Investing in Excellence

As my friends would know, I would like to be a sports psychologist when i grow up (yes i'm still very young). Not the research kinda of psychologist. No way. I wanna be the inspirational guru, the one that gives the players the self belief of a lion fighting a deer!

I want to work with the players, preferably in secondary school and junior college, so as to help them harness the mental strength in them to compete against the best. Not only that, my skills will enable me to help them deal with the other challenges facing them, social pressures, recovery from injury and even planing their overall training program.

So yes, a sports psychologist is what i want to be.

I'm starting now.

I've enrolled myself in this course, Investment in Excellence, developed by The Pacific Institute. The former President of the Canadian Psychological Association calls their curriculum the best and most applicable use of psychology for the betterment of the human race. They collaborated with leading social and cognitive psychologist, Bandura and Seligman in for a program designed to raise your self image through positive self talk, affirmations and visualization.

I must say that the course is made of some very good stuff. The difficulty lies in assimilating all the great information into ones everyday life. Fortunately, there is lots of great take home matierial, including an audio CD with 5-10 minute tracks to keep you aware of the the way you think.

Think optimally, be a champion.

Anyway, today was the 3rd day of the course. Here's the gang. I'm the youngest amongst a group of very esteemed individuals. Listening to the introductions of these super successful individuals makes me very honored to be in their company, learning and sharing together. 

The tall guy on the right is one of the two people who brought the program to Singapore. Ray Jefferson, he lost his fingers while serving for the US commando forces a few years ago. As of 5 days ago, he got confirmed as an Assistant Minister for Barrack Obama. He's heading Obama's support for war veterans (who are the social group with the highest unemployment rate apparently), getting them retrained, off the streets and into good jobs. 

Amongst the others are Mckinsey Consultants, one of the head auditors of the Indonesian anti corruption division, the founder of Wand Inspiration yada yada yada. Coolness! 

So anyway, this course is the first in a series of 3 courses for me this summer. The second course ill be taking is PX2, basically something similar, designed for youth and sportsmen. Finally, ill be going for the PX2 facilitators course. Then ill be all legit to give talks and help improve the mental skills of youth! Pure awesomeness!

Whats the price im paying for all this? 6 weeks of my time serving Sara (the lady standing second from the right) as her free intern in her consulting/training company, Callahan Associates.