TRIBEathlon Podcast

Episode 65: Rudy Von Berg is a professional triathlete rising rapidly to prominence. Currently ranked 10th in the world, he has won several 70.3 triathlon races, but now wants to follow his father’s footsteps into the long course of Ironman racing. Coming to the sport at an early age was triggered by his trip to Hawaii in 1998 where his father, one of the pioneers of triathlon in Belgium, went on to win his 40-44 age group in the Kona Ironman. 

In this interview, Claire and I wanted to learn from Rudy about the benefits of coming to the sport at such a young age, moving up to the long course, using gravel racing to improve his performance and his approach to fuelling his races.

What I’ve Been Reading

Recommended to me by Ironman Pro, Meredith Kessler, Chi Running is a fantastic book if you want to improve your running form, your technique on the hills, or if you want to improve your meditative experience from running. It is a simple and practical book that is packed full of amazing advice for runners of all levels - if you enjoy your running (or want to) or have struggled with injuries, this is a great read. It is the technique in this book that significantly helped me get around the Arc 50 ultra marathon. 

What I’ve Been Watching

Sunshine Superman is an exhilarating, high-adrenaline documentary that explores what it feels like to defy gravity and live. Delve into the history of BASE jumping - the extreme sport that dates back to the 1970s and examine its inventor, engineer-filmmaker, Carl Boenish, in this incredible and touching documentary about both the sport and the man. Don’t worry, I have no plans to take up BASE jumping. 

TED Talk I’ve Found Interesting

Humans have been coming up with ways to give constructive criticism for centuries but somehow, we're still pretty terrible at it. Cognitive psychologist, LeeAnn Renninger, shares a scientifically proven method for giving effective feedback in the excellent TED Talk, The secret to giving great feedback. Vital for parents, leaders and really anyone, these tips can save you from a lot of trouble when you genuinely mean well! 

Quote of the Week

"If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more." 

• Oprah Winfrey

Finance Theme I’ve Been Considering

The financial markets have been a bit all over the place lately with worries about inflation and the US economy. Yesterday however, Mr Putin, made that look even worse by invading the Ukraine.

There will always be shocks to markets; let’s face it we saw a much bigger one in March 2019 that was almost forgotten by the end of the year. The important thing about investing, as always, is that the secret to long term gains is withstanding short term losses. Now happens to be another of those times, so to use appropriate terminology, it is again time to put your tin hat on, ignore your investment values for a few weeks and ride out the storm. That is unless you have capital to invest, in which case, the world just went on sale!

The final Friday Footnotes of 2021 - where has the time gone? The last 2 years seem to have merged into one, and at times it is difficult to know what happened when, because we remember life with memorable bookmarks. We certainly managed more memorable bookmarks this year than last, and let’s hope trend continues.

I hope you find something useful in the ramblings below, and I’d like to wish you a healthy, wealthy, and happy New Year!

TRIBEathlon Podcast

Episode 61: Jackie Hering is a professional triathlete, mom of two, coach and race director living in Wisconsin. She grew up swimming competitively and worked up to focusing on Ironman but after having children she has focused on the 70.3 distance and has risen to the top of it. Winning her match in the Collins Cup, winning Clash Daytona and being a 5-time 70.3 champion, she appears to be going from strength to strength despite having to fit her training around parenting duties.

I wanted to chat to Jackie about her self-coach flexible approach to training, her race tactics in the Collins Cup and the benefits of snow shoeing in the winter.

Podcast I’ve Been Listening To

Over the last year several people have recommended the podcast Happy Mind, Happy Life, by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, and I finally got around to diving into it this week. I started with Episode #226 The Healing Power of Community as it contains snippets from his other episodes around that theme.

There were some fantastic takeaways from the episode; one example is how we are currently described as being more connected than ever, at a time when we have never been less connected. We are in fact wired, not connected! Another incredible insight is that being lonely is shown to be as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day! Incredible. I suggest you give it a listen and work out how you can boost your community in 2022! It has certainly got me thinking.

Tool I Find Useful

At this time of the year, you should be writing down your goals for the year ahead. Research shows that if you write down goals that scare you but won’t kill you, i.e., goals that make you step outside your comfort zone, you achieve a lot more. When you find that big goal, whether it is a 3-year or a 1-year goal, you then need to chunk it backwards, e.g., what do I need to do this quarter, this month and this week to be on track? Like eating an elephant, if you take one bite at a time, it’s amazing how much you can get through.

My team and I use a tool I have developed over the years that takes the time management and goal setting wisdom of Brian Tracey, Strategic Coach and Tony Robbins (to name a few) and combines them into one practical tool for planning your time; it’s called The Limitless Life Planner. If you want to give it a go, you can download it here. Remember, aim for the stars, and even if you fall short, you’ll still reach the moon! Also, if you want to hear me explain my goal-based system, listen to the TRIBEathlon podcast above, as I talk about it in the introduction with Claire Fudge of 4^th Discipline.

TED Talk I’ve Found Interesting

Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favourite authors because of his fantastic story telling around education pieces. We learn so much better through stories, and that is what makes his books so compelling. In his TED Talk The unheard story of David and Goliath, he analyses the classic underdog tale of David, a young shepherd armed only with a sling, beating Goliath, the mighty warrior. The story has transcended its biblical origins to become a common shorthand for unlikely victory. But, asks Gladwell, is that really what the David and Goliath story is about?

Quotes of the Week

“A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other."

• Author Unknown

“Losers have goals. Winners have systems.”

• Scott Adams

Finance Theme I’ve Been Considering

After all the excesses of Christmas, the huge Christmas feasts, the frequency of mince pie and alcohol consumption, or the Quality Streets for breakfast, you’ll likely arrive in January craving a detox. Cutting out the bad and focusing on the good leaves you feeling amazing, and allows you to approach the year in better health and with a better mindset. If you want to try our 2-week detox challenge, you can find it here.

It isn’t just our health that needs a detox though, it’s often our finances too. Clearing out the old policies and shares that are carrying a little too much weight and reinvigorating your money can make a massive difference over the long term. So, if you or someone you know needs to detox their finances and clean out the dead wood, the New Year is a great time to take the initiative, and we’d love to help you create a better future by doing so.

Let’s make 2022 the best year yet!

This will be the last Friday Footnotes that I write before Christmas, so I hope you have a wonderful festive period and a healthy, wealthy and happy New Year. Here is my fortnightly instalment of what I’ve found interesting with a little sprinkling of festive cheer throughout!

TRIBEathlon Podcast

Episode 60: According to her website, Carla Molinaro is a record-breaking ultra-runner, adventurer and running coach who seeks out events that are slightly harder than the average... and she isn't wrong. Among other insane runs, she set the ladies world record for running from Lands End to John O'Groats (otherwise known as LEJOG) in an astonishing 12 days and 30 minutes.

Having grown up in South Africa, Carla also has a fond spot for the famous 90km ultra Comrades, so decided she would run 90km a day from Cape Town to Comrades as a warm up, completing the 90km race on the 20th and final day... and finishing in the top 10! So, I wanted to chat to Carla about her new strength and conditioning coaching, how yoga can help ultra-runners and about the ultra-running bucket list.

A Video I’ve Been Enjoying

Facing it Together: Si and Tempy is a video that from Help for Heroes that a client shared with me (thank you Terry). Tempy is just five (and a half!) but a Help for Heroes supporter, and she has a clear idea about what makes a hero. War Veteran, Si Brown, who was shot in the face by an Iraqi sniper, has a different kind of heroism in mind.

See the unique bond between supporters and beneficiaries that's at the heart of everything H4H do. Just beautiful.

TED Talk I’ve Found Interesting

What better time of the year is there than Christmas to play board games with the family, but what about spicing it up a little?

Playing Monopoly with his children one night, Adam Carroll noticed they were bending the rules. He wondered, "What if they're playing this way because the money isn't real?". In his talk What playing Monopoly with real money taught me about my kids – and humanity, Carroll explains the concept of financial abstraction, and how our human perception of spending changes when the idea of money becomes more or less real. His case study: a game of Monopoly with his kids using real money.

Monopoly can become a stressful enough game in the Reading household at the best of times, so I am not sure we are quite ready for playing with £10,000 of cash, but the idea is growing on me!

What I’ve Been Watching

Never having been a massive Queen fan, when the film Bohemian Rhapsody was released I didn’t rush to see it, but when I finally got to it I was blown away by what is an amazing film and story. So, this week I watched Freddie Mercury: The Final Act, a documentary telling the story of the extraordinary final chapter of Freddie Mercury’s life and how, after his death from Aids, Queen staged one of the biggest concerts in history, the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium, to celebrate his life and challenge the prejudices around HIV/Aids. The comparison of today and the HIV/Aids pandemic make it even more poignant, and definitely worth watching.

What I’ve Been Reading

Limitless: An Ultrarunner’s Story of Pain, Perseverance and the Pursuit of Success tells the story of the incredible rollercoaster ride that endurance sport can be. At the age of 55, record-breaking ultrarunner, Mimi Anderson, embarked on her most ambitious adventure yet. She wanted to become the fastest woman in history to run across America from Los Angeles to New York. Her journey would cover 2,850 miles, 12 states and four time zones, dealing with extreme changes in terrain, weather and altitude along the way. For 40 days, the determined mother of three pushed herself on and on for more than 2,000 miles across the vast continent, despite the onset of severe pain, until she was forced to make a crushing decision: carry on and risk never being able to run again or give up on her all-time goal. What happened next set Mimi on a new, unexpected journey. She learned to face her fears and bounce back from defeat by taking up the new challenge of becoming a triathlete. Don’t limit your challenges. Challenge your limits!

Quote of the Week

"It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving."

• Mother Theresa

Finance Theme I’ve Been Considering

Christmas is a time of the year where we can get too caught up with ‘things’! The items that we think we bring us happiness but are all too quickly forgotten. I love the quote from Mother Theresa above because it isn’t money or objects at Christmas (or any other time of year for that matter) that make us happy, it is our relationships and our experiences.

With the Black Friday dash and the Boxing Day sales, Christmas is continually pushed harder and harder as a commercial opportunity but if the pandemic has shown us anything, it is the importance of enjoying the company of the people we care most about. So, I hope you take Mother Theresa’s advice, and give love as your primary gift this year. I am sure it will pay dividends!

TRIBEathlon Podcast

Episode 59: Over the last 20 years, most of us have been waking up to Louise Minchin's bubbly enthusiasm delivered from the BBC Breakfast red sofa a few mornings every week, but as well as being one of the show's key anchors prior to her stepping down, latterly with Dan Walker, she is also a triathlon fanatic.

Rediscovering her love of sport whilst on a BBC challenge in the Velodrome, she has gone on to represent her country at triathlon, as well as completing some of the world’s toughest extreme triathlons. She currently finds herself in the middle of I'm a Celebrity Get me Out of Here, but prior to her entering the castle, I wanted to find out about how she got into triathlon, how she managed deal with the nerves in the early days and then go on to represent Team GB at the sport. I also wanted to find out more about her having to judge the mood of the nation from the red sofa, as well as understand what comes next for her.

What I’ve Been Reading

When Mrs Reading recommended I read ‘Mum, What’s Wrong with You?’: 101 Things Only Mothers of Teenage Girls Know by Lorraine Candy, I had to carefully consider my reply. Instead of joking about why Candy stopped at 101, I decided to keep my mouth shut and just read the book. Whilst aimed at Mums, this brilliant and insightful book is just as valuable to Dads of ‘meanage’ girls! I am not sure I like the sound of some of the stages we still have to come, but I do feel better prepared. As they say, forewarned is forearmed!

Podcast I’ve been Listening To

Audible have started producing original content in the form of podcast series. I have just finished the brilliant Derren Brown's Boot Camp for the Brain. I have spoken a lot about books like Thinking Fast and Slow, The Chimp Paradox and Peak and this podcast series is a brilliant insight into why we make stupid mistakes and how to avoid them.

Derren Brown and a host of expert guests journey into your brain. Combining the latest scientific research with gripping real-life stories, they explore the cerebral shenanigans which dictate human behaviour - revealing how our brains deceive and confuse us, but also how we can get the upper hand. Well worth listening to, in my opinion.

Product I’ve Found Useful

As many of you know, I am a big fan of the standing desk, and have equipped the EP team with them too. As they say, sitting is the new smoking, so standing at your desk can have a massive long-term benefit. I often get asked by people where I got mine from, and the answer is Storage Concepts in Melton Mowbray. I have now taken this to another level though by purchasing a Whirly Board - not only does this balance board exercise my core, legs, and ankles, stretches my calves and back, it also takes me back to my skateboarding days as a teenager, all whilst conducting a day’s work.

What I’ve Been Eating

For those of you that listen to the TRIBEathlon podcast will know, I constantly battle between wanting to eat healthy whilst also consume energy products for cycling and running. There is so often a conflict, as many of the gels’ ingredient lists look like a chemistry experiment gone wrong! Getting some of the healthier ones like Spring Energy since COVID and Brexit has often been tricky, however I recently discovered XMiles, which has an excellent range of the healthier energy solutions (and still some less healthy too). If you’re looking to try different energy products, their extensive range is worth browsing!

Quote of the Week

"Vision without action is just a dream, action without vision just passes the time, and vision with action can change the world."

• Nelson Mandela.

Finance Theme I’ve Been Considering

It would appear that we are heading back towards a more inflationary environment, and that means one thing. Whilst interest rates might go up, it seems highly unlikely that they will go up quickly, and as such, money held in the bank is being eroded as fast as ever. With inflation of over 4%, and interest rates typically under 1%, that means your savings are falling by over 3% each year.

So, don’t let your hard-earned capital wither away; look to invest into a portfolio that can keep pace with and even beat inflation. If the money is working hard for you, you don’t have to work quite so hard yourself!

TRIBEathlon Podcast

Episode 56: After graduating in 2000, Meredith Kessler used her graduation money to purchase her first triathlon bike and entered in a full Ironman two weeks later. From that moment on, she caught the spirit of Ironman competition and has not looked back.

Since that first Ironman in 2000, Meredith has completed 70 full Ironman races all over the United States and the rest of the world and she is an 11-time full distance Ironman and 23-time half-distance Ironman champion.

I wanted to get to know how Meredith raced on average 7 Ironman's a year, was back racing the full distance just 5 months after giving birth to son, Mak, how she uses Chi swims to meditate and how getting Corona Virus and the vaccine has impacted her performance.

What I’ve Been Watching

I love new technology, and I love things that can improve our health, so when there’s a combination of the two, I am always interested. In the book ‘Lifespan’ which I recommended a few weeks ago, Dr Sinclair talks about the key role tech in our longevity, and one example is how we can use it to learn more about our own DNA. If you know more about your DNA, you can understand which food groups are good for you, and which are to be avoided. A brilliant explanation of this was in BBC’s Click a couple of weeks ago, so if you are interested, I’d suggest you give it a watch here. It is fascinating, and it is accelerating.

Running and Raising Money

On Sunday 3rd of October, I finally got the opportunity to run The London Marathon. At the start of the year, I set myself a clear goal to run a marathon in under 3 ½ hours and as the year went on, I ran 26.2 miles on a number of occasions, but never got below 3.48, so I knew London was my last chance to hit the goal. I set off at an 8-minute mile pace, which would deliver me in on my targeted time, but with no real idea as to whether I’d be able to maintain it for the duration of the race. Previously, the longest I’d held that was for 13 miles, so to hit my time was going to be a struggle.

Through the excitement of being allowed out and about in London, the euphoria and enthusiasm of the crowd and the inspiration of some incredible runners, after 13 miles I was feeling good. So good I’d got my pace down to 7.40-minute miles. Was I going too fast?

As the race continued, to my astonishment, I was confident I could maintain that pace, and I might blitz the 3.30 target, and I was feeling good. That is until I started to do the comparison of the distance I had run on my watch compared to the distance I still had left in real life. I was having to weave through the crowds, and it seems that has quite an impact on your distance over a marathon. I was knocking out 7.40-minute miles but was potentially going to miss my 3.30 time.

At 23 miles, the point where the marathon fatigue really starts to bite, I realised I actually needed to up my pace to ensure getting to the line on time. Mentally I was too tired to do accurate maths, so I decided it was better just to run as fast as I could, give it everything I had and let nature take its course; and it worked, just. By the finish line I had run 27.12 miles, nearly a whole mile further than the required, and as I fell across exhausted, I could see a time of 3.28.

Elated and exhausted, I considered the result. Had I not set that goal, would I have hit a sub 3.30? My initial theory and calculations had failed me as due to the extra distance, 8-minute miles were not going to be enough, however despite that, the power of setting a clear goal and having complete focus on it, brought it home. My 26.2-mile time of 3.21 was far faster than I thought possible, and I have no doubt hitting the big goal was what dragged me over the line.

So, as we head towards the end of the year, what goals do you need to hit to consider 2021 a success? And what goals can you start to construct for 2022. The more specific and simple they are, the more chance you have of hitting them.

Whilst I originally ran the marathon for SPARKS (now part of Great Ormond Street Hospital), our charity for this year is CALM to help support people affected by and bring awareness to suicide. If you would like to help us support either charity, just check out our JustGiving pages here.

Sparks: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/efficient-ltd

CALM: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/efficientportfolioxcalm

Podcast and Coaching

A couple of years ago I interviewed High Performance Coach Claudia Costa on the Fit Finance Sessions Podcast.  She was my coach for some time, and now after the birth of her son, Theo, she is back coaching again. Cláudia is one of the few High Performance Coaches personally trained by Brendon Burchard, whom Forbes named “the world’s leading High Performance Coach.” HPC is a research-based 12-week program that helps you reach high performance in all areas of your life. The best in the world all have a coach, so, if you too think you too would benefit from one, and would like to find out if HPC will resonate with you in your current life, you can email [email protected] and sign up for a FREE strategy session with Cláudia.

TED Talk I’ve Found Interesting

The hard choices - what we most fear doing, asking, saying -- are very often exactly what we need to do. How can we overcome self-paralysis and take action? In his incredibly powerful TED talk Why you should define your fears instead of your goals, Tim Ferriss encourages us to fully envision and write down our fears in detail, in a simple but powerful exercise he calls "fear-setting." Learn more about how this practice can help you thrive in high-stress environments and separate what you can control from what you cannot.

Quote of the Week

“Pressure does two things – bursts pipes and creates diamonds. Which one are you?”

• Brian Cook

Finance Theme I’ve Been Considering

With so much public debt it’s not surprising that we’ve seen tax rises already confirmed, namely National Insurance and Corporation Tax. With a budget looming and therefore potentially more tax rises to come, what might be likely targets? If I were a gambling man, my money would be on Pensions allowances or tax relief and Capital Gains Tax, as they seem like the taxes that people have been preconditioned to expect.

As such, if you have unused ISA and pension allowances, it really does make sense to try and shield your money from the tax man as much as possible, and to get them used up if you possibly can. Use it or lose it as they say!

TRIBEathlon Podcast

Episode 51: Robbie Britton has some incredible achievements under his belt, with highlights such as a 2:29 marathon and a 261km 24hr best, which earned a World & European bronze medal. However, it is his adventures in search of fastest known times (FKTs) that intrigue me the most. Whether it's crossing Iceland, completing the Kom-Emine in Bulgaria, setting an FKT on the 650km Jordan Trail (all on foot or 1100km on a bicycle), the next adventure is never far away.

As one of the world’s leading ultra-distance coaches, I wanted to get a better understanding of what it takes to get through adventure races, the mental tactics needed for ultra-distances and what he has learned from his fell running wife and the wide array of books he reads.

Raising Money and Heart Rate

I am pleased to announce I have completed my Ironman in Tallin, Estonia! Having had glorious sunshine in the days before and after, we were treated to torrential rain and 40mph winds for the duration of the race, which made for a tough ride in particular. I wanted sub 11 hours, so I am thrilled to have come in at 10.52, given the conditions and an extra 1/2 mile run at the end of the marathon! For those that are interested, my splits were 1.13 for a choppy and murky 2.4-mile swim, 5.24 for a wet and windy 112-mile bike ride (avg. 20.5 mph), and 4.02 for a 26.74-mile run. 

A huge thank you to those that have sponsored me already. If you haven't, you can still help me raise money for suicide prevention here. 

What I’ve Been Reading

Malcolm Brown, the Brownlees’ triathlon coach, recommended a book by one of the world's most highly regarded social scientists; it’s called ‘Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction’ by Philip Tetlock & Dan Gardner, and looks at the habits of mind that lead to the best predictions. 

Everyone would benefit from seeing further into the future, whether buying shares, crafting policy, launching a new product, or simply planning the week's meals. Unfortunately, people tend to be terrible forecasters. As Wharton professor, Philip Tetlock, showed in a landmark 2005 study, even experts' predictions are only slightly better than chance. However, an important and underreported conclusion of that study was that some experts do have real foresight, and Tetlock has spent the past decade trying to figure out why. What makes some people so good? And can this talent be taught? 

TED Talk I’ve Found Interesting

At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demonstrates several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data in his talk ‘The thrilling potential of SixSense technology’ - including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper "laptop." In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he'll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all. Even though this was filmed in 2009, the technology is still amazing. 

Quote of the Week 

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” 

• Mahatma Gandhi

Finance Theme I’ve Been Considering

You may have already seen the news that calls to return the state pension age to 60 for men and women have been rejected by the government. Whilst 70,000 clearly thought this was a viable solution, it was never going to happen. 

One of the justifications was to improve the job opportunities of the young, and while this is clearly a noble cause, it was pointed out that had the state pension age not risen for men and women, "the total additional cost to taxpayers would have been around £215bn for the period 2010/11 to 2025/26, in 2018/19 prices." That is also a lot more tax for them to pay to cover the bill! Sadly, the only direction pension ages are likely to go is up, and so there has never been a more important time than now to make your own provision. Whilst the young graduates may not be able to walk into their dream job, they do have time on their hands to find their niche, allowing them a bit more time to enjoy a less stressful start to their career.

TRIBEathlon Podcast

We’ve gone down to fortnightly episodes for a couple of months due to holidays, races and travel, so no new episode this week but why not check out our most popular episode so far if you missed it: Army Ironman Tactics with Kat Matthews.

What I’ve Been Reading

Good to Great by Jim Collins is a business book classic, and widely regarded as one of the most important business books ever written, but I only recently got around to reading it. It is packed full of so much good advice and the subtitle, ‘Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't’, sums it up perfectly.  The book takes 5 years of research on what made the top companies successful and distils it into some interesting and actionable points. Definitely worth reading if you run a business, or plan to.

TED Talk I’ve Found Interesting

We believe we should work hard in order to be happy, but could we be thinking about things backwards? In this fast-moving and very funny talk The happy secret to better work, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that, actually, happiness inspires us to be more productive.

What I’ve Been Watching

While on holiday, we’re enjoying catching up on a family film or two. Blended featuring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore has been the firm family favourite this trip. I’m not a fan of most American comedies these days, but Sandler and Barrymore make a great team for light-hearted family chuckles.

Quote of the Week

“Our job is to connect to people, to interact with them in a way that leaves them better than we found them, more able to get where they’d like to go.”

• Seth Godin

Finance Theme I’ve Been Considering

You might have seen on the BBC website that Ministers are looking to overhaul the legal process for people to nominate someone to take financial and health decisions on their behalf if they lose the ability to act for themselves, as there are concerns that the system is too slow and difficult to use.

Better than their predecessor, the Enduring Power of Attorney, from a protective point of view, the Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) have created more barriers for people to complete them. An LPA, whilst a bit more hassle, is still a vitally important document, if something unexpected happens. There is no telling how long changes will take, so don’t wait in hope, make sure you have one.

TRIBEathlon Podcast

Episode 48: Sarah Davis and Tara Lal are two ladies who are doing extraordinary things; they recently cycled across Australia together, raising money for suicide awareness - a subject that Tara wrote about in her successful book 'Standing on my Brother's Shoulders: Making Peace with Grief and Suicide'. Sarah, on the other hand, came to it from paddling the 6853km length of the Nile and also the Murry River.

In this fascinating conversation, Sid and I got the opportunity to chat to them about cycling great distances unsupported, risk managing expeditions and how we can better deal with and prevent suicide.

Podcast I’ve Been Listening To

Our chosen charity for the year is CALM, a mental health charity with particular focus on suicide prevention, and given the last 18 months, this seemed even more appropriate that ever. In my research for the TRIBEathlon podcast above I listened to an interview of Tara focusing entirely on suicide prevention entitled The Ripple Effect of Suicide.

In our interview we spent some of the time discussing suicide prevention, but if you want to drill a little deeper, check out her book Standing on my brother’s shoulders, which I haven’t read yet, but will.

What I’ve Been Reading

I have previously recommended that everyone read Bill Gate’s book How to avoid a climate disaster, and I have just finished reading A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by David Attenborough, which I have to say falls into the same category. Ideally read both, but please do read one at least - all our futures depend on it. Gate’s book is more focused on the technology that is needed, whereas Attenborough’s more on the strategies we need to employ, but they are both singing from the same hymn sheet.

TED Talk I’ve Found Interesting

You know I love bikes and cycling, but it turns out that it’s better for our health than even I had realised. Tony Desnick, in his TED talk The Amazing Way Bicycles Change You, makes the case that bikes are saving the world from itself. Bicycles really do change you and, in amazing ways, change the community around you. A 17-minute talk well worth the investment.

3 Quotes, from David Attenborough

“The fact remains that man has unprecedented control over the world and everything in it. And so, whether he likes it or not, what happens next is very largely up to him.”

• From ‘Life on Earth’ 1979

“Our imprint is now truly global. Our impact is now truly profound. Our blind assault on the planet has finally come to alter the very fundamentals of the living world.”

• From ‘A Life on Our Planet’, 2020.

“Real success can only come if there is a change in our societies and in our economics and in our politics.”

Finance Theme I’ve Been Considering

Having read Bill Gate’s and David Attenborough’s books on climate change and the planet recently, it strikes me that there are some recurring themes on what we can do to help that really won’t make a big difference to us but could have a huge impact on the future for children and our planet. The low hanging fruit appears to be:

• Embrace low green premiums; anything where the cost of going green is little or none, take it. For example, when you change your car buy electric, when changing your boiler go for a heat pump, or when changing your utility provider choose green. The long-term cost to you will be small but the impact on the planet will be big!
• Eat less meat and fish, but when you do, opt for higher quality local options. If we build on this trend, we can make a huge difference to the planet in so many ways, like reducing carbon emissions, increasing biodiversity, and protecting the seas.
• Walk away from the single use, throw away culture. Reuse, repair and recycle.
• Invest in the technologies that will help us get to carbon zero by 2050. The best way to do this is to put the money in your investments and pensions to even better use through ethical investments selected by the experts. Not only can we save the planet by doing so, but given the going momentum of this movement, you are likely to benefit personally from this approach in the longer term too.

I’m sending slightly more sporadic Friday Footnotes at the moment, as I’m with the family in Cornwall and trying to keep work to a minimum but normal service will resume in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, here are a few things that have caught my eye or ear lately.

TRIBEathlon Podcast

Episode 49: Allan Hovda is a 3-time winner of the infamous Norseman Extreme Triathlon, as well as winner of The Swissman and multiple others.

Having mastered racing in the cold, he's also worked on mastering racing in the heat too, so Andy Blow and I got the opportunity to chat to him about adapting to extreme temperatures, his fascination around aerodynamics and his love of the X-Tri races.

What I’ve Been Reading

Where There’s a Will: Hope, Grief and Endurance in a Cycle Race Across a Continent is the story from London cycle courier to top ultra-cyclist, Emily Chappell. She won the women’s event of The Transcontinental (in which riders must find their own way, entirely unassisted, across Europe in the shortest time possible) on her second attempt, covering nearly 4,000 miles in 13 days and 10 hours, sleeping in short bursts wherever exhaustion took her. In addition to being a great insight into what such a race involves, it also pays tribute to legendary cyclist and race organiser, Mike Hall, who was killed whilst racing in Australia. Another great book to listen to while cycling yourself.

TED Talk I’ve Found Interesting

Right now, billions of neurons in your brain are working together to generate a conscious experience - and not just any conscious experience, your experience of the world around you and of yourself within it. How does this happen? According to neuroscientist, Anil Seth, in his talk Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality, we're all hallucinating all the time; when we agree about our hallucinations, we call it "reality." Join Seth for a delightfully disorienting talk that may leave you questioning the very nature of your existence.

Quote of the Week

“If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

• Roald Dahl

Finance Theme I’ve Been Considering

A fast game is a good game when the family are calling me to the beach; and that’s my message. Whilst money is important, the people around us that we care about are more important. Watch this space for my next book, The Life Legacy Gift, which will hopefully help you combine the two, and enable you to leave a legacy worth sharing to the people you care most about. Enjoy your summer in the meantime!