most important task
Set the timer to 25 mins.
Work until the timer rings
Mark the task with an X on the to do sheet
Take a short break

Keep on working, Pomodoro after Pomodoro, until the task is complete then cross it off your list. You’ll notice that you can focus better and get more done – two essentials for becoming a champion.

Just make sure that your breaks are true breaks. Working at the computer for 25 minutes then watching YouTube videos for 5 won’t do the trick.

Get up, breathe, go for a walk, do some mobility drills, work on your soft tissue with a foam roller or hockey ball and grab a drink of water.

Do this everyday and you’ll be flying.

STAY OUT OF THE CRAB BASKET

Chris Peacock — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:12:25 +0000

When fisherman catch crabs they use a mesh basket with a hole in the lid just big enough for the crabs to climb through. Once more than one crab has crawled into the basket the fisherman takes the lid off. Crabs continue to climb into the basket but no matter how full the basket gets none escape. Why? Because, every time one tries to climb up and out the others pull him right back down again.

Much Like Your Life
Life is a lot like that. Whenever we try to do anything brave, bold or creative everyone around us starts to pull at our heels and bring us down; “What do you want to do that for? What if you can’t pay the bills? What if you fail?” The voices are loud and they are influential. They can make us second guess ourselves and kill our chances of ever achieving anything.

When we hang with the crabs they rule our lives. They work together to keep us within arms length, never moving far from the centre. When we move, they pull us back. In the end we stop trying because it’s just too much effort trying to escape their grasp.

Who Are The Crabs?
The sad thing is, the crabs are often the people closest to you. Your family, your friends and your peers. They say these things to keep you on the same level where everything is safe. It’s not meant to hurt you, it’s just meant to maintain the status-quo. If you stay right were you are then no risk is taken and no damage is done.

If you ever did escape then they would either have to follow you out (that requires cojones) or risk looking like a failure for being left behind (that’s embarassing) so it’s much easier to keep you close by.

The Solution
The only real solution to this problem is to spend as little time with the crabs as possible. Make a note of the ones who pull you back the most and put them on the black list. Any person on this list should be avoided at all costs when you are trying something new (a career shift, a business, an adventure). Don’t share it with them, don’t discuss it with them and don’t ask for there input. They’ll only put a downer on it.

When you make a go of it and have some success then you can definitely let them in but not before. They’ll likely be happy for you and want to celebrate your good fortune but you have to make it work first. Letting them in too early is destructive.

This can be very difficult especially when they are so close to you, but it’s one of the sacrifices you have to make. If you want to stay where you are, crabs will help you. But, if you want to do something big with your life then you’ve got to stay out of the crab basket.

KILL THE CHICKEN

Chris Peacock — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:41:54 +0000

We all have a choice. Listen to our inner chicken and cower away from everything that scares us or smack him in the chops and do the very things that he wants us to avoid.

We are faced with this dilemma everyday but most people choose wrong.

They hang with the chicken.

You see, fear is a guide. It lets us know when we’re about to do something brave, bold and life-defining. It makes us think twice because doing it may change everything – for better or for worse.

We felt it back in the days when all manner of beasts could wipe us out on a hunt and we feel it today when we are presented with any kind of challenge that upsets the status quo.

The chicken is there to keep us alive. Safety is his number one priority. He kept us out of the mouths of Mountain Lions and Saber Tooth Tigers but he really isn’t equipped to cope with the modern world. He’s become paranoid and fearful of everything.

Today, he’s just a nuisance.

If you want to leave your job, travel the world, write a book, produce an album or build a business the chicken won’t let you. He’ll screech until he’s blue in the face and give you a million reasons why you shouldn’t even try.

If you let him speak, he’ll ruin everything. If you allow his thoughts to control yours you’ll never get where you want to go.

So close off his lifeline (inaction) and shut him up.

Shorten the time lapse between idea and motion so he doesn’t stand a chance.

Kill that chicken before he kills you.

A LIFE OF INVENTION

Chris Peacock — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 18:29:35 +0000

On Wednesday we received the sad news that a true legend has left us. A man who dedicated his life to making our lives better. A man who left a legacy of art, invention and entrepreneurship.

Steve developed a retail experience like no other. He changed the way we work, the way we communicate and the way we consume. He pushed an industry to the point where everything else just wasn’t good enough.

He’s given us an opportunity that our parents and grand parents never had but the question is, what will we do with that opportunity?

Yes, we can post a bunch of pointless tweets and status updates or shop with our phones. But what if just a few of us decided to carry on the flame of invention?

What can we accomplish with that same drive for production, design and usability?

There have been many great tributes posted on the web but being the humorist he was I think Steve would have enjoyed this one…

GOALS VS. EXPERIENCE

Chris Peacock — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:07:16 +0000

Goals are great. Everyone should have them. They give us something tangible to shoot for and provide the motivation we need to get there.

They make us smarter. They make us stronger. They raise our game way beyond the norm.

The problem is, goals can also be very limiting. They narrow our focus to the point that we can miss out on the actual experience of life. Our brains get so caught up in the grind that we fail to notice and enjoy everything else that’s on offer.

I’m saying this now because I’ve spent the past weekend filming a documentary for the BBC with Jack Bruce, LAU, Jim Sutherland and a stellar cast of producers and engineers.

It wasn’t a goal. I didn’t aim for it. I didn’t plan for it. It just appeared.

There was a minute where I thought about turning it down because it conflicted with other things that I’ve been working on but It turned out to be one of the best experiences of the year, if not my life.

If I stayed closed and said no because it wasn’t inline with my current plans then I would have missed out… in a big way.

Experiences are gifts from the universe. Little moments of magic, excitement and glory. They come to us uninvited yet they add the most color and dimension to our lives.

So we’ve got to set goals yet remain open. Grind like animals yet look up to see what’s there. Accept what comes along because sometimes it will turn out to be much, much more than what we’re aiming for.

PS The documentary should be finished in December so I’ll let you know when it’s live.