Friday, 20 January 2017

Coach Jonathan Livingston Seagull


The almost half a century old short story by Richard Bach never ceases to amaze me.

Each time that I spend about 30 minutes reading this story cover to cover (yes, it’s short) about a seagull (Jonathan Livingston) whose only desire in life is to improve every single day, my brain always manages to release that feel good dopamine.

I finish the story and feel that reassurance; yes this can be done, self-improvement is a continuous process and I have the apparatus to practice it regularly- specifically in my running. Why, because it’s easy to experiment in running and constantly strive for improvement. What’s the worst that can happen? Nothing! All exercise is good. You’re already better and improved after the workout than you were 45 minutes ago when sedentary.

Running for me has always been the apparatus to experiment with physical and mental improvement; I don’t have to justify the outcome to anyone but myself and I get those low doses of feel good emotions every time a training runs goes well. After that good training session, the reassurance of self-improvement stays with me, locked up but open to my inspection for a sneak peek when I need a pat on the back.



How I wish that more focus was put on this novella in schools and kids were made to understand, appreciate and deeply analyse the intent with which Richard wrote this story. Maybe, there is no better self-help inspirational book out there which in less than 30 minutes can fill you with purpose, teach you the virtues of hard work and the necessity of self-reliance.

Well, Rudyard Kipling’s poem “IF” comes pretty close which is less than a 5 minute read, especially the ending which says:
“If you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!”

Rudyard Kipling was a 4:30 miler in the 19th century, so the ending is even more relatable and intense.



Returning to the story, Jonathan Livingston is an aerial athlete- rebels, trains, fails, plans, improves and repeats it. He is obsessed with improving. Possibly the most awe inspiring fictional bird. A relentless spirit, who shows that training is an integral part of life and the be-all-and-end-all in life is not just the monotonous survival that we have become so used to, but something beyond, something that adds substance to the journey. This substance is different for everyone and for Jonathan it is training, learning and improving.

Astonishingly, mental training which has become the new buzzword in endurance sports and for which there are so many books now available, is an omnipresent thought in Jonathan’s training process.

Just  to give an example, there is a paragraph in the story, which says, “Your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip,” Jonathan would say, other times, “is nothing more than your thought itself, in a form you can see. Break the chains of your thought, and you break the chains of your body, too ...”.

        Another paragraph, “In the days that followed, Jonathan saw that there was as much to learn about flight in this place as there had been in the life behind him. But with a difference. Here were gulls who thought as he thought. For each of them, the most important thing in living was to reach out and touch perfection in that which they most loved to do, and that was to fly. They were magnificent birds, all of them, and they spent hour after hour every day practising flight, testing advanced aeronautics.

I’ve read Matt Fitzgerald’s scintillating book (How Bad Do You Want It?) which emphasises the importance of mental training in endurance sports, and it was brilliant to see that almost 50 years ago Richard was writing along similar lines about Jonathan’s mental training for becoming a better and stronger (aerial) athlete!

It’s a marvelous short read, especially for athletes. There are more nuggets of wisdom in that novella than many lengthy profound reads!

If you want to read the story then use the link below:






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