Things I learnt in my thirties.

With only 1 day left to go in this decade, I thought it might be useful to reflect on some things I know now, that I didn’t 10 years ago.

1. Running your own business is very rewarding, in the short term it often hurts, but in the long term the good outweighs the bad by a tonne.
2. Strength and Conditioning Coaches are like 6 year old soccer players- they all follow the ball and chase each other around in circles.
3. Karate is for women and children. Its original purpose has been bastardised and dressed up as something useful, when in reality is just a form of pyramid selling.
4. My daughter is a brilliant teacher, watching her adapt to new surroundings and environments is a reminder of self exploration for children and young people as they develop.
5. Group Think is as endemic amongst sports coaches as it is amongst business people. The language is different, but the lack of independent thought, analysis, self reflection and genuine innovation is frightening. You can dress up garbage behind powerpoint presentations and fancy facilities and kit, but it is still garbage.
6. I hate driving. The worst part of my work, in London I thought the public transport was bad, but at least you could read something.
7. A real conversation with a real person is far more rewarding than 10 phone calls, 50 text messages, 100 emails or 1000 facebook posts.
8. Sleep is the key to recovery. Without it, you really struggle to be effective at much of anything.
9. There is no point trying to work with people who are on a completely different wavelength. Life is too short to try. Better to work with fewer people, but with ones who are trying to achieve things that are similar. You can disagree all you like with how you get to somewhere, as long as you know where you are going is the same place.
10. Time, health, friendships, relationships are precious. As soon as you take something for granted, it could be taken away. I try to make the most of them all at every opportunity. Spending time with material goods gatherers is entertaining for me, because it reinforces my own views about the pointlessness of it all.