Sport

Paddy Heaney: We will all just have to adapt to a new way of life

REALIGNMENT Classes at The Train Station Fitness Academy were sold out until the threat of coronavirus took over. Many people’s lives have been turned upside down, but looking after our families and following public health guidance should now be our only focus
REALIGNMENT Classes at The Train Station Fitness Academy were sold out until the threat of coronavirus took over. Many people’s lives have been turned upside down, but looking after our families and following public health guidance should now be our REALIGNMENT Classes at The Train Station Fitness Academy were sold out until the threat of coronavirus took over. Many people’s lives have been turned upside down, but looking after our families and following public health guidance should now be our only focus

I DON’T mind revealing this.

In the months before the coronavirus outbreak, I’d never had it so good.

Bear in mind, this is all relative.

I’ve never made megabucks. But by my modest standards, I was doing okay.

The gym was flying. My Life Changer talk was bringing in extra income.

And to cap it all off, I also ceded to the pleas from The Irish News to return to the stable.

To quote Del Boy, it was ‘cushty.’

Then, BANG! Gym closed.

Door locked. Party over.

Just like that.

Nothing could prepare anyone for the events that have unfolded recently, but in a strange way, I was mentally ready.

For the last few months I have been up to my neck in books about stoicism.

It started when my friend Ciaran Mullan recommended Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday.

When I went online to buy that book, Amazon was doing a bundle offer.

Before completing Stillness is the Key, Holiday had written The Obstacle is the Way and Ego is the Enemy.

All three could be purchased for £20. Given that I was so flush– I bought the lot and devoured them.

Skilfully written and easily read, the aforementioned triology is like a beginner’s guide to the ancient wisdoms of the world.

Those books introduced me to Seneca (Letters from a Stoic) and Marcus Aurelius (Meditations). Most recently, I was reading Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl.

So, while things had never been better at the gym, I was reading stories and anecdotes about men who’d never had it worse.

But there was a sound reason behind my choice of reading material. As a coach, you start out believing that method is everything.

You think that once you grasp an understanding of programming and the science of training, you will hold the keys to success.

Then one day you find out that you’ve got it all wrong.

You realise that method is actually only a small part of it, and the crux to all improvement, whether in sport, business or life, lies with consistency of habit.

And a person’s ability to develop a habit hinges on their philosophy to life, hardship and success.

A personal example. As you know, I like riding my bike. But I also have a family.

While pedalling around the roads of South Derry, I have occasionally experienced the odd the flash of guilt.

The thought would sometimes occur: ‘why are you out looking over the hedges? Surely you’d be better served doing a bit more work?’

Mercifully, Seneca The Elder came to the rescue.

He said: “It’s not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”

In business, you will always believe that you can be bigger, better and more successful.

And if you allow that craving for more to become all consuming – you’ll never ride your bike.

Thank you, Seneca.

WHILE Ryan Holiday’s books were immensely readable, Man’s Search for Meaning is the book which best prepared me for the recent events.

The author Viktor E. Frankl was a psychiatrist who survived the Nazi concentration camps.

The Nazis killed his parents and his wife.

His account of the concentration camps is beyond grim.

The images of starvation, sickness and death cement in your mind.

The mystery when reading the book is why more people in concentration camps didn’t commit suicide.

And that is the precise question which informed Frankl’s school of logotherapy.

When treating patients suffering incredible torment, he would ask them: ‘Why do you not commit suicide?’

The rationale was that if Frankl could tap into the most important thing in a person’s life, the love of a child, a talent to be used, then it would provide the thread for his treatment.

The lessons in Man’s Search For Meaning have helped me to accept the new reality that has been forced upon us by the threat of coronavirus.

All of us need to realign our sights.

All of us need to redefine what’s important.

Before the outbreak, my number one priority was to look after my family.

You want the best for your children. You want money so they can have everything they need.

Now, the gym is closed and our income stream is significantly reduced. However, nothing has really changed. There is only a slight realignment.

Today, my number one priority is to keep my family safe. Unless all of us start following public health guidance, 15,000 people in Northern Ireland could die.

The purpose and meaning of our lives should be to keep our families alive.

We are living in the midst of a pandemic.

In terms of what people have suffered in the past, what is being asked of us is really not that bad.

We’re not boarding coffin ships. We’re not in the trenches. We’re not walking into gas chambers.

Johnny isn’t going to sit his GCSEs. Mary can’t get her eyebrows done. Michael can’t go to the pub.

And Paddy has to close his gym.

Boohoo. Dry your eyes.

It’s not Auschwitz.