Message in a Bottle – The Police

This was the band’s first UK#1 and Sting’s first as a song-writer. And at the time, I’ll be honest enough to say I wasn’t much of a fan as their bleached-blond-hair and chiselled looks weren’t hard enough for the prog-rock image I liked to project. I mean, what kinda message would I have been sending about myself at an all boy’s school in 1979, if I’d broadcast that I’d just been out to WHSmiths and out bought a copy of Reggatta de Blanc?

In hindsight, of course it wouldn’t have mattered. But within my peer group, the albums you carried around with you projected what kind of person you were. Pink Floyd and Genesis said one thing about you and The Boomtown Rats and The Buzzcocks said another. Afterwards at Art School it was more The Talking Heads and Peter Gabriel as my skin changed colour to match my creative surroundings and my ‘Message’ changed.

Just a castaway, an island lost at sea…

Anyway, it’s the ‘Messages’ (not in a bottle I hasten to add), that you and I emit and transmit all the time, that I’m interested in exploring in today’s blog. By that, I mean the ones we send out without really knowing and not the Facebook Posts of doom, gloom and failure I see, which btw must negatively affect employment and sports sponsorship opportunities.

Another lonely day, with no one here but me…

Hmm, you see you’re never alone, someone is always watching. Personally, I’m a person that enjoys the solitude of the long-distance run and I find the time and space a very enjoyable experience that doesn’t need to be messaged out to the world afterwards. In fact, the more private the experience, the more enjoyable it is I’ve found as having to small-talk away the miles distracts from the enormity of one’s surroundings. Getting a feeling of the vastness of the planet has always made me appreciate just how lucky we are just to be alive. Being ‘Smart’ and ‘Smart about it’ are great reminders about sending out the right message about ourselves. I try to be both in writing what I believe and I’m always hopefully consistent in my blogs.

A year has passed since I wrote my note…

An interesting line, so I thought I’d look back to my blog of December 10, 2016 to see what I was thinking about last year. It says, ‘I feel that I'm nearing feeling back to my old self but haven't achieved anything in the past year. Well here I am 12 months on thinking along the same lines but I’m 25 marathons including an MdS better off which can’t be bad eh? Since then, I’ve certainly learned that presentation is a 365-day project especially in work situations and I how act is extremely important as in truth, you are never ‘off-the-record’. Looking and acting the part whether it’s when presenting to a Multi-National Company or speaking on a Skype-Call from the Office – anything less than 100% isn’t an option. My ‘Message’ is all about consistency, all the time.

Seems I'm not alone at being alone, a hundred billion castaways…

That’s a lot of ‘Castaways’ but I get the sentiment. ‘Castaways’ are everywhere. I talk to them, every day and most of them believe that they are the only ones experiencing the loneliness of their predicament or possibly the pain of changing their behavioural process. Connecting the dots and being their ‘Catalyst’ to a brighter future is something I now relish. My own ‘Castaway’ Days of the analogue world of 1994 are long gone thank heavens and yours could also be soon.

Sending out an SOS…

Soon we will have demolished Christmas and will be racing headlong in January - is it time to start thinking about the messages you will be sending out to the world in the New Year? Maybe sending out a special SOS to ask for some help in making 2018 a whole lot brighter and enjoyable than 2017 would be a good idea?

Rory Coleman - rory@colemancoaching.co.uk

1,005 Marathons - 245 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records