www.thebestyoumagazine.co
THE BEST YOU TRANSFORM • INSPIRE • MOTIVATE • ENRICH • EMPOWER • ENJOY APRIL 2014 / PRICE £3.99
JOHN DEMARTINI on whether you are free or fearful
DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE tells us what it takes to be a fitness guru
MICHELLE OBAMA
THE FIRST LADY OF THE WORLD IS A SELF-MADE WOMAN
GET BUSY LIVING
FOREVER YOUNG
BOOST YOUR IMMUNITY
ARIANA HUFFINGTON SAYS FOCUS ON THE RIGHT STUFF
MARISA PEER SAYS AGE IS ALL IN THE MIND
DAVID WOLFE SAYS SUPERFOODS WILL HELP
ALSO: EVERGREEN ENERGY – DUMMIES GUIDE TO RENEWABLES
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APRIL 2014
CONTENTS
REGULARS
5 EDITOR’S LETTER
Bernardo Moya welcomes you to the latest issue of The Best You
18 WE SUPPORT… Macmillan Cancer Support – helping those affected by cancer
29 BOOK REVIEWS We review some of our favourites – a small selection of what’s available
58 THE BEST YOU DIRECTORY Find the best coaches, trainers and practitioners here
60 GET YOUR SUMMER BODY NOW
22 FIRST LADY OF THE WORLD THE WIFE OF THE WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL MAN HAS A STORY OF HER OWN
Fitness expert Keli Roberts has some great tip for losing that winter flab
FEATURES
22 FIRST LADY OF THE WORLD
The wife of the world’s most powerful man has a story of her own
26 ESCAPING THE CITY Bernardo Moya chats with Rob Symington about his unique idea
INNER YOU 10 UP YOUR VITALITY
Dr Pedram Shojai from Well.org makes some suggestions to get those spirits up
12 YOU ARE WHAT YOU REMEMBER
Memory expert David Thomas says visual games will help improve your memory
ENJOY LIFE
16 LIFE’S A BEACH
16 LIFE’S A BEACH FROM EUROPE TO AFRICA TO SOUTH AMERICA, WE’VE GOT GREAT SUGGESTIONS FOR YOUR HOLIDAYS
From Europe to Africa to South America, we’ve got great suggestions for your holidays
19 IT’S THE GOOD NEWS
With so much of what we read in the papers being negative, The Best You is bringing you some good news
20 STOP AND SMELL THE ROSES
Debbie Williams explores some of life's simple pleasures
THE BEST YOU No. 18 · April 2014 · Year 2 · EDITOR / PUBLISHER Bernardo Moya · DEPUTY EDITOR Zoë Henry · ASSOCIATE EDITOR Matthew Wingett · CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Gail Kingsbury · PROOFREADER Bryan Szabo · COPYWRITER Aaron Wells · GRAPHIC DESIGN Joanna Frackiewicz NEW MEDIA Allan Banford · TECHNICAL CONSULTANT Martin Carter · ADVERTISING advertising@thebestyou.co The Best You Corporation LTD 5 Percy St. · London, United Kingdom, W1T 1DG · Tel: +44 (0)845 230 2033 · www.thebestyoumagazine.co
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APRIL 2014
CONTENTS
LIVE LOVE LEGACY
36 GET BUSY LIVING
Huffington Post founder Ariana Huffington says to do things you'd like to be remembered for
38 LIFE OFF THE FIELD Being a professional athlete is a full-time job, often causing them to abandon other areas of life
40 WHAT DOES IT TAKE… …to be a fitness guru? We chat with former pro wrestler turned fitness guru, Diamond Dallas Page
FEEL & LOOK GOOD
44 FOREVER YOUNG
It’s not about when you were born, but how you live your life, says Marisa Peer
46 BE IMMUNE – SUPER IMMUNE Raw nutrition expert David Wolfe recommends a variety of superfoods to boost your immune system
36 GET BUSY LIVING HUFFINGTON POST FOUNDER ARIANA HUFFINGTON SAYS TO DO THINGS YOU'D LIKE TO BE REMEMBERED FOR
WEALTH & RICHES
50 FEAR OR FREEDOM
Best-selling author Dr. John Demartini looks at the most common goals and what gets in the way of achieving them
52 FEELING THE SQUEEZE John Fairhurst from Payplan says it’s time to get your finances in order
54 THE SOLOPRENEUR MINDSET It’s scary starting a business alone. Natalie Ekberg has a checklist of what you need to do it
56 THE ROCKY ROAD TO SUCCESS The Best You looks at some historical figures who didn’t have success handed to them on a silver platter
21 CENTURY LIVING ST
64 CODE IN A DAY WE TALK TO JOHN RIDPATH FROM DECODED ABOUT THEIR ‘CODE IN A DAY’ COURSE
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62 EVERGREEN ENERGY
Environmentalist George Davis gives us a dummies guide to renewable energy
64 CODE IN A DAY We talk to John Ridpath from Decoded about their ‘Code in a Day’ course
THE BEST YOU
EDITORIAL
DO PEOPLE
SUPPORT YOU ?
H
owever tenacious you are, however flexible, focussed, and the rest of it, there will be times when what makes the difference to achieving what matters is the backing you get from the people in your life. Your vision is just that – yours. Vision takes passion, and when you are dedicated to making your vision a reality, it is important that your passion be your driving force. Not everyone will get it, and you need to accept that’s the case. Sometimes you may be surprised by the fact that those who are closest to you don’t support your vision. If you know people who are consistently putting down what is important to you, maybe it’s time to reassess what each of you gets from that relationship. A sceptic can be a good person to have around, but there can
be occasions you realise it’s time to go your separate ways, and wish them well. For every person who leaves your life, you create space for someone amazing to enter it. You’ll be surprised how often that happens, and how often you’ll get the chance to support someone you’ve admired for their ambition, their talent, their zeal, when they falter along their way. But keep in mind that you can’t please everyone all the time, so make sure you put the happiness of the most important person in your life first – you. Our vision at The Best You is focussed and expanding. We have put together an app that features the highlights of what we have been doing for the past year and a half, which you can download from the app store. And because we have such great interview content, we are releasing the interviews as podcasts. Then of course,
there is this issue, which is packed with great articles from the likes of Marisa Peer, Dr. John Demartini and Ariana Huffington. The bottom line? We’re here for each other. The hand we reach out to someone when they’re having a bad day is the same hand that picks us up when we’re not hearing the news we’ve been angling for. Play that role for others, and you’ll know what it’s like to receive support too, when you need it. b
The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning." – Ivy Baker Priest
BERNARDO MOYA,
Editor-in-Chief Follow me: @Bernardo_Moya
WE WANT YOUR STORIES The Best You is all about inspiring people. If you have a tale to tell that you think will help someone become the best they can be, please tell us.
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THE BEST YOU CONTRIBUTORS
DAVID THOMAS
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON
is the president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group. She is also the author of fourteen books, has over 1.3 million Facebook fans and more than 1.4 million Twitter followers. She has been named one of Time magazine’s100 Most Influential People.
GMM is a motivational speaker, No.1 bestselling author of Improve Your Memory and Guinness world record holder. You can view his records in memory and discover his fascinating life story online, or follow him on Twitter.
DAVID WOLFE
is the author of Eating For Beauty, Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future, Longevity Now, and several other bestselling books. He is a leading worldwide authority in nutrition.
@DavidWolfe
@TheMemoriser
GEORGE DAVIS
DEBBIE WILLIAMS
runs the Birmingham & Midlands NLP & Hypnosis practice Group. A highly experienced therapist. Also having assisted Tony Robbins for 10 years at his UK events as well as Dr Bandler and Paul McKenna on over 50 courses.
@FreeNLPHypnosis
is an environmentalist, filmmaker and avid cyclist. He has a PhD in Botany, which he puts to good use by making films about the local flora and the danger they are in, focusing predominantly on the wetlands of the Western Cape in South Africa.
@ariannahuff
JOHN FAIRHURST
is a leading authority in human behaviour and leadership development. He is the author of 10 selfdevelopment books, business consultant and the of the head of the Demartini Institute. He has shared the stage with Sir Richard Branson, Steven Covey, Deepak Chopra and Donald Trump.
@DrJohnDemartini
KELI ROBERTS
is Managing Director at Payplan, one of the UK’s leading free debt advice companies with over 15 years' experience in helping people with their debt problems.
@JohnF_Payplan
JOHN DEMARTINI
is a world-renowned fitness educator, trainer and the award recipient of the 2003 IDEA International Instructor of the Year. As a continuing education provider, Keli conducts seminars and workshops worldwide.
@Keliroberts
MARISA PEER
is a best-selling author of four books and was named Best British Therapist by Men's Health. She has spent 25 years working with an extensive client list including royalty, rock stars, actors, professional and Olympic athletes and CEOs.
@MarisaPeer
NATALIE EKBERG
is an international career transition coach and author. She leads business professionals through major and life-changing career decisions. Natalie is the author of two popular e-books in the area of selfdevelopment, as well as several interactive courses related to teaching basic and advanced coaching skills.
PEDRAM SHOJAI
is the founder of well.org and is the producer of the movie Vitality as well as the author of the book Rise and Shine. He is a worldrenowned lecturer and author who lives a life of adventure and service to humanity.
@Well_Org
@LBCoachNatalie
The Best You is published by The Best You Corporation Ltd, 5 Percy Street, W1T 1DG. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect The Best You Corporation Ltd, policy. The Best You Corporation Ltd accepts no responsibility for views expressed by its contributors. Advertisements and reader offers are not endorsed by The Best You or The Best You Corporation Ltd. Cover image by Ben Baker, courtesy of Conde Nast
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FAN OF WHAT WE DO? DO YOU WANT TO?
Wehave havesome someamazing amazingand andpriceless priceless We rewards we know you will love andwant. want. rewards we know you will love and ReadMore. More.Support Supportus usand andwhat whatwe wedo do Read with our Crowd funding project with Bank with our Crowd funding project with Bank toThe TheFuture. Future. to
ALEXANDRA TRUTA THE BEST YOU
INNER YOU
THE BEST
YOU
Connect with the wonderful, special and powerful inside. Learn new ways to get your mind and body in balance, bringing out the rich core of your being. Discover the secrets that will enable you to take charge of your inner life and become The Best You.
Life Without Limits
TM
UP YOUR VITALITY Dr Pedram Shojai from Well.org makes some suggestions to get those spirits up
YOU ARE WHAT YOU REMEMBER Memory expert David Thomas says visual games will help improve your memory
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INNER YOU PEDRAM SHOJAI
Getting healthy, says Dr. Pedram Shojai, starts with our attitude. Most people come to the world of health when something goes wrong, a doctor sounds a warning, a spouse complains, or a friend beats us in sport.
UP YOUR vitality& FEEL GREAT
M
ANY people end up caring about health when it is very late in the game. Instead of making course corrections and staying fit, we all too often charge ahead and end up getting sick, injured, or psychologically worn down before we realise we have a problem. The key is to realize that health isn’t a destination; it is the journey itself. The whole point of getting healthy is to enhance our vitality so we always have a reserve
of energy we can work with. When stress hits, it hits the force field of our vitality. When others are sick, we’ve got a cushion that protects us. When we need to work through the night to meet an important deadline, we don’t crash because we’ve got enough in the bank to get through it. Over the years, I’ve worked with thousands of patients who come in complaining of one thing or another. For most of them, it is a simple matter of their system’s energyproducing capacity being down. This often happens
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For most of them, it is a simple matter of their system’s energyproducing capacity being down.
PEDRAM SHOJAI
when our guts are unhealthy, which means the immune system is fighting off invaders all the time. We then have trouble digesting and absorbing nutrients from our food, and the cycle continues. We spend energy trying to get energy, and eventually, the math doesn’t pencil out anymore. Our immune system is most active in the gut. When we are not absorbing foods well, we end up having trouble distinguishing friend from foe in the gut lining, and our systems start to attack food particles and, eventually, our own cells when things get bad. This is where a lot of autoimmune problems originate. So how do we get out of this mess? The first step is cutting out the highly inflammatory foods: • Sugar • Gluten • Dairy • Corn • Soy If you can cut these out for three weeks and then slowly add them back one at a time
over a few days, you’ll see which ones your body isn’t happy with and which ones are the foods you’ll want to avoid for a few months. From there, start taking smaller more nutritious meals that don’t aggravate your system. You’ll quickly start to feel more energy after meals and less drowsiness. The next big step to building your vitality then becomes to get out of deficit spending – the taking of caffeine or other stimulants to get through the day. If we continually borrow energy from tomorrow to get through today’s struggles, we’ll never catch up and recover. This leads to sleep debt and all kinds of nasty hormonal imbalances that come when we burn the candle at both ends. Once you start to pull back on the caffeine, you’ll see how much better you can feel without it. You’ll be less jittery, and probably less moody as well. Again, waiting until you can’t make love with your partner means that you’re too late in the game. Try paying closer attention to any significant dips in your libido. Look for the warning signs, and start to address any problems early in the game when the corrections are easy. Remember, our vitality is a product of the net energy surplus in our bodies. More energy to the brain means more clarity, focus, and enthusiasm. Wherever you are in life, look to maximise your body’s
RECOMMENDED READING
GET MORE VITALITY IN YOUR LIFE: 1- Eat only organic food 2- Cut all GMO foods 3- Walk at least 5000 steps daily 4- Strengthen your core every morning 5- Get some sunshine 6- No caffeine after 2pm 7- No TV in bed 8- Eat at least 30g of protein at breakfast 9- Learn to meditate
ability to get energy from good, clean, nutritious food. Keep moving, and maintain your muscle mass to keep your energy levels up. From there, keep learning and growing so your brain keeps demanding energy and vitality. When we fire on all cylinders, the body becomes more efficient and asks for more energy. The better we get at extracting it from food and maximizing our output, the better we will feel and the more clarity we will have throughout the day.
Once you start to pull back on the caffeine, you’ll see how much better you can feel without it.
The Best You website is packed with loads of great books, DVDs, CDs, downloads, free articles and reports. Check it out now: www.thebestyou.co
Soul Plan By Roy Freedman
Theta Healing By Vianna Stibal
Reconnect with your true life-purpose
l
l
INNER YOU
Rhythm for finding your perfect weight
The Integrated Health Bible By Mosaraf Ali
The six killer apps of western power l
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INNER YOU DAVID THOMAS
YOU ARE WHAT YOU REMEMBER David Thomas is a US Memory Champion and Guinness record memory record holder for memorising and reciting Pi to 22,500 digits. In this article, he explains how we can all improve our memory.
W
HAT is the benefit of improving your memory? I think it is simply being able to do what others can’t or won’t. Being able to remember names is a fantastic business and personal skill. Most people can’t do it. Being able to present any kind of presentation without
notes is the stuff of which promotions are made, yet few people even make the attempt to do so. If you want to improve the quality of your life across the board, improving your memory is a great place to start. . How can you do it?
USING IMAGINATION TO REMEMBER NAMES The first principle of
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ABOVE Remembering people's names when we meet them can be a challenge
memory training is retraining your mind to think in images. If I give you the word breakfast, chances are you thinking about food, not the word ‘breakfast’ in black type on a white background. Yet, that is how most information comes. Websites, study guides, and training manuals at work—all tend to be two-dimensional. This is simple. If I said my name was George Bush, would you be more likely to remember it? Of course! You have an image that you associate with George Bush, so it’s an easy name to remember. To remember names, we simply do this artificially. My name is David Thomas. If you were to meet me, you might imagine me swinging a sling like the one David used in the David and Goliath story. Make it ridiculous and exaggerated. Imagine me swinging the sling around and smashing up everything in the room. You could also imagine me on a little train (Thomas The Tank Engine) riding around the room going “Choo! Choo!” As weird and unusual as this might seem, it’s memorable, and that’s what is important. If you use that kind of technique whenever you meet somebody whose name you want to remember, you’ll never forget their name.
USING ORGANISATION TO REMEMBER LISTS OPPOSITE BELOW Using visualisation to remember names has proven very successful
The second principle of memory training is organisation. Imagine going into a library
DAVID THOMAS to find all the books have been heaped in disorderly piles on the floor. That is how most people learn. They pile information into their head in a disorganised way, and then they wonder why they cannot find it. In reality, libraries are highly organised places. When you ask a librarian to locate a specific book or a certain subject, the system of organisation makes it possible for them to point you in the right direction with little more than a moment’s thought. Let’s say you have a list of important information that you need to memorise. The best way to do this is to use The Journey Technique, which is all about organisation. Imagine yourself walking around a building placing important pieces of information along the way. This is one of my journeys: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10)
Front door Hallway Living room Kitchen Downstairs toilet Stairs Bedroom One Bedroom Two Bedroom Three Bathroom
Now I have my empty ‘library’ I put the books on the shelves: 1) Front door – blackboard and bag – I imagine a blackboard at the door. I touch it. It is dry, and I scrape my nails down it. On top of the blackboard is a huge sports bag. 2) Hallway – chair and glue – I imagine a chesterfield chair with stuffing coming out. It is covered in glue. It is sticky, I can smell the solvent and it is running
down the hall. I do this for all the objects in the list. This technique can be used to memorise a list of anything. For example, if you have to give a presentation and you need to remember a list of key words, transform each of the key words into a discrete image that can be visualized in some way and placed into a mental journey. The great news is that improving your memory is simply a question of technique, process, strategy, practice and application. This is also the bad news. If you don’t apply and practice these techniques, you will not get any better. So, the only question is, how badly do you want to improve your memory?
INNER YOU
The great news is that improving your memory is simply a question of technique, process, strategy, practice and application.
ABOVE George Bush is an easy name to remember because of the visual
RIGHT Hearing the word 'breakfast' will probably conjure up this image
David Thomas travels the world teaching professionals how to become more productive and perform at a higher level. He also works with students, showing them how to pass their exams. To see him on national television, go to the following video clip: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=fcNzSlQTrFQ To contact him directly, phone +44 (0) 7525 069235.
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NLP TRAINING INNER YOU ALEXANDRA TRUTA
with RICHARD BANDLER Co-Creator of NLP
in London MASTERCLASS
with RICHARD BANDLER
8th May 2014
INTRODUCTION TO NLP
An evening with Richard Bandler 9th May 2014
LICENSED PRACTITIONER OF NLP 10th – 16th May 2014
LICENSED MASTER
PRACTITIONER OF NLP 11th – 19th October 2014
Book today on +44(0)207 927 6500 www.nlplifetraining.com info@nlplifetraining.com 14 | WWW.THEBESTYOUMAGAZINE.CO
THE BEST YOU
ENJOY LIFE
THE BEST
YOU
Laughter, humour, travel, love - these add the sparkle that make life worth living. Climb a mountain, give to others, start a family, embrace life. What are the things you wish you had done but haven’t yet? Life is no rehearsal - find ways to enjoy it, whenever you can!
Life Without Limits
TM
LIFE’S A BEACH
From Europe to Africa to South America, we’ve got great suggestions for your holidays
IT’S THE GOOD NEWS
With so much of what we read in the papers being negative, The Best You is bringing you some good news
STOP AND SMELL THE ROSES
Debbie Williams explores some of life’s simple pleasures
ENJOY LIFE
BUCKET LIST
LIFE’S A BEACH A fter what feels like an eternity, we are finally at the tail end of winter. Summer is beginning to show itself with the occasional sandalworthy day, and the more organised of us are starting to plan our summer holidays.
Of course, the decision on where to spend two weeks of your hard-earned annual leave is an important one. But not to worry, we have done the research for you and narrowed it down to eight of our favourite beach getaways. These are the ones that belong on your Bucket List
LAS ISLAS CÍES, GALICIA, SPAIN The Mediterranean may be the more popular choice when it comes to Spanish beach holidays, but the Atlantic coastline of Galicia, just north of Portugal, offers a wilder beauty and is a less populated destination. Just a 40-minute boat trip from the idyllic town of Baiona, Las Islas Cíes has white sands, turquoise oceans, and a beautifully preserved nature reserve that allows you to appreciate the area’s flora and fauna.
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Part of enjoying life is living for the moment, so don’t wait until you’re on your deathbed before you make a list of what you should’ve done. Life is happening now, so start ticking things off that bucket list.
BARBADOS, CARIBBEAN Wherever you are on the coast of this beautiful country, you will be spoiled with turquoise waters, fine, soft sand and picturesque rows of palm trees. All this makes the beaches of Barbados a true pleasure. Stick to the south and southwest coasts for calm waters, sunbathing and the occasional splash in the ocean, but if you’re looking for a surfing thrill, don’t miss the massive, competition-calibre waves off the south and east coasts.
BUCKET LIST
TAYRONA, COLOMBIA Because of its status as a national park, hotel developers haven’t been able to get their paws on this one. With waves crashing on rocks, a few houses dotted along the coast, and backpackers sleeping in hammocks along the beach, Tayrona is a place of untamed gorgeousness. This is a real getaway – one that isn’t populated by sunburnt sunbathers and the smell of coconut oil.
PORTO DA BARRA, BRAZIL If you’re up for a beach vacation with a bit of a city twist, look no further. Salvador is Brazil’s oldest and third largest city, but the water at Porto da Barra is crystal clear and perfect for swimming. There’s always a lot happening along the beach – people fishing, kids swimming, and various other beach activities. Despite being in a large city, it still manages to have a quaint seaside village feel.
NUNGWI, ZANZIBAR, TANZANIA You may have seen postcards of tropical island vacation spots, but this is the reality. Warm, clear water, hammocks for sun revellers and cocktails served right on the beach. The perfect place to kick back and forget about your city woes. The locals are friendly and appreciate a little effort in terms of speaking the language, Swahili – the phrases you learned from The Lion King are a good place to start.
ENJOY LIFE
CANCUN, MEXICO There’s a reason that American kids choose Cancun as their spring break spot. It calls with its stunning aqua-blue waters and white-sand beaches. But despite its reputation as a spring-break paradise, travellers of any age will find plenty to do here. You can explore ancient Mayan ruins, the Xel-Ha waterpark and the thrilling Interactive Aquarium, or just enjoy beautiful beaches.
KOH SAMUI, THAILAND It’s impossible to have a list of the best beach holidays without mentioning Thailand. Koh Samui’s myriad beaches present everything you could ever dream of in a tropical beach. Picture-perfect sands, coconut trees and palm fronds adorn each one, but that’s where the similarities end. Choose from busy beaches, teeming with vendors and cafes, or secluded strips with not another person in sight.
VENICE BEACH, LOS ANGELES, USA LA probably isn’t the first place you think of when you think “beach holiday”, but this is an option for people who like their holidays with a bit of diversity. Lying on a beach for two weeks is fine, but it’s not for everybody. In Venice Beach, you get to experience city life in between visits to the beach, where you can admire the beautiful sunsets and stroll along the boardwalk.
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WE SUPPORT Macmillan Cancer Support Macmillan Cancer Support improves the lives of people affected by cancer. One in three of us will get cancer. We are all affected by cancer. We can all help. We are Macmillan.
W
e are a source of support, helping with all the things that people affected by cancer want and need. It’s not only patients who live with cancer; we also help carers, families and communities. We guide people through the system, supporting them every step of the way. We fund nurses and other specialist health care professionals and build cancer care centres. But we give so much more than medical help. People need practical support at home, so we provide anything from some precious time off for a carer to a lift to hospital. People need emotional support, so we listen, advise and share information through our cancer support specialists, website and trained professionals. People need
financial help to cope with the extra costs cancer can bring, so we give benefits advice and grants for anything from heating bills to travel costs. Together we listen, we learn, and we act to help people live with cancer. We are a force for change. We listen to people affected by cancer and work with them to improve cancer care. People who live with cancer are experts by experience. Together, we use this knowledge to make a positive difference in the lives of people affected by cancer. This could be anything from getting a coffee machine installed in a waiting room to bringing about changes in the law. We fight discrimination – from challenging unfair travel costs and insurance policies to improving the national benefits system. Together, we challenge the status quo, we push for
If you have any questions about cancer, need support or just want someone to talk to, ask Macmillan. Call our cancer support specialists free on 0808 808 00 00.
change, and we lead the way. We are Macmillan. We believe we can all help. We can raise money – through marathons, coffee mornings, street collections, and sponsored events. We can give time – at cancer care centres, events, and fundraising groups. We can share experiences – online, in the media, and with each other. b Join us Experience the amazing camaraderie of being part of Team Macmillan and sign up today. The Virgin Money London Marathon is a highlight in our calendar. Register here: www.macmillan.org.uk When? Sunday, 13 April 2014 Where? London, Blackheath
OTHER WORTHY CAUSES WE SUPPORT Teenage Cancer Trust
Katie Piper Foundation
Children Of The Night
www.teenagecancertrust.org
www.katiepiperfoundation.org.uk
www.childrenofthenight.org
SMA Trust
War Child
The Children’s Trust
www.smatrust.org
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www.warchild.org.uk
www.thechildrenstrust.org.uk
THE BEST YOU
THE GOOD NEWS
ENJOY LIFE
The news we read in the newspapers and see on the television is so negative that it can often feel like the media is conspiring to get you down in the dumps. That’s why The Best You is bringing you snippets of good news.
Dinner for a good cause
T
he B&B Diner in Castle Rock, Colorado is usually only open for breakfast and lunch. But for two nights a week, it is opening its doors for dinner, and it’s not to make a few extra dollars for the till. Jenimae Michener is a threeyear-old with Treacher Collins Syndrome, a disorder that can cause facial deformities and hearing impairment. Jenimae needs special hearing aids that cost $4,150 each plus medical costs. Her parents, Amber and Joshua Michener, who have two
other children, have insurance, but it only covers a small portion of the devices. Chris Vigil, chef at B&B, has drummed up an arrangement with his boss that allows him to keep the diner open for dinner two nights a week with all proceeds going to Jenimae’s medical bills. People can donate groceries to help make the dinners, or donate cash. There is no formal cost attached to the dinners, so people pay whatever they think the food, and, more importantly, the cause behind it, is worth.
BABY “CURED OF HIV”
T
he New York Times reported last month that a second baby born with HIV had been “cured” of the disease that causes AIDS due to early treatment. The first one that was “cured”, known as the Mississippi baby, is now three years old and still virus free. However, some people are sceptical as to whether the Mississippi
baby was ever infected in the first place. But nine months ago, a baby was born in Long Island to a mentally ill woman who has full-blown AIDS. She was prescribed ARVs to protect her baby, but never took them. As soon as it was established that the Long Island baby was HIV positive, Dr. Audra Deveikis immediately started the baby on three drugs – AZT, 3TC
and nevirapine – all at the high doses usually used for treatment of the virus. “Of course I had worries,” Dr. Deveikis said in an interview with the New York Times, “but the mother’s disease was not under control, and I had to weigh the risk of transmission against the toxicity of the meds.” Nine month later, the Long Island baby is still virus free.
CORAL BOUNCES BACK The corals of the Great Barrier Reef have been in trouble for a while, but Queensland scientists say baby corals are blooming again in both the shallows and also some of the deeper areas. According to the experts, this demonstrates the ability the Great Barrier Reef’s ability to bounce back after multiple impacts.
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ENJOY LIFE
DEBBIE WILLIAMS
STOP & SMELL
THE ROSES When do we take time out to explore life’s simple pleasures? Going for a walk in nature can calm and invigorate us at the same time. We get so engrossed in work that we lose sight of the beauty that is all around us, says life coach Debbie Williams.
I
love this time of year. The buds are appearing on the magnolia tree in the garden and the tete-a-tete daffodils are now out, joining the vibrant purple of their neighbouring crocuses, which are still holding their own. It’s great to take time and stand still to view life’s forthcoming attractions and to appreciate the growth of the many plants that are developing in their own time to shine and proudly show off their beauty. I always feel very connected to my late father, as he was a keen gardener. I can lose myself yet find myself at the same time doing even the monotonous of tasks like weeding. Many times, when I work with clients, I invite them to look through their past and rediscover the simple things in life that they used to enjoy, but, for whatever reason, they’ve stopped doing. Perhaps they liked to cook or write short stories or sing in the choir at school. Leonardo Da Vinci who once said, “Every once and
a while, go away and take a relaxing break, and then when you come back to your work, your judgment will be better – because remaining constantly at work will hinder your power of judgment. Move some distance away, because then your work will appear smaller, and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and any lack of harmony or proportion will be more effortlessly seen.” A common saying is; “A change is as good as a holiday.” What if you looked at your diary for the next few months and put in some plans of things that would bring you joy. They needn’t cost much. Even staying overnight in a hotel and exploring a new part of the country is affordable with deals starting from £19 per night. Go to a butterfly farm or a rescue centre and “adopt a pet”, where you fund their care and get regular updates. I always get my clients who have suffered with depression to start a feel-good journal, in which they record pleasurable times. I get them to scale the degree of pleasure, reassuring them if it’s a one out of ten, that is okay.
The purpose of life is a life of purpose. – Robert Byrne
BELOW Debbie often appreciates the simple pleasures of her garden
One client who had been sent to me by his parents had survived a suicide attempt. He thought he was a complete failure. I told him that failing to kill himself was a good thing. He looked at me as if I was nuts. Gradually over time he would chart good things starting with my first suggestion ‘’Even if you smell a rose and it’s one out of ten.’’ He did and said it was a two, which made him laugh. He rated the spontaneous laughter a three out of ten. b
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COVER STORY THE BEST YOU
FIRST LADY of THE WORLD MICHELLE OBAMA'S story is not the common political tale of the wellconnected woman born into a politically active family. Her story is different – one that in many ways supports the idea of the American Dream. The Best You finds out more.
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ORN in 1964 the daughter of a water plant employee and a homemaker, Michelle Robinson grew up in a small apartment with her family in the South Side of Chicago – one of the largest concentrations of disadvantaged African-Americans in the country. She grew up in the era of the Civil Rights Movement, and one of her best friends was Santita Jackson, daughter of the famous activist and politician Jesse Jackson. Her family was poor. Her father, Fraser Robinson, did shiftwork as a city employee while her mother, Marian, stayed home to look after the kids. Michelle says of this time: "The only amazing thing about my life is that a man like my father could raise a family of four on a single city worker's salary." Despite their poverty, Michelle’s parents provided the best start they could for their kids. Michelle's older brother, Craig Robinson, reflects: "When you grow up as black kids in a white world, so many times people are telling you – sometimes not maliciously, sometimes maliciously – you’re not good enough." He recalls that his parents countered this by continually telling their kids how great they could be, which gave them the confidence they needed to succeed. In the cramped one-bedroom apartment where they lived, Michelle's parents sacrificed their own comfort and partitioned the living room into three rooms – two bedrooms and a study – so the kids could apply themselves to their schoolwork. Life at home revolved around the childrens’ education and development. They were allowed only one hour of television per day, they were encouraged to excel at sports, music and other accomplishments. Michelle became obsessed with playing the piano, and her mother eventually had to
restrict how many hours she could play each day. Craig was a gifted athlete, going on via Princeton University to become a basketball coach at Oregon State. Michelle excelled at school. She was told by her parents that she should know how to think and question, and though she was always respectful, she was a precocious child, hungry for knowledge – a trait that was bolstered by an extended circle of family and friends who encourgaged Michelle’s intellectual growth by sitting up with her and discussing matters in depth. In 1981, she was enrolled at Princeton University as part of a new affirmative action policy that aimed at encouraging more talented African-American students to pursue degree-level studies. However, it was the early days for these changes that had been prompted by the Civil Rights Movement, and Michelle struggled with her identity. In her thesis on the effects of a Princeton University education on African Americans, she claimed that she always felt like a "visitor" who didn’t “really belong" at the university. Her honesty later came back to haunt her during her husband’s presidential campaign. Rightwing pundits seized their opportunity to frame Michelle as ungrateful and "bitter". There were, however, very good reasons that Michelle felt as she did. When, for example, her freshman roommate told her mother she was sharing a room with an African American, her mother stormed into the university's offices and demanded her daughter be rehoused, explaining that she came from the South, where "we aren't used to living with black people." Her roommate
COVER STORY
was moved out in the second term. The affluent lifestyles of some of her white classmates shocked Michelle. She didn't know any adults who drove BMWs at home, let alone students her own age. Not comfortable with the ostentatious displays of wealth and privilege that she saw everywhere on campus, Michelle dedicated her time to running the Third World Center at the university, eventually becoming its director. Even after graduating from Princeton and successfully studying law at Harvard, Michelle was conflicted as to her identity as a black woman. She had noted in her Princeton degree thesis that black Princeton graduates often felt a lowered sense of identification with fellow black Americans, as their aspirations and hopes aligned themselves with predominantly white, middle-class values. After leaving Harvard she became a lawyer at Sidley and Austin in Chicago. Her talent was immediately spotted by her bosses, who saw her as someone destined to be at the top of her profession. This success perhaps filled an emotional need in her, since the strong work ethic that been instilled in her early on was paying substantial dividends in terms of professional and financial success. However, things changed when she met a young summer intern by the name of Barack Obama, whom she was tasked to mentor. Young Barack was immediately impressed by Michelle, and he let her know it. Initially, Michelle was unwilling to go on a date with Barack, but that opinion was changed when she attended an inspirational training course he gave in a church hall not far from where she was raised in Chicago. In his speech, he addressed the unmarried mothers in the crowd directly. Many of these women were from some of the poorest parts of the city. The training was
COVER STORY THE BEST YOU
One day, while they were having dinner, she told him that he needed to make a commitment to their relationship. To her surprise, when the dessert turned up, there was a small box on the side of the plate. She opened it to find an engagement ring. When she saw it, Obama said to her: "That kind of shuts you up, doesn't it?" ABOVE LEFT
based on the concept of narrowing the gap between the world as it She is a was and the world as it should be. As she watched Barack speaking supportive wife to her powerful to and listening to people whose circumstances mirrored her own husband chilldhood, she changed her personal and professional attitude. Not only did she see Barack in a different light, she saw her work in a ABOVE MIDDLE different light as well. Spurning financial success, she decided to She is a force work in public service. to be reckoned with in her own While she worked in different roles in the public sector, her right relationship with Barack Obama flourished. Two very different people, they had very different ideas about marriage. He was ABOVE RIGHT quite happy to "hang out", while she was very firm about wanting She is commitment. One day, while they were having dinner, she told him comfortable that he needed to make a commitment to their relationship. To her making public appearances surprise, when the dessert turned up, there was a small box on the side of the plate. She opened it to find an engagement ring. When OVERLAY she saw it, Obama said to her: "That kind of shuts you up, She's not your doesn't it?" typical First Lady, The couple married in 1992 and they had two children. not afraid to bust a move Just like her mother had been to her and her brother Craig, BOTTOM RIGHT Michelle's dedication to her family was strong. During Barack Obama's 2008 campaign for president, the candidate and his wife The Obama family sitting for their argued frequently about the amount of time the campaign was official portrait
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taking and what that meant for their family. Nevertheless, politics is part of who she is. "Politics," she says, “decides the future we want for our kids and our grandkids.� A First Lady like Michelle Obama has never been seen before. She is straight-talking and happy to criticise her husband for "not picking up his socks" or failing to empty the litter tray, giving a human touch to a post that can seem alien and aloof to so many. She has put her name to a popular anti-obesity campaign, Let's Move, she encourages organic gardening, and she has fought bans on abortion, visited homeless shelters, supported military families, helped working women balance career and family, encouraged national service, promoted the arts and spoken out
THE BEST YOU in support of LGBT rights. She has had her controversial moments. Her criticisms of Princeton in her thesis, written when she was a young woman in her early 20s, was seized upon by the rightwing press during the election campaign. Her comment during the Presidential election campaign that "for the first time" she was "proud" of her country gave the pundits an open goal to shoot at, and shoot at her they did, painting her in broad strokes as a bitter and ungrateful first lady. Other criticisms of her have been even further off the mark. As someone who is immaculately turned out, she has been compared to an "It" girl, one from a privileged social background by some portions of the media. Her brilliant riposte to Stephen Colbert when his satiric alter-ego confronted her with this shows her ability to think on her feet. “Everybody knows you and your husband are elitists,” Colbert said as she settled in to the interview. “Tell me about your elite upbringing on the South Side of Chicago. How many silver spoons in your mouth?” “We had four spoons,” she deadpanned back. “And then my father got a raise at the plant, and we had five spoons.” It was an answer at once insightful and hilarious. The idea that her father, who, crippled by MS late in life, continued to work even when he needed crutches to walk represented some kind of privileged background was, frankly, ridiculous. Her upbringing may not have been one of privilege, but it was undoubtedly special. What her parents did provide her was something more precious than a society life. They helped instil in her a belief in herself, a stong work ethic
THIS PICTURE AND BELOW Michelle Obama is elegance personified
and an unflagging moral purpose. This is one of the reasons she has become an icon for so many people around the world. In many ways, she and Barack embody the American Dream. With a little talent and a lot of hard work, anyone, no matter what their background, can rise to the very top of society. She and Barack are beacons of hope for all of us. b
COVER STORY
MICHELLE OBAMA AT A GLANCE Born Michelle Robinson on 17 January 1964 in the South Side of Chicago Her dad worked in the city water plant while mum looked after her and her brother at home The parents emphasised education, sacrificing their personal comfort to give their children opportunities By sixth grade she joined a gifted class at Bryn Mawr Elementary school She excelled academically and went to Princeton University Was always willing to respectfully challenge authority Shocked by the wealth of fellow students at Princeton, she often felt that she didn't fit in there Graduated with honours with a degree in Sociology and African American studies Went on to study law at Harvard Law School and graduated cum laude in 1985 Participated in demonstrations at Harvard advocating the hiring of professors from ethnic minorities Began to work for Sidley and Austin and excelled in the law firm. She was tipped for huge success in the private world Mentored Barack Obama at Sidley and Austin, and refused to go on a date with him, but she changed her mind when she saw him give a motivational talk to a crowd of predominantly black single mothers on Chicago's South Side Left private practice to work for the council on community projects Married Obama in 1992 and had two children with him: Malia Ann and Natasha Played a strong role in promoting her husband's US House and Senate campaigns Was extremely supportive during Barack Obama's presidential campaign Has sought to counter childhood obesity by supporting the Let's Move campaign in the US A strong advocate for LGBT rights, and strong opponent of all forms of discrimination The world's first black first lady, she is a living embodiment, alongside her husband, of the American Dream.
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COVER STORY THE BEST YOU
ESCAPING the City
Like many other people, Rob Symington once dreamed of getting out of the rat race and the corporate grind. But, unlike others, he did something about it - he set up what he calls a "dating agency" that puts people who want to escape the city in touch with the opportunities they need to get the lives they’ve always wanted.
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ike many humanities graduates, Rob gravitated towards the city after graduating with a degree in history. He took a job as a management consultant for Ernst and Young in London. "The first year was excellent," he recalls with a smile on his face, “but then things changed. Something about the corporate world wasn't right for me in terms of the hierarchy, the politics and the bureaucracy. Somewhere towards my second year, I began to lose my enthusiasm for that environment, and began to think, 'Well, if not this, then what?'" It was then, as he sat in one of the "cubicle farms, as you see in The Wolf for Wall Street and other movies" that a face poked its head over the cubicle and whispered to him, “This is a bit rubbish, isn't it?” Rob remembers, "I immediately saw a kindred spirit. I thought, 'This guy’s on my wavelength.'" The whisperer was Dom Jackman, and the pair spent their lunch breaks and pub evenings thinking about "what a viable career
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They realised that the transition to a noncorporate career was hard. Then the idea hit them.
would look like outside the safety of that environment." After exploring various ill-conceived schemes, they realised that the transition to a non-corporate career was hard. Then the idea hit them. "The frustration we were feeling was potentially the idea that might be worth pursuing. We were far from being the only people feeling frustrated with this environment. We looked at our peers, our colleagues, and our mates from Uni. Broadly speaking, people in their 20s climbing their way up the corporate pyramid, and
THE BEST YOU
COVER STORY
MAIN PICTURE Rob Symington, Dom Jackman and Mikey Howe
we thought, 'There’s a massive problem here.'" Rob and Dom had realised a lot of people were wondering both why they were working in this environment and how they could get out of it without going broke. "So we thought in a kind of circular way if we can build something that helps other people 'escape' from the corporate world, then maybe we ourselves could escape. That idea hit us between the eyes like a blow, like we’d just been slapped, and we thought, 'This is exciting,' because we felt the problems so personally ourselves." A great business idea, but what next? Rather than setting up a business, they were inspired by Seth Godin's book, Tribes, and they began to talk about their idea online. "The reality of the transition was we sat down and we’d thought, 'Well, this could be a business, but it also could just be a project. It’s an idea for a community, potentially.'" The response was strong and heartfelt. The pair built up a large online community of like-minded people, all with the same desire to leave the rat race. This community grew and attracted new members to their blog, Escape The City – the same blog they run today. "We got such an incredible reaction. We thought, 'Actually, we’re on to something here. What would the next step look like? What would happen if we quit our jobs and invested some savings in a web site? Could we run with this thing?’” The pair identified two sources of income. The first was events, education and courses for people wanting to transition; the second, to act as a conduit through which experienced ambitious people could connect with employers and opportunities. This meant they were essentially running a recruitment business with a high technical element, but Rob certainly didn't see himself as a headhunter. "We’re trying to match people with new employers related to what those people want to do and what those employers can
TOP LEFT Rob Symington co-founded Escape the City
TOP RIGHT You could relocate to an African village
BOTTOM Rob is happy to be out of the rat race of the City
offer. It’s kind of like dating for recruitment," he laughs. So far, they were hustling. They set up their website and realised there were no jobs on the jobs board, so initially they hunted for jobs on Google and put them up on their website manually. Then, one day, the Metropolitan Police called and asked if they could post some jobs on their site. "The guy on the other end asked, 'What’s your rate card?' I put my hand over the received and said to Dom, 'Mate, what’s our rate card?' By the end of the day, we had a rate card
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COVER STORY THE BEST YOU and we’d made £500, and we thought, 'Well, okay so this works maybe!'" Unconventionality seeming to be their byword, to expand the business further, Rob rejected the idea of taking his business to Venture Capitalists because it somehow felt wrong. Instead, they went after crowdfunding. In two weeks they were able to raise £600,000 from their members, who now number 135,000 likeminded people. "We’re trying our best just to build a platform that intelligently matches people with their next moves based on what they’ve done and what they want to do. So we’ve got a hell of a lot ahead of us, but we’re in as good a place as we’ve ever been," Rob says. For Rob, it's about providing a personal service for people whose levels of risk tolerance are very different. Forever transitional, like the hedge-funder who left the city to run a beach lodge in Mozambique, there are numerous people who are just looking to found or be a part of small, exciting businesses. Each solution fits the individual. The idea works. With offices in New York, a website that’s attracting visitors from all over the world, and courses and events that really help people to change their lives, it's a heady and rich mix, and something Rob is deeply committed to. And this shows in the emotional investment of Rob and
ROB SYMINGTON AT A GLANCE Rob was born in 1984 and grew up in Portugal. His parents were small business owners. In 1994 he came to boarding school in England at the age of 10. His Portuguese friends didn't understand the English boarding school system and thought he'd done something really bad! Studied a degree in history in Scotland, and not knowing what else to do, went to work in The City of London with Ernst and Young in 2006 Worked as a managing consultant for a year, but began to find the work unfulfilling Found a fellow traveller in the form of colleague Dom Jackman and sought a way to start a business and leave The City When they realised there must be many others in the corporate world seeking to leave it, they hit on the idea of building a community of starting a blog about it The blog, Escape The City (www.escapethecity.org) attracted 19,000 members in just eight months Within two years, having proven demand for the site, Rob and Dom started promoting their website as a recruiting site with a difference - they weren't headhuting aggressively, but helping people get the right "fit" for life outside The City Business began to come in - companies and individuals sought City talent in other areas of life Concept proven, Rob and Dom decided that to take the site further they needed funding. But after rejecting traditional Venture Capitalism, they raised money through Crowd Funding websites. Members were so impressed they raised £600,000 in two weeks Now they are running courses, events and lectures to give people the skills they need to leave their corporate lives.
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BELOW Bernardo Moya talks to Rob Symington in a video interview"
the people who attend Escape the City events. The speakers are usually entrepreneurs or people who know something about the career change process, be they psychologists, career coaches or adventurers. Everyone who attends the events has the unifying desire to do something different with his or her life and/or career. "Those events are sometimes like Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. I can’t tell you the energy in the room. So during the questions, someone might put up his hand and say, 'I resigned this morning', and everyone else will cheer, and suddenly you see all these people in the room who have something in common." Barriers fall, and people make connections. "We encourage some serendipity", Rob adds, explaining that it's a place where people can help each other move projects forward. "The hairs on the back of my head stand up when I’m in that environment, and sometimes I’m the person trying to make the connections happen. Because you see that you’ve left your cold computer screen and you're looking at people in the face, there might be a beer involved, which makes it even easier." Escape the City encourages entrepreneurialism – the attitude that isn't taught in schools and that isn't necessarily to be found in family businesses. With numerous people "living the dream" thanks to Rob's initiative, it's something that clearly works. It isn't necessarily about getting out of civilization, though. It's more about escaping the corporate life, as Rob himself attests with a grin: "I currently live on a narrowboat up on the Regent’s Canal with my fiancée." It's not far in miles from the City of London, but it's a world away in attitude. b
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BOOK REVIEWS
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Great reading, viewing and listening to empower, entertain, enrich, delight and enhance. The Best You rounds up classics and new books and media products that will make a positive difference in your life.
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One of the advantages of reading books is that you get to play with someone else’s imaginary friends, at all hours of the night”
– Dr. SunWolf
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IMPROVE YOU MEMORY BY DAVID THOMAS
Learn how to train your memory, enhance your mental abilities, and keep your mind agile and alert. This book’s expert tips, clear text, and hard-working illustrations will show you how to improve your concentration, organize your thoughts, and retain and recall information quickly and accurately to make your memory work for you both in personal and professional situations. This text aims to make the forgetting of birthdays, names and revision notes for exams a thing of the past. With clear texts and illustrations to show you how to improve concentration, organise your thoughts, and retain and recall information quickly and accurately. Your memory will be trained to work for you in both personal and professional situations.
If you are looking to really improve your memory then proceed to the checkout now!” – K. Horsley
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THE BEST YOU
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AMERICAN GROWN BY MICHELLE OBAMA
Since its first planting, the White House Kitchen Garden has sparked a new conversation about nutrition and our children’s health. In American Grown, First Lady Michelle Obama tells the story of the White House Kitchen Garden, celebrates the bounty of gardens across our nation, and reminds us all of what we can grow together. Setting a new standard for illustrated eBooks, American Grown offers a beautifully designed and screen-optimised layout for colour devices that takes advantage of the best features of each device. This eBook offers new ways to experience more of the White House Kitchen Garden with features that include: l Even more lush photography and historical images l Timeline of the White House grounds through the years l Delicious recipes not found in the physical book
Our First Lady’s charisma shimmers on these pages.” – Richard Cumming
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THE ESCAPE MANIFESTO BY ESCAPE THE CITY
Does this sound familiar? You tick all the right boxes; school, university, corporate career. You have a sensible profession, a fancy job title, proud parents, decent salary, pricey holidays, but there’s a nagging feeling that something isn’t quite right? A realisation that you’re not completely fulfilled? Surely you should be as happy as Larry – are you being ungrateful? HELL NO. You want a different life – no spreadsheets, no commute, no late nights at the office. But if not that, then what? That is exactly what Escape The City are here to do – show you what other options are open to you. Escape The City is a community-based website built around a simple concept: there is more to life than doing unfulfilling work in big corporate companies. The online platform is designed to help corporate professionals find exciting jobs, start their own businesses, and go on big adventures. The Escape Manifesto is here to support, inspire and encourage us all to make big and brave transitions in our lives.
An intensely practical guide, encouraging you to stick to your guns and strive for something different.” – Elite Business
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THE BEST YOU
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THRIVE
BY ARIANA HUFFINGTON Seven years ago, suffering from exhaustion and lack of sleep, Arianna Huffington collapsed, breaking her cheekbone and injuring her eye. It was a wake-up call that prompted an appraisal of her life - one that would prove transformative. At the time, the recently launched Huffington Post was a global success and, by conventional measures, so was she. But Huffington realised her life was far from flourishing. So she began to re-evaluate success and the parameters for what actually makes life a fulfilling experience. Thrive is designed as a bridge to help the reader move from knowing what to do to actually doing it. Deeply ingrained habits are extremely difficult to change, but Huffington is passionate that if we don’t incorporate Third Metric principles into our daily lives then we will continue to erode our health and happiness. Arianna Huffington aims to convince even the most sceptical reader that there are daily techniques, practices and tools we can implement at home and in the workplace that will help us to reconnect with ourselves, our loved ones and our community.
This book lays out a path for each of us to look within and make our lives more authentic and fulfiling.” – Sheryl Sandberg
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BOOK REVIEWS
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YOU CAN BE YOUNGER BY MARISA PEER
In this exciting new book, leading therapist Marisa Peer explains how you can arrest the ageing process by harnessing the power of your subconscious mind. By changing your thinking, you can change your body and become physically and mentally at least ten years younger. The way we look and feel has very little to do with our chronological age: You Can Be Younger shows us that positive thinking and changing your belief system are the most important factors in staying young. In You Can Be Younger, leading therapist Marisa Peer explains how you can arrest the ageing process by harnessing the power of your subconscious mind.
The revolutionary ten-step programme that will make you look and feel ten years younger.�
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LIVE LOVE LEGACY THE BEST
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What do you want to be remembered for? What are your relationships like with those around you? How does life treat you - and how do you treat your life? There is so much good in you. Enrich your life with the passion you feel and the connections you make.
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GET BUSY LIVING
Huffington Post founder Ariana Huffington says to do worthy things with your time
LIFE OFF THE FIELD
Being a professional athlete is a full-time job, often causing them to abandon other areas of life
WHAT DOES IT TAKE‌
...to be a fitness guru? We chat with former pro wrestler turned fitness guru, Diamond Dallas Page
LIVE LOVE LEGACY ARIANA HUFFIGTON
GET BUSY LIVING So often, we mistake business for living life to its fullest. Ariana Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post and author of Thrive, has some interesting points about what we think makes a successful life compared to the cold, hard facts.
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ARIANA HUFFIGTON
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t’s easy to miss the real point of our lives even as we’re living them. Until we’re no longer alive. A eulogy is often the first formal marking down of what our lives were about—the foundational document of our legacy. It is how people remember us and how we live on in the minds and hearts of others. And it is very telling what we don’t hear in eulogies. We almost never hear things like: “The crowning achievement of his life was when he made senior vice president.”; “He increased market share for his company multiple times during his tenure.”; “She never stopped working. She ate lunch at her desk. Every day.”; “He never made it to his kid’s Little League games because he always had to go over those figures one more time.”; “While she didn’t have any real friends, she had six hundred Facebook friends, and she dealt with every email in her inbox every night.”; or “His PowerPoint slides were always meticulously prepared.” Our eulogies are always about the other stuff: what we gave, how we connected, how much we meant to our family and friends, small kindnesses, lifelong passions, and the things that made us laugh. So why do we spend so much of our limited time on this earth focusing on all the things our eulogy will never cover? “Eulogies aren’t résumés,” David Brooks wrote. “They describe the person’s care, wisdom, truthfulness and courage. They describe the million little moral judgments that emanate from that inner region.” And yet we spend so much time and effort and energy on those résumé entries – entries that lose all significance as soon as our heart stops beating. Even for those who die with amazing Wikipedia entries, whose lives were synonymous
with accomplishment and achievement, their eulogies focus mostly on what they did when they weren’t achieving and succeeding. They aren’t bound by our current, broken definition of success. In her 1951 novel Memoirs of Hadrian, Marguerite Yourcenar has the Roman emperor meditating on his death: “It seems to me as I write this hardly important to have been emperor.” Thomas Jefferson’s epitaph describes him as “author of the Declaration of American Independence . . . and father of the University of Virginia.” There is no mention of his presidency. The old adage that we should live every day as if it were our last usually means that we shouldn’t wait until death is imminent to begin prioritizing the things that really matter. Anyone with a smartphone and a full email inbox knows that it’s easy to be busy while not being aware that we’re actually living. A life that embraces the Third Metric is one lived in a way that’s mindful of our eventual eulogy. “I’m always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realise I’m listening to it,” joked George Carlin. We may not be able to witness our own eulogy, but we’re actually writing it all the time, every day. The question is how much we’re giving the eulogiser to work with. In the summer of 2013, an obituary of a Seattle woman named Jane Lotter, who died of cancer at sixty, went viral. The author of the obit was Lotter herself. “One of the few advantages of dying from Grade 3, Stage IIIC endometrial cancer, recurrent and metastasised to the liver and abdomen,” she wrote, “is that you have time to write
ABOVE We live in a world of multitasking and making the most of every minute
MAIN PICTURE Those of us with busy city lives should pause for thought
And yet we spend so much time and effort and energy on those résumé entries – entries that lose all significance as soon as our heart stops beating.
LIVE LOVE LEGACY
your own obituary.” After giving a lovely and lively account of her life, she showed that she lived with the true definition of success in mind. “My beloved Bob, Tessa, and Riley,” she wrote. “My beloved friends and family. How precious you all have been to me. Knowing and loving each one of you was the success story of my life.” Whether you believe in an afterlife – as I do – or not, by being fully present in your life and in the lives of those you love, you’re not just writing your own eulogy; you’re creating a very real version of your afterlife. It’s an invaluable lesson – one that has much more credence while we have the good fortune of being healthy and having the energy and freedom to create a life of purpose and meaning. The good news is that each and every one of us still has time to live up to the best version of our eulogy. This is an excerpt from Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Happier Life, available now at all good bookstores.
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LIVE LOVE LEGACY THEBESTYOU
LIFE OFF THE FIELD
On the field, professional athletes are strictly managed. When they do well, they are showered with praise. They are advised on every aspect of their career, from training to psychology, but all too often the development of life skills is neglected. MAIN PICTURE Being a professional athlete means training a lot
O
lympic champion Lizzy Yarnold, who wowed the crowd at the Sochi Winter Games, joined forces with Katherine Grainger, the 2012 Olympic rowing champion, English national rugby player Leon Lloyd, and English national cricketer Holly Colvin at the launch of the Register of Personal Development Practitioners in Sport at the end of February at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health
(ISEH) in central London. The success of Lizzy Yarnold at the Sochi Winter Games was the perfect reward for her commitment to an intense training regimen and a hectic competition schedule – that excellence must also be supported in ‘off the field’ development. The critical need to ensure that athletes thrive in all areas of their lives is now being supported with a new initiative that recognises those who provide support on career
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advice, financial commitments, family support, education and welfare. The Register of Personal Development Practitioners in Sport (RPDPS) will recognise qualified professionals who work in the area of Personal Development within sport. It takes a special kind of person to be a professional athlete. The training is rigorous, the diets are boring, and if you are successful, the media attention is unavoidable. There are dieticians and nutritionists to look after your food, agents and managers to look after your career, coaches and physiotherapists to look after your performance, and sports therapists to look after keeping your head in the game. But who is helping you make friends, look after
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your family emotionally, or keep your ego in check? This is where the RPDPS come in. They make sure that our toptier athletes are getting lifeguidance that complements their athletic training. Steve Mitchell, Head of Consultancy at SkillsActive, the owners and operators of RPDPS, says, “Sport is becoming a lucrative industry, which means it sometimes attracts people to the sector who offer below-standard advice and services. By creating National Occupational Standards, RPDPS assures national governing bodies that the professionals working with athletes and players are fully qualified and competent in what is a very sensitive job role.” Reaching the pinnacle of athletic success rarely comes without setbacks; committed athletes often need professional help and support along the way.
ABOVE Leon Lloyd (left) and Katherine Grainger CBE (right)
This can include maintaining perspective through corrective mentoring and lifestyle advice from Personal Development Practitioners. Katherine Grainger CBE says, “Performance lifestyle has been instrumental and played a key role throughout my rowing career that has spanned four Olympics.” Leading organisations involved in the independent public Register’s development include the Rugby Football Union, English Institute of Sport, England and Wales Cricket Board, Sport Wales, and the Professional Players Federation. The new Register will also benefit organisations looking for professionally recognised practitioners. Such professionals work with some of the country’s elite athletes, from international team players to Olympic champions. Kate Green, National Lead - Personal Development & Welfare at the ECB, says, “Having a register for our profession is hugely important in recognising the development in this area
LIVE LOVE LEGACY
of support. The aim is to support lifestyle, personal development and wellbeing of players and coaches so that they can perform to the best of their ability, minimising unwanted obstacles and maximising future opportunities in both their personal and professional lives. Having specialised, experienced and trusted practitioners to perform this support is crucial, and having a clear pathway will enable keen and motivated individuals to follow a clear career progression.” Steve Mitchell concludes, “RPDPS will provide the yardstick by which professionals are measured and accepted by the wider industry, and will enable Personal Development Practitioners to gain the trust and confidence of their clients. It is the additional, much-needed support that our committed athletes deserve, and will ultimately benefit the economy at large.”
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LIVE LOVE LEGACY THE BEST YOU
TO BE A
fitness guru Part of being the best you can be is focusing on what it takes to get there. We’re continuing the “What does it take…?” column, which looks at this aspect of being the best. This month, we’re chatting with former WWE wrestler and current fitness guru Diamond Dallas Page. HOW DO YOU BECOME A PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER? Well, I tried when I was 22. It didn’t work out for me, and I was in the nightclub business. I became a professional wrestling manager because I thought I was too old at 31. Then, at 35, I just got the opportunity to slide over into actually wrestling. Everybody thought I was crazy, but I was in WCW full championship wrestling and it just worked. It was a brutal grind. My career didn’t take off until I was 40, which was in 1996, and after that I was on top of the world. WHAT WAS THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING A PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER? Seeing the world. Getting to live the dream. I also made a lot of money [laughs]. But I also learned a lot about just the world in general touring, and it really opened my eyes to a lot of different things that, in the business world, have applied today that have made me into a pretty good businessman. HOW DID YOU MAKE THE TRANSITION FROM WRESTLER TO FITNESS GURU? I developed a yoga programme for guys who wouldn’t be caught dead doing yoga. I didn’t develop it for the yogis. A lot of people are into all this spiritual stuff, and I respect it, but it’s just not part of what I do. The only reason I ever got involved in any kind of yoga was out of necessity. Because my career started at 35, I was constantly looking for ways to hold back the hands of time,
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THE BEST YOU
LIVE LOVE LEGACY
but when I was 42 and on top of the world, I blew my back out so badly that three different doctors said my wrestling career was over and, out of necessity, I reached to yoga because that’s all I could do. I ended up combining it with the rehabilitation moves I’d learned, some old-school calisthenics and a whole different level with tone and attitude. Next thing you know, in less than three months, I was back in the ring. I proved the doctors wrong, and I was back to living the dream. At 42 they said my career was over. At 43 I was the heavyweight champion of the world. TO OUTSIDERS, WRESTLING AND YOGA SEEM LIKE POLAR OPPOSITES. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY TO THAT? I agree, but that’s just on the surface. You know, I often say, “What’s the antithesis of a yogi?” I don’t know, maybe a pro wrestler who was in the movie ‘Devil’s Rejects’ [laughs]. But today, it’s a whole different world. A lot of my career, I’ve taken the path less travelled – I starting wrestling at 35 and getting into my own form of yoga at 42. There wasn’t anybody else doing that, and everybody laughed at me. Today, 40 guys in the WWE do DDP Yoga. Today, there are over 35 retired wrestlers who do it on a daily basis. The WWE PC, the performance centre where all the young guys and girls are coming out of, there’s 71 of them there, 100 per cent of them are doing it. And now, we’ve got football players in my country, baseball players, MMA fighters, and that’s on the athletic side. The big part is on the regular guy and gal side. WHICH LIVING PERSON DO YOU MOST ADMIRE AND WHY? My fiancée Brenda – that’s who I love the most – then my daughters [laughs]. It’s sort of like a tie. I don’t want to put one over the other. God, that’s all I need [laughs]. WHAT’S YOUR PROUDEST MOMENT BEEN? I think watching Arthur Boorman run – that choked me up. He’s 47. He was a paratrooper. He’d been walking with knee braces, back braces and wrap-around canes for 15 years. Over the length of the video he loses the knee braces, the back brace and the canes not just to walk, but to run. After that would be the resurrection of Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts, watching Jake Roberts go from a shell of man to being inducted into the Hall of Fame this year, all through DDP Yoga. In fact, there’s no spiritual side of this when it comes to the humming and the chanting, but there is when it comes to the power of positive energy. WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE? A wrestler [laughs]. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SAW THE SUN RISE? I was in Costa Rica surfing about eight months ago. I watched it every morning, and I would get ready to go out into the water. DO YOU SURF OFTEN? I wouldn’t say often. I used to, but I still surf. For like a week or two.
HOW DO YOU RELAX, APART FROM SURFING? I don’t really feel like it’s tense or stressful. I think that while I’m doing my workout, it’s a workout, and at the same time it takes me down because I have to focus on what I’m doing. I’m trying to work on meditation right now. I’m not really good at that, but I’m going to be. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE REMEMBERED FOR? Changing lives. DO PEOPLE STILL COME UP TO YOU AND ASK YOU TO DO THE ‘DIAMOND CUTTER’ ON THEM? All the time [laughs]. Diamond Dallas page was in the UK touring with ErosComedy, who also brought tours here featuring Mick Foley and Steven Regal.
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LIVE LOVE LEGACY ONE PLUS ONE
THE BEST YOU
FEEL & LOOK GOOD
THE BEST
YOU
Feeling good about yourself makes the joy shine from your eyes and your skin. It makes others respond to you in new ways and it gives you a whole new outlook on life. Looking good draws others to you and enhances your life in ways you haven’t yet imagined. It’s great to find new ways to feel and look good now!
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FOREVER YOUNG
It’s not about when you were born, but how you live your life, says Marisa Peer
BE IMMUNE – SUPER IMMUNE
Raw nutrition expert David Wolfe recommends a variety of superfoods to boost your immune system
FEEL & LOOK GOOD MARISA PEER
FOREVER YOUNG Anti-ageing expert, celebrity therapist and best-selling author Marisa Peer has the secret to looking, feeling, and staying young. The secret isn’t a round of injections or a series of nips and tucks, or any of the other common ageing remedies of the day. The secret to staying young starts in your mind
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MARISA PEER
W
HO among us doesn’t want to stay young and to live longer? We all want to feel energetic, alive, with the vitality and ability to try new things. The problem is, the antiageing industry has long focused on looking young when the most profound solution to remaining young is programming your mind to feel young. Once you do this, your body will undoubtedly follow. The body will always act in a way that matches your thinking, so when you think young thoughts and act in a young way, you send messages to the body that actually slow down ageing. In my 25 years as a therapist, I’ve learned a great deal about how much of a role the mind plays in everything our body does, most notably in how it ages. Have you ever noticed how people who exercise, embrace new technology, hang out with their grandchildren, and socialise are also the people who tend to look young, vibrant and happy? That’s not a coincidence; they are doing the same kinds of things they used to do when they were young. Instead of giving up the things that make life fun, they continue to embrace them, refusing to feel old. When I was researching my new book You Can Be Younger, I found it was nearly impossible to find existing anti-ageing books that weren’t focused on cosmetic products and special diets or a younger wardrobe that make you look younger. We all have three ages: our chronological age, the age our birth certificate says we are; our biological age, which is the age of our organs; and our psychological age, which is the age we feel. When we do young things like laughing, dancing or having sex, we send a message to our bodies that says, “I feel young”, and this, in turn, can slow down how we age. Our bodies age on their own timetable, so if you were 40 and a runner you could have the heart and lungs
of a 25 year old, but if you run in the sun you may have the skin of a 55 year old. The least important age is your birth certificate age, so ignore that and decide how old you would feel if you didn’t have a birth certificate. Our mind does not age unless we stop using it. Professors in their 90s have brain neurons equal to those of someone in their 30s. If you introduce your mind to new things, it keeps your memory and thinking sharp, so read your paper and do your crossword on your tablet. Anything new will boost your brainpower and slow down ageing. The things that can slow down ageing range from the daily and mundane, such as the way you sleep or how many electronic devices you have by your bed, to the more profound, such as how you talk to yourself and others about ageing. It’s puzzling that so many of us don’t consider the fact that hanging out with the same people in the same age group does little to keep us younger. The same goes for going to the same places, reading the same authors and publications, or never shaking up our routines. The body will do what the mind tells it to, so making a conscious effort to switch up your normal routines will change your thought processes – something you used to do all the time when you
FEEL & LOOK GOOD
were young. We live in an age of rapid technological progress. The amount of information that is available at our fingertips would have been unimaginable just 20 years ago. These amazing advancements can all be embraced as a part of staying, feeling, and ultimately looking younger. Learning new things, like how to use a new gadget, and doing the kind of mental exercises like Sudoku or crosswords, keeps your brain elastic, sharp and finely tuned. Nuerobics are the latest way to slow down ageing. If you are right handed, hold your toothbrush with your left hand, go up the stairs leading with your left leg, pick up your phone remote with your left hand. The newness will make new and strong neurons that keep you mentally sharp. Life is such a beautiful thing, and there’s no sense in feeling it’s over when, in reality, a new and exciting stage can be just beginning. We don’t dread getting old – we dread losing our youth and vitality. Using my programme will show you how to grow older without growing old and can add between sixteen to thirty years to your lifespan. b
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FEEL & LOOK GOOD
DAVID WOLFE
BE IMMUNE – SUPER IMMUNE There are many superfoods, superherbs and super products that promote the immune system. David Wolfe, the rock star of the superfoods and longevity world, has some advice to help you boost your immune system.
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our immune system is vast and complex. It is designed to detoxify your body as well as protect your body from illness and foreign invaders. Harmful bacteria, viruses, calcium-forming microorganisms, and candida are part of our world. Unfortunately, so are toxic chemicals, including everything from pesticides and nuclear radiation to car pollution and most municipal tap waters. In our world, these harmful microorganisms and the endless list of toxic chemicals assault our immune system constantly. Coupled with these assaults are the daily stresses
of life and their deleterious effects upon us. All of these add up to a weakened immune system, which can lead to a host of other physical and mental health problems: colds and flus, chronic disease, skin disorders, digestive distress, nervous conditions, even cancer. When the body has too much to deal with, it stops being able to get rid of its waste efficiently and requires more support to help it fight off what is attacking it. We can all learn more about empowering our immune systems. I believe the best way to activate the genius within the immune system is by ingesting certain superherbs and superfoods, taking probiotics and cultured foods,
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Whenever possible, try to include the following superfoods, superherbs, and super products in your daily regime
minimising toxic food exposure by eating pure organic, rawliving foods, and making healthy lifestyle improvements. In 400 BC Hippocrates said, “Let food be your medicine and let medicine be your food.” Out of more than 40,000 herbs used worldwide, perhaps only 50 or 60 of them are tonic superherbs. These superherbs should be taken for long periods because, like all tonics, they are more like food and they build health treasures within and nourish our “stress defence shield”. Whenever possible, try to include the following superfoods, superherbs, and super products in your daily regime:
DAVID WOLFE REISHI MUSHROOM:
FEEL & LOOK GOOD
PROBIOTICS:
Reishi is the queen of Medicinal Mushrooms. It has been the most revered herbal mushroom in Asia for over 2,000 years. The Daoists consider Reishi an “elixir of immortality”. They celebrate it for its ability to improve the functioning of the immune system by protecting us from the onslaught of viruses, bacteria, pollution, chemicals, moulds, and the toxicity that we are often subject to in our world.
Consuming a combination of good quality probiotics and cultured and fermented foods, such as coconut and other kefirs, unpasteurised sauerkraut and kim chi, will lead to enhanced immunity as the beneficial probiotic bacteria are symbiotic allies to your body that help fight viruses, candida and other infections, produce B vitamins, and assist in detoxificat ion.
CAMU CAMU BERRY: If Reishi is the queen, Chaga is the king. It contains the highest amounts of antitumour compounds of any herb. Chaga is also extremely high in nourishing phytochemicals, nutrients, and freeradical scavenging antioxidants, especially melanin. Chaga is second only to cacao in antioxidant content. It’s the most powerful cancer-fighting herb known, and it fights all kinds of radiation damage to healthy tissue. GYNOSTEMMA:
CAMU CAMU BERRY: This plant-derived vitamin C source will super boost your immune system and help repair connective tissue. Botanical vitamin C sources are coming into favour in preference over synthetic ascorbic acid products due to their complete array of vitamin C enhancing bioflavonoids, copper, rutin, and other co-factors that make vitamin C work better. It is one of the most concentrated supplies of Vitamin C in the world, and a powerful antioxidant.
It has been identified as the most medicinal of all the Chinese herbs. It contains 120 saponins (immune modulating molecules that are fat soluble on one side of the molecule and water soluble on the other) — all of which possess specific, dual-directional health-giving properties. This means it boosts the immune system when it needs it, but also calms it down. GINSENG: Known throughout the world for its amazing energy-restoring and strength-building properties, ginseng is an adaptogen that helps our bodies “adapt” to stressful environmental conditions. Ginseng root can boost energy, induce mental alertness, improve the ratio of healthy hormones, and increase endurance. Ginseng also helps fight pain and alleviate radiation damage to healthy tissues.
CHLORELLA : Chlorella is a natural, green, micro-algae, superfood detoxifier. It is the highest chlorophyll-containing plant in the world, with 40 times that of the best wheatgrass juice. The chlorophyll binds with heavy metals and chemical toxins, helping to eliminate them from the brain and nervous system.
When you start investigating and utilising these substances consistently and regularly as part of your overall health and exercise program, you will notice that your immunity will be enhanced. Your thoughts will have more clarity. Your overall energy will increase. Feelings of wellbeing will begin to dominate your life. Superfoods and tonic superherbs can be added into anyone’s diet. Get out a blender and have fun. Make different teas with the superherbs or create new smoothies with the superfoods. Better yet, take your superherb tea and blend it with your superfoods to make the best elixirs ever. Getting healthier is fun!
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Wealth [n] “happiness,” also “prosperity in abundance of possessions or riches” from Middle English “wele”, meaning “well-being”. Riches [n] “valued possessions, money, property,” Making money and bringing greater wealth to EVERY area of your life...
FEAR OR FREEDOM Best-selling author Dr. John Demartini looks at the most common goals and what gets in the way of achieving them
FEELING THE SQUEEZE John Fairhurst from Payplan says it’s time to get your finances in order
THE SOLOPRENEUR MINDSET It’s scary starting a business alone. Natalie Ekberg has a checklist of what you need to do it
WEALTH & RICHES DR. JOHN DEMARTINI
FEAR or
FREEDOM Is it a coincidence that there are seven areas of your life you need to master and seven fears that hold you back? Dr. John Demartini doesn’t think so. It’s time to get over whatever is holding you back and achieve greatness.
T
here are seven areas of life we are here to master: spiritual, mental, vocational, financial, familial, social and physical. Each of these areas can be either powerfully supportive of your genius, or they can impede it. There
are also seven common fears and guilts; these fragment our full potential in each of these areas. The only difference between somebody who does what they love and someone who doesn't is the former has the ability to identify their fears and has a strategy to break through them.
The second fear is the mental fear of not knowing enough. This fear can keep you from doing what you really love. The first fear is the spiritual fear of breaking some perceived authority's ethics. Morals are the rules we impose on ourselves, and ethics are the imposed rules between others and ourselves. Many people let those fears stop them from doing what they love and expressing their genius because they fear that others may not approve of them. The second fear is the mental fear of not knowing enough. This fear can keep you from doing what you really love. People plagued by this fear constantly say to themselves: "I just don't know enough. I'm not smart enough. I don't have the education for it." That's another illusion because, no matter what level you’re currently at, you have the capacity to do whatever
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DR. JOHN DEMARTINI
you dream of doing. No matter how much you know, you will have the unknown. You attract opportunities according to your level of knowing. As you know more you grow more. By loving yourself even when you don't know, you liberate yourself to learn. The third fear is the vocational fear of failure. You must be able to love failure as much as success since you fail and succeed equally and constantly. Have you ever set yourself goals that went unrealised? Everyone does. You're a success and failure constantly throughout your life, and you need both. Babe Ruth had the most home runs and the most strikeouts, and that is the magnificence of failure. The fourth fear is the financial fear of poverty. Here you fear that if you would go
out and do what you truly would love to do, you won't make enough money at it. If you love something and are committed to doing whatever it takes to succeed, if you value money highly, follow the financial laws of success and save, you can certainly build wealth doing what you would love. The fifth fear is the fear of losing your loved ones. Many people feel that if they do what they love, they will lose someone they love. I think what stabilised my marriage is that we don't so much need each other as we just love each other. There's a big difference. We both have an independent life, and if either of us were to leave, the other would still function. The sixth fear is the fear of social rejection. This is a big fear. Some people are not doing what they love because
When you break down, you're listening to your fearful self; when you break through, you're listening to your immortal self.
ABOVE Being fearful of the world is no way to live
You're a success and failure constantly throughout your life, and you need both. LEFT Many people have a fear of poverty
LEFT Many also fear rejection in social settings
WEALTH & RICHES
they're afraid people will reject them. The truth is, acceptance and rejection are a part of a full life, and the more extraordinary you become, the more you will receive of both. Learn to appreciate both equally and you are free. People come and go – they’re transient – but you're with you for the whole trip, and it's your life. Never sacrifice the eternal for the transient. Embrace both sides of life equally. The seventh and last fear is the fear of ill health, death, or disease. Some people don't live their dream because they're afraid they'll die if they do, or they won't have the energy. But the greatest cause of illness, disease, and death is not living your dreams. That'll kill you quicker than anything else. Inspiration and gratitude heal and empower, and if you're not doing what you love you'll feel ungrateful and desperate. You can break through or break down in all seven areas of life. When you break down, you're listening to your fearful self; when you break through, you're listening to your immortal self. But don't think that you're ever going to be without fears in your life. Fear means you're growing and challenging yourself to move beyond your comfort zones. I have fears almost every day, but I know that fear is an incomplete view of what is occurring, so I identify the fear, bring it to completion and balance, and then walk through it. I suggest you do the same.
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WEALTH & RICHES JOHN FAIRHURST
FEELING
the
T
SQUEEZE?
he economy might be off life support, but the latest figures show that people in Britain are poorer than they were a year ago. Spending on credit is back with a bang as card debt rose about six per cent in the last year. But even though many people are struggling to make ends meet, only one in six of those battling debts seek any advice at all. Debt is a cornerstone of the twenty-first-century economy, but many of us have a peculiar relationship with it. An unpleasant stigma attaches itself to personal debt, but, used responsibly, it’s an important part of many people’s financial lives. Think of all those debts that facilitate modern life: mortgages, car finance, business loans and more. Yet regularly people struggling with their debts feel like they’ve failed or have been irresponsible. The truth is that debt can be a double-edged sword, and many people find themselves in debt spirals, taking out loans to repay what they already owe. But life is expensive, and with average salaries failing to keep up with rising prices for the last five years, many are finding that they’re actually poorer in real terms and are turning to debt to maintain their quality of life. Debt can quickly go from a responsibly used support mechanism to a crutch without which it is impossible to stand up. Credit cards are one of the easiest ways to make the problem worse, as it is all too easy to shift more costs on to plastic and then only meet the minimum payments each month. There are a huge number of indebted people treading water in this way, but are they really improving their situations?
MAIN PICTURE Debt repayments means having to cut back
Credit cards are one of the easiest ways to make the problem worse BELOW Credit cards are a standard way of life in the 21st century
John Fairhurst from Payplan explains why debt is a problem and what you can do to get your finances in order. He has some debt-busting tips to boost your financial well-being It isn’t just a problem among those in lower income brackets; research from the Money Advice Service last year found that nearly a fifth of those struggling with debt are from families with a household income of more than £30,000. At Payplan we are seeing more outwardly established and even successful people than ever coming to us for help. They are often settled in long-term relationships or in a growing family, they own their own homes, and their incomes appear large enough to provide a relative degree of comfort; debt problems span all social classes and family types. There should no longer be a need to feel that debt problems are your fault, but according to the Money Advice Service, only 17 per cent of over-indebted people ask for help. It’s all too easy to find yourself in a situation where your budget is balanced so precariously that any slight shock can tip you into the debt spiral; your car might need costly repairs, or your washing machine might break down. Carrying too much debt can take you on a stressful and emotional journey from believing you can cope, to mounting costs and increased reliance on credit cards, and finally ending up not being able to sleep at night as you think about how to make ends meet. The reason most people
NATALIE EKBERG
WEALTH & RICHES
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YOU
Getting professional help with your debts doesn’t mean you have to live on bread and water.
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STRUGGLING WITH THEIR DEBTS?
solider on without help is a combination of the societal stigma associated with overindebtedness and a belief that seeking help will shut off the tap completely and lead to a significant drop in quality of life, which simply isn’t true. Getting professional help with your debts doesn’t mean you have to live on bread and water; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. The aim of a debt management plan (DMP) is to help pay off your loans at a rate that you can realistically afford. Your life won’t be extravagant, but you should be able to afford the odd luxury such as swimming lessons for the kids or a drink on a Friday evening that just weren’t possible before. The most important thing to remember is that getting help ensures peace of mind; you won’t have to lay awake at night worrying about where the money is going to come from for the next bill. One of the most common things our clients say is that they wish they’d sought help sooner; if you’re worried about your debt levels, don’t leave it another minute. b
Budget - First, draw up a comprehensive household budget to assess your income against your expenditure. This will find where the wriggle room is, and where you can reduce certain costs. Switch - To help reduce costs, look at things such as switching utilities or trying to improve the deal you’re getting on your mortgage. Money Advice Service’s website is a good place to look for help with this. Help - If you find the numbers just don’t add up regardless of how you juggle things, it’s time to look for help. Debt advice – A debt adviser can help by negotiating affordable monthly repayments to your creditors. This should help you get your life back on track and ensure you can live comfortably and reasonably.
Last Can month you believe we saw that The the Wolf next ofissue Wall is already Street May? grace We the find it silver hardscreen, to believe so we as well, thought but just that because now time wasis a good running time away to have from an in-depth us doesn't look mean at itswe're leading not man, busy Leonardo putting together DiCaprio. a So great he isissue March's for you. cover star! With Gail Kingbury as our We've new also contributing got some great editor, tips from we are bestselling getting author some Thomas real quality Gagliano content. about This recapturing issue it wasintimacy Ariana inHuffington, your relationship. and we're And we sure get that back next to profiling month'ssports contributor greats. will be on the same Allhigh this and standard. so much more. Looking forward to it. www.thebestyoumagazine.co WWW.THEBESTYOUMAGAZINE.CO | 53
WEALTH & RICHES NATALIE EKBERG
The SOLOPRENEUR
MINDSET
According to the Federation of Small Businesses, as of the end of last year, small businesses accounted for 47 per cent of private sector employment and 34.4 per cent of turnover. Natalie Ekberg explains what this means.
O
pening your own business has never been as popular as it is today. However, doing business the solo way is not for everyone. To check whether you have the solopreneur mindset, answer the following questions as honestly as you can. Your ability to make
decisions If you are considering opening your own business and running it alone, assess your ability to make decisions and your ability to accept the consequences. There will be times when your decision will make for a happy ending. But there will also be times when your decision will result in
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MAIN PICTURE Even solopreneurs have to work with others from time to time
a disaster. Can you live with the consequences? Will your resolve crumble when that first deal falls through? Will you be able to get up and start all over again? To help you overcome a fear of indecisiveness, Suneet Goomer, the owner of Divine Interior Designs (http://www. divineinteriordesigns.co.uk), recommends connecting with other like-minded business owners: “Your decision-making process should always stem from the direction you want to take with your business. However, having good businessminded colleagues around you helps; they can give you a grounded and professional opinion when those decisions aren't so clear. “ Your capacity for selfmotivation It is easy to feel motivated when projects move along smoothly and the income is flowing. But in reality, the life of a solopreneur is more like a roller coaster: the highs of success follow the lows of disappointment. Over time, the positive experiences prevail, but what will you do when things don’t go your way? As Yvonne Douglas, an author, speaker and holistic coach (http://www. yvonnejdouglas.com/) puts it: “Motivating myself can be difficult at times, especially when cash flow is a challenge. However, knowing that my business and my clients depend on me to be the best that I can be is a huge motivator. I also find it important to remind
NATALIE EKBERG myself that my services are needed.” Your ability to be flexible As a successful solopreneur, you absolutely must think on your feet and come up with creative solutions to problems. If solution A didn’t take you where you wanted, have solutions B, C, and D at the ready – always. It is crucial that you be flexible in the way you perceive success. Many people mistakenly believe that success is a linear line that starts where they are and ends somewhere close to heaven. More conservative folks accept that success is a stepby-step progress but still going onward and upward. The truth is, success is a bit of a back-and-forth, up-and-down, side-to-side commotion. Be flexible and you will excel. Your ability to be organised This skill is crucial as a solopreneur. Francesca Geens, the owner of Digital Dragonfly (http://www.digitaldragonfly.co.uk/) points out that when you start running your business, you have to be able to take your organisational skills to another level: “There are so many different skills you need to develop and so many activities you need to run simultaneously that your ability to get efficient and super organised becomes a necessity”. One of the best ways to stay organised is to set realistic and achievable yet challenging goals for your business. If you are ambitious and driven and you want to take your business places, your goal setting should never stop. As your confidence grows, your goals will become bigger and bolder. Your ability to follow your intuition If you want to succeed on the adventurous journey of building
Many people mistakenly believe that success is a linear line that starts where they are and ends somewhere close to heaven
ABOVE many photographers work for themselves as solopreneurs
BELOW Being a solopreneur can be scary, but rewarding
WEALTH & RICHES
your own business as a solopreneur, you must possess a solid belief in yourself. More importantly, you need to be at peace with yourself and trust that inner voice that only you can hear. Sometimes your hunches will have the power to lead you to your best decisions ever; never underestimate them. Statistically, four out of five start-ups fail. My fundamental belief is that we are capable of succeeding in everything we set our minds to, as long as we are heading in the right direction, and we allow ourselves enough time, selflove, and self-support to get there. Only you can decide whether solopreneurship is right for you, but at least you now have a list of basic mindset requirements to consider. I hope this list has helped to make the decisionmaking process fun, exciting, and rewarding. Be the next one out of five businesses that succeed. b
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WEALTH & RICHES
THE ROCKY ROAD TO SUCCESS
ANDREW CARNEGIE
CATHERINE THE GREAT
FOUNDING THE FUTURE
EMPRESS OF THE PEOPLE
There is little success where there is little laughter."
Power without a nation's confidence is nothing."
While he didn’t get to live to see the future for which he paved the way, one imagines Andrew Carnegie glimpsed it often enough in his dreams. Born in the early 19th Century to near-penniless parents, Carnegie travelled to America with his mother and father in search of better prospects after industry in Scotland had slowed. At thirteen, Andrew was already putting in the long hours most modern workers don’t see until well into their careers. But he would come to see greater heights than the factory floor of a cotton mill. Carnegie began his profession as a telegraph operator, honing his skills for listening and evaluating, two traits that would pay off as he continued his career at the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, rising through the ranks to become a young superintendent. It was during this time that Carnegie began to amass power, investing in and profiting from businesses tied to the railroad industry. Segueing into the iron business after the Civil War, he used his railroad relationships to produce actual rails made from iron. Carnegie however, made his real fortune and largerthan-life reputation in steel. Due to a revolutionary process of making the metal, Carnegie Steel Company became one of the largest producers of steel in the world, creating a new, cost-effective process of producing railways. It also cemented Andrew Carnegie’s legacy as one of the modern era’s first great innovators.
The life and rise of Catherine the First of Russia is an improbable tale of a peasant who walked the path to prominence. As a child, Catherine’s parents were both lost to the plague, and, at three years of age, she was adopted by an aunt in Latvia. She was mostly raised by a pastor, whose skills as a translator took him and Catherine to Moscow when Russian forces invaded Latvia. Working as a housemaid for several dignitaries, she ended up, some say she was purchased, in the house of Prince Alexander, who was a close confidant and friend of Peter the Great, the Emperor of Russia. The flame between Peter and Catherine grew quickly. She even converted to Russian Orthodoxy and changed her name from Marta to Catherine for him. Peter and Catherine wed unbeknownst to anyone, and raised two children to adulthood. She was not enticed by the promise of wealth. She even went so far on one occasion as to offer up her own jewels and those of her Russian companions so that the Ottoman Empire would allow their retreat. Upon Peter the Great’s death, Catherine officially became the first female ruler of Russia. She proclaimed that she symbolised the interests of those who attained esteem and power based on their intelligence, not the position into which they were born. In partnership with Peter, she helped pave the way for the women that ruled the country after her.
• "THE MODERN RAILWAY WOULD NOT EXIST TODAY WITHOUT THE EFFORTS OF ANDREW CARNEGIE. HE SHOWS THAT VISION AND HARD WORK CAN ACHIEVE SUCCESS."
• " CATHERINE THE FIRST OF RUSSIA WAS A FEMINIST BEFORE THE CONCEPT EVEN EXISTED. SHE RULED WITH GRACE AND DIGNITY IN A MAN’S WORLD, AND SHOULD BE REMEMBERED FOR THAT."
– BERNARDO MOYA
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– BERNARDO MOYA
THE ROCKY ROAD TO SUCCESS
WEALTH & RICHES
JIM CARREY
MARIA DAS SILVA
LONG CLIMB TO ACCLAIM
ENERGY TO ACCOMPLISH
If you've got a talent, protect it."
I am a focused person. I am a fighter."
From living in a van to the heights of Hollywood, Jim Carrey has seen every socio-economic level. Born in Canada in 1962, Carrey’s father was a musician at heart, who held a day job to support Carrey, his brother and two sisters. Times turned tough when the elder Carrey lost that job and the family ended up living in a van. Jim had to drop out of school to help support the family. Amidst his family’s struggles, Carrey started performing at open-mic nights, honing an act that eventually got the attention of Rodney Dangerfield. Carrey opened for Dangerfield on tour and eventually made his was to Los Angeles. After a few standout seasons on the popular 1990s sketch comedy series In Living Color, Carrey started to land lead roles in major films. From his breakout film role in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective to classic roles in Dumb and Dumber, The Cable Guy and more serious fare like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Carrey did not take his opportunity in the spotlight for granted. He continued to take risks that led to even greater acclaim, only confirming the immense well of talent that Rodney Dangerfield had seen early in Carrey’s career. Carrey has been outspoken on his battles with ADHD and depression and the steps he took to heal. Through it all, Jim Carrey has continued to choose roles and deliver performances that make the world laugh and appreciate his comic gifts.
From humble beginnings to being named one of the 100 most influential people in the world, Maria das Gracas Silva Foster knows how to aim high and hit the mark. Raised in the 1950s amidst impoverished conditions in a shantytown near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Foster was presented with adversity early on. During her upbringing, Foster would gather recyclables and turn them in for money so that she could continue her education. She credits this will to succeed and learn despite her surroundings for the strong work ethic she would further develop in her adult years. Foster eventually earned her way to holding three degrees: a Bachelor’s in chemical engineering, a Master’s in nuclear engineering and an MBA in economics. After satisfying her formal educational benchmarks, she began her career as an intern in what would become her lifetime employer: Petrobras, the Brazilian multinational energy corporation. She continued her climb at Petrobas throughout the 1980s and ‘90s. In 2012, after a nomination by the president of Brazil herself, she ascended to the CEO position in the company. Also in 2012 she received the Inconfidencia Medal for her outstanding contributions to the social, cultural and economic development of Minas Gerais and Brazil. It is the highest honour bestowed by the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil.
• "FUNNY MAN TO THE WORLD, BUT CERTAINLY STRUGGLES WITH HIS OWN DEMONS – THIS COMBINATION OF CHARACTER TRAITS IS WHAT MAKES JIM CARREY SO MAGNETIC TO WATCH."
• “FROM SLUMDOG TO CEO, MARIA DAS GRACAS SILVA FOSTER IS LIVING PROOF THAT EDUCATION AND STRONG WILL IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS. SHE HAS ACHIEVED MORE THAN MANY AFFLUENT PEOPLE."
– BERNARDO MOYA
– BERNARDO MOYA
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THE BEST YOU DIRECTORY The Best Professionals in Personal Development
UNITED KINGDOM
SPORTS THERAPISTS AND NUTRITIONISTS
Dr Stephen Simpson: NLP, Hypnotherapy, and Havening Email: doc@drstephensimpson.com Website: www.drstephensimpson.com clients include leading names from the world of sport, business, and the entertainment industries.
Shayna Schulman: Attitude adjuster and flexibility enhancer Email: Shayna.s@virgin.net Phone: +44 (0) 208 960 7715 Licensed trainer, coaching, consulting, yoga, nutrition
NLP TRAINERS Tina Taylor: Licensed Master Trainer and Practitioner Email: kay@the-me-group.com Phone: +44 (0) 7946 351640 Website: tina@tina-taylor.com Tina’s experience allows her to create and provide some very unique coaching services from stopping addictions to pregnancy and pain control.
Ulrika Shaw: Coach, Thrive consultant, hypnotherapist and NLP trainer Phone: +44 (0)7810 556029 Email: enquiry@shawmind.co.uk Website: www.shawmind.co.uk Are you suffering from anxieties or depression? Maybe you’re struggling with bad habits such as overeating or smoking? I help people overcome anything that holds them back!
Geoff Rolls: Corporate Coach, NLP Trainer, Kinesiologist Email: geoff@geoffrolls.co.uk Phone: +44 (0)7905 056 513 Website: www.geoffrolls.co.uk Learning and development, NLP Trainer, TFH Kinesiology Instructor
June O’Driscoll: Exec Coach, Business Coach, Trainer Email: june@thoughtitude.co.uk Phone: +44 (0)7876 657 8055 Website: www.thoughtitude.co.uk NLP, Coaching and Hypnotherapy Training School and Consultancy
LIFE COACHES Dr Andrew A Parsons: Mindfulness, Resilience and Finding Clear Purpose Phone: +44 (0)7854 029 268 Email: aaparsons@reciprocalminds.com I am Neuroscientist, Executive Leader and Credentialed Coach. I support people build awareness and make changes for success
Dustin Vice: Personal and Business Development Coaching Email: dustin@alliancecoachingsystem.com Website: www.alliancecoachingsystem.com Professional Coaching, Coaching Business system for professional coaches
Gail Cherry: Torchlight Coaching Email: gail@torchlightcoaching.co.uk Phone: +44 (0)1143 489 161 Website: www.torchlightcoaching.co.uk I help people at a profound level with their personal and professional development. Together, we work on your ‘self’ to be the best you.
Ruth Hepworth: Life Coach Email: ruth.hepworth@ntlworld.com Phone: +44 (0)1252 655 849
Those Life Consultant Guys: Coaching, Seminars. Business, goal setting and more. Website: www.thoselifeconsultantguys.com A coaching company who pride ourselves in helping you live your best life; every day, through one on one sessions and seminar programmes.
Laura Spicer: Improve your public speaking skills and gain confidence Email: laura.spicer@gmail.com Phone: 01752 361 576 Website: www.laura-spicer.com The only accredited Sound Practice Trainer for the Society of NLP
Edson Williams: Life Coaching Email: edson@leadbyexample.com Phone: +44(0)7867517777 Website: www.leadbyexample.com skype: leadbyexample I specialise in leadership development and mastery and sport coaching
David Owen: Life Coach & NLP Trainer Email: bestyou@excel-yourself.com Phone: 07900 243494 Website: www.excel-yourself.com NLP Master Practitioner, Hypnotherapist and Alexander Teacher with 23 years experience. Stop smoking, slimming, phobias, relationships, stress, confidence, self-esteem.
PHOBIA SPECIALISTS John Vincent: Public speaking without fear Email: John@JohnVincent.tv Website: www.johnvincent.tv
Phone: +44 (0)7808 545 421
Paul Wright: Phobias, Anxieties, Panic Attacks Email: paul@phobiagone.com Phone: +44 (0)203 086 8444 Website: www.phobiagone.com
NLP THERAPISTS / HYPNOTHERAPISTS Linda Cameron and Gail Walshe: Inspire For Impact Email: say-hello@inspireforimpact.com Phone: +44 (0)845 601 7567 Website: www.inspireforimpact.com NLP Trainers, NLP Master Practitioners, NLP Life Coaches, Hypnotherapists
EUROPE
Debbie Williams: Birmingham NLP Practice Group Website: www.debbiewilliams.co.uk Phone: +44 (0)121 241 0728 Life coaching, public speaking, sports coaching, all eating disorders, emotional mastery, OCD, stopping blushing, cocaine addiction, binge drinking.
NLP TRAINERS
Pasquale Acampora (Italy): Master Trainer and Mental Coach, NLP, Team building Website: www.blackship.it Phone: +39 (0)335 70 99 000 Pasquale’s key areas are sport and business, he has worked with top athletes and multinational companies.
Alessandro Mora (Italy): Sport Coaching Email: a.mora@ekis.it Phone: +39 (0)522 337 611 Website: www.pnlekis.com NLP, coaching and team building applied to sport and business all over Italy
Xavier Pirla (Spain): NLP Master Trainer and NLP Coach Email: kay@the-me-group.com Phone: 91 002 84 44 (Madrid) Website: www.the-me-group.com 93 193 6449 (Barcelona) NLP, NLP Business Applications, Coaching workshops and Consultancy
Aleksander Sinigoj (Slovenia): Mastermind Academy Email: info@itnlp.com Website: www.aleksandersinigoj.com Leadership, Motivation, Sales, Business NLP
If you’d like to be featured on this list, please contact us on 0203 011 0866 or email advertising@thebestyou.co Visit www.thebestyoudirectory.co for more personal development professionals.
TOP TIPS KELI ROBERTS
VEGETABLES AND LEAN PROTEIN
GET MORE SLEEP Even on a relatively small scale, sleep deprivation increases your hunger hormones and decreases your human growth hormone, so you’ll be getting hunger messages and you won’t recover from your workouts. A good night’s rest will make you mentally sharper, so when those cravings hit, you’ll have the willpower you need to resist them! Everyone is unique when it comes to the amount of sleep we need, and the eight hours a night theory is just a guide. Get enough sleep so that you wake up easily in the morning and don’t get a mid-afternoon crash.
Make every meal an opportunity to eat vegetables and some lean protein. This will balance your blood sugar and keep you feeling full longer, plus, with the added vegetables, you’ll be getting a more nutrient-dense meal. If you’re a vegetarian, remember that you can get proteins from foods other than meat. Eggs are a good source of protein, as are beans and legumes.
GET YOUR
SUMMER BODY NOW
Summer is right around the corner, so it’s time to get up and lose those winter wibbly bits. Keli Roberts from Keli’s Real Fitness has some great tips to help you get you back into shape in no time.
GET MOVING DRINK MORE WATER Develop good hydration hygiene. Start your day with a big glass of water as soon as you get up. Pre-hydrate before your workouts with another big glass of water or two. During your workouts, sip; post-exercise, rehydrate your body. Throughout the day, keep water with you at all times and continue to sip. Flushing your body out with lots of fresh water is the quickest way to lose body fat. It may seem like a chore at first, but soon your body will get used to that amount of water and you will start to crave it.
Every little bit counts. Walk more, stand more and fidget more. Recent studies have demonstrated that people who are generally more active are leaner – no surprise there! If you don’t have much time to fit in your regular workout, don’t blow it off. Instead, try this 10-minute circuit: Warm up with some squats and arm circles, then do one minute of each of the following exercises: pushups, squat jumps, triceps dips, bicycle. When you’ve gone all the way through, repeat it again for a second set.
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THE BEST
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The pace of change can sometimes bewilder, but it can also give amazing opportunities to meet new people, discover new things and thrive. Bring out the best in you by discovering the latest innovations that will put you ahead of the pack.
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EVERGREEN ENERGY
Environmentalist George Davis gives us a dummies guide to renewable energy
CODE IN A DAY
We talk to John Ridpath from Decoded about the ‘Code in a Day’ course
21ST CENTURY LIVING
GEORGE DAVIS
EVERGREEN ENERGY Running out of fossil fuels is a very real danger, so it’s time to start looking to other sources of energy. Dr George Davis, environmentalist and active user of renewable energy, gives us a breakdown of what all the green stuff means.
A
discussion of renewable energy is not a simple one. It is full of ambiguity, contradictions, history, and individual perspectives. I am a city dweller; I love my morning coffee and newspaper, preferably at a pavement café if the solar energy is sufficient, and the wind energy mild
enough to make it a comfortable experience. I might even page through my well-thumbed copy of E. F. Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful (go and find it if you don’t know it!) for a bit of perspective on the craziness of modern city life. The barista’s high-energy espresso machine is only a small part of the total energy that I will need to get through my day. There is still the
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MAIN PICTURE Riding your bicycle when you can is a good way to save fossil fuels
OPPOSITE PAGE Solar power and wind energy are two examples of renewables
diesel-fuelled bus that will take me to my first meeting, and then there’s the tube train, a complex and energy dependent system of electric networks, lighting, ventilation pumps and escalators, that will carry me to my second. Along the way, I will need to confront my perennial anxiety about the number of baked bricks in London. The train will rattle rocket-like down soot-sodden, brick-lined tunnels; I will walk past row upon row of Victorian terraced houses trying to calculate how many of these red prisms were needed to house the average family. Where did all the clay come from? How much energy was used to dig it up? How were all those bricks fired? How many courses could a bricklayer lay in the course of a day? How would it have been to walk down foggy streets lit by gaslight as horse-drawn carriages rattled by over the cobbled surfaces? How much energy did it take to build this city, and how much does it take to keep it operational? Living in a big city like London often leave one pondering the amount of energy that goes into modern life – how it’s used and where it comes from. It’s a complex equation, but one source, the US Energy Information Administration reports that
GEORGE DAVIS primary energy consumption – meaning it was obtained directly from natural sources – in the UK in 2011 was 88 per cent from fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and petroleum), and 12 per cent from renewables. This means that the bulk of the energy that we use to light our homes, cook our meals, maintain our industries, travel in cars, buses or trains – and worst of all aeroplanes – comes from beneath the surface of our earth, where organic material of ancient forests and swamps was laid down millions of years ago to form coal beds and oil fields. Burn it, and it turns into very useful energy, but this process also produces an inconvenient by-product: carbon dioxide, which we now know to be a greenhouse gas that contributes to global climate change. There are very good reasons to want to move away from our dependence on sources like these, but the big economies that underpin our modern urban lifestyles, and my morning coffee in particular, rely heavily on the bulk of the energy generated. So what is the 12 per cent of energy labelled “renewable”? This includes a variety of sources that don’t directly release carbon into the atmosphere. These generators of electricity include wind – arrays of huge windmills driving massive turbines. Renewable energy also includes technologies that harness the power contained in natural tidal movements, which can be converted into electricity by generating devices, in a similar way perhaps to turbines that are driven by artificial waterfalls created by the large dams in hydroelectric schemes. And then there is my favourite – solar power. I like the idea of black surfaces that can absorb the energy of the sun directly, either to heat water directly to reduce our reliance on electric
geysers, or to excite electrons into action in a photovoltaic panel for use in charging batteries for later use. If we're prepared to put in the hard work, and maintain a good healthy diet, the human body can be a very good source of renewable energy. Instead of catching the bus, I could walk; instead of taking the elevator, I could take the stairs; instead of turning on the electric blender. I could take down the old under-used egg whisk from the hook above the stove and do the job with muscle power and elbow grease. In fact, this is a growing area of accessing renewable energy, using pedal power. Small rural industries in the developing
Renewable energy also includes technology that harness the power contained in natural tidal movements, which can be converted into energy
21ST CENTURY LIVING
world now often turn to the bicycle, adapting these basic but efficient machines into motors for laundry tumblers, threshing machines, water pumps, electricity generators, and tilling devices. Have a look at Maya Pedal, one of many sites that are using boundless human ingenuity to solve some of the problems that we face with regard to energy shortages and global climate change. The solar energy that I most appreciate is the kind that I find on a warm summer’s morning at a pavement café, the kind that accompanies my morning cup of coffee, the kind that gets me thinking about using my bicycle to get to that first meeting.
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CODE IN A DAY There’s a new craze in the world of computer programme development – people are learning computer programming in a single day. We thought that this must be impossible, so we did some investigation and spoke to John Ridpath from Decoded about why it’s not.
FOR OUR LESS TECH SAVVY READERS: COULD YOU GIVE A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF WHAT CODING IS AND WHY IT’S NECESSARY? Back in the industrial revolution, textile manufacturers realised that they could create a single loom that can weave an infinite number of patterns by feeding it different punch cards. This idea of having one machine able to do lots of different things is the fundamental idea behind code and programming. If you want to create anything digital, someone is going to at some point have to write code (similar to the loom’s punch cards) to make it all possible. Back in the day, we used to have to write code into a
computer to make it do things. We’re at a point now where we can click and drag on desktops, or swipe and multi-touch on mobile devices.
MAIN PICTURE Decoded offers courses that help people understand coding in just one day
THERE IS ALWAYS A SHORTAGE OF CODERS ON THE JOB MARKET. WHY DO YOU THINK IT IS THAT THERE AREN’T MORE PEOPLE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THIS OPEN JOB MARKET? More specifically, there’s always a shortage of good coders. There are lots of people around who can sort of dabble in these things but the really talented ones are hard to come by. When you get a talented developer they tend to get sucked into the big corporations - the Googles, the Facebooks and the Spotifies; or they start up their own things.
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For many traditional companies or small start-ups, it can be tough to find the best talent. There is a bit of a resurgence in people trying to learn how to code and there are many online courses now.
THERE IS A NOTION THAT LEARNING TO CODE IN DAY IS IMPOSSIBLE. EXPLAIN WHY IT’S NOT.
OPPOSITE PAGE Decoded always has an open door policy for their alumni
This is something that we’ve had flak before from developers who hear about us and say, it’s not possible, you can’t possibly kind of train someone to be a skilled software developer in a day. And, of course, we don’t think that you can turn someone into one of these super skilled developers in a single day. What we do think we can do, though, is provide
THE BEST YOU a really kind of super-charged introduction and overview to the digital world in a single day. And through that you build your own app in a day, and obviously we’re there to sort of guide you through the process.
LEARNING CODING IS AKIN TO LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE. PEOPLE HAVE SAID IN ONLINE TESTIMONIES THAT YOU SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE WHEN TEACHING A COURSE. HOW DO YOU TRANSLATE THAT INFORMATION? Decoded has four co-founders – Catherine Parsons and Richard Peters, who had worked together previously at Ogilvy, and then had their own agency. Then Steve Henry who set up HHDL the sort of controversial agency who created things like the Pot Noodle You Slag advert and You’ve Been Tango’d thin g that caused this massive controversy; and then Alastair Blackwell who was a developer at Coda. It is interesting that kind of balance, three people from a non technical background, and one from a technical background. We’re not a bunch of developers who’ve tried to sqet up shop teaching people these skills. We’ve always had in mind the kind of people who will actually come on our course are the people who’ve created it. We’re really, really strict that the people who come through are hugely talented technically speaking but also are able to communicate with humans, and there’s a huge stock placed in patience. This sort of reminds me of I was always
quite good at school and then I went to do a driving test and I was suddenly really bad and it was very shocking to have you kind of, feel stupid. And I think a lot of people come on our course who are insanely intelligent people working within different businesses that suddenly have this, you’ve got this potential to feel stupid. And so it’s very important for us to be patient because they’re not stupid, they’re trying to learn something that's quite a different way of thinking. b For more information on how to Code in a Day, visit: http://decoded.co
RECOMMENDED READING Don't Make Me Think By Steve Krug
A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability l
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And through that you build your own app in a day, and obviously we’re there to sort of guide you through the process.
The Best You website is packed with loads of great books, DVDs, CDs, downloads, free articles and reports. Check it out now: www.thebestyou.co
The Art of Computer Programming By Donald E. Knuth
Hello World! By Warren Sande
l Computer Programming for Kids and Other Generating All Beginners Combinations and Partitions WWW.THEBESTYOUMAGAZINE.CO | 65 l
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