Super Version Of You

Johnny Wilkinson was some rugby player. As an Irishman, it was difficult to like that powerful England World Cup winning team of 2003 but it wasn’t difficult to admire Johnny. He was meticalious in everything he did. Coolness personified on the field. Calm. Rarely missed a kick. The best in the world.

I read his book ‘My World’ as a 19 year old aspirational GAA player and I loved it. I was staggered by his sacrifices and commitment levels, practicisng tirelessly to reach perfection and obsessed with being the best. To that young version of me, this was gold, inspirational and it became gospel to me as I used it as my reference to go be the best I could be on the field.

Late last year, I was intrigued when an Instagram ad popped up for the High Performance Podcast interviewing Johnny. (Check it out here.) I’ve listened to it multiple times. It’s incredible. He talk’s about his struggles with his physical, mental and emotional well-being during and after his playing days and how he hopes people ignored his advice in the ‘My World’ book from all those years ago.

There is so much in this interview that resonated with me around having replaced passion with pressure. But what particularly stood out was when he spoke about the power of imagining a super version of yourself and just being it.

Here’s my synopisis of that part of the interview:

Ask the big question of yourself: “How am I at my best?”. Sit with the answers and feel them. What’s stopping me from being like that all the time?

Imagine the super version of you doing what you are currently doing and what you want to do in the future. Imagine doing it in the most graceful, flowing, connected, light, airy way. Imagine it.

Then ask what is it that they have, that I don’t. And the answer is nothing. The bigger question to ask, is what is it that I have that they don’t? i.e. What is it that I’m holding onto that the super version of me is not. And when I see it, letting go of it is something that I can do immediately.

And just be it. Be the super version of you. Don’t compare yourself to it. Just be it. Be your version of it right now and you’ll realise you’re version of it is better than you could ever had imagined.