I've long had a problem with the likes of X-Factor, Big Brother, and Britain's Got Talent... without wanting to offend you the reader , I've also become increasingly frustrated with people who support these programmes through tuning their telly into this manufactured bubblegum for the brain. The problem is you see, that Britain really does have talent... just not the sub-mediocre rubbish that's watched by millions and generates billions, all at the expense of a few poor souls whom the nation tunes in to laugh at every week. 

You'd think the truly tragic story of Jade Goody would have made the more mentally capable amongst us wake up and smell the reality coffee... here was someone who the greedy, calculated, and influential of the TV world decided to build up and knock down on an almost weekly basis, for no other reason than to line their own pockets. As for the x-Factor, it really is no different to the freak shows of the 19th century, the main agenda being to line up a load of less capabable and more vulnerable members of society so that we can all have a jolly good laugh. The only reason they even bother with including the odd person that can (only just) knock out a tune is so that they can hide behind the false notion that it's some kind of talent show, but as I said earlier... Britain really actually truly does have talent...

On Saturday evening Hels and I tuned into episode one of the absolutely amazing BBC programme Goldie's Band: By Royal Appointment - a three part series which follows drum and bass pioneer Goldie on a personal mission to discover the young people who's talent and passion for music is at the centre of their lives. If you didn't see it (which you probably didn't) then please do tune into BBC iPlayer and watch it here, and don't forget this Saturday's episode two. Goldie and his fellow presenters travelled the length of the country to find young people who's talent might have slipped under the radar of mainstream media... (note: does mainstream media even have a radar? Or do they just create celebrities to fit the image du jour?)... As they ventured into each musician's house, completely unaware as to what they might find, time and again they (and me) were reduced to tears of pure joy at the truly beautiful talent of these amazing young British people...

The fact that it was watched and talked about by probably 1/100th of the audience commanded by the likes of Simon Cowell is more a sad indictment of you the viewer than anything else. In his article mentioned above Shankman says 'Welcome to the age of mediocrity'... it doesn't have to be, but that's up to you...

Tom

"I feel genuinely lucky to hand on heart say I love doing what I do, and although I may never be a rich man, if I live long enough I'll certainly have a tale or two for the nephews... and I dig the thought of that."

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.

I'll be posting regular and concise entries at a minimum of once per week and as much as possible will keep training based stuff over on the new training diary page of my website (see above).

This section of the site will be much more about life as I see it, interesting stuff that I stumble upon and exciting things that I get involved with. Talking of which... quarter past six in the evening on Wednesday the 9th of February... details to follow ;)

See you soon,

Tom

I thought that this week I'd just make a short comment around the most common misconception... 'leaving the security of working for someone else'.

The inaccuracy of this statement is clearer now than ever before but for many the lightbulb is yet to flash. The truth of the matter is that a permanent contract really isn't worth the paper it's written on and, as so many have found out in recent years, it means pretty much nothing the moment an employer's unsustainable business strategies bring everything crashing down. Particularly in challenging times, such as we are all currently facing, surely the most secure option is to take control of the decisions that will affect you and your family for years to come. 

It's not therefore the 'brave' decision to leave the comfort zone of full-time employment, simply the 'sensible' one.

This week's photo is my good friend Greg about to make a rather large splash in Lake Worthersee, just prior to Ironman Austria 2006. Greg's only ever known a life working for himself, firstly running an amazingly successful independent dry cleaners in Oxford and then, just when the market for that kind of stuff took a downward turn, he sold up and set up his current, and equally successful, property development company. An inspiration in taking control of your life... after all, it is YOUR life... isn't it?

See you soon,

Tom

As is becoming 'de rigueur' the blog section of my website is getting rather neglected... it's not even the main landing page any more, but that's a good thing. 

At the moment I'm up to my neck in super exciting stuff... on top of the parkrun and Marathon Talk commitments I had a really exciting meeting last week about working with these guys around the topic of 'Time Management' - oh how my mum will laugh ;)

Now, as if I wasn't busy enough already I couldn't resist organising another #winterswim... it's completely free and open to all, regardless of swimming ability.

Come on in, the water's lovely ;)

So what am I doing?

Well, loads of things actually... the absolute best thing about working for yourself though is more what you're not doing than what you are. You see prior to September the 4th I was already co-producing the World's number one (there, I've said it) running podcast, writing for the odd magazine, helping the odd (not literally) athlete to achieve their goals and devoting plenty of time to the world's greatest series of free to enter, weekly, awesome, 5km runs. I was also however having to attend mind numbing meetings that seemed to serve no purpose other than to kill a couple of hours (literally), to complete endless paperwork and general guff that to quote legendary British cyclist Michael Hutchinson 'might has well have been done by a dog with a pen tied to its tail' (great book - buy it!) and spend endless time replying to endless emails about endless things. The beauty of a life in sole charge of every single hour of every single day is the opportunity to only do the things you love... so that's what I've been doing.

I may be skint... but I sure am happy :)

TW

I've long been inspired by friends and family who have made the leap, and ever since Hels left the confines of ITV to branch out on her own it's just been a matter of time until I followed. Perhaps the most frequent comment I've had from people has been around letting go of the security of a 'proper' job. The more I think about it though the clearer it becomes that in times of financial uncertainty true security requires us to be completely in charge of the decisions that affect our future. A job is only secure if it actually exists and as we've pretty much all found out over the last couple of years that's far from guaranteed. What is also clear is that we can't trust the people above us to make the correct decisions in order to ensure our futures are safe. Being self-employed however allows us to react to challenging situations and adapt / strengthen our businesses in order to achieve long-term sustainability. 

Autonomy over our daily actions also has a value far exceeding pretty much any level of financial reward, well it does for me at least. At the moment I've doubled my working hours and more than quartered my income, but the feeling of freedom that comes from the complete control of every hour of my day is more liberating than I ever thought possible. The motivation to get stuff done is amazing when every single thing on your todo list is perfectly in line with your personal goals plus there's a complete absence of any of the mind numbing ridiculousness so-often associated with a life below the top rung of your employer's food chain.

So, what am I up to that's taking so much time and paying so poorly?

Well, loads of things actually... but perhaps the most time consuming, worst paying (if you can count 'less than zero' as paying), yet most exciting is mine and Martin's running podcast Marathon Talk. It's been the most amazing adventure so far and having launched in January this year we've now produced 35 free (there's a financial theme going on here) weekly episodes that have been downloaded over 145,000 times! This week we've broken 7,000 downloads for the first time, produced a special episode for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research (download it for free by right clicking HERE) and put on the amazing Marathon Talk Motivation Station, handing out drinks and gels at mile 19.5 of the Nottingham Marathon. Next week we'll be bringing out our own Marathon Talk t-shirts and hoodies and I'm hoping to interview South African running legend Bruce Fordyce. It's all very well however having such a jolly good time and spending pretty much every working day doing stuff that I'd love even if I won the Euro Millions but if food isn't arriving on the proverbial table then sustainable it isn't. As far as Marathon Talk goes that means engaging with some pretty visionary sponsors / partners who are happy to become part of a relatively small project (I should point out that our main competitors on the iTunes UK podcast charts are the likes of the BBC, SKY Sports and ITV) with relatively large dreams.

The future's bright... the future's yours...

T

Unfortunately our modern, outcome based society measures excellence simply in terms of split times or finish positions... which mean pretty much precisely bugger all! Now don't get me wrong, I can talk stats with the best of them and have a library of PDF results sheets from all kinds of weird and wonderful races, but a number on a piece of (albeit virtual) paper is no more than simply that. It really has no actual meaning... you see, what inspires me is the process. The more challenging the process the greater the achievement... I know plenty of people who exist around the pointy end of the athletic field but consistently fail to get out of their comfort zone, take any true risks or pretty much ever put themselves on the line. Now, they could set world records day after day after day and would never even come close to doing anything I would call inspirational. 

When I think about the many people in life that I look up to... be they athletes or not... the chances are they've 'fallen down' more than most. There's a saying in boxing that you shouldn't be considered a 'great' until you've suffered defeat and that rings so true with me. I can think of athletes who are rightly termed legends of their sport... maybe Michael Shumacher, Michael Phelps or Chrissie Wellington... who will always have a question mark over their true 'greatness' as in the absence of serious competition they perhaps have never been tested. It's often not their fault, you can 'only beat who's there' after all, but without tasting defeat and facing adversity they'll never really know just how good they were or how deep they could dig. Reading Phelps' autobiography (unputdownable by the way) he talks with great sadness of the day when Ian Thorpe retired, almost a feeling of 'loss' that perhaps the one person capable of consistently challenging him wouldn't be around. You see, at the end of the day eight gold medals (turn the volume up on that video by the way), as great an achievement as it was, was as much a measure of others as it was of Phelps. I get the distinct feeling that he would rather have won less medals but had the opportunity to do battle with someone his equal. The world see's greatness in medals or times... simply a measure of who you did or didn't beat... champions see greatness in terms of overcoming challenge and adversity... the tougher the challenge or more extreme the adversity, the greater the champion.

Almost by definition, the greatest champions will have faced the greatest adversity... they'll have fallen down the most yet equalled that tally when dusting themselves down and stepping back into the arena. Yet too often I see people criticised for falling down... if you don't fall down, you can't get back up and you can never know truly how good you could be. It's about time that we praised rather than criticised the many great champions out there who consistently step over the edge yet equally stand up tall and do battle. It's not about winning you see... it's all about competing, and there's a distinct difference.

See you next week... ish ;)

T

P.S. Today's photo? Helen and I with our great friend Tony... he's had a tough time recently and fallen down more than he's used to. Every time he get's back up stronger though, and I'm yet to meet someone with more self-belief than 'The Big Dog'... a true inspiration.

Anyway... what's struck me the most is how much I've really enjoyed spending quality time with family and friends and a realisation of how much I'd neglected those same priorities over the last five years. The life of a dedicated Ironman athlete really can be quite selfish and as my focus on Kona intensified my training and racing increasingly pushed everything else to one side. Today's photo was taken on Friday when my good buddy Ben and I went to Scarborough for a day's sun, sea and surf. When I was training for Ironman there's no way I'd have a) had enough energy on a complete rest day to do anything other than veg out or b) risked some kind of freak injury or extreme case of DOMS that might stop me being able to train or c) be able to think about pretty much anything outside of the swim, bike or run realm. 

You see... there's a reason why I've banned myself from any kind of performance goal for the next 12 months... I have this theory that rather than the often quoted '28 days' that it takes to form a habit, it actually takes 365 consecutive days of behaving a certain way in order for that behaviour to become automatic. How many people do you know who've given up something for a month only to fall straight off the wagon on day 29... even day 109... but it always happens. Having tried many times throughout my twenties to give up drinking and never lasting more than a few months it took 12 whole dry months before I gained control... that was over six years ago and I'm still going strong! On reflection I realised that by giving up booze for an entire year that meant a Christmas and New Year, my Birthday, Helen's birthday, assorted stag do's and summer barbecues plus an array of 'special occasions'. It's only once you've faced up to the situations that are most challenging to your desired behaviour that it can become 'you'.

Bringing this blog entry back up to date I've clearly fallen out of the oh so important habit of spending quality time with quality people... as great as a decent Ironman PB is, it won't be the one supporting me through life's many times of need (God knows it's caused a few of those) or sharing my journey through the next 50 or so years, or if I make it that far looking after me when I'm a doddery old codger who can't do anything for himself. The bottom line is that as much as I really love training super hard and all that goes with that... my love for my amazing friends and family is far far greater. Time then to reset my mind and spend 365 consecutive days doing what is truly important... after which I should be OK to reintroduce the odd athletic goal without forgetting the things in life that really truly matter.

Speak soon,

Tom