“Last night I was privileged to attend a talk by Professor Tim Noakes, guru physiologist, all-round nice guy and a natural communicator. His topic: Self-Belief in Athletes. His audiovisual presentation covered Lewis Pugh's Arctic swim and a whole list of famous moments in sport, including the first four-minute mile. His major insights after nearly 40 years in sports science? You can't achieve it until you really know you can. You have to believe it and then you have to act on it. Then you have to give 100% when it matters.

"Fatigue is purely an emotion!" he said, with a grin on his face. An example: Josiah Thugwane winning the 1996 Seattle Olympic marathon by just three seconds. "Watch the footage, you'll see that he outpsyched second place into believing that it wasn't worth his while to suffer for the win. He convinced the other athlete through his own body language that he was more fatigued than he was!"

The mind is just as powerful when it comes to well-being. Tim believes that there is a mental component to injury. I agree, and I can think of everyday examples too. It's a bit like self-employed people who cannot afford to be sick, so they never are, versus employees who get paid whether they produce results or not. Something to think about if you're getting sick or injured regularly. Is this a mechanism for you to cut back on a training regime that is unrealistically high? All of the above are highly useful principles to apply to our everyday lives. Let's go for it! We've got the time to make a change, starting today.”

Similarities between astrologers and athletes

This got me thinking, which normally leads to me putting my thoughts on paper. John Frawley (my super hero) speaks about getting into the zone as a student of astrology – a term which is widely used (but not exclusively) in sporting communities. I was involved in sport for over a decade, training “normal” people as well as top notch athletes and managing endurance sports teams, as well as putting my own body and mind through hell during multi-day events as support crew. I equate the study of (traditional) astrology to an endurance event: it takes a certain mindset which includes the ability to focus for long periods at a time, even when sleep deprived, the commitment to spending hours practicing and in preparation of the event, knowledge of the correct training methods to improve the efficacy of the human body, the right nutrition and supplementation – so all the accidental dignities - and then to adopt a no pain no gain philosophy. In sport, you cannot be king forever and your reign will end, in astrology, you will never be an astrologer who is infallible and all knowing – in sport there is always someone else coming through the ranks who will topple you from your podium – in astrology it is the craft itself – it will always be bigger and better than you.

To reach the ranks of an elite athlete in the first place you need to dedicate hours upon end, day after day, month after month to practicing your skill – and this includes making many sacrifices. Getting up at the crack of dawn when others are sleeping, especially in the middle of winter, investing in your passion on a Saturday afternoon when others are socialising, dragging your body over the last few kilometres when every cell is screaming at you in pain, the list is endless. Only once the Saturnian effort has been made (and with the right amount of natural talent), will you ever get into the zone. It is exactly the same with astrologers: poring over chart after chart, reading endless books, some written in a vernacular that is hard to understand as they were written centuries ago (and which give you an instant migraine), resisting the urge to read a trashy magazine when you have ancient texts calling for your attention, and having the guts to go back to charts time and time again when your judgement was wrong, to learn and thus fine-tune your skill.

The Zone

The zone is that place where everything flows; if I were a drug user I would probably equate it to being on a trip or a high – your body reacts like the well-oiled machine you have trained it to be. With an astrologer it is the mind that reacts that way, the technique seems flawless and the chart literally sings to you as you begin your delineation. Sometimes it takes a cursory glance and you are headed into the zone – one look at the chart and all the hours of study and sacrifice pay off, you have an unbroken wave from beginning to end and you are oblivious to external sounds and disturbances - all goes according to plan. This state of mind and level of skill cannot be achieved without the tortuous hours of preparation that lead up to this moment. Whether your craft is music, sport, astrology, surgery or even law, to get into the zone requires so much hard work and effort that those who are not worthy never make it to that Promised Land. And once you get there, there is no guarantee that you will enter its pearly gates easily again – more training is required and additional sacrifices need to be made – more blood has to be shed.

To be or not to be

As a tutor of astrology, and previously a trainer of the human body, I am able to assess very early on who will (or not) make it into the zone. The students who submit their tutorials on time, even when they have had a major crisis in their life such as a family death, equate to the athlete who, even though he is not feeling 100% or his work load requires him to be in the office 18 hours a day, still gets up to train at 4am. Simply put, can you do what needs to be done to succeed, forsaking everything else to reach that goal? To me this is the crux of the matter – how badly do you want something – do you want it so badly that you can taste it – and do you truly believe that you have what it takes to succeed?

Do you want it so badly that even when your family labels you as selfish, saying they never see you anymore, or that you permanently have your head burrowed in a book and are now just a big bore and they will therefore stop inviting you round for dinner – are you able to withstand this criticism? Although you ache to go and frolic in the hay with Venus or Jupiter for just one afternoon you know that you have something else calling to you that you need to honour – are you up to this challenge? And you tell yourself that if you can only reach the zone once, you will be more lenient, but then you reach it and it becomes addictive and you realise, just as a top sportsman does, that you cannot let up even for a day – that if it is not your scheduled “rest day” as per your training programme then you have no place resting.

Sorting the wheat from the chaff

The ancient authorities of astrology believed that not everyone is meant to be given the key to the door of astrological wisdom, and I endorse this completely. This does not allude to an elitist club nor am I elevating myself above others; it is a reality check and simply means that you need to earn your stripes – once again a Saturnian lesson; and the oddest facet to this is that once your stripes are earned, or you have won another race, many turn round and tell you how lucky you are – this is insulting to those who have sacrificed so much to reach that position and who have literally sweated blood. Many aspiring astrologers commence with the study of traditional astrology but for some, although they may finish their studies, it is never applied productively and they battle to attract clients and therefore cannot earn a living from their craft. I truly feel that as with sport, unless you are prepared to prove your worth and pay homage to Saturn, you will not be given the key to the door of his ancient and delectable knowledge and “matters will go hardly on”.

Yes, a natural aptitude does play a role, but I have borne witness to many a person who lacked the aptitude but made up for it with tenacity, diligence and commitment to extreme hard work, and I have seen many with an abundance of natural talent fall short. Talent does not equate to success - sadly for us as a species - and it is literally a matter of no pain, no gain.

No pain, no gain

I must clarify that I am not advocating pushing yourself to the point where you inflict irreparable damage on yourself, your psyche or your relationships. I am simply saying that before you consider throwing in the towel, or accepting the invitation to the movies when you know that you have an unfinished assignment or a chart to (re) assess due to an incorrect judgement, that you question your motives. I experienced many endurance races where an athlete would quit, and in this particular sport it meant the three remaining team mates were now racing unofficially, only to realise after the withdrawal that they could have continued; the physical pain would have been more bearable compared to the pain of quitting. There is no turning back and believe me, bailing the next time and the next becomes easier – it is only the first time the decision needs to be made that is so painful.

I agree with Professor Tim Noakes that there is a mental component to injury and if we look for it hard enough we will find it – but this takes a courage that few are prepared to muster. When a student who is coping relatively well drops out of my course citing insufficient time to study or family pressure – that is the equivalent of a sports injury. Simply put, when the going gets tough the tough get going – or not.

Balance

Balance is a buzz word that everyone (appears to) strive for, but I believe it to be over-rated. Balance is relative: what is balanced for me could appear highly abnormal and unbalanced to you. It is for each individual to find their rhythm – some can run 20 kilometres comfortably in a certain time, for others it is hell, they can do it, but they need more time. One astrologer may be able to delineate 10 charts in a day, for another it may be two; it is not about comparing yourself to others, it is about comparing yourself to your potential. You need to gauge what it will take for you to succeed and what it will take for you to reach the zone. At the same time you need to remove yourself from your comfort zone (this is not the same zone as The Zone) – no one ever achieved great heights sitting in their armchair in front of the television, night after night. Anything worth achieving has an element of pain to it – that is the nature of Saturn – we do not return to the Divine without going through Saturn first – and if we are going to balk at the first sign of adversity then quite frankly, we are not worthy. While that may be your choice, you then have to be honest about it and instead of telling others who did not turn from the pain and suffering that they are lucky, acknowledge that they chose to follow that path, you did not.

Conclusion

Some choose the path of endurance and others the sprint, which fundamentally is a matter of personal choice and in the end doesn't matter. What does is that you pushed yourself to your limits, based on the level of natural talent that you were given, and when you combined this with hard work and sacrifice, you were the best you that you could possibly be. This may result in third place on the podium or it may result in first – once again that is not the main criterion. How satisfied were you with the result: if ecstatic, as you know that you did everything you could, then well done - and if not, set your alarm clock for 4am tomorrow morning.