"I encourage people that want to learn, achieve, strive and feel fulfilled to leave their comfort zone on a regular basis."
John Bullock
John Bullock is a man on a mission. The former Thai Boxing British Champion is still as competitive as ever, but now helping others perform at their best at work and in life via his company Pain Point Coach.
John helps executives, business owners and entrepreneurs complete their work in less time, with less stress and achieve more freedom.
John said: “In this world of scheduled meetings, targets, traffic jams, constant phone calls and emails it’s no wonder many of us suffer burn out or just feel tired and drained. Many of us drink too much and exercise infrequently which adds to the every anxiety you carry.”
John has constructed a unique programme using sport and experiential learning to help clients relate the experience to their business and general life.
"Sport gives you so many things. It helps you to manage your time more effectively, gives you more energy, focus, team skills, planning, strategical and creative thinking, working towards deadlines, commitment, goal setting, leaving your comfort zone and entering the learning zone. Other productivity benefits may include more time to spend on income generating activity, bringing projects in faster adding more flow to deal momentum and customer satisfaction.
John is now an Optimum Performance Leader in his new chosen field of business and has been training towards his certification as an Optimal Performance Leader since May 2019 "and probably all my life without knowing it!"
He graduates this month as a Certified Optimal Performance Leader is also now a Certified Muay Thai coach with the Thai Educational Authorities in Bangkok.
In helping clients, John is always asked what contributed to him becoming a champion in sport.
He continued: "I am reminded of the quote by Napoleon Hill the American author, 'Failure cannot live with persistence'. I think persistence is a key factor. It’s not the only factor but it’s a main contributory ingredient.
"I don’t think anyone steps into the ring for the first time and sees themselves as a champion. There are lots of small steps along the way…such as having the bottle to get into the ring, keeping your eyes wide open when someone throws a punch, successfully hitting a moving target, completing the distance, finding flow in training and finally winning your first bout. All are important steps on the journey to being a champion.
"For me it also included seeing the current champion, as he was, and knowing I had the beating of him. I believed I could do it and visualised myself in the ring. I didn’t think it would be easy I just knew I had the opportunity to succeed and I stepped through that door.
Having become a successful sports and now business trainer, John went on to explain how he introduced his sports training skills into business.
"I had great people around me and I trained with the best two World Champions in Ronnie Green and Russ Williams as well as training under the famous Grand Master Toddy in the late 70’s and early 80’s…not forgetting to mention my brother Jeff Bullock, a European Champion. I had great people to learn and train with. I went on to successfully train Alby Bimpson, Middle Weight British Champion as well as six junior British Champions.
"It's true that experience helps you steer a steady course but I recognise all these people believed in what they could do. I was merely the sat nav providing directions. I’ve always said it’s not the job of a cornerman to tell you how to fight, he is merely there to point things out to you that you may not have seen in the heat of the moment. So he needs to have a good ability to observe, correct and advise in split seconds and that same quality makes a good trainer and I believed I had that ability."
John is keen to point out that Optimal Performance Leadership is far from therapy "and I’m neither a guru or a coach so I cannot help people that require such. My unique programme uses experiential learning to create emotional experiences for the participants. It’s the emotional experience that creates long lasting memories that through reflection and recovery can be related to your daily working lives. By way of example I have activities that increase focus, teamwork, develop strategic and creative thinking, helping you flow, how to reset focus, time management and dealing with stress to name a few outcomes. So yes I know all business leaders and corporate teams will complete the course with great knowledge impacting their lives for the better."
John encourages people to step out of their comfort zone in spite of the stresses they will face.
"We have the comfort zone, learning zone and panic zone and my programme teaches you to recognise when you’re moving from one to the other. When you’re at the coal face you don’t always recognise the effects to your body though that’s where we feel stress first. It’s a big ask to request that you purposely leave your comfort zone and I recognise that. Tony Robbins says, 'to change your emotion you need to change your motion' and it’s so true.
"The reality is we only ever learn anything when we take action and that’s why Confucius said, “l hear I forget, I see I remember. I do I understand.
"So I encourage people that want to learn, achieve, strive and feel fulfilled to leave their comfort zone on a regular basis."
