Time - The Pink Floyd

Lyrics:- 'Waiting for someone or something to show you the way' - Gilmour, Mason, Waters & Wright

Song Choice:- Taken from their 1973 album 'Dark Side of the Moon', Time's lyrics deal with Bass Player, Roger Waters' realisation that life was not about preparing yourself for what happens next, but about grabbing control of one's own destiny - hmm sound familiar?

I've used this track many times to accompany my blog, and it's a track that encompasses everything 'Pink Floyd' in my opinion - from the heralding quadrophonic chimes, warmth of Wright's vocals, to an amazing Gilmour Solo - it's always spoken volumes to me about the passage of 'Time' and how we 'Fritter' our 'Time' away.

So for once, I'm not going to 'Witter on' about 'Frittering' - I'm going to write about how I see 'Time' and how I don't use mine worrying too much about what other folk are up to with theirs.




You see May Bank Holiday weekend gives everyone in the UK the opportunity for the first 'Time Out' of the year and with light evenings, green trees and a warming sun, lots of folk are out there looking for adventure rather than taking some deep breaths of oxygen before returning to work next Tuesday.




Forgetting our own personal exercise needs, there's the crescendo of Football's Premier League, World Championship Boxing and even another Grand Prix to fall asleep in front of if you need entertain and prefer being an armchair athlete.

I'm more into using the break as a building opportunity and thinking more about recharging my batteries rather than expending what mental 'Kinetic Energy' I might have built up so far in 2017.

It's especially relevant as it's a year tomorrow since I went into hospital and started circling the drain on my GBS Journey.

My next personal development over the next 12 months are now my main-focus...

The lyrics continue to say, 'The time is gone' and how right that is as we can't wind back the clock. However, I believe that the best times are still to come and if you only look up from the grindstone you too can see the bigger picture. What might appear to be an impossible journey of self-development is actually only one step away and any mountain can be climbed. Literally...

You just have to get up and run before that sun sets... and not just talk about it as that gets you nowhere fast but you know that anyway.

Rory Coleman - 989 Marathons - 243 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,515 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Caerdydd, Cymru

Senses working overtime - XTC

A Bit of Turner...

Lyrics:- 'And I can see, hear, smell, touch, taste, and I've got one, two, three, four, five' - Partridge

Song Choice:- Wow, it's ages since I heard an XTC song, but this 1982 Top-Ten hit came to mind earlier on as my senses went into overtime following my breakfast talk at FDU this morning in London. Presenting always gets my pulse going and afterwards I thought I'd unwind with a couple of hours at The National Gallery to clear my thoughts and play on my won for while as I did when I was a child.

The frightening thing was, it only charged my heightened 'State of Mental Alert' and even the '19th Century Gallery' with Turner's 'Fighting Temeraire' and Wright's 'Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump' couldn't defib my brain and get me processing at a 'White Bikini State' level.

A stroll past Big Ben and across Westminster Bridge did that for me and my own state of vunerablity finally hit home and normal heart rate restored. I'm hope lightning would never strike twice there but it was amazing how folk looked far more aware of the people around them and their movements - it's not surprising though is it?

I'm looking forward to travelling back to Cardiff tonight and I'm going to take some well earned time out to reflect on what's happened over the last three days and consider where my path is going next...

These are exciting times for us all and having a 'Time Out' often helps to clear the mind.

When was the last time you had a 'Time Out'?

Rory Coleman - 989 Marathons - 243 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,513 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Caerdydd, Cymru

Come talk to Me - Peter Gabriel

Lyrics: 'We can unlock this misery, come on, come talk to me' - Gabriel

Song Choice - I never need an excuse to choose a Gabriel track for my blog and 'Come to talk to Me' provides an excellent accompaniment for the next two days of my speaking to audiences at Clydesdale Banks new banking platform 'Studio B', in Kensington High Street, London.

Shaping a new banking revolution using only a digital platform doesn't sound like an easy task to me, but this approach really works, and being part of it's launch using my 'Process of Change' ideals and talks to engage with folk, is proving to be a very positive experience.

Sure, having any platform to showcase my credentials is most welcome but I believe I can be part of the thinking process too and add value to what .B' are endeavouring to change in existing and new clients hearts and minds.

Watching the next generation of banking unfold is really interesting - folk are so busy nowadays and checking how much cash you've got daily and how you are spending it seems to be the next obvious advance - doing in an App only more relevant.

It's still in it's early stages and changing people's banking habits overnight that have existed for ten's of years takes time. But then any change in habit does. It's something I encounter everyday of my working life - the thing is though, once the benefits of any change are explained and experienced, folk engage immediately and the path back disappears.

Let's face it, any personal update, even how we use our cash can only be a good thing.

And if you are in London today you can experience Studio B for yourself or 'Come talk to Me' at 6pm-8pm in my 'Studio B Workshop' as I'd love to help you manage your change, whatever that might be...

Rory Coleman - 989 Marathons - 243 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,512 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Caerdydd, Cymru

What do you want from Life - The Tubes

Lyrics:- How can you tell you are doing all right, does your bank account swell while you’re dreaming at night? – Spooner & Evans

Song Choice:- If you were sixteen in 1978, and into ‘Live Albums’ as much as I was back then, your choice of vinyl was probably ‘What do you want from Live’ by The Tubes. They were an American Quasi-Pornographic-Rock-Band, and this 72-minute satirical comment on media, consumerism and politics delivered by larger than life scantily-clad characters that Mary Whitehouse would hate, was everything I could ever desire in an album. It still sounds ‘Alive’ today and although I didn’t see this actual performance at the Hammersmith Odeon, I was lucky enough to see them the following year and enjoy their full-frontal expose - which included their ‘Remote Control’ material too. What’s left of them are playing in Bristol in November so I might just relive the experience then, you never know.

Anyway, it’s always been a good question – ‘What do you want from Life?’.

I once knew someone that reached 100 years of age. A real feat of endurance for anyone I’m sure you’ll agree. He’d lived a full and meaningful life of moderation but was happy to meet his maker soon after the feat of being 100 years of age. You see all the important people he’d lived his life with were already gone and the folk he engaged with in his later life were at least 20-30 years’ his junior and didn’t know what it was like growing up in the 1910’s and 20’s just as folk born in the 21^st Century wouldn’t know what the world in the 60’s and 70’s, especially 1978 for me, and what the ‘World of The Tubes’ was all about.

Modern day history is well documented but if you didn’t live it, you will never know what it was really like and folk that lived life when you did, are a vital part of getting one’s past in order.

Getting to 100 is a good place to sign off as ‘Life’s Complete’ by then perhaps but deciding to get the most out of one’s years provides a larger than life challenge for many. Just consider the members of the ‘27 Club’ – you know the unusually high numbers of musicians like, Hendrix, Cobain and Winehouse that ‘Clocked Out’ with just 27% of their lifetime accomplished. It does make you wonder if they wasted their opportunity, or whether living it all in 27 years is better than sticking it out to become a Centurion and ‘Have a Good Innings’.

With 45% left on my ‘Life indicator’, I try and turn off as many battery-sapping ‘Apps’ as I can, so I can make the most of whatever ‘Life’ is left in me. And in answering The Tubes question, I know for sure that ‘Swelling your Bank Account’ doesn’t really cut the mustard (which is ironic as I’m speaking in London for the next three days about the ‘Process of Change’) but that ‘Someone to love and somebody that you can trust’ is what we are all really searching for, including ourselves. Sure, money is important and how manage and use it to enrich our lives is key to what we can afford to experience but not having folk to experience it with, is a fatal flaw IMO.

I’ll be considering these thoughts as I speak to folk over the next 72 hours and hopefully help them see the world as if they were sixteen again with a whopping 84% of ‘Life-Battery’ left and help them reflect on what they’ve used up so far and get the most out of their latest ‘App'.

It's free to download, anytime and it's called ‘Life’…

Rory Coleman - 989 Marathons - 243 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,511 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Caerdydd, Cymru

New Song - Howard Jones

Lyrics:- Don't crack up, bend your brain, see both sides, throw off your mental chains - Jones

Song Choice:- I don't know if you remember 1983 too well, but I bet you remember 'New Song’ the debut single by musician Howard Jones. It peaked at #3 in the UK Singles Chart, so nearly making Jones the #1 artist he so richly deserves IMO and this crazy video is well worth another look, if nothing else but to see his back-combed dyed hair which I thought was super cool at the time.

Anyway, I've always thought the lyrics of this song underlined how I feel about life and how to lead it.

It certainly doesn't make you popular - not wanting to be 'hip and cool' or wanting to 'play by the rules' but I've never been driven by wanting to win a popularity contest - that's something I'd never accomplish and I'd be the worst ever politician.

It also lays you ‘under the thumb of the cynical few’ and attacked ‘by the doom crew’ but that’s only to be expected as there are there are people out there in the faceless world of social media only too ready to chip away at any crack they can find in your armour. To them, I would recommend that they break their own ‘mental chains’ and then the ‘Kryptonite’ that is eats away at the very heart of their world will stop their vitriolic chants at those that have been or are the people they are clearly so jealous of wanting to be.

You see, I’ve never wanted to be anyone else. I’ve never wanted what other folks have. I’m happy with whom I am, as I’ve bent my brain, seen both sides and thrown off my mental chains. 

Have you?

Rory Coleman - 989 Marathons - 243 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables
9 Guinness World Records - 8,509 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Caerdydd, Cymru