This life we live is an adventure, but it is the journey we should be taking note of

I have just arrived home from a premier of the movie 180’ South.
More of a documentary of one man’s quest to follow in the footsteps of some of his hero’s to climb the mountains of Patagonia.

His journey takes you through the trials and tribulations of him getting to the final destination as well as his personal learning’s along the way.
The sad part is that there is no Al Gore in a supporting role. You get taken on a rollercoaster ride of magnificent visuals, massive mountains, beautiful valleys and amazing surfing footage alongside the absolute raping of the natural environments for industry. But this is not something that is going to be widely viewed by the general money hungry population.
The one man’s quest for a summit of a particular mountain is overshadowed by the conservation efforts of a handful of people trying to stop large companies from building bridges across rivers in Patagonia to supply power to the major cities of Chile like Santiago.

I was constantly reminded of some friends that I have that have not conceded to the materialism of this planet and are those guys that pack up their lives in a backpack sans the surfboard and head off into unravelled territories to find solitude.

One quote from the movie stood out for me as majorly profound: “ The hardest thing you can do is simplify your life!”

I have on the odd occasion found myself culling possessions in this quest for simplification. And yet I felt massive pangs of guilt getting home and seeing that the very things these guys are trying to curb allow me to charge my ipod for hours on end.

As I embark on my own journey to Beline in Mozambique in just over 24 hours, I am taking the time to reflect on my place in this world. I know I need to heal my heart and soul, but I also want to connect with nature again. Clear my head and get close to the angels. With this in mind it made sense that today when I was looking for a book to take with in case of some bad weather, I found myself buying a blank journal. So I can spend my time reflecting.

I am looking forward to planning my next adventure. I have a list the length of my arm of places I still want to explore. We just need to remember that it is not the destination that we should be aiming for, but rather living in the moment of the journey, appreciating every day for the wonders of nature and the fantastic people that we allow into our lives.

At what point do you let go?

I am pretty sure that most people know someone that abuses some kind of substance.
Be it alcohol, weed or any harder kind of drug.
A mate of mine is addicted to Cocaine.
He is at a point where he has lost his job, lost all his friends and even if he has not realised it yet, is about to lose his paternal rights to his daughter.
So I was doing some research on the subject, as there needs to be a time where you say enough is enough!
Functional drug abusers are one thing, but to sit back and watch a friend hit rock bottom is worse. Hell is trying to help them and being slapped in the face around every corner.
Extracted from coca leaves, cocaine was originally developed as a painkiller. It is most often sniffed, with the powder absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal tissues. It can also be ingested or rubbed into the gums.
To more rapidly absorb the drug into the body, abusers inject it, but this substantially increases the risk of overdose. Inhaling it as smoke or vapor speeds absorption with less health risk than injection.
Popular street names include Aunt Nora, Bernice, binge, blow, Charlie, dust, mojo, nose candy, paradise, toot and white.
“Addiction should be understood as a chronic
recurring illness that requires treatment.”

Having watched endless episodes of Celebrity Rehab with Dr Drew, I did manage to understand some of the issues surrounding someone addicted to a drug of this nature.
The respect for themselves hits rock bottom, they lie, they cheat and they lie a little more.
All to get to the high that they think will get them out of the hole they are constantly digging for themselves.
So where to from here? Is rehab the only option? Does rehab work? How do you get to someone that is so far down the road that they need more than just an intervention, because if left alone after a 12 step programme, they will head back to the same dodgy street corner to score?
There are so many prescription pills on the market that are there to assist people to get off the harder stuff. But this is a never ending saga of going around in circles. I knew a guy that gave up booze only to chain smoke himself to death. Where do you draw the line?
What are the deal breakers for friends of addicts?
When do you let go?

When is it time to let go?

People all start something with a dream, a dream of success.
Be this a new job or career, a relationship or marriage, a new venture or chance at a different life.

The uphill battles that accompany anything new sometimes feel impossible. Dealing with people, laws, criticisms and possibly failure must be one of the hardest things to overcome.
To make sure that you get out of bed every day and continue with that fight to get to your dream is definitely the hardest part of any venture.
Starting a new job, career or company is so daunting. Having done this myself, I can relate to the late night working just to get through the workload. The sleepless nights wondering where the next pay check is coming from.
Apart from all the elements you may or may not understand, like in my case business law and taxes.

I do feel particularly sorry for artists in this world.
This covers all artists like designers, writers, musicians and the like. Having to produce parts of yourself everyday for external scrutiny must be mortifying. I have seen clients ripping apart advertising concepts with no real knowledge of what they particularly wanted or no regard for their bad briefing techniques.
Don’t get me started on muso’s. These poor guys literally spend hours composing tracks and songs to put out on radio only to be dissed by the music fraternity that should be supporting them in the first place. It is the one industry that makes it so hard to succeed that natural talent goes to waste as people quit before they can make it.

My latest whinge is definitely about the state of relationships in the world.
I am the most disappointed with the lack of integrity and willingness to work on something that needs time and a bit of effort. This disposable nation we live in where there is instant gratification and throwaway anything and everything. Nothing is built to last and no one is prepared to put in the time and effort to work on something good.
I have found that with time and age, I have managed to work through the friendships that matter and are worth spending time and effort with and know when to let go and not pay attention and allocate time to the people that are not worth it.
The biggest question with regards to all of this is, when do you know when to let go?
When do you say no to toxic relationships, bad jobs and backstabbing work colleagues.
When do you take what the general public say seriously and when do you believe in yourself and your values that what they say does not matter?

The spring / summer obsession

So the gymming obsession has begun.

Throughout the winter months only the regular gym bunnies and boy bodybuilders and hectic runners were in the gym.
The rest of the nation was snuggled up on the couch eating themselves into a bad body image.

Virgin Active has launched their Colour meFit plan where they do lots of programmes to get new people signed up and back into the gym.

This means that there is no parking, crowded tredmills and lots of people very miserable with their bikini body that they do nothing but winge and whine at the personal trainers trying to get them to move their wobbly winter asses into action.

The one girl that really got my goat was a woman that was about 10kg overweight. Her "hate handles' were mushrooming over her pants and her stomach was a 10 year heart attack waiting to happen.
The personal trainer she had hired was desperately trying to get her to do some squats which even on my good days are a shocker!
After 2 minutes of this, she spent 5 minutes listening to him speak about his kid while she paid him to make her stand still.

She then proceeded to ask him if this exercise was going to help her lose weight!
ONE SESSION and some SQUATS and already she is on the question path of "is this going to make me lose weight???"

I felt like interjecting and giving her the real advice on how to lose the weight!
30km's of running a week
Wire your jaws shut and stop eating all that McDonalds
Stop whining and get moving rather than speaking shit to your personal trainer!

I have been working on my body and self image for 2 years. 2 years to take 8% of my body fat and get it out of my body and these women are expecting 10 minutes of gym to miraculously make all their issues disappear!.

It is no wonder that all the women’s magazines are selling copies based on getting a bikini body is 4 weeks and losing all that winter fat in no time!
Since starting life coaching, I am wondering if my solutions driven opinions will be well received instead of the “so what do you think your problems are?” that normal coaches and shrinks do.

I personally feel people need a strong straight talking person to kick them up the rear instead of having people pussyfoot around issues.