Land of Sunshine - Faith No More

It’s a long time since I listened to any songs by Faith No More. I associate them with a very angry and aggressive period in my life when I was out of control in the early 90’s so tend to avoid. However, ‘Land of Sunshine’ popped up on ‘random play’ whilst out running today and the lyrics instantly grabbed my attention and are a perfect accompaniment for today’s blog.

They were written by Mike Patton during a sleep deprivation experiment (I can empathise having two youngsters here myself so I know where he’s coming from) and include lines taken from Chinese Fortune Cookies all of things.The messages were used virtually unchanged and appear throughout the first and second verses of the song. As Fortune Cookies, they are of course full of great promise and are as follows:-

‘Life to you is a dashing bold adventure’

‘Sing and rejoice, fortune is smiling upon you’

‘You have a winning way, so keep it’

‘You are an angel heading for a land of sunshine’

‘Pat yourself on the back and give yourself a handshake’.

I believe we all have a desire to live in the ‘Land of Sunshine’. The promised land. The place where everything is going to be just right and just perfect. Only, in the real world the ‘Land of Sunshine’ has a more ‘Temperate’ feel to it – more of a mixed bag of ‘Sunny periods and Scattered Showers’ perhaps.

‘You have a winning way, so keep it’…

I love people making promises of goodwill and desire, maybe making promises is a British thing eh? Declaring one’s intentions on Facebook for instance is a given if you are taking on an usual challenge or feat a 21^stCentury development. Funnily enough though, it’s also the place to write the excuses for f*cking it up when things go wrong and for others to say ‘There, there but you are still AWESOME’ (one of my pet hates, as you know).

The interesting thing is that the ‘Land of Sunshine’ is a lot nearer for most folk than they can imagine, if only they realised how short the journey could be. For those seeking new personal bests and faster race times, well they can really be just by-products of not drinking alcohol or eating a cleaner diet. For those seeking absolution from their demons, well they are in fact only one step away.

Cutting out one bad behavioural trait is enough of a platform and a win for most folk to attack the rest of their problems, great or small.

And to be honest, I’m more impressed by folk’s abstinence and weight-loss nowadays that any race performance that folk achieve. I mean a sub-3 marathon is great if that’s what you’ve been chasing and I’m only too happy to help but a 25kgs weight-loss in 50 days (a BIG WELL DONE to Phil Miller) or 8.5kgs in just over a month (a BIG WELL DONE to Cat Savage too) is a life-changing and an amazing process to be part of. I’m so chuffed for them and if they never run a step I don’t give a damn as I believe they have now have the ‘Winning Way’.

‘You have a winning way, so keep it, your future’…

We are currently working on ‘Teamship’ with one of our Business Clients and it’s interesting how the whole notion of morale in a body of people works. I’m not too sure if it’s possible to list all of the ingredients but there is a magic ingredient, we’ll call it ‘Ingredient X’, that everyone needs a sprinkle of from time to time to keep them motivated and inspired by those around them to succeed both individually and collectively. Finding ‘Ingredient X’ well we are well on the way to finding out it’s DNA.

‘You are an angel heading for a ‘Land of Sunshine’, and fortune is smiling upon you’…

There’s no magic pill and maybe it’s just a collective feeling of ‘Pride and Hope’ that helps make the journey a whole lot more fulfilling and satisfying – maybe that’s ‘Teamship’. That’s the best part of ‘The Marathon des Sables’ in my opinion where people are pushed out of their comfort zones and taken to new limits of human endurance. The transformation in people for a week or possibly two on their return (before returning to type) is most refreshing and incredibly empowering – if only I could bottle it!

'Prepare for a series of a comfortable miracles, from fasting to feasting'…

Miracles happen every day. From the moment the daylight emerges from the shadows. Every day is full of opportunities - right here, right now and right under our noses - not in a far off make-believe land where it’s always sunny. It’s already Sunny and ‘Fortune Cookies’ don’t really say enough about what lies ahead for each and every one of us.

‘And life to you is a dashing, bold adventure, so sing, and rejoice’…

I’d like to add some words of encouragement and a ‘Fortune Cookie’ type message of my own but I don’t think that’s the right thing to do here as the ‘Faith No More’ lyrics speak volumes and have more than enough positivity within them (Take a look and listen here and see what you think) until you write your own message perhaps.

‘Pat yourself on the back and give yourself a handshake’…

My word, when was the last time you did that? When was the last time anyone else gave you a pat on the back or more recently have you even disserved one in any aspect of your home, work or leisure life?

'Does life seem worthwhile to you? Do others push you around?'...

You tell me… Does life seem worthwhile? And do you get pushed around in situations because you haven’t got a voice or the balls to say ‘No’ because you don’t want to appear to be rocking the boat? In my experience, folk get pushed around less and noticed more when they communicate their feelings more to those around them.

So in the ‘Land of Sunshine’. The place where it’s a sunny 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year and where we already live is it time to think about YOUR future.

'Does emotional music, have quite an effect on you?'…

It does on me. J

1,019 Marathons - 246 Ultras - 15 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records