Gary Player is one of the most amazing people I’ve met. Gary is best known as being one of the greatest golfers in the history of the game (he is the only player to have won a Grand Slam on both the PGA and Senior’s tours.). He’s 73 years old and has more energy and strength today than 99% of us. He’s been married to his wife Vivienne for over fifty years and together they have six children and 20 grandchildren.
More than anything, Gary epitomizes what it means to be a successful human being. He does it all. He is a great family man. He is an accomplished entrepreneur. He is a successful philanthropist. He is a kind man who walks the earth with an open, grateful heart. He literally touches someone every day.
And he is an absolute expert (whether he knows it or not) on longevity and making use of energy to maximize enjoyment in every aspect of life.
Gary will tell you that maintaining energy is one of the key to a life well lived. That energy is the reason he has managed to be successful on so many fronts. Family, career, philanthropy, social.
Here is a 45-second clip of our interview where he talks about the impact of energy on being there for family.
Download MP3 clip – Time Management and Family
In other parts of our interview (www.qualityoflifeproject.org/gary_player), he talks about specific ways to build energy through diet and exercise.
It’s interesting how Gary connects building energy and time management with being a successful family man. That that is what allows him to get up early to take care of his work and to get back to the house to have breakfast with his grandchildren. The idea that we can have a great intentions but if we’re not working on the building blocks that allow us to execute
If I can digress, another parallel this makes me think about is the altruistic dimension to productivity. Lets say someone does two hours of volunteer work a week. And then by adopting some productivity and time management concepts, the person now has extra time and does four hours of volunteer work. Is there not an altruistic element at play here with developing the building blocks, in this case productivity? The same goes for someone like Gary who through his practice of exercise and diet, maximizes his energy which allows him to be a better husband, father, grandfather, entrepreneur, philanthropist etc.
Lastly, and this is out of left field and is totally unrelated to the above concept of energy. But this one minute clip of Gary talking about love and planting seeds is too good. So I’m just going to throw it in. Call it a bonus.
I hope you enjoyed this first post in which I’m including audio clips from my interviews. Please let me know through the comments section what you think of this new format and the post in general.
Thank you to my dad’s friend from college Dr. Marshall Burns who is a friend of Gary’s and made the interview happen.