to teach you but to tell you a story my
story please bear with me
I take you back to the beginning what
comes next is quite daunting for me
personally you see I’m going to share
something with you that nobody outside
of my family knows it’s something that I
thought long and hard about including in
today’s talk but then I realized if I
didn’t share this with you
I’d actually only be telling you half
the story and whilst I’m the one stood
up here now this isn’t about me
this is about an opportunity to share a
positive message and for that I’m
willing to get it a little bit
uncomfortable so 9 years ago I was
it was operable I had the operation it
was removed and touchwood I’m still okay
today something very strange happens
the fear of regret becomes very real and
there are some very real regrets heard
by nurses working in palliative care
caring for those in the final stages of
see we dismissed the elderly we don’t
take into account the lessons that we
can learn from them and once from a
technological perspective we may have a
point in terms of life lessons we
couldn’t be further from the truth
in fact the polar opposite in 2009 there
was a nurse by the name of Ronnie where
she was working in palliative care and
she wrote an article that went viral it
later became a book but the title of
that article was the top five regrets of
the dying I’m going to share a few of
those with you today three of them once
you read through those I want you to
really look at the words and the wording
used there are a few words that jump out
and giving you permit giving yourself
permission to be happy being true to
yourself means not what your boss wants
it’s not what your family wants it’s not
what your friends want or expect of you
it’s about what you want it’s about
being true to yourself now I’ve been
fortunate to have some incredible
experiences in my life and because of
those experiences I’m involved in some
at some point doing a lot of those
conversations it sounds a bit like this
wow that looked amazing I wish I could
but and let me stop it right there
you see what comes next is an excuse the
excuse normally falls into one of these
four brackets and don’t get me wrong
often these are quite valid however most
of the time they are just excuses I want
you to look at these excuses and I want
you to see the similarities between the
excuses and the regrets that we’ve just
discussed from that article from Ronnie
where you see if there’s one thing I
want you to take away from today’s talk
it’s this it’s the excuses that you’re
making today that will be the regrets
that you have at the end of your life
it’s the excuses you are making today
there will be the regrets that you have
at the end of your life now because of
my journey I have an outlook on life and
I’ve put that into words for you today
and it reads something like this that
you must have the courage to seek
adventure in life and you must live it
on your own terms for me the key word
here is adventure specifically physical
adventure that’s what gets me going
that’s where my passion comes from now
adventure doesn’t just happen adventure
requires planning and planning requires
goal-setting I’m not talking goals I’m
talking goals I’m talking goals so big
they scare the hell out of you I urge
you when you’re setting your goals to
set goals that you don’t believe you can
achieve yet because if these goals
aren’t big enough they won’t change your
behavior
and if your behavior doesn’t change
nothing changes so you have to motivate
yourself you have to scare yourself into
changing your behavior now let’s look at
this from a macro perspective let’s
break down life into these four areas
we’ve got work we’ve got family we’ve
got friends
we’ve got wellness and over the top of
that we’re going to lay these big scary
adventurous goals
I can guarantee you from personal
experience that if you have the courage
to chase adventurous goals it will
improve every single area of your life
in work you’ll become more focused
you’ll become more result results
orientated you’ll have less time for the
drama that’s always there in the
workplace if you look for it in family
and friends you see this is where the
real opportunity lies stop looking to
your family and to your friends for
support stop looking to them for
inspiration when you can be the
inspiration you can be the support in
wellness well I don’t think I need to
explain all the benefits to both body
and mind of chasing your passion of
becoming fit focused and healthy what
that does feel so now when you go
through this process of chasing these
adventurous goals and whatever they
might be everybody’s journey is
different my goals will be different to
yours my adventures will be different to
yours but when you go through that
process and you’re pushing your
boundaries what happens next is amazing
you will become self-aware you’ll
understand that what you want out of
life
you’ll understand who you are and most
importantly you will understand what
you’re capable of you can then make life
choices knowing what you’re looking for
in life and knowing what you’re capable
of and if you make life choices
if you film it’s an incredible thing but
it’s what happens next which is really
important when your cup is full you can
provide to another when you don’t need
to take you can give and giving to
others is the most fulfilling activity a
human being can undertake when the world
can be a better place because you were
here because your self fulfilled you can
provide to others and you can help
people along the way now I’m going to
show you what my journey looked like
it’s going to be different to yours but
these were my adventures I need to start
this by saying that I was a very average
rugby player however at one point in my
life I decided I wants to play
international rugby I was nowhere near
the standard required but I worked and I
worked and I worked I put it above all
else I pushed everything else away in my
life and I focused this is what I wanted
to do work came second relationships
came second this is what I wanted in
2011 I managed to get myself into the
Arabian Gulf international squad and in
2012 this happened this is a very proud
moment in my life at the time I got an
international cap for my adopted home
country the United Arab Emirates
two days after this photo was taken I
broke my knee snapped my ligaments I
never played another game of rugby in my
life it’s okay
life has a funny way of working out so I
started running as part of my rehab that
progressed into long-distance running
which I was told was not a good idea
with the state that my knee was in but
it’s something I wanted to do that
sounded like an excuse to me I didn’t
want an excuse to turn into a regret
later on in life so in 2014 I ran my
first marathon a few months later I
teamed up with my buddy Marcus we took
on 87 kilometers of the Welsh mountains
17 hours it took us to get through that
there’s a reason I tell you this and
it’s not because it’s like wow look what
I did it’s because this was horrific and
not horrific like yeah no it sounds
pretty bad but now I mean really
horrific the last 20 30 Kay’s I let
myself down I complained I was weak I
wasn’t proud of myself at all for a long
time afterwards I look back on this and
I cringed but I said to myself I can’t
leave it there because this is going to
become a regret if I do so not long
after I signed up for what’s been termed
the toughest foot race on earth 250
kilometers across the Sahara Desert
self-supported looked a lot like this
you cover six marathons in five days and
you don’t shower for eight that’s kind
of interesting I got the finishers medal
I finished it and to the outside world
that seemed like the ultimate goal to
finish something like this but to me
that wasn’t the ultimate goal it was
part of it you see on the plane on the
way over I sat there and I wrote some
notes my goals on a piece of paper I
kept
piece of paper all the way now on that
piece of paper were goals not just a
finish but they were behavioral led to
stay strong don’t complain once make
yourself proud inspire others to finish
so I’ve come off the back of my last
Alger I hadn’t even been able to look
after myself in the last 20 case now I
was taking on something that was
multiple times the size I was saying not
only was I going to be completing this
but I was going to be inspiring others
to finish along the way being sat on the
flight on the way out of the Sahara
looking down on that piece of paper that
was very crumpled and dirty at that
point being able to smile and know to
myself that I’d achieved those goals
because I hadn’t let an excuse from a
previous race turn into a regret that
was a true achievement for me I backed
that up the following year with 145
kilometers across the way Heba sands
desert in Oman which is a beautiful part
of the world by the way if you’ve not
been done you can see the bottom right
there more experiences more lessons
learned by pushing boundaries and
chasing adventures met some incredible
people along the way and after 145
kilometers this is one of the most
beautiful sights you’ll ever see I think
we drop the bags as we ran off those
sand dunes straight into the water it
stung a little bit we spent about half
an hour in there but there was something
in the back of my mind there was
something saying to me okay so you can
run and you can deal with the heat but
what about sub-zero temperatures what
about mountains how does this whole
mental strength thing you are going on
going to deal with that when you
completely out of your comfort zone so I
decided I needed to take myself off to
the Himalayas this was October of last
year it was the worst time for business
we were very busy
and I couldn’t find anybody to come with
me I sat down I was like maybe I should
postpone this I can find a better time
to do this and I thought to myself no
this is just an excuse there was
absolutely no reason why I can’t do this
on my own I’m not going to let an excuse
turn into a regret later in my life so
in October I took on mera peak 6000 475
after four and a half hours in the pitch
black when all we can see is the 1 meter
in front of us that the headline lit up
four and a half hours walking on ridges
minus 18 degrees in the snow I stood on
what felt like the top of the world it
was incredible sight the Sun was rising
the view of all of the mountains around
us those Peaks picking up the morning
sunlight that was one of the most
beautiful views on I’ll ever have I’ve
had some incredible adventures some
incredible experiences but one of them
tops all its these guys 6 years ago I
started a digital communications agency
I told you earlier about having the
courage to seek your adventure but I
also said live life on your own terms
that means a different thing to
different people to me it means this and
the incredible people that I get to work
with day-in day-out these are the people
that allow me the freedom to chase my
adventure and for that I’m eternally
grateful I also mentioned to you about
giving back when you reach the top of
that pyramid that’s where you need to
aim for and for everybody everybody will
have a different way of giving back I’m
only sharing my story my story is
through
fundraising for the large field
children’s orphanage in Tanzania it’s
something that’s close to my heart and
something that we’ve been able to to
work well with over the years with the
fundraising for the different events and
and through the company now this has
been my journey but I urge you to find
yours
you see if you don’t and I want you to
think right now I want you to think
what’s that one thing that I’m making an
excuse about it’s already written down
if you make excuses they will turn into
regrets don’t let that happen to you so
I challenge you from today to make a
decision to stop making excuses so that
you don’t have regrets later on in life
a very smart man once said our time is
limited so I thank you very much for
giving me a few minutes of yours [Applause]