I’m been obsessed with time and I was a
sort of person years ago used to run
around from place to place trying to rob
them walk and people used to say to me
why are you running around everywhere
and I genuinely used to reply by saying
it was because I was a slow reader and I
needed to make up the time which is true
but I didn’t actually realize that that
time that it was the basics of how I
could improve my life and where I could
improve my life just very recently I
spent 41 days on my own in a tiny little
rowing boat rowing across the Atlantic
Ocean and I did it after just 11 weeks
of googling it as an idea okay and the
reason I did it is because there’s been
a pattern in my life of improvements
whenever I throw myself into a difficult
situation whenever I put myself or
challenged myself I seem to make massive
gains for myself I always look back and
think that you know it was time well
spent and I get amazing life metaphors
from each experience and I think time is
possibly the most precious thing that we
have you knows no wonder people have
like a midlife crisis or a quarter life
crisis although don’t panic if you have
one I think it’s just your ambition
giving you a kick up the bum but I think
it’s how do we utilize our time most
effectively when I was I’m at school I
was very dyslexic I couldn’t keep up
with the work that was in front of me
but I love sports and sport kind of got
me through school it was somewhere I
could go out of my energy and I had get
hyperactive and you know something I
really enjoyed but when I left school at
16 I was a bit of a lost soul I didn’t
know really where I was going I had
massive ambition like crazy ambition I
wanted a nice car I wanted a nice house
I wanted to know the finer things in
life but I did not have to channel my
energy into the right places in order to
get to that end goal
kept looking at the end goal thinking
that’s what I want to get to but the
time was almost off-putting to me and so
I sort of failed to look at those steps
by the time I was 30 I was I was really
frustrated but I had two kids who are
the light of my life love them to pieces
but I was very frustrated and so I
needed to find some sort of outlet and
one of the things that I wanted to do is
that I saw started running and that was
kind of got me back into sport and then
I decided to start doing triathlons and
then a friend of mine said to me who’s
just up there there’s going climb the
Matterhorn so I thought okay cool let’s
go and do that had no climbing
experience whatsoever and and so we
decided a cake so we set off to
Switzerland and we sort of did a couple
of days training in the mountains where
I sort of realized that I was really
scared of heights
wasn’t a great time to find that out and
and so we sort of did our two days
training and we’re sort of we go up to
the Matterhorn and we it’s much easier
climbing up a tree rather than coming
down it and sort of got to the top of
the mountain and I sort of did some
high-fives and took some pictures and
stuff and the guy just sort of said it’s
probably another four or five hours to
get back down again so we sort of made
our way back down the mountain and about
halfway down I was completely mentally
spent and physically drained and just
kind of stuck to the side of this
mountain not really able to move and I
remember I thought he said something
must be about halfway down how so
probably two hours left so I just looked
at my watch was that case two hours two
and a half hours that’s it so just focus
on the steps and that’s what I did it’s
just literally every handhold every foot
hold until I was at the bottom of the
mountain and suddenly I was down and it
was all okay and I was like okay I’m
never doing that again only two years
later and the opportunity to do it again
came up and so I said yes but I just put
in the steps in time method and so just
knew exactly how long it would take
roughly and I just did the steps in
order to get all the way up and then all
the way back down again and I maybe and
I felt good I sort of you know I made
again I learnt about myself and it was a
really good thing and
around that sort of same time I was
building an app and I sort of spent four
years building this app and I didn’t
know anything about technology at all it
was something I dived into I had
previously been in property development
and I sort of I built a decent app I
learned a huge amount and like met some
great people unfortunately I had to shut
it down it was a fail and it stung me a
lot I hurt me and I felt quite down
about it but I essentially I did could
take some positives from it I sort of
done this process of just doing going
through a tip sheet every day and trying
to tick off at least three things every
day and so I sort of achieved something
in some sort of way however I needed
another challenge I needed like a
rebound challenge and so I googled
what’s one of the hardest things that
you can do physically a challenge and
some one things that popped up was
rowing across the Atlantic so I was like
okay cool but most people did it and so
they took two years to prepare for it
and they they sort of you know I did in
teams of people and they had support
boats but I wanted to do immediately and
instead of diving in a bit too quickly
as usual but so I just I found a boat I
did seamanship courses seen avocation
courses sea survival courses VHF radio
courses all these different things and I
was sort of ticking this all this stuff
off that I had to do until the sort of
day came as 11 weeks later I was
literally pulling away from Gran Canaria
saying goodbye to my dad on the shore
thinking okay I’m going now and and I
was in the deep end quite literally and
and about two hours there was two things
I had to remember one was I had to make
seven litres of water a day half of it
was for drinking and a half of it was
rehydrating my food I was like space
food and there’s like four meals a day
and you know three litres of water and
then the second thing I had to remember
was the fact that I had to stay tied
onto the boat because basically if you
fall into the water the boat goes faster
than you then the wind just takes it and
you’re gonna get left at sea so I set
off and about four hours in I’m sort of
done
first ranks instant billing pretty
pretty good about myself although
slightly weird and I start look back in
the cavern and I’ve got his massive pool
of water inside my cabin I thought okay
this isn’t good at all and my water
maker wasn’t working it’s just had a
leak in it so I spent about four hours
trying to fix it and I think I got it to
the point where it was producing about
one and a half litres of water a day so
straightaway I was mentally thinking
okay this is a bad situation a bit like
my start to this talk and I know so
basically I kind of I realized I can’t
have to cut my food down to half the
amount that I was going to supposed to
be eating and also I’m gonna have half a
liter of water a day as opposed to three
and this is hot work it’s you know
you’re near the equator so it mentally
I’m thinking I’m thinking mating but I
think I can I’m still alive I just keep
going I keep going and and then sort of
two days in the weather started to get
nasty and I mean you know it’s sort of
25 knots 30 knots winds and it was sort
of mostly that and then occasional
breaks in the weather or I could you
know actually have a bit of a breather
so as the weather was really bad and
bearing in mind a meter cubed of water
is a ton these waves was sort of you
know two stories high and they’re coming
at you from different angles and I did I
thought I was meant to be running across
the Atlantic I didn’t realize I was
gonna get beaten up so much Bruhl these
waves and when they do hit you it’s
exact you say was being hit by a truck I
mean in a car accident it’s you just get
hit across the whole inside the cabin or
if you’re outside you just get thrown
out of the boat and the whole boat
capsizes and it’s a really weird feeling
you know you’re in this ocean and you’re
very very vulnerable so mentally and
physically I’m just getting lower and
lower and lower and then another day
comes and on the eleventh day and I I
was outside the bone I was just about to
start rowing
another wave hits the boat goes over and
I sort of hold onto the bow and I pull
myself back in as I get back into the
boat I look down and my seat is gone my
rowing seat which is basically about 90%
of your power of rowing your glutes and
your in your quads so I’ll only be able
to use my arms it’s basically gone to
the bottom of the ocean
say I knew then also it’s going to take
me much longer than I wanted and so I’m
mentally just getting worse and worse
and worse it’s not good
and then the final straw I think for me
and I’m wanting to Mayday all the time
because it’s just getting worse and the
the final straw for me was I had to I
just sort of was making some more food
for myself and sort of just got back
into the cabin shut the door again hit
my wave and capsized in this chili con
carne over the whole cabin I mean it’s
funny now oh my god it stinks and it’s
all over me I’m just it’s all in the
cabin all in my bed and everything like
that so all over the electrics and I’m
sort of a broken man by this stage and
just on my hands and knees
naked scooping this chili con carne up
it’s not a pretty sight and it was at
that moment where I thought I need to
maybe I need to get out fack
I can’t do this and so that was right
then that it was a choice and it was a
really simple choice Mayday or find a
way forward so very quickly it was like
I can’t Mayday that wasn’t really an
option for me in my head I was still
alive and are still making a slightly
pathetic progress but so it was find a
way forward so the first thing that I
did was I just wrote on the wall zero to
fifty in terms of days I thought it
would take about fifty days and then I
just crossed out the first eleven days
and as soon as I did that it gave me a
tiny tiny little piece of positivity in
my brain where I thought okay there’s
progress and as soon as I felt that bit
of progress I was like okay I need to do
some other stuff and so I started eating
at the same time every day then I’d sort
of you know wash the boat and I’d sort
of have it clean and and I’d do some
squats a night by this stage I was just
doing squats outside the boat and I
started doing about a hundred and fifty
a day just because my legs were just
twitching like crazy because they
weren’t doing anything usually we walk
up and down stairs and walk around
buildings and but my legs were just sat
there doing nothing so and so I was
finding these things to do and then
suddenly the hours were going by and
then I could cross up another day and
then suddenly I was crossing off another
day and then a week goes by and then ten
days and then I’m halfway and I think
cool I’m halfway I’ve never been
in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean
before this is a new experience and and
then before long like after 41 days I
could see Barbados in the distance and
it was an amazing feeling right you know
the the sea went from this encrypt like
aggressive dark thing that it was trying
to get me the whole time to this
beautiful sort of turquoise and the
green of the the island just popped out
at me and it was the the trees were
unbelievable and everything just looks
incredible and my daughter came out on
and a friend of mine on a boat and they
gave me some cheese and Marmite
sandwiches and a new rowing seat and
sort of I think I wanted to kiss them
and hug them obviously but I’d sort of
put the the seating devoured these these
sandwiches and did the last couple of
kilometers into the port where I was
greeted by friends and family and it was
amazing feeling just just to see all
these people and I gave my dad a big hug
on those you know lots of Tears and
stuff and but I hadn’t thought of that
moment until I was right there and I in
fact I was still in a bit of a state of
the process in the steps in time in
order to me to get there and it also
sort of turned out to be the 76th person
to have made the voyage and I ended up
with the fourth fastest time to do it
but uh it was so it was a success and it
was a goal reached but I guess for me
like you’re just not gonna sort of
achieve anything unless you focus on the
steps if you if you trying to run around
from place to place trying to make up
time you know you’re not going to get to
that goal so it’s the steps that counts
and I think if you can focus on those as
hard as you possibly can
you know there’s always going to be days
where you’re going to you’re going to
get you know you’re going to lose a seat
or you’re gonna have a lack of water or
sometimes you’re gonna get covered in
chili con carne but but unless you focus
on the steps then you’re not going to
achieve anything so all I could possibly
hopefully say to everyone is just set
your goal whatever it is whether it’s
big medium or small set your goal
okay time for it and then just focus on
the steps thank you [Applause]
sort of person years ago used to run
around from place to place trying to rob
them walk and people used to say to me
why are you running around everywhere
and I genuinely used to reply by saying
it was because I was a slow reader and I
needed to make up the time which is true
but I didn’t actually realize that that
time that it was the basics of how I
could improve my life and where I could
improve my life just very recently I
spent 41 days on my own in a tiny little
rowing boat rowing across the Atlantic
Ocean and I did it after just 11 weeks
of googling it as an idea okay and the
reason I did it is because there’s been
a pattern in my life of improvements
whenever I throw myself into a difficult
situation whenever I put myself or
challenged myself I seem to make massive
gains for myself I always look back and
think that you know it was time well
spent and I get amazing life metaphors
from each experience and I think time is
possibly the most precious thing that we
have you knows no wonder people have
like a midlife crisis or a quarter life
crisis although don’t panic if you have
one I think it’s just your ambition
giving you a kick up the bum but I think
it’s how do we utilize our time most
effectively when I was I’m at school I
was very dyslexic I couldn’t keep up
with the work that was in front of me
but I love sports and sport kind of got
me through school it was somewhere I
could go out of my energy and I had get
hyperactive and you know something I
really enjoyed but when I left school at
16 I was a bit of a lost soul I didn’t
know really where I was going I had
massive ambition like crazy ambition I
wanted a nice car I wanted a nice house
I wanted to know the finer things in
life but I did not have to channel my
energy into the right places in order to
get to that end goal
kept looking at the end goal thinking
that’s what I want to get to but the
time was almost off-putting to me and so
I sort of failed to look at those steps
by the time I was 30 I was I was really
frustrated but I had two kids who are
the light of my life love them to pieces
but I was very frustrated and so I
needed to find some sort of outlet and
one of the things that I wanted to do is
that I saw started running and that was
kind of got me back into sport and then
I decided to start doing triathlons and
then a friend of mine said to me who’s
just up there there’s going climb the
Matterhorn so I thought okay cool let’s
go and do that had no climbing
experience whatsoever and and so we
decided a cake so we set off to
Switzerland and we sort of did a couple
of days training in the mountains where
I sort of realized that I was really
scared of heights
wasn’t a great time to find that out and
and so we sort of did our two days
training and we’re sort of we go up to
the Matterhorn and we it’s much easier
climbing up a tree rather than coming
down it and sort of got to the top of
the mountain and I sort of did some
high-fives and took some pictures and
stuff and the guy just sort of said it’s
probably another four or five hours to
get back down again so we sort of made
our way back down the mountain and about
halfway down I was completely mentally
spent and physically drained and just
kind of stuck to the side of this
mountain not really able to move and I
remember I thought he said something
must be about halfway down how so
probably two hours left so I just looked
at my watch was that case two hours two
and a half hours that’s it so just focus
on the steps and that’s what I did it’s
just literally every handhold every foot
hold until I was at the bottom of the
mountain and suddenly I was down and it
was all okay and I was like okay I’m
never doing that again only two years
later and the opportunity to do it again
came up and so I said yes but I just put
in the steps in time method and so just
knew exactly how long it would take
roughly and I just did the steps in
order to get all the way up and then all
the way back down again and I maybe and
I felt good I sort of you know I made
again I learnt about myself and it was a
really good thing and
around that sort of same time I was
building an app and I sort of spent four
years building this app and I didn’t
know anything about technology at all it
was something I dived into I had
previously been in property development
and I sort of I built a decent app I
learned a huge amount and like met some
great people unfortunately I had to shut
it down it was a fail and it stung me a
lot I hurt me and I felt quite down
about it but I essentially I did could
take some positives from it I sort of
done this process of just doing going
through a tip sheet every day and trying
to tick off at least three things every
day and so I sort of achieved something
in some sort of way however I needed
another challenge I needed like a
rebound challenge and so I googled
what’s one of the hardest things that
you can do physically a challenge and
some one things that popped up was
rowing across the Atlantic so I was like
okay cool but most people did it and so
they took two years to prepare for it
and they they sort of you know I did in
teams of people and they had support
boats but I wanted to do immediately and
instead of diving in a bit too quickly
as usual but so I just I found a boat I
did seamanship courses seen avocation
courses sea survival courses VHF radio
courses all these different things and I
was sort of ticking this all this stuff
off that I had to do until the sort of
day came as 11 weeks later I was
literally pulling away from Gran Canaria
saying goodbye to my dad on the shore
thinking okay I’m going now and and I
was in the deep end quite literally and
and about two hours there was two things
I had to remember one was I had to make
seven litres of water a day half of it
was for drinking and a half of it was
rehydrating my food I was like space
food and there’s like four meals a day
and you know three litres of water and
then the second thing I had to remember
was the fact that I had to stay tied
onto the boat because basically if you
fall into the water the boat goes faster
than you then the wind just takes it and
you’re gonna get left at sea so I set
off and about four hours in I’m sort of
done
first ranks instant billing pretty
pretty good about myself although
slightly weird and I start look back in
the cavern and I’ve got his massive pool
of water inside my cabin I thought okay
this isn’t good at all and my water
maker wasn’t working it’s just had a
leak in it so I spent about four hours
trying to fix it and I think I got it to
the point where it was producing about
one and a half litres of water a day so
straightaway I was mentally thinking
okay this is a bad situation a bit like
my start to this talk and I know so
basically I kind of I realized I can’t
have to cut my food down to half the
amount that I was going to supposed to
be eating and also I’m gonna have half a
liter of water a day as opposed to three
and this is hot work it’s you know
you’re near the equator so it mentally
I’m thinking I’m thinking mating but I
think I can I’m still alive I just keep
going I keep going and and then sort of
two days in the weather started to get
nasty and I mean you know it’s sort of
25 knots 30 knots winds and it was sort
of mostly that and then occasional
breaks in the weather or I could you
know actually have a bit of a breather
so as the weather was really bad and
bearing in mind a meter cubed of water
is a ton these waves was sort of you
know two stories high and they’re coming
at you from different angles and I did I
thought I was meant to be running across
the Atlantic I didn’t realize I was
gonna get beaten up so much Bruhl these
waves and when they do hit you it’s
exact you say was being hit by a truck I
mean in a car accident it’s you just get
hit across the whole inside the cabin or
if you’re outside you just get thrown
out of the boat and the whole boat
capsizes and it’s a really weird feeling
you know you’re in this ocean and you’re
very very vulnerable so mentally and
physically I’m just getting lower and
lower and lower and then another day
comes and on the eleventh day and I I
was outside the bone I was just about to
start rowing
another wave hits the boat goes over and
I sort of hold onto the bow and I pull
myself back in as I get back into the
boat I look down and my seat is gone my
rowing seat which is basically about 90%
of your power of rowing your glutes and
your in your quads so I’ll only be able
to use my arms it’s basically gone to
the bottom of the ocean
say I knew then also it’s going to take
me much longer than I wanted and so I’m
mentally just getting worse and worse
and worse it’s not good
and then the final straw I think for me
and I’m wanting to Mayday all the time
because it’s just getting worse and the
the final straw for me was I had to I
just sort of was making some more food
for myself and sort of just got back
into the cabin shut the door again hit
my wave and capsized in this chili con
carne over the whole cabin I mean it’s
funny now oh my god it stinks and it’s
all over me I’m just it’s all in the
cabin all in my bed and everything like
that so all over the electrics and I’m
sort of a broken man by this stage and
just on my hands and knees
naked scooping this chili con carne up
it’s not a pretty sight and it was at
that moment where I thought I need to
maybe I need to get out fack
I can’t do this and so that was right
then that it was a choice and it was a
really simple choice Mayday or find a
way forward so very quickly it was like
I can’t Mayday that wasn’t really an
option for me in my head I was still
alive and are still making a slightly
pathetic progress but so it was find a
way forward so the first thing that I
did was I just wrote on the wall zero to
fifty in terms of days I thought it
would take about fifty days and then I
just crossed out the first eleven days
and as soon as I did that it gave me a
tiny tiny little piece of positivity in
my brain where I thought okay there’s
progress and as soon as I felt that bit
of progress I was like okay I need to do
some other stuff and so I started eating
at the same time every day then I’d sort
of you know wash the boat and I’d sort
of have it clean and and I’d do some
squats a night by this stage I was just
doing squats outside the boat and I
started doing about a hundred and fifty
a day just because my legs were just
twitching like crazy because they
weren’t doing anything usually we walk
up and down stairs and walk around
buildings and but my legs were just sat
there doing nothing so and so I was
finding these things to do and then
suddenly the hours were going by and
then I could cross up another day and
then suddenly I was crossing off another
day and then a week goes by and then ten
days and then I’m halfway and I think
cool I’m halfway I’ve never been
in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean
before this is a new experience and and
then before long like after 41 days I
could see Barbados in the distance and
it was an amazing feeling right you know
the the sea went from this encrypt like
aggressive dark thing that it was trying
to get me the whole time to this
beautiful sort of turquoise and the
green of the the island just popped out
at me and it was the the trees were
unbelievable and everything just looks
incredible and my daughter came out on
and a friend of mine on a boat and they
gave me some cheese and Marmite
sandwiches and a new rowing seat and
sort of I think I wanted to kiss them
and hug them obviously but I’d sort of
put the the seating devoured these these
sandwiches and did the last couple of
kilometers into the port where I was
greeted by friends and family and it was
amazing feeling just just to see all
these people and I gave my dad a big hug
on those you know lots of Tears and
stuff and but I hadn’t thought of that
moment until I was right there and I in
fact I was still in a bit of a state of
the process in the steps in time in
order to me to get there and it also
sort of turned out to be the 76th person
to have made the voyage and I ended up
with the fourth fastest time to do it
but uh it was so it was a success and it
was a goal reached but I guess for me
like you’re just not gonna sort of
achieve anything unless you focus on the
steps if you if you trying to run around
from place to place trying to make up
time you know you’re not going to get to
that goal so it’s the steps that counts
and I think if you can focus on those as
hard as you possibly can
you know there’s always going to be days
where you’re going to you’re going to
get you know you’re going to lose a seat
or you’re gonna have a lack of water or
sometimes you’re gonna get covered in
chili con carne but but unless you focus
on the steps then you’re not going to
achieve anything so all I could possibly
hopefully say to everyone is just set
your goal whatever it is whether it’s
big medium or small set your goal
okay time for it and then just focus on
the steps thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: