Creativity, Self-Discovery and Ongoing Service

TRIBEathlon Podcast

Episode 32: After earning short-course kudos as a 3x Olympian, 4x ITU World Champion and countless ITU World Cup victories, Tim Don turned his attention to the half Ironman distance where he picked up a collection of titles, as well as setting the current Ironman World Record of 7:40:23 in Brazil.

Two days before the 2017 Ironman World Championships in Kona, Tim Don was hit by a car whilst riding along the Queen K Highway and suffered a hangman's fracture to his neck. He spent 3 months recovering in a Halo Brace, which was documented brilliantly in 'The Man with the Halo'.

So, as one of Britain's most successful triathletes, and someone that has played a huge part of the sports rise to popularity, I wanted to learn more about his recovery from injury, his approach to goal setting and what's next for The Don!

TED Talk I’ve Found Interesting

Getting creative is such a great way to offset the lockdown boredom, to feel better about yourself and to create more diversity in your life and the life of others. As you’ll have seen from my previous Friday Footnotes, I’ve been embracing this lately in a number of ways, and I’d encourage you to do the same.

How to build you creative confidence is a brilliant TED talk that talks about whether your school or workplace is divided between the "creatives" versus the practical people? David Kelley suggests that, creativity is not the domain of only a chosen few. Telling stories from his legendary design career and his own life, he offers ways to build the confidence to create.

What I’ve Been Reading

Michael Singer is a spiritual teacher and author of two New York Times bestsellers: ‘The Untethered Soul’ and ‘The Surrender Experiment’; I’ve been hearing these repeatedly recommended lately, from fellow entrepreneurs to Tony Robbins in this interview, so I decided to read the former.

What I love most about this book is that the author really does take you on a journey of discovery, being the interpreter and guide; you don't need to already be aware of spiritual concepts to read it. He starts by making us aware that the only thing 'we' are is the witness to whatever is going on in our minds, emotions, dramas, etc. We can notice and simply detach. It you want to consider your thinking, I’d definitely suggest you take a look at this.

What I’ve Been Watching

With the weather so bad for training lately, I’ve taken to catching up on some films that I absolutely loved but have never revisited. One of my absolute favourites has been ‘The Green Mile’. Featuring Tom Hanks and based on a Stephen King book, it is laced with so much emotion and meaning that you can’t help but think deeply about the underlying message. Even the main character, John Coffey, shares his initials with Jesus Christ. Once you’ve watched it, you can read more into its biblical symbolism here. One of my all-time favourite films, and well worth a watch or a re-watch if you’ve exhausted your watchlist!

Quote of the Week

“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”

• Abraham Maslow

Finance Theme I’ve Been Considering

Twice this week alone I have heard people comment about the lack of ongoing service they see from other firms in our industry. We speak to a lot of accountants and solicitors, as well as new clients that have experience of life as a client elsewhere, and time and again I am reminded that the norm for our sector is a very passive approach, with companies really only getting in contact when they think they can sell something.

The importance of ongoing service was easily demonstrated this week; we held a virtual Client Review Workshop to help people ensure that their planning and financial knowledge evolves with them, we spoke to clients worried about changes coming in the budget (spoiler alert, I think they will be later down the line, but that’s just my guess) and out of the blue on Monday, we had a platform provider suddenly change their fee structure with varying implications to our clients, so have been dedicating our time to searching for the best solution for them and make sure there is no disruption.

You never know what changes will come down the line, and it’s vital that your financial planning evolve with those changes. For clients in our The Progressive Review Programme, they can relax knowing we’ve got them covered, but if you or someone you know doesn’t get proactive ongoing advice, please do spread the word that we can provide a solution for them.