Apollo Astronauts landed at Apex Oval
22 young rugby league lovers from the Apollo Estate in East Dubbo turned up in numbers to represent their community. The run of the “Black Astronauts” ended in the first round but the pride in their specially designed guernseys was obvious and the boys and girls have vowed to return for next year’s event.
A few weeks ago I went to Tony Robbins’ event “Unleash the Power Within” (UPW).
I went there with no expectations, I was just more intrigued than anything, having first come across him when I was growing up and seeing him on those American talk shows during the school holidays or when I was at home from school, sick.
Most consider me as pretty straight up and down, someone who tells it like it is or how I see it, a no b-s kind of approach... But I am a lot more open-minded than most people would assume, even those people who think they are pretty open-minded and make the assumption that I would not be like them, often get a surprise when digging a little deeper that I’m more open-minded than they themselves are and that comes back to an experience I had when I was 14.
I went to the Tony Robbins event with Chris Walkom who has a great renovation and extension business over in Newcastle – and I think it’s fair to say we were both very grateful we went with someone we knew, and it was also good to talk to someone about what we went through that day after the event had finished
There were some instances where it was very confronting throughout the four-day event.
On the third day, it was the Saturday afternoon, we stood up, listened, talked, jumped, screamed, yelled, high-fived, hugged and even cried for 3.5 hours non-stop. Pretty intense.
As I said I didn’t go in with any expectations and it was a very holistic four days – mind, heart, body, nutrition, business, careers, relationships, all were touched on.
Doing the fire walk on the first night was an awesome experience. Here you walk about five metres across hot coals. Something I probably wouldn’t try around the campfire, but they get you in this frame of mind where you believe it is achievable and it was, without even so much as a blister the next day!
Don’t worry, lined up for that I was thinking to myself “these coals will probably be just about out anyway” and sure enough Ron Gibbs, Chrystal Thompson and Steve “Bear” Hall. PHOTO: MEL POCKNALL IN a touching tribute just before kick off in the KO Grand Final on Monday, the two teams, match officials, traditional dancers and the entire crowd paused and pointed to the man known as Bear or Uncle Bear.
Steve Hall battled illness and severe tiredness to endure the smooth running of the score updates and draws during the build-up to the Knockout Carnival and over the weekend.
The love for the Walgett born, Coonamble Bear who won premierships with Macquarie, CYMS and Mendooran they were there with the rake getting the bastards nice and hot, a glowing orange colour, which quickly erased that doubt.
So how did I find Tony Robbins himself?
I really connected with his content and his delivery, he’s very charismatic and I was drawn to his every word – on Day 2 and 4 he wasn’t on stage and sometimes they would put up videos of him speaking at other seminars and I still thoroughly enjoyed what he was saying and resonated with what he was saying.
Throughout the entire four days we did not sit down for more than 40 minutes, possibly even 30 minutes. They didn’t really allow you to get mentally fatigued or exhausted.
I think I hugged and high-fived more people over those four days
was borne out by that magnanimous gesture.
Steve was once a Council employee working at the former rubbish dump come sporting arena. He then led the fledgling Western Division junior development program before moving to Sydney where he has worked until recently with the NRL Pathways Program.
Bear, wife Marg and great friends Ron Gibbs and Chrystal Thompson never stopped throughout a brilliantly run 48th Aboriginal Knockout.
Bravo Koori KO for your magnificent recognition of a great man. than I did on the night that we won the Super Rugby title back in 2011, and believe me we did a hell of a lot of hugging and high fiving that night.
That’s probably the one thing that I didn’t enjoy – that group therapy, with 8000 people.
The sitting down and taking notes, brilliant.
BUT I understood WHY it was getting done and its importance.
When I was a pro rugby player I was first exposed to Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). Neuro refers to your neurology; Linguistic refers to language; Programming refers to how that neural language functions. In other words, learning NLP is like learning the language of your own mind!
NLP is a method of influencing brain behaviour through the use of language and other types of communication to enable a person to “recode” the way the brain responds to stimuli and manifest new and better behaviours.
And this is what Tony was all about, not just teaching, or showing you how to change, but getting you to change there and then over those four days, particularly on JACK Hargreaves (Nyngan), Emma Fessey (Weilmoringle) and Jack O’brien (Walgett) are all sporting smiles and medals won at the recent World Cup Rowing Championships held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Jack claimed his second gold medal in the Men’s Fours, Emma a Bronze in the Women’s Eights, and Jack a gold medal in the C Final of the Men’s Pairs.
Whoddathunkit in the middle of the worst drought in a century! THIS weekend there will be an influx of rugby league legends who are bussing across the west to chat with locals who are battling drought. The team of dedicated volunteers will be in Dubbo on Friday before heading to Narromine, Collie and Gilgandra. the third day which he refers to as ‘transformation day’.
He’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but you’ve got to recognise and acknowledge he does have his raving fans.
I often say this to people; it’s not about finding someone who knows everything, because it’s not about what you hear, it’s about what you listen to and take in. It’s important to look for someone who you connect with so that you don’t just hear their words, but that you are actually listening and what they say resonates with you, and so you begin to understand and take action.
Worth the investment? Yes. Would I recommend it? If you were sceptical, no. If you are thinking about it – yes, go and give it a try, see for yourself, but expect to feel uncomfortable. Go and make up your own mind. Was it life-changing? Yes
I’ll be going back again, with my partner.
••• z Beau Robinson is an Action Coach Business Coach and former Super Rugby Champion and Wallaby. beaurobin[email protected]tioncoach.com
Team photo: The “Black Astronauts”
