Playing the victim doesn't get results Symonds

Australian cricketer, Andrew Symonds is once again in the headlines for the wrong reasons and I'm not going to point the finger at him, or the fan that apparently felt snubbed when he couldn't get an autograph. The hotel manager backs Symonds that he did nothing wrong. A cricket australia spokesperson stated that they will be investigating "specifically into what he did and, as importantly, what he did not do"
I believe that we create everything that happens in our life - in some way or another. This can happen directly through our actions, or, perhaps in this case, through our non-actions. It's easy to blame certain situations as being out of one's control, and what this does is remove one's personal power.
By blaming someone else, it's in effect saying "I can't do anything about it". Where does that leave someone like Andrew Symonds - that he can't do anything to stay out of trouble?
It we step up and take responsibility for our lives, then we start to ask ourselves better questions - how did I create this? how CAN I stay out of trouble? How can I maintain a good reputation and behave like a champion?
It's time for Symonds to look deeper and consider what he can learn about this for himself so that he can move more powerfully forward to his future, and create the results he truly wants.

Rehabilitation in Sport - Ben Cousins return

Controversial AFL player Ben Cousins continues his comeback campaign to the national game following the AFL ruling. Despite stringent drug testing imposed on Cousins requiring up to 3 drug tests a week, he is keen to be drafted into a club for the 2009 season. There are many points of view on whether Cousins should play or not, and under what conditions, and it begs the question, how do we allow someone to move forward from their past mistakes?
Dale Carnegie, renowned for his business and leadership training, has said "give people a grand reputation to live up to." The point being, that what we expect to see is what we get. If we expect someone or something to go wrong, we will look for all the evidence that supports this belief, and overlook all the times that it goes right. We are all 'creators' or our reality and if there is a collective belief that Ben Cousins is going to 'stuff up' again, then we might all be proven right.
To get ahead in anything you want to get up more times than you fall down. As long as you keep striving, and that each time you fall you get up again, then you will succeed. Cousins has fallen hard more than once, but let's not push him down. When a toddler starts to walk and they fall down two, three, four times....are you going to give up on him/her ever walking? Of course not.
Perhaps if we give him, and others returning from rehabilitation of any sort, the support and belief that people can change, then Ben Cousins is more likely to return to his sporting glory. I hope he does.

Retirement & Comebacks in sport

When is it a good time to retire? It took me three times to finally retire from sport. The first time I retired was because I had reached my goal of playing in the Olympics and thought there was nothing left to do in the sport. The second time I retired was because I thought I was getting old (37 y.o) and I should take care of my back (screws had held it together since '92). When I retired the third time, at age 41, it was for the right reasons - I had a new passion and new goals to finally convince me to put away the competition cozzie/togs/bathers/swimsuit for good.
Australian, Geoff Huegill, just announced his comeback to swimming with aims to swim in 2010 Commonwealth Games. He cites is health and weight as a major reason for returning to swimming and also feels he has unfinished business.
Lance Armstrong is making his official comeback to competitive cycling in January in South Australia for the 2009 Tour Down Under. His reasons seem to be more about raising awareness for cancer, than cycling per se.
And Layne Beachley, Queen of the surf, 7 times world champion, recently announced her retirement, excited about the business opportunities ahead of her.
Each athlete will have their own reasons for retiring, returning or even staying in sport. I think it's important for an individual to wisely consider their motivation for either - is it positive and towards something they want to do, or is it motivated by pain, moving away from an undesired situation eg lack of success outside of sport. Having a positive direction to move towards is inevitably a more empowering motivation that produces results.
A key to successful transition is identity. I realised my identity was wrapped in being a sportsperson and as long as that remained, I always floated back to that. Once I learnt to identify myself as something new - a business person and entrepreneur, it was easy to change my actions, my results and therefore my life.