Category Archives: Motivation and inspiration

Personal branding – make the most of what you’ve got

Everybody’s specialist subject is talking about themselves. We know more about ourselves than anyone else and it’s a subject we have endless experience and knowledge of. How we use that information, especially when it comes to social platforms and our identity on the web, is massively important in relation to our own personal brand. With some thought on what we are trying to achieve we can be sure to make the right kind of impact in the right places.

Each social platform has its own reason for existing as defined by its user base and it is very important that you make sure you are using the appropriate approach for each platform. A bio that talks about how much you love acid house music and playing Sunday football is not going to hold much weight with people looking at you on LinkedIn, for example, so be sure you’ve worked this out first.

Make sure you’ve also got a really strong profile picture. A shot that captures your head and shoulders is ideal and you can get a friend to take one with your phone if that’s the best camera you can get your hands on – camera phone lens quality is excellent and a good shot will be fine for this job.

Now think hard about your strengths and make sure they are front and centre in everything you say about yourself. The majority of articles and other content you share or comment on should make it easy to see what you’re all about and your profiles should list these strengths. Search engines are also picking up keywords within profiles and it’s imperative that you get these things working in your favour.

And finally, be authentic and keep your target audience in mind with everything you do and say. Your passion for a particular topic will stand out for all to see and your highly likely to get the results you want – a strong and solid personal brand with new followers, new clients or new connections of any kind – if you use your authenticity to stand out from the crowd.

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

Friends and thank you’s

I’ve been away for a few days after getting married at the end of June. Katherine and I had a wonderful time and every part of our journey – from the night before, meeting up with our friends and family at the venue to coming back home yesterday from our trip – has been amazing and a great start to married life. The time away also cleared our heads after a very busy few months and reminded us of a couple of things that are really important, especially to me, and worth sharing.

We have a very good group of friends and it was so good to celebrate with them all. We both have very busy jobs and also live quite a distance from a lot of our friends and this can be difficult as we would like to be able to see everyone more often and spend more time with them than we do – Facebook can only keep you connected to a degree, of course. The importance of making an effort with your friends – staying in contact, keeping in touch, reaching out in both good times and bad and generally being a good friend – was made very clear at our wedding. I had some great conversations with mates of mine I don’t see all that often but it was like I had only seen them the day before. Being a good friend means a great deal and it is something that takes a lot of effort but it is all worth it.

Being thankful is also something that can be neglected by those with busy lives. Taking some time to say thank you to anyone who helps you or goes out of their way to make your day go a little bit better for any reason is worth acknowledgement. A wedding is a time when you have everyone important in your life together and we got the chance to say thank you to all of our friends and family for everything they do for us, but even if you’re not getting married any time soon, be sure to show your appreciation of those who help you. It can go a very long way.

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

How hard is hard enough?

There isn’t an answer to this question in most cases and you need to get used to this.

There is always something else to be done and there is always more that you can do in order to be the success that you want to be. Hard work pays off and if you work hard and push yourself to achieve the goals you have set for yourself, you can then be happy with whatever you will achieve and you will have earned it. The point here is that if you have to ask this question you are not working hard enough. Dig deep and keep your head down. The results will come in time.

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally

Start sweating your own assets

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If you want to make progress and hit goals in life or business, you’ve got to work hard. This post is about being more focussed than just doing more of the same and expecting better results and it is geared towards making more of ourselves and operating more effectively within the rapidly changing world we live in today. Under each of the headings – points I see as important on any journey where you are looking to improve – I’ve listed a few points of relevance that should be helpful to consider.

Make more money –

Get performance related pay and then perform
Improve your skills
Stop adding and start multiplying
Change company for a big rise

Manage people –

Know what you need to achieve yourself
Set expectations from the start
Listen hard and proactively – get all of the facts
Acknowledge people’s feelings – they play a big part in daily work
Get solutions from those with problems
Stay calm and keep a sense of humour

Communicate effectively –

Tell it like it is
Listen before you think before you speak
Keep your message consistent
If it really matters, do it face to face.
Encourage feedback and act on it

Be relaxed about stress –

Stick to your own agenda
Don’t do it if it’s not necessary
Simplify everything you do
Be happy to say no thank you

Lead from the front –

Work harder than anyone else
Set the example
Keep your problems to yourself
Tell the team what you expect from them
Listen to the team and respect their skills
Explain clearly what you expect and ensure it happens

Be more efficient –

Start work earlier
Work in small chucks
Put time for you to think in your diary
Write the agenda and stick to it
Plan today and act tomorrow

Motivate your team –

Incentivise everyone
Be tough when necessary
Train people properly
Listen to the team and get to know them
Give them space and let them get on with it

Impress your boss –

Help them meet their key objectives
Give them solutions not problems
Listen to them and ask for the benefit of their experience
Get promoted above them

Stay a decent person –

Listen
Be generous with your time and talents
Don’t hurt other people
Say thank you
Give as much as you take
Keep your conscience clear

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

Hiring advice from Ogilvy

A quick list for you from the King of Madison Avenue:

“The qualifications I look for in our leaders are these:

1 – High standards of personal ethics.

2 – Big people, without prettiness.

3 – Guts under pressure, resilience in defeat.

4 – Brilliant brains – not safe plodders.

5 – A capacity for hard work and midnight oil.

6 – Charisma – charm and persuasiveness.

7 – A streak of unorthodoxy – creative innovators.

8 – The courage to make tough decisions.

9 – Inspiring enthusiasts – with thrust and guts.

10 – A sense of humour.”

All of these are highly prized commodities in the workplace and something I spend a lot of time looking for in people. Sadly the package is not found in all that many but those that do possess it are rare birds who fly very, very high.

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

How to get the most out of your 24 hours

There are many times when I hear myself and others say that they wish they had more time. I said just this morning that if you could buy an extra day a week I would definitely be interested. But we should all really have a look at how we spend the time we have and work out where the gaps are to ensure we are as productive as we can be, especially if we like to use the ‘lack of time’ excuse for not getting things done or started.

Have you ever made a note of the way you spend your 24 hours? Even a simple breakdown of your daily activities can be truly enlightening. Go ahead and do it – make a list of every hour in a 24 hour period and note down how much time is spent sleeping, how much at work, how much travel time you have, and so on. Add in the time it takes you for meals, any exercise time, and how long you watch tv in the mornings or evenings. Be as detailed and precise as you can and also be honest with your assessments – ‘was it four episodes of Mad Men I just watched there or three?’. Then take a step back and see what you have left.

It may only be small blocks of time – 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there – But I am sure you can squeeze at least two hours from every day to focus on the things that you ‘don’t really have time for at the moment’. There is a whole world of experiences and learning out there ready and waiting for you if you can make the time for it. You could use the time to start a new fitness regime, practise a new way of cooking, learn a musical instrument or just go for a short walk to clear your head and give yourself a boost at any particular time of the day. Give this method a try and see what it can it do for you.

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

It’s gotta be fun. If not, why keep at it?

We were just having some fun in the office earlier with Periscope and thinking about how we can make it work for us. There’s something in it for us as a team and as a method of promoting the work we do at 6Talent and we are going to have a crack at it over the coming days. It’s a new tool and something quite different to what we have done before but it will be hilarious to work with as we try it out.

This got me thinking about the importance of adding a bit of fun to the day in the office. There must always be productivity and the work does need to get done but if there’s no laughter or an air of staleness it can be really negative. Bosses should also factor this into their workplaces and be aware of the effects on staff morale, behaviour and that all-important productivity.

If you find yourself in a job you don’t like with a bad atmosphere around the place you can do a few things. Add some fun to the work you do and you’ll feel a lot better for it. Ask your boss for a side project, for example, if it will give you a boost and the chance to work on something that you enjoy that will also add some benefit to the business. Don’t sit and suffer – take some positive action and you’ll see and feel the benefits really quickly.

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

Can 4 kilos and 8mph make you a champion?

I found an article I had taken from the sports section of a UK newspaper back in 2007 written by Brad Gilbert, coach of tennis player Andy Murray at the time. This was way before he was the champion that he has become and Gilbert was explaining what it was going to take to make Murray No1 in the world rankings.

Gilbert had focussed on these two metrics – bodyweight and speed of serve – because he felt this was what would get the maximum possible game out of the player. He also felt that if he achieved these two metrics, the ranking would take care of itself. He didn’t want to talk about numbers or results or become obsessed on hitting a particular spot – he just wanted to make his player the best he could be.

This approach can be a really strong one to take in order to stay focussed. Fix the things you can change and don’t worry about the stuff you can’t. Work on the things that make you better and get the most out of yourself every day. The bigger things will take care of themselves over time. Yes, you need to be dedicated, work hard, be determined, a fighter, etc and all these things that lead to making winners, but also try taking this approach using specifics and see if it can work for you.

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

Do great work when you’re on the clock

There can often be a temptation to dial back your efforts on a project you don’t enjoy. Something or someone is annoying you and you don’t really feel it’s worth it to deliver the best you can. I had an instance today where I had this choice and it can be very easy to go for the soft option and sit back, shrugging your shoulders as you think to yourself, “no-one’s going to notice…”.

Do great work when you’re on the clock and someone else is paying your wages, whether it’s a client or your employer. Settling for mediocrity has no value and all it does is put you in the same bracket as everyone else who is looking at life the same way as you. Stand out, make a difference and get some satisfaction from knowing you did your best. It takes effort, determination and drive to get to where you want to be and achieve your goals, but it is truly worth it. Be known as the one who always delivers their best, no matter what the circumstances and I can assure you that you’ll always be busy.

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

Take on some pain to get real gains

The life we live today is very different to that of our elders. The lives they are able to lead is also very different to that of their elders, and so on. But there are a substantial number of factors in this generational change which are eroding our natural ability to overcome difficulties and endure a little bit of ‘pain’ in order to achieve some kind of gain in the future.

I’m not talking about overcoming illnesses or mental issues that can have a serious effect on how we live our daily lives here. This is different, very serious in many cases and can have a fundamental effect on every aspect of someone’s life. I’m talking about some basic things that you can do to avoid the ‘quick fix’ route and improve your life in a number of ways.

We have become hooked on quick fixes. We are more sedentary than ever before, stuck at desks sitting for long periods. The ready meal category has grown up around our desire to feed ourselves quickly, whatever long term damage the meal itself can do to us based on its ingredients. We get ‘stressed’ very quickly and see this as a negative thing that is purely destructive. We drive everywhere and rarely take a healthier option. We spend money, sometimes borrowed at crazy interest rates, on ‘looking good’ and everything that that entails. And we are online so much that we can have stronger online relationships than real ‘face-to-face’ ones. Today, we put more value on ‘chillin’ out’ than we do on achieving anything, learning something new or improving ourselves and the lives of those around us.

So, what else can we do? How else can we approach life in order to improve it?

Take on some stress and use it to fuel your drive to achieve more. Get out of your comfort zone and look for opportunities to push yourself – really, push yourself hard – into places where the good stuff happens. I think we quite often feel we are really doing everything we can to make changes or improve ourselves, but we haven’t tried as hard as we can if we are being honest with ourselves. We would have done those exercises every morning, or we would have made those calls or joined that group. We would have fully committed.

Nothing comes easy and it all requires hours and hours of effort. Don’t give up – be persistent and make a simple choice in every decision: stick where you are now or improve. Good things will happen as long as you stick at it and change can take a long time but it is definitely worth it.

I have a couple of examples that spur me on and maybe they can also help you. One is my friend Richard who runs marathons – check out the photo on his Twitter bio here and you will see why he is an inspiration to me and many. It can never be said that he has taken the easy route in life and his successes will always stand out. The Spartan way of life and the way they trained and educated their young is also worthy of some further research and their mentality has been adopted into everything from feature films to adventure races. But whatever you do or whatever you research, be sure to then act on it and make the changes in your own life that will have the biggest and best effect. You won’t regret it.

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

Get inspired

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boom

Time on the internet can be seen by many people as a real negative. Many hours can be frittered away watching youtube clips or shopping for your next pair of shoes. I spend a lot of my day online and I do like to get away from it for a while but I also like to use it in my own time to get inspired.

I read a lot of content and I also watch a lot of video, especially interviews and discussions on subjects that I am interested in. I subscribe to a few podcasts and listen to them weekly. I take in as much as I can as I want to fill my brain with inspirational content and encourage myself to develop new ideas and think about the things I already do in a different way – and listening to how other people achieve their own success is a great starting point.

One thing that I do often is favourite things that catch my eye on Twitter to read later on or save into other readers such as Pocket. 30 minutes spent looking back at this list of favourites will always spring a few pleasant surprises.

It also makes a lot of sense to learn from people who have found success using their own methods. It may not mean that the same methods will work for you but why not take the tried and tested route and see what results you get? You can adapt things along the way and find fixes that fit but it can be a great way to kick start a new routine or break a bad habit, for instance.

As long as the content is truly inspirational and you are able to take away at least one method or tip from it, it will definitely be time well spent.

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

Consciously Positive

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So what does ‘Consciously Positive’ as a way of being mean to me?

Choosing the right attitude to get things done
Focussing on the goal and being single-minded and determined enough to achieve it
Executing on good ideas
Delivering the best results you can in any given situation
Showing up, checking in, doing the work with no excuses
Making things happen
Helping others to learn and develop
Being proactive
Being prepared to fail
Never stopping learning

All of these things bundled up together make a very powerful mix. I get a lot of satisfaction when I’m working this way and things are happening for me and those around me and, conversely, lose a lot of energy and find it very hard to deliver when some of these things are difficult or require some change within me or in my immediate environment.

I believe this is a state of being that we can all aim for in order to be the best we can be. Sure, we might not be 100% in everything immediately but we can use this as a template to constantly improve ourselves. The effects on our lives, our businesses, our relationships and every aspect of our life will be significant and is definitely something worth working towards.

Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

Breaking new ground

It can be very tempting to start something new in order to improve an area of your life, like getting fit, eating better or working smarter. The thought process goes something like this:

“I’m fed up with being (out of shape, overweight, tired all the time, late home from work every day, etc). I’m going to read up on the topic and try and make some changes that will help me to change things. Easy!”

But rarely is it easy to make these kind of changes. There have been many times in my life when I’ve got down on myself for not being great at something and it can be a huge frustration – “everyone else is good at (getting up early and exercising, writing blog posts every day, etc). Why can’t I do the same?” – making you feel even worse.

Good intentions are one thing, but turning them into habits or rituals is the key to making lasting changes. I have a few bad habits, the worst of all being an addiction to biting my finger nails that I’ve had for as long as I can remember, but the way this habit works acts as an indicator of the power and strength of habits. If you can make an action or activity a habit you are very likely to continue with it and deliver on it every day.

Try setting some realistic goals for a start. It can help to set some targets that you have a really good chance of achieving that will also act as milestones on the journey to something even bigger. Saying today that you’re going to read a new book every week for the next 12 months is great but very hard to achieve and your confidence would be seriously knocked if you gave up after a few weeks. But aiming for a more achievable target – two books in the next month, for example – can give you something to aim for that will help the habit to form and you can then set a slightly bigger target once that one has been knocked off.

Once you’ve set a realistic goal and achieved it, give yourself a reward. It doesn’t have to be chocolate or a whole new wardrobe, but a small and simple token to say you are on your way and you’ve made the first step is enough to keep you on track. Small rewards can also increase your motivation as the challenges come along so as you set another new target, also set think up another reward.

And finally, don’t be too hard on yourself. Life is short and time spent harming yourself or running yourself down with constantly negative thoughts about how bad you are for having three glasses of wine instead of the one you were aiming for is negative energy that will stop you from making a positive impact in your life. Give yourself a chance to start afresh and set another goal as quickly as you can. Believe that you can achieve whatever target you have set and give yourself every chance possible of making it happen – such as not going to the pub for a few days.

Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

Key learnings from 2014

(From the 6Talent blog)

The year of 2014 has been a great one as 6Talent has hit the ground running and made an excellent start. We’ve learned a great deal on the way and I wanted to share a couple of the things that might benefit all of us:

– Set big targets and work as hard as you can to hit them.

– Things won’t always go your way but learn to accept both the rough and the smooth.

– The people that keep everything running – the unsung heroes – should be treated like gold.

– The only way to gain respect from both candidates and clients is to give them the best level of service possible at all times.

– Have as much fun as you can along the way.

We are looking forward to continuing our success in 2015 and I would like to wish all of our candidates, clients, partners, supporters and followers a very happy Christmas and thank you for all of your help.

Pursuing growth

Making things happen in business and getting ideas off the ground is something that takes courage, effort and a decent level of ability no matter what you are doing. But pursuing and actually achieving growth is another step requiring a few different skills.

I attended a dinner this week where creative agency leaders discussed how to get more business from existing clients as one method and the ideas generated were very interesting. The talk was led by Louisa Pau – built and ran her own creative agency with a partner and sold it a few years back – and her insights were extremely useful.

The first was to create the actual/notional role of Head of Retention – this is a role that anyone can take but be sure that someone fulfills the requirement and delivers the goods in this area. Client visits, listening to their needs and ensuring that the basic question – can we help you in any other areas? – is always asked.

The importance of positive marketing messages and attention to detail in this area came next. Does your own website match those that you produce for your clients? Maybe not in the case of all creative agencies and in the rush to deliver this can often be forgotten – be sure to get it up to scratch.

And finally, construct contracts that consider not only the financial terms but the terms of the overall relationship with your client. Keep these updated regularly and it will keep you front of mind when new projects are on the table.

The opportunity in getting a better understanding of why people do what they do

I attended an event this week on conversion/optimisation that really got me thinking about this topic. The talk gave examples of subtle changes applied to web pages that seriously affected engagement, click-through rates and, very importantly in many cases, sales. My thoughts have extrapolated this out into the wider world, not just the one on the screen in front of us or in our hands. The power in getting better information on the decision making of others and understanding the behaviour of people – users, clients, customers, whoever – should never be underestimated.

It doesn’t matter what you do for a living or what market you are in. You might also be in no market at all and just want to find ways to improve your everyday existence. To me, the key here is to listen, learn and collect data, then use it to make better decisions. Way back when social media began the focus was very much on listening to what was going on – who’s saying what on the subjects you care about, who needs help, who are the key thinkers and influencers, etc. The biggest players are now spending mountains of money on this and reaping the rewards by jumping into conversations and unleashing their brand power all over the place, but we can all get better at this and use the results to be better at everything we do. Have better conversations, help people out, show we care, we understand and we give a shit. If it only has a little bit of a positive effect on the life you lead, it’s worth it.

Be straight about your career aims

I had a conversation with someone yesterday about their career goals and the target for their next role. I read their CV in advance of the call and the divergence between the two positions was just massive. It transpires they have been leading a double life in fear of their current employer finding out as they try to develop a new set of skills in another area that they now want to spend more time working on.

After talking this over it seems that the reality is they have nothing to fear by being more open about what they really want to do. Sometimes these crossroads come to us when we are not expecting them and it is clear this person has reached a huge one. I also felt very sad that this person felt that they had to suppress their real desire and motivation to be X instead of Y and it cannot be doing them any good at all holding all this negative energy inside.

My opinion is that you should make your goals and aims clear in the simplest way possible when it comes to your career. Make sure you have good reasons for your choices and be able to demonstrate why this new path is the right one for you. If your current employer cannot work with you to help the change happen it’s a sure sign that it is time to move on, too. A good employer should realise that people change direction every now and again and assist where they can – it’s a big step to take for an individual. Keep everything simple and really go for whatever it is you are trying to achieve. Make it happen!

What would you do if weren’t afraid?

This was a quote I read recently (and forget where from and sadly cannot give the proper credit for – sorry). Lists are useless for a question like this, and the answers to the question are inside us all, but we are, in the majority of cases, too weak or frightened to look in the mirror and answer with the truth. The fear of knowing the truth takes us away from a great number of things, but the one time that we take the truth head-on, roll up our sleeves and start an all-in, testosterone-fuelled, no-holes-barred brawl with it is the time that everything begins to take shape. We feel a form of ‘release’, and we challenge what we knew and what we now know. The release is from the metaphorical anchor that we all have inside us that keeps us in the life to which we have become accustomed, but in the same way that a ship pulls it up to get moving, we need to do the same with ours, too. And right now…

I look at the answer as lying within a journey, with a start and an end, and a middle bit that takes us somewhere. Anywhere really. But the point is that it takes us somewhere new. We get to see a whole new world that, right now, we have no idea of what it’s like. Taste it, smell it, feel an atmospheric change when we step into it and open our eyes.

So, what can you do? What’s going to be your answer? Stop what you’re doing now for five minutes and think about it. Make some space in your world for just five minutes and really have a think about your plan of attack. It might be the most important thing you ever do.

We are watching the development of a lost generation

Unemployment in any age group is tough enough, but when the largest growth in unemployment is in the under 25’s across the EU it highlights a really dark period ahead of us. The high cost of higher education and general scarcity of both jobs and publicly-funded training options for those leaving school at 16 are proving to be a dangerous combination.

So what are these young people going to do? If nation-states are unable or unwilling to help and employers cannot give any real opportunities, where are the answers coming from? I find this question very tough to answer and think that we should all focus a bit more on this as an issue that will get bigger and bigger as the years go by.

There are organisations out there who are willing to help but their own funding lifelines have also been cut in this economy. I did some voluntary work with a project helping the homeless in London years ago but they are long gone now and ended when the money ran out. Even in the third sector it seems that there are the have’s – big cancer charities, Oxfam, etc – and the have-not’s – smaller local supporters of the underprivileged in their own communities. The big get bigger and the smaller fade into the background, fighting for survival.

Everything tends to work in cycles and the things I mention here are part of a very obvious, yet negative, one. Being aware of it is one thing, but I’d also like to know the plan for change and action of a positive nature. A generation with poor levels of education and little work experience of any value is of no use to anyone.

Fitbit is a wonderful little tool

I’ve had mine since July 16 this year and got it as a gift to myself after swimming the mile in open water at Salford Quays. After years of running I’ve now managed to wreck my knee (doing yoga) and need to keep motivated to do other things and keep my weight under control. The Fitbit One that I use tracks steps taken, distance walked, calories burned and floors climbed. It can also track your sleep patterns but I don’t really use this.

I tend not to watch calories as I have always used the calories in/calories out formula for making sure I don’t put on weight, but some of the other data I have collected so far is worth sharing:

Climbed over 2900 floors
Taken 1.4 million steps
Gone over 25,000 steps in a day twice – that’s about 13 miles
Walked 767 miles overall. 767!

If you want some motivation to exercise more and track your progress, get one of these. It sits in your pocket all day or clips onto a belt and it uploads the data wirelessly to your phone/tablet/etc. It has made me push harder and added extra motivation that I was lacking to just basically do more. Highly recommend!