Road to Nowhere - Talking Heads

And the future is certain give us time to work it out… Byrne

If you have lost direction and feel like you are on a Road to Nowhere right now, well you are not alone – The whole world has been turned upside down and finding any direction, let alone the right direction, can feel impossible right now. But if you step out of the madness, even for a short while and take a simple approach, you could find yourself back on track and ahead of the pack. I’m workig with many clients doing just that.

So with that in mind, here’s a question for you about ‘Direction’. 

‘When was the last time you took a journey and didn’t use a Sat-Nav?’

If I’m honest, I use mine even when I’m driving locally in Cardiff. Not because I don’t know where I’m going but because I like to know that I’m travelling the optimum route, can avoid delays and know exactly to the minute when I’m going to arrive at my destination. Kinda sad you might say, but it keeps me on-time and patient which is a very important part of my work as I hate being late and arriving frustrated.

Now in my earlier ‘On-the-road-sales-career’, I’d drive with an A-to-Z perched on my lap or with a print-out of an AA route planner so I had a visual plan of my route. I mean, asking for directions was a complete no-no wasn’t it? In 2004, when I ran to Lisbon I used nothing more than a Michelin Road Atlas to get me there. I didn’t just start in London and set off blindly just hoping that I’d get there, my route was planned.Highlighted with a pink highlighter in fact and split nicely in 43 bite-sized 30 mile chunks. It had to be so I arrived at the 2004 Football Euros on match-day.

With planning in mind, my next question is, ‘Why do we lead our lives without direction, focus and timeframe?’

If only we all had a Personal Sat-Navs eh? Oh, life would be SO easy. Imagine the ‘Road to Nowhere’ becoming the ‘Road to Somewhere’. Then again, I believe we already possess a Personal Sat-Nav. It’s just that we either don’t know how to use it or plainly ignore the direction in which we are being pointed. Sadly there’s no manual to follow, quick start guide or YouTube movie to explain. 

Life’s more of a trial and error experiment for most, yet it doesn’t have to be. All you need to do is reach out and ask for help, especially in these times of uncertainty when there’s a fantastic opportunity staring you in the face to make a change and choose a new direction.

1,052 Marathons, 255 Ultras, 9 Guinness World Records & 15 Marathon des Sables

On the Run... The Pink Floyd

Live for today, gone tomorrow, that's me… Waters

Well, they say nothing lasts forever. And in our current rapidly changing world, the shelf-life of anything or anyone for that matter must be dramatically reduced. 

At this time, we’ve been instructed to be ‘Resilient’. It’s a word that’s being used a lot at the moment as our very existence is being threatened. Yet, when it comes to being ‘Resilient’ it’s not so easy as it sounds. Being able to stick at things without a definitive timespan is enough to fry many a brain and will do over the next few months for many.

‘Resilience’ is more of an inherent quality perhaps and also lacks a quantifiable scale. I mean, just how 'Resilient' are you? Looking back at my childhood, I was encouraged to ‘stick at things’ and most of the time did. That's where my ‘Resilience’ was borne. However, with my own children it’s harder to keep them on task due to the huge amount of choice, outside influence and digital white noise, certainly with my little ones anyway. Perhaps then, ‘Resilience’ grows with age in a kinda ‘Fuzzy Logic Way’, where we learn to endure higher degrees of hardship and discomfort learning to tough things out as we grow.

Maybe that way of learning helped me prepare to run further and further distances and also overcome serious illness. It's a test of character that right now that millions of people in the UK, let alone all over the world, are being subjected to where they will find their ‘Limit of Human Endurance’ as they face up to a silent killer that can strike anyone, anywhere at any time regardless of age, sex or creed. Having the determination to see this crisis out, will be the biggest challenge of our lifetime.

How we perceive that challenge and how we see our own existence post Covid-19 is the key. Not getting caught up in the moment is where I've succeeded in the past and I always try and see the positives in any situation. Let’s face it, the end of Covid-19 isn’t really the end, it’s just the start of a new beginning. 

And it will come to an end, just not today or tomorrow but one day.

Going forwards, I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. It’s probably going to get a lot harder, who knows - but be prepared. Being able to see an end and adjust to a new way of living and working will define us all, you and me included.

So 'Live for today and Live tomorrow', that’s what I doing…

1,052 Marathons, 255 Ultras, 15 Marathon des Sables, 9 Guinness World Records