No ego, No quit, No hate

Published on by James LLeave a comment

Recently I had the pleasure of running the No Ego Challenge, a delightful five mile trail race that starts at 6.30pm.  Because of this noticeable caveat, it is pitch black, therefore a head torch is not a luxury, but a must to run.

As it was my first race in almost two years, No Ego was a new challenge, where I couldn’t predict how I would perform.

The darkness was a unique challenge making it difficult to see what was underfoot and I had fresh concerns about old injuries wondering if my plantar fasciitis coming back to bite me in the… foot.

The good news is I am writing this post, so I returned and am not still wondering about Dalby Forest lost.  No Ego was a race where I learned about the importance of mental grit. Continue reading “No ego, No quit, No hate” →

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So you want to be a writer?

Published on by James L2 Comments

So you want to be a writer

by Charles Bukowski

if it doesn’t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it. Continue reading “So you want to be a writer?” →

Originality

Published on by James L9 Comments

I read a rather interesting post that took a bit of a self-deprecating tone about blogging.

Along with the feeling of insignificance that no one was reading their work, one of the authors concerns was that by blogging they were not contributing anything new.

From what I remember of the post they even said something like “I could just be another self-improvement blog passing on the same information.”

The reason it took me a year to start a blog was partly because I wanted to do something new and different. Continue reading “Originality” →

The Manifesto of Perfection – Where to Start?

Published on by James LLeave a comment

Hi all,

I have recently taken the time to update and add my ‘Where to Start’ page to the sites menu.  This is a place for new and established readers alike to have a look at some of my favourite posts since I started the site in February 2014.

I have broke these down into the following areas:

  • Creativity – Posts about writing, blogging and general creativity
  • Health – Posts about nutrition and fitness
  • Money – Posts about work and finances
  • Self-Improvement – Posts about goals, mindset, habits and generally living a better life

I will probably update this page again soon.  But please see a copy of the links on this page below to see if there are any posts that take an interest.

Finally thank you for continuing to read, liking and commenting on my site.  I appreciate all feedback! Continue reading “The Manifesto of Perfection – Where to Start?” →

Fight Club: Raymond K Hessel – a near life experience

Published on by James LLeave a comment

Fight Club, an entertaining book and film has many teachings for life – not just on masculinity but also on self-improvement, motivation and making the most out of your potential.

One of the most compelling scenes is when Tyler Durden or the Narrator (depending on whether you are consuming the film or book version), puts a gun to convenience store worker Raymond K Hessel’s head and threatens to pull the trigger unless they go back on track to realising their potential.

The stories protagonists enact a very extreme way of encouraging someone to pull themselves together and stop wasting their potential.  A near-life experience.

Continue reading “Fight Club: Raymond K Hessel – a near life experience” →

Perfect Blogging: Don’t take the piss

Published on by James L16 Comments

Hello dear reader,

Upon the positive feedback on my post writing good comments on a blog, I thought I would extend my advice to another area that irritates me in the world of blogging and blog writing.

The irritant is when a site or an author takes the piss out of their loyal readers.

Firstly I will give a definition of my colloquialism:

take the piss (out of someone or something)

phrase of piss

  1. [British] vulgar slang

Mock someone or something

Right now that’s cleared up onto the issue… Continue reading “Perfect Blogging: Don’t take the piss” →

Writing your life story

Published on by James L8 Comments

I have started writing my life story.

Just by writing that statement it feels strange and narcissistic.  To write your life story you have to be a celebrity or achieve something right?

But I have been motivated to do this indirectly by family. Continue reading “Writing your life story” →

Do affirmations work?

Published on by James L5 Comments

One habit that I have followed religiously since I read Scott Adams book  “How to fail at almost everything and still win big” to encourage me to think positively and focus on what I want is affirmations.

What is an affirmation?

An affirmation is basically something that you say to yourself in order to help encourage a positive outcome.  So for example in Scott Adams book he would say to himself

“I Scott Adams will one day I will be a successful cartoonist”.

Continue reading “Do affirmations work?” →

Competition in the work place

Published on by James L1 Comment

I really love my job, it is probably the best one I have ever had.

It is strange because when I got the new job it was a step up from the old one.  I have more responsibility and more money.  But unlike my other job I am back at the bottom – basically I am the office junior and have to do all the tedious work that comes with that. Continue reading “Competition in the work place” →

How to do more of the must do tasks that you don’t want to do each day

Published on by James L2 Comments

One of the problems with setting goals is that you get really focused on getting the goals done and letting the ‘housekeeping’ part of your life slip.

I can easily write a 1000 words a day without even trying. I can get up at 6am to go to the gym and yet if one of the bulbs go in my hallway light I can procrastinate and ignore the problem, even though it is a simple task because I have no desire to do it!

These tedious tasks help make up your day-to-day life and are just as important as the goals you want to do because if you can’t even keep your own house in order how do you expect to achieve anything? Continue reading “How to do more of the must do tasks that you don’t want to do each day” →