Robots, Ultra Running and Business Coaching
App I’ve Found Useful
I am a big believer in doing the things you love or are best at, and delegating the things you aren’t. Mowing the lawn has for a long time fallen into the latter group for me, but in recent years finding a reliable company to do it regularly has become frustrating; so having researched the market, I decided it was now the time for a robot to take over.
Come rain or shine my Husqvarna automower is out making sure my lawn looks lovely; and it has never looked so good. It is all controlled from the app, and occasionally I get amusing messages to tell me that Beebot (our name not theirs) is upside down and needs assistance. Other than the odd run in with the dog, we love it and wish I’d taken the leap earlier. If you want to learn more, RTC were brilliant at installing the whole thing. It is time to employ a robot!
TED Talk I’ve Found Interesting
I can’t remember what drew me to watch tall, pretty underwear model, Cameron Russell’s, TED talk entitled ‘Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model’, but whatever it was, in the age of Instagram, this has never been a more important topic.
Russell admits she won "a genetic lottery" but don't judge her by her looks. In this fearless talk, she takes a wry look at the industry that had her looking highly seductive at barely 16 years old. As the father of 2 girls, the subject frightened me, so I encourage you to watch it here.
What I’ve Been Reading
I have enjoyed running more and more in recent years, and it is no small part down to the brilliant book ‘Born to Run’by Christopher McDougall.
As I have run longer and further, the idea of Ultra Running (running longer than a marathon) has intrigued me. Hearing stories of people running 100+ mile races seemed, until recently, so far beyond what was comprehensible, but I wanted to know more. When I saw the excellent author Adharanand Finn had released a book entitled ‘The Rise of the Ultra Runners: A Journey to the Edge of Human Endurance’ I knew I was going to have to read it; and it didn’t disappoint.
Shortlisted for the 2019 William Hill Sports Book of the Year, it is crammed full of brilliant stories, mental techniques and running form advice that made ‘Born to Run’ such a brilliant read. If you have any interest in running, I suggest you read it, or even better, listen to it while running.
Business Coaching You Might Find Helpful
The current global situation has had a range of impacts on business owners, from no work to overwork, and struggling to cope with the effect on businesses, home life and relationships.
A client of mine has been offering some resilience coaching to his clients to help them remain buoyant. He’s offered some short coaching sessions for free, giving them some headspace to think through their plans, to develop tactics to cope with pressure and reflect on their people leadership during a period of high stress. He has limited it to a couple of brief (30 min) sessions as a free offer. If you think you would benefit from this help, you can email him by clicking here.
Quote of the Week
“There’s a way to do it better – find it.”
- Thomas Edison
Finance Theme I’ve Been Considering
The detailed private diary that Samuel Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century and is one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period. Pepys’ personal revelations and eyewitness accounts of great events, such as the Great Plague of London, allow us insight into the habits of people post-pandemic.
If we dig into the detail of his diary, we can see that, even though the Great Plague was at one of its peaks in September, he was back in the office and the pub with his friends by Christmas.
I have heard many times through COVID-19 that life will never revert back to what it was, but history shows us that people do forget the past very quickly. They forget about market falls and how they felt then, and they make the same mistakes all over again.
At a conference I was at yesterday they suggested that businesses needed to ‘Reboot, Rebuild, Recover and Realise the new Reality’ because market sentiment says that economic activity is likely to be back up again by the end of the year.
On the basis life will return, albeit back to a slightly new normal, what changes do you need to make to your business or your finances to allow you to Reboot, Rebuild, Recover or Realise the new Reality? How can you Built, Manage and Protect your way to a better financial future?
