Take That Action.
Just the other day I saw that Former UFC Welterweight & Middleweight Champion GSP (Georges St. Pierre) was in town here in Vancouver, BC. I then saw a post about an autograph session for a Beverage brand he was doing promo for. I don’t normally drink alcohol any more and if I do, I’d choose Scotch. So I thought nothing more of that post not thinking of attempting to go wait in line to get an autograph bottle of Vodka. However, I still had this confident belief that I will meet him and shake his hand.
It was Fight Weekend here in Vancouver. From local to the big names, if you were into Combat Sports, it was truly a busy weekend. UFC 289 was being held at Rogers Arena on Saturday June 10. The day before that, Jun 9, we had our Top Local MMA Promotion, Battlefield Fight League (BFL) hosting their event. A local Club show hosted by RainCity Boxing was on Saturday, along with Josh Taylor vs. Teofimo Lopez. Yes, BUSY!
The following day, which was the day of the signing, I was just at home doing my morning routine and about to get my day started. I got a message from my sister Laurelee (Laure), forwarding me that same post I saw about that GSP autograph session. She asked if I was planning on going and I told her that I wasn’t. I asked if she was going to go and said she was really thinking about it.
During that time of the day, my brother-in-law was out with their eldest son, and my parents were at home with no plans. All my sister had to do was ask my parents if they could watch their youngest for a couple of hours if she chose to go. When Laure told me the scenario, I told her to take that opportunity if you can. She replied back with some excuses like
“The Place is too far.” or,
“It might be too late now.” , but I countered her
I eventually convinced her too at least try and that way at least know the outcome. Better to have tried and not happen rather than to think about what if I did go? Again, this is me not thinking of going still.
Then all of a sudden, she asks.
“Want to come with me?” ….
Still being aware of what I just told her, the exact same scenario went through my mind. A list of excuses were being calculated first, but I was able to control those and push that away. At the end I said
“Yeah. Let’s Go!”
History Lesson:
As far as I can remember, both of us grew up liking action movies. Some of our favourites were fighting movies with martial arts. Bruce Lee will always be top of the list, but we enjoyed movies like Rocky, Best of the Best, & Bloodsport. We even enjoyed the Karate Kid with Ralph Macchio. Something that had to do with competition. So it was a no-brainer that both of us would get into watching professional boxing and wrestling. She still has her “AUSTIN 3:16” Shirt that I know she'll never let go of.
The time when I got that bootleg video tape of UFC 1 and 2, both were recorded onto 1 VHS tape at lower quality, I saw something that I never saw before? Fully trained fighting from the ground live in action? After watching it a few times, I started to understand it. I showed my sister and then was able to sorta explain to her how it all works. She too started to understand it. If you remember Royce Gracie, he had this move where he’d have the opponents upper body locked on the ground and use his heels to consistently strike his opponents ribs. We’d then shout “Ribs, Ribs, Ribs, Ribs” after each strike.
I kept my eye on the sport even when it was at “The Dark Ages” cuz I really loved how pure it was. DVD’s were now a popular thing and were affordable. Especially if you worked at Best Buy and got stuff at even more discounted prices. The UFC branded DVD’s had a good discount on them cuz it wasn’t as popular then. This is when a young GSP arrived on the scene. He was fighting for local promotions where you had to paint your sponsor's brand on their back and then moved his way up to the UFC. I saw how he dominated guys pretty quickly and was named “RUSH”.
I started my collection of UFC DVD’s and just recently got UFC 56. This is where I was watching GSP on his tear working his way up for another Title shot against Matt Hughes. He was up against Sean “The Muscle Shark” Sherk on that card. GSP ended up finishing him by breaking his nose from elbows from the Top with a TKO Victory. Man, that was savage at the time. By diving timing, my sister happened to be around and asked what I was watching. I told her it’s the updated UFC now and first showed her who GSP was.
She saw how he busted up his opponent's face and then instantly became a FAN. She even showed our Mom that fight and with the technology of DVD’s we were able to precisely slo-mo the video frames. Laure showed her GSP breaking that guy’s nose in slow motion. My Sister made it be known within her peers that she was the biggest Fan amongst us. Even typing this up is an understatement! To everyone that knows, the rest is History!
*Back to the Story.
This was the opportunity to not over think and just do it. My girlfriend, Jinny, was going to work to catch up on some tasks, and the one urgent thing needed to do that day was scheduled to be done before the time of the autograph session. I looked at what I had to do the rest of the day and could easily shift things around and still get some tasks done later that day. It was all working out and I made the statement to myself
“Today is the Day.”
On top of that, my own copy of my book was directly in front of me and said,
“Why don’t you give me to GSP and film it?”
I grabbed the book and confirmed that I was going to sign it in front of him and give it to him while having it all recorded on video.
With everything all set with my parents and my niece, The UFCiblings were off to see GSP. When we got there, we saw that one side of the Venue was empty and had that hope there was no line, but low and behold, on the other side, it was there. I went around to go and find parking. We were already here and there was no way I'm turning back now. Finally found parking and walked our way to the line. It wasn’t as bad as we thought and it looked like we could get it. It was only 11:30 and the session was ending at 1pm. We both stayed positive.
There was a system in place accepting a certain number of people at a time and a pattern was made. I guess after several counts they managed an estimated time of when they would have to cut people off and it just happened to be where we were. That did bring some alarm, but I still remained confident. My sister, being a huge fan, was starting to get nervous. Doubt started to come out and said to her to play out both outcomes in your mind and be at peace with both endings. So we continued to wait.
It was getting really close to 1pm and saw that we were really close to the entrance. I was keeping my faith that we will have that chance. We saw one of the other promoters come out and tell us that the signing is over….
BUT
We will let the final leg people here who have been waiting to come in. The only thing was, you had to quickly get the bottle, get it signed, take a pic, and move to the counter to pay. You can’t get anything else personally signed by him and keep the talk short. I didn’t have anything to sign, in fact I had a gift for him. I didn’t have a pen with me and was thinking of using one that was there at the signing. Regardless I had this one shot. As much as I wanted to sign my book for him and video tape it, my main goal now was to at least just give it to him and take a picture.
When we finally got inside and were ushered towards the signing area, we had to go through a short process to help speed things up. Someone had post-it notes and made sure to spell our names correctly on it. After that we had to get our 1 bottle min (2 Max), then proceed to where he was signing. My sister went first and as she was getting hers signed, I had my book out and ready.
Then my moment came…
I went up to him, shook his hand, and told him he was a motivating factor with my fight against Cancer and wanted to give you a copy of my book.
Check out how he inspired me with the Reel Below.
We took that pic and I gave it to him. He took it and he said Thank you. He put it down close to him to sign the next bottle, and one of his colleagues came up to me overhearing what I said and shook my hand for the story I told GSP.
With my bottle in hand I was then ushered to the cashier while my sister waited for me. I saw my sister with this huge smile on her face and I was still in shock with what I just did. Both of us were pretty calm for the most part while we were waiting at the cashier. Once we both paid and stepped out, that’s when everything set in and realized that we just did it. What a success!
Check out the Reel Below.
Lessons learned from this Successful Experience.
Your Emotional IQ can still be developed.
Being a fan since the beginning, I knew he was just another human being. There would be times while waiting in line I would overthink on what to say to him. I would catch myself in the thought and just let it go.
You can teach what you are practicing no matter what level your on.
Preaching to my sister on the reasons why she should just do it, she played the Reverse Uno card on me and I had to step up to my game. I accepted that challenge and followed through.
Being able to teach it first hand was another moment of learning. During the time of the line, I was catching my sister already believing the worst, but I would always remind her not to think that way and give her small tips to keep the fire lit that it is gonna happen. She listened and her energy did shift. Even a couple behind us was getting worried but with my sister and I both still upbeat, they stayed positive too.
You can learn to evolve at any moment.
There was a definite plan in my head that I wanted to accomplish, but the universe doesn't work like that. Because I was ok with both case scenarios, anything that can/would happen in between, I would be ok with too.
Even though I wasn’t able to sign the book to GSP, I still took the opportunity to give it to him regardless and be happy with the result.
If you really think of it, the odds are so much better of him reading it than it was if he didn’t have the book in his hands.
If you think Quantum Physics, there is a reality where he has read it.
I’m good with that.
This experience has taught me more ways to control my attitude. I feel Levelled up and even more grateful.
Comment below on how often you take action on opportunities that present themselves?
Hope you enjoyed this success story on taking action
Thanks for Reading.
JedRocks, Jed, Jedro
Brain Cancer Survivor