The lovely Alice “marketing sweetie” Seba has been chasing me!

Ok…she tagged me with a meme…same thing anyway! ;o)

The meme is 8 random facts about me.

Do I even know 8 random facts about myself?? ;o)
Lets see…

1. I was a pretty rapid sprinter in my youth running 100 metres in 11.29 secs at 16 years old.

Should have carried on with that, as I’ll never know now if I would ever have broken that 10 sec barrier with age and strength…mind you it was handy for getting away from the “navy police” we had here after we would wind them up late at night while they were on “drunk matlow patrol”. ;o)
Ah the memories of garden hopping on the naval estate…seeing the navy police gasping and cursing at us as we darted out of sight… and more! Great fun and great times.

2. I am an avid sports fan in the sense I keep up with ALOT of sport and am a keen “paper gambler” meaning I don’t bet for real…but do get results for fun. ;o)

I can’t not look at sporty side of life, I was really into sports as a kid, football, running, whatever it was I enjoyed it. I am a spurs fan!! Harvey Segal will not speak to me now lol!
I was a good left winger… and the problems we have had for England! sigh did I miss my chance lol!
As an adult I have always been up to date on most sporty things, one of my main likes is F1 motor racing. ;o)
Go Lewis… you will do it this year, and I got the last two years right in paper bets with Alonso!

3. I survived falling down a pot hole at 9!

Made the national news though, strange watching yourself on TV especially with that situation as a kid… ;o)
Most of my old offline mates will remember it well. I feel about 30 ft, head first and landed on a ledge luckily because it was probably over 100 ft deep.
Sadly and I STILL think about this, someone in Italy died that same month falling down a pot hole. I’ll never forget that and wish I could find out more about that child.

4. I LOVE pickled onion sandwiches!!

YEP… just plain chopped up pickled onions in bread and butter, this was something my beloved nan made for me when I visited, back then almost daily. TRY IT… ;o)
They go well with chips too… chopped up.
My fantastic nan often made us salmon sandwiches too which were lovely, she made a great stew too…always had at least two bowls of that! )
Sigh* I miss nans cooking…looking forward to it next time we see her. ;o)

Love ya nan! I know you will never read this but so what! Still stands. )

5. I cant help looking at the moon at night…if it’s there I have to stare!

The moon fascinates me, I have no real idea why but it just blows me away to see it, more so when its full around here where I live.
I can happily sit for an hour on the beach looking at the moon and its reflection on the sea.
When my boys were young like a year old I used to sit the doorstep with them and we would look at the moon…they said “moon” pretty young, and “la Luna” not long after! ;o)

I honestly believe the moon effects us in more ways than we realise. )
No I don’t sprout hair and fangs and howl!
But I do like to party and dance under the moon!

We get it almost every night…
Such a fine and supernatural light…
Every body’s feeling warm and bright…
Every body’s dancing in the moonlight!

That song sums up how it feels to look at the moon for me! Although cheesy it’s pretty spot on lol.
But imagine being there and looking down here!!

6. My life dream has always been to have a “real” book in print!

A book on what? I have no idea…
But I have always dreamt of that, other people having a book on their bookcase with MY name on it?!
I am an avid reader of real books and always will be.
I never miss a thing in books, not like films. ;o)
And MY internal view is better than Hollywood’s! ;o)

7. I LOVE a cup of tea!!

Don’t ask, I am a Brit! ;o)
I am always drinking the stuff lol, I know only a few people who drink it like I do.
40 teabags don’t last long in my house!
A cup in the morning before I can even think…then another to think about what I was thinking about… ;o) Put the kettle on!

8 One of my best online feelings is when I get a donation on this blog.

When I write a post I hope that it gives you readers value or at least a smile or two! ;o)
I live by being honest and rather tell it as it is, honesty goes a long way with almost everyone, there are always a few who will always be dishonest.

When someone buys me a beer using the beer icon below and says in the email notification, “hey I like your blog and writing so I bought you a beer”, or “thanks for being so straight up and giving me a better perspective which made me think clearer” or “thanks for putting that straight”, it makes everything feel great and inspires me in a big way, far different to selling something, very different.
It’s nice to know people like reading this rag! ;o)

Well there are 8 random things about me!
Just an ordinary bloke me!

Now I have to tag a few people, some have ignored tags before for whatever reasons, so hopefully I can pick people with a not to busy time on their hands…

Lynn Terry! Because Lynn always does them and gives value! ;o)

Phil Wiley! Because it’s about time I tagged him! ;o)

Martin Avis! Because I bet he has some interesting facts to share with us… ;o)

There ya go folks…looking forward to reading about you.

Thanks to Alice, that cheered me up!! ;o)

Help me change my life!

Before I explain the meme I will need to explain this post to make sense to everyone.

I feel a bit bad, slightly annoyed but humbled.

You see just over a year ago I was made homeless wrongly…without naming or discussing it for obvious reasons.
I was helped by many over that period and will always be grateful for that as I should.

All that though made me feel bad, ashamed as a dad…they were so good I didn’t feel that way for too long.

Now I am housed, I am on the way to showing my boys a good lesson to see, picking yourself up and dusting yourself down…getting on. It wasn’t a lesson I wanted them to see me show that way but it is going to be.

Now its a case of making my place a home..it’s pretty bare yep!

I got back, blogging and more, but I lost a key thing in momentum…the ball was rolling and ground to a slow crawl, one downside of a blog as apposed to a website.

I would love to be a full time blogger and hope to continue that way to be so.

I wanted to share the positive of that belief I will be.
I am not one to lie and say I make blah blah 1000′s a month!

But…

Now I would love it if you could help me make up some of the momentum I lost, help me to step up my aim to show my sons it pays to get up and dust off.

The book I mentioned in an earlier post has clarified alot for me and refined my focus as well as my determination and motivation.

Not to make blah blah money, but to achieve what I set myself out for and do things the right way in the right direction.

For me the Internet and blogging is a new world of communication, from no distance communication at all to worldwide is… you know!

If money comes…great as long as I have given more than that in value.

So… hopefully you can understand the importance of momentum online as well as the fact it DOES take work.

But here I am in front of a computer just like you…we are far better of than most so we can’t complain. )

But I want to thank you for being my reader, you are helping me already more than you know.

Now back to the meme…

I hereby name this meme “5 ways you can…”

Here’s what I thought.

The meme is passed around with your “5 ways you can “whatever” ” (More on that in a min)

I will write my “5 ways you can…” Help me Change my life.

• Keep reading my blog to help me towards becoming a full time blogger. I would love to sit and blog more often on this blog, so if the readership goes up and effects the income then great, it means I can post far more here. THAT would be great and would I hope also mean I am giving value.

• Subscribe to my feed for your reader or email inbox. Subscribing can be done from the sidebar or bottom of the blog, I recommend googles reader because I do use it, along with iGoogle as a homepage its a great quick easy option to keep up with all the blogs you read and more.

• Donate towards my furniture chase! Yes I am serious, crazy as it sounds my place is slightly bare still, not homey yet so I’d love to finish it off and have somewhere my boys feel comfy bringing their friends to should they want to…not even enough sofa for us three! You can easily help should you want to by clicking the beer icon at the bottom of the post. Rest assured it won’t be going on beer! ;o) Better still would be buy something from this blog and gain something in return.

• Comment on this blog saying what you would like me to blog about. You would be helping me tailor my post to benefit you the readers while also inspiring me to keep going.
  

• Blog about this meme. Would be great to see this meme spread knowing we were at the front and we spread it afar. Meant to be a bit of fun but could be a very interesting meme for a good reason.**

This is how I considered it working.

You blog with a link to this post, your post is titled “meme: 5 ways you can…” and in your post the choice you make, at the end of the post you “tag” 5 people with this meme and so on.

**The twist of fun and interest.

You can pick whatever you choose (within reason) as your 5 things, but you must guess what those you tag will choose. ;o)

Could be interesting for those who you choose.

They still choose what they want to post about but may well have a surprised feeling at the “taggers perception” of them.

Maybe you all ignore it!!

Who knows?

The 5 I tag and what I guess they could choose for “5 ways you can…”

• Michel Fortin… “5 ways you can… Quickly, effectively and easily improve your sales copy”

• Brian Clark… “5 ways you can… Pull your readers in with eye grabbing headlines.”

Maybe they will share some great tips we can all benefit from. )

Who will they choose to tag?

Should be fun learning for us all.

Never know what people will share…

5 ways you can… bake better cakes?

5 ways you can… improve your health this week?

5 ways you can… spend a family day out?

5 ways you can… save money this year?

5 ways you can… lower your carbon footprint?

5 ways you can… save time?

5 ways you can… cook with potatoes?

And more…!

Who will you choose?

I enjoyed doing the last post with the tips, as well as looking at all the other tips people shared after they were tagged with the meme.
Interesting to say the least.

I did notice something NO ONE mentioned regarding success.

It is an easily overlooked yet very important step in getting to where you want to be.
I can with 100% accuracy say this has been a part of your life even if you don’t realise it!

Because I have yet to see this anywhere I decided to do it myself for your benefit as well as my own.
There is an important thing I should say here, that is not everyone will do this simply because they are NOT the type of people to make the most from it.

Those who do appreciate it will know how much it will help them.
They will still be surprised at how effective yet simple it is.
I know it works because it was been a BIG part of why I am the way I am

I know that without this I would have a very different life to what I have now, it would be far far worse if I never had benefited from this, I can guarantee that!

I can attribute that very fact I can talk to this one tip!

So…will it help you?

I am sure once you are aware of how much a difference it can make you will be glad I told you and gave you the opportunity to benefit from it.
So, am I going to tell you or not?

Of course, but don’t underestimate it.

The one key you need is focus, yet it’s not the actual focus that makes this work, and work so well.
It’s more than that, it’s something unique, take a look for yourself, simply go to FOCUS!

It IS limited…so check it out fast!

Take care,

Seems some nosy bugger called Aaron Potts wants to know every one’s success tips?! ;o)

That is a success tip right there in learning from others.

But I debated on this post after seeing Lynn Terry tagged me with it… even after what Lynn said about why she tagged me?

“Because your personal story truly inspires me…” )

Thanks Lynn!

Why did I debate it then?

What is classed as success?
Being a personal thing it will be different to everyone, so I asked…

“Am I a success?”

In my eyes I am in many ways, in others?

When I get a donation using the button below with a comment in the paypal email like…

“Item/Product Name: being a cool person with a cool blog – here’s beer”

Thank you…what a cool reader… ;o)

Then I think….hmmm am I successful blogger too… ;o)

So do I have tips or not!

I think so, here are a few tips I use in life, in no particular order.

1. Trust your gut instinct, it’s rarely wrong!

Having had to grow up relying more on my better senses and trusting my gut 100% I have learned it very rarely is wrong.

If it’s saying something, shut up and listen to it! ;o)

There has been many a time it’s saved me some serious hassle and problems, so I never underestimate it you shouldn’t either, it wants and knows what’s best for you at that precise moment.

2. Always strive to keep reading and learning.

Reading has been a massive part of my life and it even influenced my speech. Reading is never a bad habit, unless you read the wrong things!

Reading stimulates your brain nicely, everyone reads, but it’s also what you read that matters.

3. NOTHING teaches like doing.

You can read all the instructions you like, until you actually DO you will limit your learning greatly.
Experience is the greatest teacher you have, experiences are what shape you.

As I already mentioned reading helped my speech, now the actual reading didn’t do it…ME talking while reading did it!
The experience of doing made it the reality.

4. Be honest and faithful to yourself.

It’s YOUR life, you have to live with it! So you owe it to yourself to be honest with yourself at all times.
This has to be one of the most important parts of life and what you do.

Can you in twenty years live happily with what you are doing now?
There must be millions of old people with a head of regrets!
Don’t be one of them.

5. Trust yourself and have faith in what you can do.

You ARE better at things than you really think, that’s fact!
We all underestimate ourselves and what we can do, yet the ONLY thing stopping you is YOU…I speak well because I KNEW I could do it and had faith in myself to do it.

Believe that you can do it, have faith and DO. You may surprise yourself, there was NEVER a baby who could walk at birth!

6. Mindful of the real why!

Everything you do, you do for a reason. It’s that “why” you do it you should always be aware of.

The why is what should be driving you.

I want my sons to be proud of me, it’s at the forefront of mind in all I do because it is the real why.

My sons are the most important part of my life therefore it stands to reason how I am in their eyes matters as much as what I can do for them…leading by example as it’s not about having the most money, the best car, the biggest house, it’s about “being”.

7. Positive thinking!

Everyone says it yet it’s so true and important and I will repeat it.

You should ALWAYS look for the positive aspect of every moment, I have had some pretty negative moments but there is always something positive there.
That positive will minimise the negative, everytime.

Light always eliminates the dark.

8. Silence really IS golden.

Believe me in those silent moments you have your mind will work wonders.
Stillness runs deep!
Silence has no distractions. Need I really say more on that? ;o)

9. Be yourself.

You are unique and you have uniqueness in your way of being.
Get to know yourself better everyday.

Know what really stand out in you and your personality.
This uniqueness IS your ticket to success.

There IS something different about you, you just need to know it, appreciate it, nurture it.

10. Read my blog daily! )

Well of course # 10 is pretty important!

They key to all of this is YOU!

So, that’s 10 good tips from me, and now I have to tag others to share theirs!

So in no particular order I am tagging…

Alice Seba

Becuase she is on a roll at the moment…

Michel Fortin.

Bound to have some good tips…

Martin Avis.

Because I repsect his views on most things… (wonder if he will do this meme this time?)

Ladan Lashkari.

Because Ladan has succeeded against some serious odds!

John Carlton

The guy always gets me hooked into his writing!

Jason Lewis

Fellow Brit with some good tips, so lets hear the success ones! ;o)

Kevin Riley

Because I want an invite to such a beautiful place where he lives!

My biggest tip will in in the next post!
A whole post about it, be sure to “tune in” ;o)

Take care,