What a thrilling few weeks it has been for Irish sport. The narrative went something like this. Ireland winning away from home in Austria, helping us to keep on top off our World Cup qualifying group. The Irish Rugby team backing up a heroic victory over the All Blacks with a strong win and performance against Canada. Then finally Conor McGregor sat perched up on the octagon after being crowned UFC double world champion. It really can’t get much better than that. Or can it? I’m willing to bet we have seen the mentality of Irish sport turn a corner. No longer are we happy to just take part, we are starting to realise that we can take over. Yes I’m happy to paraphrase McGregor, because I truly believe this individual is the icing on the cake and his achievements will transcend the world of sport. A whole generation of kids will be influenced by his mentality. We watched a high octane rematch with the Kiwis, where were actually believed back to back victories was possible over the world’s best and up next we have the formidable Katie Taylor making her pro boxing debut.

Irish people for so long have been known for their warm hospitality, friendly nature and obviously a love of “having the craic”. As a race we always appear on these lists of the friendliest places to visit. When you live abroad you have a yearning to return home because you genuinely miss all of the above. Our ability to laugh at ourselves is unmatched anywhere in the world. I recently attended a funeral for a friends Dad. Never have I seen so many people having a laugh and joke at such inappropriate moments but all were well reciprocated. This just the nature of the Irish psyche. However this happy exterior often masks an undercurrent of inferiority and insecurity. We like our heroes to be humble, we want them to be confident as opposed to being arrogant. How often have we heard the expression “he loves himself”? growing up in Ireland this was never seen as a good thing. Today we live in a society where people pay specialists to tell them it’s ok to love themselves, its taken a long time to realise that this is a positive thing.

I believe a shift took place in the late 90’s in the psyche of Irish sport. A certain Individual named Roy Maurice Keane came along like a hurricane and made people question and raise the standards of those around them. No longer did people accept that it was ok to just compete. This seemed to seep into the fabric of Irish sport other individuals in other codes started to follow suit. Brian O’Driscoll with his freakish talent led by example and all of sudden the bar was raised for Irish Rugby. A whole generation of kids seen these individuals and now we’re reaping the rewards. Irish rugby teams have been flying the flag for the last few years at both club and international level. However I really feel McGregor’s achievements last weekend will usher in a new period of success. All the kids that watched his clinical, slick and triumphant display will now believe its ok to scream from the rooftops about what they want to achieve with a new sense of self belief and confidence.

Your thoughts and beliefs can dictate everything you want to achieve. When Conor set out on his journey he clearly defined a path and his goals, everything he has achieved over the last few months had been clearly visualised in the previous years. Through his tweets and interviews he laid out exactly where he was going to be and what he would achieve. Never I have I seen a better example of visualisation techniques been set out so clearly in the public domain. Almost to the word they came to fruition. Those objectives must have made the thrill of victory all the sweeter as he sat back and watched the physical realisation of his hard work and dreams. It’s a stand out example of the law of attraction and I hope it shows more people that one’s dreams can become a physical reality through the power of imagining.