Monday, April 30, 2007

Issue 415 - What's My Next Challenge?

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Hi,
I hope everything is ok where you are.

Thank-you for all your kind words following my marathon last week.
I always enjoy getting your feedback, so don't hesitate to contact me anytime you want!

2 people I met online both mentioned me in their blogs
Funnily enough they both live within 40 miles of me - it's a small world!

Martin Avis is someone I mention often.
His writing style and outlook seem to fit mine more often than not, the main difference being that he lives with 3 daughters and a wife, whereas I have to look deep into mists of time for a feminine presence in my life..!
His blog can be seen at: http://www.kickstartarchive.com

The other local chap is not someone I've mentioned, but today his site has more interest to me than Martin's (sorry Martin, but you'll see why!)
His name's Paul Gent, and he's often been in touch with me about how to do various things, and has been a victim of that common affliction, read-a-lot-but-dont-take-action-itis!
Well he has now taken the plunge, and taken action!
He keeps asking me about things, as he does Martin, and you can see his new blog at:
http://everydaysuccesstips.blogspot.com

When you look at this site, rememeber this is someone who never got round to taking action, but has now made that jump - there is *no* reason why you can' too!

I mentioned last week that I was in need of a new challenge, now that the marathon is out of the way.

I'm still pondering whether to stand for Parliament again.
Last time I did on the spur of the moment, and only ran a 4 week campaign.
Even though I came a solid 5th, I wouldn't do it again unless I was intending to win.
I think a 2 year campaign could make it possible, and fairly regularly I get inspired to do it, not least because of a recent incident.

When Tony Blair came to power 10 years ago, he said that sleaze would not be tolerated, that government needed to be whiter than white, open and transparent.
One much trumpeted result of this was the passing of the Freedom of Information Act.
Sounds good doesn't it, with the public that elects the government being allowed access to how it's run.

Well a couple of weeks ago, another bill came before the House of Commons, to make MPs *exempt* from the Freedom of Info Act, particularly when it comes to how they spend their massive expenses!

What??

I've never heard such rubbish in all my life, and out of around 650 MPs, only 6 spoke against it.
At the moment, it looks like it won't be law, but that's only on technicalities, not thanks to the MPs!
If my MP was truly reflecting the views of his constituents, I bet I can guarantee they wouldn't back the law, but he votes to support it - so how is he representing them?
You see, I'm off on a rant again, so that would be a worthy goal for me to set.

I heard from Steve who suggested I walk the Great Wall of China.
Thats' not something I'd considered, but it's on the list now of 'why nots'

Rebecca made a load of suggestions, one of them being 'get married.'
What, again!?

It was enough of a challenge the first sodding time.
Easier just to find someone I don't like and buy them a house...

Rebecca knows I like to poke fun, so when she also put 'cabinetry' on the list, I took great joy in emailing her to ask if she actually meant 'cabinet making' or even 'carpentry'. No answer as yet to that...

I got a suggestion from Liz, who reminded me of the old idea of finding a penny, then doubling it 28 times to get to a million.
You are supposed to find the first penny, them start the doubling process by just asking until people tell you to go away!
I could set the target of doubling every month, which should be a 2 year goal.
It's not a bad idea - the idea itself is not new, but who has actually ever tried to see it through?

Then there is the curling.
I've read and heard that an Olympic Gold is worth a million if handled propery.
Well I could set mysef the goal of Olympic Gold by the 2014 Oympics, and see if I can get a million from my progress.
If I found a bookmaker willing to offer me odds of 1000-1, I could bet £1000 and that would be a million!

Hmm, lots of ideas, please let me know what you think of them, and give me any more that you might have, bearing in mind that once I decide on one, it *will* get done!

I'll close this week with 2 quickies.
Firstly, 3 articles I had published yesterday, which may or may not appear in future issues:

Is This British Woman The Result Of U.S. Dominance?


Is This The Luckiest Man In Sport?


36,000 Reasons To Benefit From Sport

Secondly, did you see the other day when Stephen Hawking was able to be free of his wheelchair and do 180 degree flips while on a zero gravity plane?
Remember the wealth of abundance around us, particularly when you move your arms and legs - not everyone can take that for granted.

'Til next time,
Health and Happiness,
Gordon
P.S. If you know anyone else who you think would enjoy the Great Gordino Newsletter, please pass it on to them!

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Monday, April 23, 2007

Issue 414 - 5:45

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Hi,
I hope Monday finds you well.

No sudden movements from me today, as I did my marathon yesterday.
Last Monday Suni Williams did the Boston Marathon while she was strapped to a treadmill aboard the International Space Station.
She clocked a time of 4 hours 23, very impressive.
I set off yesterday at 9am in the more mundane gravity of Earth.

The London Marathon, which I hadn't got a place in, started at the same time, all 36,000 of them.
It was extremely hot, one of the hottest days for the race, not ideal for running by a long shot!
In fact last week the Rotterdam Marathon was cancelled due to heat concerns.

I started at my target 5 miles per hour pace, and got all the way to 18 miles in 3 hours 36 with really no problems at all.
It was more comfortable than training runs, because when it starts to hurt during the training, you know it's just that, training, with nothing at the end.
At least this time I knew it was the real thing.

Then at 18 miles my dubious groin made an appearance.
I carried on and got to 20 miles in 4 hours 2, just a gnat's knacker outside my target.
However, something you get from a year's training is knowledge about what happens when things go wrong as well as right, and I knew that my groin couldn't take another 6 miles like that without risk of a serious twang.

So I slowed my pace, because I *knew* I would get to the finish, and wanted to get there as best I could.
Also, with the heat, the fact that I had no medical support was not something to ignore.

I crossed the line after 26.2 miles in 5 hours 45 minutes.
My target time had been around 5 hours 30, so I can't complain at that.

I had taken extra water supplies, meaning that when I passed my car at the side of the road every 3 miles, I could grab a new bottle, and the extra supplies meant I didn't have to make it last, so when I came round to my car again, I could use any excess in the bottle to pour over myself.

I've got aching muscles today, no surprise there, but the only real adverse effect is ferocious sunburn.
I had laughed loudly to myself as I passed 3 local women with their pushchairs, as they were all bright pink.
However, it suddenly dawned on me that I was in the same sun...

I now have a huge vest mark in pink and white - still cheaper than a tattoo I guess.

So will I do a marathon again?
Well I can definitely say it would have to be in the race proper if I did.

I'm not one of life's endurance athletes, after all my 5 hours 45 is a little way off the freak show world record of 2 hours 4.

No, I did it as a challenge to myself.
I set it to mark me hitting the Big 4-0, to remind myself that I could achieve huge things if I set out to do them.
The marathon is a classic in the world of achievement, so I can now tick it off my list.
I'm not the first or last person to do it, after all, there have so far been well over 35,000 finishers from yesterday alone!

It was hard though, hard enough for me to want to stop on many occasions - after all, it wouldn't matter if I didn't achieve it, would it?
Well it would matter to me, and part of the formula for being a goal achiever is to constantly remind yourself, *in the real world*, that you can and do achieve goals you set yourself.
They may be small goals, it doesn't have to be a marathon, but you do need to get into the habit of setting and then going about achieving goals.

There was lots of free information online about how a first timer should train for a marathon, right down to the details of what to eat and drink and when in the 3 hours before the race.

If you have a goal, don't tell yourself you haven't done it because it's hard.
Don't tell yourself you haven't done it because you don't know how.

The information is out there, the support is out there.
Tell yourself that you will get it done!

I'm feeling chuffed with myself today I must admit.
It was a big achievement for me, and as I said a reminder to myself of what I can achieve when I decide to!

Hopefully you can take some inspiration from it, and apply it to something in your life, that has maybe been simmering in the back of your mind?

Also, if anyone has any ideas about what challenge I should take up next, feel free to let me hear them!

Ok, that's it for this week - do you have a goal equivalent to a marathon in your life?

'Til next time,
Health and Happiness,
Gordon
P.S. If you know anyone else who you think would enjoy the Great Gordino Newsletter, please pass it on to them!
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Monday, April 16, 2007

Issue 413 - The Great Gordino Marathon Is This Week!

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Hi,
I hope everything is well where you are.

Today's issue has a bit of a marathon twang to it, combined with an old article I wrote called 'Do You Listen To Unasked For Advice?'

My marathon is coming up this week, on Sun 22nd.
Wish me luck.

Although to be honest I don't need it.
I started training for this the day after last year's race.
I followed a 6 month training schedule, on the basis that this would allow me to take time off if needed.
As it happened I did need to, with a tweaked groin.
I'm still thinking that the groin was due to my peculiar leg movements while playing my heavy see-through-purple-plastic bass guitar.
Things like that aren't covered in my training programme, so to give myself extra time to allow for the unknown was a sensible thing to do.

The weather here at the moment is very hot.
If it's this hot on Sunday I will certainly know about it, so you won't hear me complaining if it's cold or pouring with rain!

Another marathon taking place this week, today in fact, is the Boston Marathon.
It's been going well over 100 years, and today it can claim a first - it is being run in space.

Sunita Williams, NASA astronaut on board the International Space Station, qualified to run the Boston race when she clocked 3 hours 29 in the Houston race.
Being in space is not going to stop her, so her race bib has been sent up to the station, and she will run the race strapped to a treadmill.
That's impressive.

I'll update you next week on how she gets on, when I can also update you on how I got on.

Ok, here's the bit about unasked for advice.

2 women have recently given me unasked for advice.
Often when women give me advice, it's a snappy 2 word effort, with the second word being 'off.'
This time however, there were actual sentences involved, so I'll pass them on.

One of them, Rebecca, told me that she had been going through my archived newsletters, and found that some of the links were to non-existent pages.
She said she was intrigued by some of the titles, and hoped I didn't mind her pointing in out, particularly since one of those unavailable archives was called 'Do You Listen To Unasked For Advice?'

The other advice came from Liz, who asked me what happened to the places given to people in the marathon who have to drop out through injury or other reasons.
I told her I had not known of any mechanism to give those places to people like me who had lost out in the ballot for places.

As I considered the point, I told her that if someone didn't get a place in the race, they were unlikely to have trained to do a marathon on the day, so it made sense not to offer the places out.
However, Liz then pointed out that I *had* trained for that day, as strange as it may seem, so wasn't it worth ringing them up to ask?

What a superb idea!
I did ring them, and got through to a veritable maze of automatic messages, all read out by a girl with a decidedly common accent, so no joy.
I'm not surprised - during this last week before the race, the organisers will have thousands upon thousands of people to deal with, without worrying about loonies like me ringing up and saying 'but I've kept up my training, honest!!'

So, do I listen to unasked for advice?

Always!

Listening to advice is not the same as acting on it.
Sometimes you might listen to advice and realise right away that it is useless.
However, as I found out again recently in the last few days, you might get some absolute gems!
Ok, the marathon tip didn't work out, but it only took one phone call.

So I'm back to doing the race on my own.
I like that aspect of the challenge.
It makes it hard because I have no-one to talk to, or to gee me along.
When I get bored, (and I can tell you I do!) I have to rely on myself for motivation, I have to concentrate to not let my mind concentrate on the aches and pains.
I for one can't listen to music when I run, because I tend to adjust my pace to the song, so it all goes pear shaped if I'm listening to Motorhead or AC/DC!

Various people have asked me what I do about water.
Some websites suggest I go round in advance and stash bottles of water in bushes!

I don't want to sound like I'm obsessed with dog wee, but come on!
When you've done 15 miles, and your water bottle is empty, the *last* thing you want is to pull a bottle out of a bush and wrap your lips around a bottle covered with something a local dog has deposited!

No, here's what I do.
I park my car along the 3 mile lap that I cover many times.
I carry my keys with me.
As I go past the car, I whip out the new bottle, chuck in the old, and I'm on my way.
It's probably no slower than trying to get a bottle at a drinks station with thousands of other people.

My target time?
5 hours 30, although with my dubious groin, anything under 6 hours will be fine.
I've got myself a little medal made to present myself afterwards.

I'm looking forward to it.
I'll be thinking of the original marathoner, he did the whole thing on his own too, the main differences being that he didn't have a car with water parked enroute, nor nicely designed running shoes.
He also collapsed and died afterwards, something else I'm not planning to copy!

Ok, that's it for this week - think of Suni Williams as she runs the Bostom Marathon in space today, and think of me as I do the first (and very possibly only) Great Gordino Marathon next Sunday.

'Til next time,
Health and Happiness,
Gordon
P.S. If you know anyone else who you think would enjoy the Great Gordino Newsletter, please pass it on to them!

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Monday, April 09, 2007

Issue 412 - Are You An Old Dog? Or Can You Learn New Tricks?

Hi,
I hope Monday finds you well.

You may remember that last week I wrote about my concerns about a youghurt flavour of 'strawberry and wild strawberry', my main concern being that the wild ones might have had dog wee on them.
Well I must have been having a particularly strange day, because before I knew it I had actually emailed them to ask the difference.
I got this reply - 'the wild variety is smaller with a more intense flavour.'

Hmm....

Talk about strange days, did anyone else see Tiger Woods smash his golf club against a tree?
He was as stressed as anyone had seen him, and he played the most bizarre shot around a tree which had the inevitable outcome of breaking his club and could have easily broken his wrist - not so clever when your hands bring you $50 million...

I've been watching a great series on TV, which reminds me of a great goal acheivement and self improvement subject - learning as an adult.

In the series, various celebrities try to learn a new instrument, with a live performance at the end.
Last week had a comedian learning the banjo, a notoriously difficult instrument to learn by all accounts.
He went along to his lessons, and his teacher wanted him to progress by learning specific songs, the theory being that the technique would come as a by-product.
Now it depends on the circumstance, sometimes that approach can work, and sometimes it can backfire, but the comedian stuck at it.

Eventually he decided it wasn't working for him, and changed teachers, to someone who taught him technique first, songs second.
This worked much better for him, and he saw his progress move forward.

I can remember writing in the past about a show along similar lines, that had celebrities learning to paint, and was surprised that one in particular, a journalist, was so closed minded about the techniques, simply because it wasn't what he had expected. He was sarcastic and dismissive pretty much from the outset.
He'd decided the technique wouldn't work so guess what - it didn't!

The comedian in this series did much better - he was open minded about the technique, and *tried* it.
It was only after he had tried it that he made the decision to try something else to see which worked better for him.

Now *that's* the way to do it!
Try things before you dismiss them - you may be amazed!

Speaking of music, it brings me nicely to my new guide.
It's about making money from music, and I called it, er, 'Make Money From Music.'
As with the big trend in internet marketing this year, it's priced at just $7, so if you fancy a pee, it's at:
http://www.gordonbryan.com/music

Ok, that's it for this week, think of astronaut Suni Williams.
On the 11th, up in space on the International Space Station, she'll be running a marathon, strapped onto a treadmill - impressive!

It's a short issue this week, but it's a valuable tip - what lessons, ideas, or tips have you dismissed without even trying them?
'Til next time,
Health and Happiness,
Gordon
P.S. If you know anyone else who you think would enjoy the Great Gordino Newsletter, please pass it on to them!

Transform Your Life in 21Days!
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Monday, April 02, 2007

Issue 411 - Oi! Is That Dog Wee On My Strawberries?

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Hi,
I hope everything is well where you are as we lurch into April - I swear I only blinked since New Year and we're here already!

I couldn't decide what to call this week's issue.
I have 2 alternatives.

The first one is 'Oi, Is That Dog Wee On My Strawberries?'
The second is 'Rebecca Rows to Cycling Celebration.'

After much deliberation (a cup of tea's worth) I have decided to go with both!

Right here goes...
'Oi, Is That Dog Wee On My Strawberries?'

I bought myself some healthy youghurt last week.
Only 0.1% fat - not bad.
Normally when you see that, there is a massive amount of sugar, but I checked, and it was only 6%.
Good so far.

4 flavours -
Cherry - nice.
Strawberry - nice.
Rasberry - nice
Strawberry and Wild Strawberry - er, hang on...

'Strawberry and Wild Strawberry?'
How does that work then?

Come on, you're not telling me that someone goes out to the nearest bush and picks wild strawberries?
They could have dog wee on them!

Let's be honest, the wild strawberry pickers will be on minimum wage, and will probably get their 'wild strawberries' from rummaging through the bins round the back of Tesco's!

The youghurt tub says it contains 1% strawberry and 0.5% wild strawberry, and I'm sure if I write to Mr.Youghurt he will tell me there is a distinct difference in taste between the two.
I *bet* there is - dog wee!

The youghurt contains 'real fruit pieces.'
I'm telling you, when I see a lump of fruit from that pot, the sucker's getting a good rinse under the tap before it gets in *my* mouth!

All in all I'm not altogether sure what that little tale has got to do with self improvement, goal achievement or wealth creation, so let's crack on with...
'Rebecca Rows to Cycling Celebration.'

A bit heavy on the alliteration maybe, but as you know I can't resist it - the allure of alliteration.
See, I'm at it again.

Ok, Rebecca Romero.
She won a silver medal at the Athens Olympics for Britain in rowing, but got disillusioned with the management of the sport in this country (you're not alone there girl.)

So, she took up cycling, and it's been less than a year since she first made a self-admitted 'wobble' around a cycling track.
At the weekend, she took silver in the World Championships!

How impressive is that!!
Very.

She's now in the shake up for next years' Olympics.
Not many people achieve Olympic medals in 2 different events, and it's usually a runner doing something like bobsleigh, if at all.
In fact if she does it, she'll only be the 2nd woman to do it at 2 different summer Olympic sports.

Yes, rowing and cycling both need thunderous thighs, but apart from that they are very different.
I'm amazed at what she's done in a year, and after I write my letter to Mr. Youghurt, I may well be writing to Rebecca as well.
Maybe I could ask to measure her thighs.

Do you think she set a goal to get that far?
You bet.
Do you think she set about the task by taking action?
You bet.

I'm inspired - hope you are too.
Ok, that's it for today - in 12 months will your achievements be as spectacular as Rebecca Romero's?

'Til next time,
Health and Happiness,
Gordon
P.S. If you know anyone else who you think would enjoy the Great Gordino Newsletter, please pass it on to them!

Transform Your Life in 21Days!
http://www.transformyourlifenow.com

How to generate no cost ongoing targeted traffic:
http://www.gordonbryan.com/traffic

How to make money from movies:
http://www.gordonbryan.com/movies

Grab my free 8 Step Goal Achievement Plan by sending a blank email to:
mailto:transform@getresponse.com