Love is like Oxygen - The Sweet

Lyrics:- 'You get too much you get too high, not enough and you're gonna die' - Scott & Griffin

Song Choice:- The O₂ tanks had nearly run out for The Sweet by 1978 and sadly this was their last UK 'Top-Ten' hit. I loved this self-penned track and thought it was a great progression from their 1973 'Blockbuster' chart-topper written for them by famous 70's song-writers Chinn and Chapman. Getting pigeon-holed as a ‘Glam-Rock Bubblegum Band’ didn't help much either and meant they'd never have the album success of 'Queen' or 'Boston' whom used the same high-pitched multi-tracked vocals. Have a listen for yourself here, relive 1978, and witness the dying breaths of 'The Sweet'.

Anyway, it's Oxygen that I'm interested in blogging about today and I wonder what your O₂ saturation level is right now. Hopefully it's 100% or as near as, (mine was frighteningly low at 88% when I was ill this time last year with Guillain–Barré syndrome  but what I'm really wondering is just how much you are breathing in and how much you are actually using  metaphorically. In some of the folk I meet, I often find they are using a lot of other folks Oxygen around them hoping to find love, friendship and happiness only to find that the CO₂ they are breathing out is suffocating their efforts.

Being O₂ blind can be fatal and Oxygen is a dangerous substance. 'The Sweet' were quite right in their line saying 'You get too much you get too high, not enough and you're gonna die' as after five to ten minutes of not breathing, you are likely to develop serious and possibly irreversible brain damage to you and to those around you if you are not careful.

All you have to do is keep things to a simple 12-20 breaths a minute and the rest of life's a breeze - one full of good clean fresh-air.

How drunk on life are you? And how full are your O₂ tanks? Do you in need of resuscitation?

Rory Coleman - 989 Marathons - 243 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables
9 Guinness World Records - 8,507 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Caerdydd, Cymru

Steppin' Stone - The Monkees

Lyrics:- 'You're trying to make your mark in society' - Hart & Boyce

Song Choice:- For those of you under 50, 'The Monkees', were a manufactured American pop group of the late 60's created by Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider for a TV series of the same name. The musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork, along with British born actor and singer Davy Jones, the cute one and everyone's favourite.

As a seven-year-old boy, I thought they were simply the best thing ever and loved their whacky show. Dolenz described them as being 'a TV show about an imaginary band, that wanted to be just like The Beatles. Ironically, the actor-musicians became one of the most successful acts of 60s, and sold more than 75 million records worldwide, peaking in 1967 where they went on to outsell The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined. See what you missed and take a trip back (literally) to the 'Summer of Love' right here .

It's a tenuous link but the 'Steppin' Stones' I'm interested in for today's blog are the 'Stepping Stones of Success' we use to reinforce a positive progression through life. You know, all the stuff we like to tell folk. The thing is, I'm not sure whether the 'Stepping Stones of Success' are a strong enough platform to take the full weight of the mental and physical payload their users demand. The constant overload of 'Personal Neediness' and 'Self Failure' makes a somewhat simple crossing into an impossible 'Wipeout' Course for most I find.

Why is that? And why is there such a need to over-complicate what should be a very simple path through life.

If you are struggling, surrounding oneself with the right people is a good first step. Here's a simple test to find out who is and who isn't worth it. Excluding your family - you find yourself in the shit and in need of help but only two people you know are allowed - whom are your two?

Cherish them, as they matter - no-one else does you'll find as the rest are 'Failure Enablers', 'Energy Vampires' or just people you know now but might not in the future. 

Believe me? Do the test and let me know what you think as eventually you'll find that most folk you think are great right now are only trying to make their mark in your society.

More tomorrow...

Rory Coleman - 989 Marathons - 243 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables
9 Guinness World Records - 8,506 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Caerdydd, Cymru

Desire - U2

Lyrics:- 'She's the dollars, she's my protection, she's the promise - Clayton, Evans, Hewson & Mullen

Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the world's most prominent and influential architects said, 'I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.

How right he was too - And it underlines my own thoughts today as I truly believe 'We are the architects of our own Failure'. It's a quote I often use and it's something I see manifest in both my clients and the folk I meet along my travels.

'Failure' for me really isn't an option, especially if it's something that I've set as a 'Personal Goal' or as a 'Lifestyle Limitation'. As for running in deserts? Well that's down to 'Desire' and how much hardship you are prepared to go through to battle on when the lights are all saying red, and the body and mind's battery levels are critically low. Some of the folk that dropped out of last week's Marathon des Sables will already be thinking that they should have or could have carried on - Your see it just didn't matter enough -  at that moment in time or at any time for that matter.

It did for me though, but then I see things differently as I'm from the Frank Lloyd Wright school of thought. It doesn't make you popular I can tell you - My 'Monochrome' thought process doesn't take prisoners. But then it never has, as I don't understand why folk will say one thing and then do another. 

Why commit to something knowing that completion isn't an option? The armies of FB 'At least you tried' Admirers only fuels my 'Monochronicity'. Never surrounding oneself with 'Failure Enablers' has been a fundamental 'Life Rule' since 1994. I believe that it's one’s own dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion that terminates any 'Bad Behavioural Process' not a book.

Yes, there are lots of resources out there that can help the process happen - but actually it's down to YOU and YOU alone. Making the Promise, the Promise to yourself that is, that's the hardest thing. 

Never giving up, well that's easy.

More tomorrow.

Rory Coleman - 989 Marathons - 243 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables
9 Guinness World Records - 8,505 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Caerdydd, Cymru