February 2008 – Tony Robbins UPW, a crew mate’s view!

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Weekend of 21st to 25th February 2008 – Tony Robbins UPW, Unleash The Power Within. A crew mate’s view!

Sore hands, aching feet, lost voices and a certain musical track ringing in your ears? All signs you had an brilliant time. Woh, Woh, Woh, W-Woh!! 

Why did I crew? I went last year and thought the crew weren’t as lively as they could have been towards the end of the event, it was a party that I wanted to go on. I decided to be the change I wanted to see, by crewing myself! After all, how could I criticise last year’s crew if I couldn’t deliver myself!? ;-)

Thursday: When I arrived to register as crew, we were issued with pink t-shirts. I heard a couple of guys curse, I suggested they better get used to it, as this was going to have to be my favourite colour for the weekend. I was a little nervous and had no idea what I was doing there. I had come to meet a couple of friends crewing and a few participating as well so wanted a steady weekend and to be left in my own little world. A couple of days later when I spoke to others, they had been nervous too, even throwing up – we are all more alike than we think sometimes.
Everyone was put into various teams and I chose the ‘head sets’ team for the international clients who required translation in French, Spanish, Italian, German or Russian – here we issued them with headsets for the event. Even some of the crew had come from the other ends of the earth.
The crew was about 250 people to help with 8000 participants and apparently we were the smallest crew ever. Steve L. did a fantastic job of keeping us all energised and raring to go. He was a great presenter and really kept us all motivated. We also practised for what the team had to do on the firewalk. The head set team didn’t have to take part.
I decided to be ‘freelance’ or a floater (as others called it) and moved round the other teams and groups as needed. We went to bed ready for the main event tomorrow and an early morning to prepare for the partcipants arriving.

Friday: There were people from about 55 countries at the event. At the head set desk – not being able to really speak to any of these languages, we had to rely on the clients basic english and our body language, along with the internationally understood smile. Participants were unhappy when we didn’t have enough head sets for everyone at the beginning, especially as they had paid money. Not a good start to the event! Luckily more turned up by 4-5pm. We later had a mishap that evening when a whole load of headsets were returned and not booked back in but that is another story.
Quite a busy day behind the scenes that I didn’t get to see Tony in the main hall.

When I realised the entire crew had gone for an early firewalk, I threw my shoes off and legged it across the car park so I didn’t miss out. Isn’t that why everyone came to UPW or were too scared to attend!? After this the crew were all buzzing and ready for the main event.
On the Firewalk there are different positions to be covered by the crew members to help the trainers – I decided to be a spare cop on David T.’s firelane, as it was his birthday and Steve L. had made it look so entertaining in training.
It was so exciting helping guide the people down to the fire – and the way you end up getting in rapport with nearly everyone you get eye contact with. Standing alongside big guys to shoulder bounce them back into line, cheer like those that were excited, dance with those that wanted to shake their hips and gently nudge along those that were still a little nervous by getting in 2 people behind them in the queue. I ‘was’ about 300 people in the space of less than an hour.

Saturday: MedWestern the organisers packed in their Customer Service desk at about 3pm on Saturday. Customers don’t need to be looked after beyond that time I assume. So we dragged the desk over to our head sets desk. When I told the other volunteers that we were customer service as well, they looked stunned. I had to explain that nothing had changed as the volunteer shirts meant we were customer service and now we had a desk as well. Here we would deal with any issues and anything we couldn’t handle we’d find a med-western manager to take care of it (or failing that my account manager had volunteered)

Just like the donkey that fell down the well. You give us crap to deal with and we’ll just shake it off, step up and ask for more :-)

As a treat a few of us did some unofficial spicy food, which was fire eating in an undisclosed location. Wow – that was fun! Although the flammable burps afterwards left something to be desired!

Sunday: I woke up in the hotel about 6am again and could here the Italians chanting ‘Woh, Woh, Woh, W-Woh’. When I turned to Brad P. in the other bed to ask him if he could hear it, he replied ‘Hear what?’ Yes, I now had more voices in my head competing for my time!
Along with Customer Service we now had a ‘lost and found’ desk – with books, cameras, phones, clothes, glasses and I wondered how people could lose such things and not take care of them. Oh the irony… I’d lost my switch card in one hotel and forgotten my fleece and T-shirt in another!
I’d met loads of friends there that I didn’t expect to see as well as those that I did. Someone even asked for me at Customer Services, though didn’t leave any details.

Monday: This was a quiet day with not much to do that then exploded into a huge ball of energy at the end of the event, before fizzling away after the participants and most of the crew had left. I had managed to get a place to dance on stage when Tony would come on. Then another crew member came back late, I stepped out for him as I could see on his face that he really wanted to do it.

A girl from the Youth Leadership Team wanted a pink t-shirt and I’d already promised mine to someone else. So I went round asking some of the other male crew members. I It’s funny how all of a sudden they’d come attached to the pink they disliked at the beginning of the weekend. I finally got around and borrowed one. It meant so much more than a t-shirt to this girl and the smile, hug and asking for a picture with me spoke volumes in the grand scheme of things!

It was amazing to see people returning their headsets as changed people. They were actually smiling despite the mishaps of no headsets on Friday. I made most of them give me a hug or at least a high five before they left to make their way home.

In hindsight, I now know why the crew were flagging towards the end of UPW last year. We had been getting up before 6am and getting to bed anytime after 10pm, depending on whether we wanted to go and socialise in the hotels or not. The feeling of wanting to be left alone I had a few days earlier had been replaced with a need to just chill out with everyone there. We were having a blast.
Had I left my own little world or started to drag everyone else into mine!?

Andrea S. asked me what I’d thought of the experience. I told her it was the best crew ever! She asked how many I’d done before and smiled that it was my first. I just felt that we were the best and truly knew it in my heart! It is going to be a tough crew to beat in future.
I could tell you everything, including the lows of the politics and the crew not having a proper farewell or the real highs, though those special moments will belong to those that were there :-)
You get what you focus on so I will take away just the great moments and learn from the rest.
I felt priveliged as it really may be the last one with no further dates released for the UK / Europe.

I came to contribute and meet some old friends and took away so much more. Including the wonderful friends that I met over the weekend, I miss them so much already that I had to write this. This was the family and peer group that we all wish for – and I can’t wait for the next time. I made so many new friends that now mean so much to me – you know who you are…

People were asking me where I’d got all my energy from, as I was busy jumping up and down, clapping and giving the crew a boost as well as the participants. I stopped to wonder why afterwards. I wasn’t fitter than anyone else there – or healthier!?

Then I realised! I was getting some of it from the crowd and participants. The rest I got from the great guys and lovely gals crewing that I had been hanging around with all weekend; we just passed that energy around amongst ourselves and magnified it. And remembering the reason that I crewed in the first place, the promise I had made myself to help make it the best crew ever! And it WAS!

Till we meet again… Bobby

Sharing Pay and Display car park tickets

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Don’t you just love giving your partially unused ‘Pay & Display’ parking ticket to someone else when you leave a car park?

Illegal… Possibly.
Against the law… Definitely not!

Share your parking tickets next time you have time left on them.

Feel good about yourself and help a stranger.
Next time it could be you ;-)

Sharing is caring!

Will Overconsumption lead to famine?

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MIT Researchers have been doing some study that should be considered by everyone.

It asks, will the over consumption of humanity eventually lead to famine?

You can probably guess the common sense answer to that!

The US and UN are busy doing their best to reduce the world population by invading, killing those that don’t ‘deserve’ to live because of their differing beliefs – but is more war the answer…

On a more personal note where YOU can make a difference:
Is it really necessary for you to have the things that marketing makes you think that you must have?

Upgrade your upgrade or use products longer…?
Consume more or just enough to meet your needs…?
Save more or use/spend more…?
Have your own or share with others…?

You have a conscious choice everyday not to participate in the political games, led by governments and media.

There is enough for everyone as long as people learn to play together.

Bobby

——–

Below is an excerpt from an article written by Mac Slavo at www.shtfplan.com

“Other resource issues that have come to light in recent years include the availability of fresh water, as well as the productive capacity of our current agricultural system. Since all of our natural resources are interdependent, a break down in one, like for example the globe’s oil production system, would make it impossible for farmers to grow food, or for trucks to transport it. The same holds true for fresh water, which is essential not only to human life, but for oil exploration, refining operations, food production and a host of other industries essential to human civilization.
By all accounts, we have developed a system of consumption that truly is unsustainable in the long-term.

An additional consideration which the MIT research study may have touched on but does not look to as a direct potential cause for global calamity is the breakdown of society as a result of unsustainable political, financial, and monetary machinations.

There is a strong case to be made that the issuance of trillions of dollars in debt over the course of the last several decades, much like oil, will become impossible to sustain. Since the entire system of consumption is essentially based on this debt, if confidence in this system is lost, it may very well have the same initial effect as a peak oil breaking point. Debt, even when fabricated out of thin air, is essentially a promise tied to some sort of resource. It is based on the idea that something will eventually be created by someone in order to make good on the debt. By all accounts, we the people are the collateral for all of this debt floating our in the system. But, it has gotten to the point that the debt – somewhere in the range of $200 trillion in the United States alone – far outweighs our ability to harness enough time and energy to repay the principal with interest.
Thus, this ‘peak debt’ created to save us from the unsustainable resource practices we face should be just as big of a concern as peak oil or water. Because when we finally reach the limit of our debt, and it becomes clear that the collateral backing that debt is unable to produce enough yield to pay it back, we’ll have a whole new meaning for the term ‘collateral damage.’
With seven billion people on the planet, the system as it is currently managed can’t possibility continue to support the daily needs of the world’s population indefinitely. The solutions that have been presented over the course of the last half century fall far short of providing any meaningful results, despite the treasure spent and liberty stripped.
Slowly but surely we are approaching Peak Civilization, and when that bubble pops we’ll see the ‘crash’ manifest in the form of famine, disease and global conflict.”

The real value of a meal deal

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Next time you walk past a homeless person in the street and into a shop to buy some more useless crap – why not think of them and buy them some food that you feel they’d like to eat!

Then you can give it to them on the way out, as you go back out into the cold night.
Does it really cost that much to care?

Sometimes people just need to eat.

Yes, they are there. Yes, you did see and ‘ignore’ them. Yes, they are cold. And yes, those selling The Big Issue are actively trying to make a difference without just asking for charity.

Your attitude towards others shows the world what you are like. If you believe you are better than that, behave better and love others, as much as the love that is due and coming to you.

So stop talking about making a difference and pretending you care. Show it!

It doesn’t cost more than the price of a sandwich and a drink to show you care about life.

Life shouldn’t be about how much money you put into your pockets but how much value you put back into the world!

The GREEN Movement and the Good Old Days

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Here is an email/facebook status I found that rings true. Anyone around the age of 35 or older will remember the ‘Good Old Days’, when being ‘Green’ wasn’t a movement but a way of life.  Instead of today’s society that generally doesn’t care about where things come from or where they go – leading to the excesses, consumption and waste of modern life.

If you’re old enough to remember life as it was  described below, what changed for you?
Is it time to start caring again?

Bobby

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.

I apologised and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.”

The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”

She was right – our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So, they really were recycled … but we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right …we didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts – wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right … we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house – not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the country of Wales. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working, so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right … we didn’t have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn’t it sad that the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were, just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?