32. Thirty posts, Thirty quotes (Part 2)

Oh hello again, and a very warm welcome!

Let's get straight into it, here's part 2 of our look back over the first 30 blog posts.

Blog 16: here

The point: A very hungover and emotional reflection on Euro 2021.

A quote: "This may sound extreme and potentially laughable, but that level of excitement almost provided a sense of meaning and purpose to people's lives... and the emotional benefit of that can’t be understated".

Blog 17: here

The point: Insta vs reality. And how overexposure to the exceptional can lead us to think that we’re a massive failure.

A quote: "We see a tiny window into someone else’s apparent success, and jump to the irrational conclusion that their whole life must be a total triumph".

Blog 18: here

The point: Another reflection. This time on some of the highs, lows, learns and takeaways from running the London Marathon.

A quote: "Running a marathon possibly isn’t for everyone, but I can’t help but see power in the commitment to doing difficult things. When we’re feeling a bit meh, or stuck in a rut, doing something challenging is probably the very last thing we want to do, but I do believe the benefits are huge. It can help build a sense of resilience, discipline and arguably most importantly, pride. If life is indeed suffering, which we all know it can be at times, then doing difficult things can surely only help elevate our ability to deal with it".

Blog 19: here

The point: Looking at the importance and impact of the people we surround ourselves with.

A quote: "I’m sure we’ve all heard some iteration of the idea that we are the average of the five people we spend most of our time with. Which, if we were to do a quick audit on our lives, could be either very exciting or utterly terrifying".

Blog 20: here

The point: This was written when I was self-isolating, not knowing if I’d be able to get home for Christmas, and generally feeling sorry for myself. In an attempt to cheer myself up, we had a look at some of the positives from 2021.

A quote: "Why don't we look back over 2021 and celebrate some of the positives?

10 categories, 10 winners? Yeah, that'll do".

Blog 21: here

The point: Yet another hungover and emotional reflection. This time on a glorious Christmas of excess.

A quote: “Everything in moderation, including moderation”.

Blog 22: here

The point: A look at the importance of how we spend our time. And basically trying not to piss it away.

A quote: “I think there's a fairly common disconnect between what we often say we wish we'd done in the past, and what we’re willing to do in the present.

It’s easy for us to say “I wish I’d exercised more this past year”, though it’s much harder to actually get up and go to the gym”.

Blog 23: here

The point: This was the first of 3 posts focused more on physical fitness. This post came from a personal frustration of how difficult fitness levels are to gain, and how difficult they are to lose. This ‘hard to gain, easy to lose’ principle is one that we see across a host of other areas in life.

A quote: “Every shot is an educated guess, and I’m no longer educated. I’m as green as I was in juniors. It took me 22 years to discover my talent, to win my first slam - and only two years to lose it” (Andrew Agassi, Open)

Blog 24: here

The point: Staying in the exercise area, here we have a look at some of the benefits of walking. A tragically underrated form of exercise.

A quote: "It was Mahatma Gandhi who claimed that walking was “The Prince of exercises”.

Blog 25: here

The point: This time running. With an acknowledgement of the shite parts of it (injury etc).

A quote: “Especially as, personally speaking, a key driver behind lifting weights has often been insecurity led. I’ve found this break between sets to be an annoyingly ample time for shining a light on said insecurities, and obsessing about them”.

Blog 26: here

The point: A look at doing things for the love of doing it (and not for the sake of being productive).

A quote: “When in this ‘grafty’ mindset, I’ve found that it’s very easy to get into this strange sort of productivity guilt trap, where you feel guilty about spending any sort of time not being productive or ‘optimising your time’.”

Blog 27: here

The point: Some words of wisdom and life lessons from people who have lived, and are living, a full life.

A quote: “The great thing about being young is that you have more time to do things”.

Blog 28: here

The point: The fear of ageing, and an attempt at easing some of these worries.

A quote: “Instead, there’s another thing that I’ve personally found to have had a more notably positive effect when it comes to easing some of that fear of ageing. And that’s to commit to something now that our future selves will reap the benefits of.”

Blog 29: here

The point: Looking at some of life's trade-offs, and with the help of opportunity cost, how they can lead to better decisions.

A quote: “There are no perfect solutions, only trade-offs”.

Blog 30: here

The point: A useful little tool for decision making, that we've coined the ever so catchy 'No 7/10s Allowed Rule'.

A quote: "I think this idea is particularly relevant for people-pleasers, who can be prone to committing to things we don't really want to do, but do so at the risk of upsetting others."

Thank you very much for reading. Here's to a cracking rest of December, and the most glorious of festive periods! X