Hello and welcome back. This bite-sized clip of a new way of being is with Johnny Wilkinson,

the guy who kicked the last minute winning drop goal to secure England the Rugby World Cup in 2003.

Winning the World Cup and becoming the world's best player had been two goals.

Johnny set himself when he was still a young boy and then at the age of 23 he achieved both

feats basically simultaneously. And he believed or had believed that achieving those lifetime peak

goals would leave him with a lasting sense of happiness

and fulfilment. Yet the very next day, after England had won the Rugby World Cup, Johnny

felt as empty as he ever had done. In time, this prompted a radical reappraisal of where

lasting satisfaction and well-being are to be found. And this pattern

is by no means exclusive to Johnny or any of the other elite performers I've spoken to who've shared

similar experiences. We all tend to live with one eye on the future when everything will suddenly

fall into place and will finally feel a sense of lasting contentment.

But that is an illusion.

In this clip, Johnny also talks about how the mind spins stories about the past or future that seem real,

but actually only tell us more about where we're at now than anything else.

I'll link to the full episode in the show notes, but first, here is Johnny.

Just from a sort of society perspective, you're in a way a little bit promised this idea that at the end of this suffering will come the joy, you know, whether it's the next car,

whether it's the job, whether it's the family, whether it's the retirement. I think it's quite

interesting now because life's added or the mind's added another one now, which stops you

ever facing this because it says, well, after I'm gone, my legacy will make me happy.

You're kind of like, oh, now I'm screwed.

I'm never going to face this in my lifetime.

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