Art for Energy

Working in investments involves periods of existential crises. Trying to explain underperformance can be really testing even if you are a hardcore believer. Beyond accepting that there are periods of stress and risk, actually going through persistent underperformance is emotionally draining. Which is why people don’t tend to invest in a contrarian way. 

It ends up being semi-religious. In the same way as I had to grapple with whether Yoga was religion, many investment companies feel very much like Churches with High Priests. Some people think of yogis as cults and some people think of investment schools of thought as cults. The type of language that gets used can seem culty, evangelical, or defensive. Maintaining some healthy space between “work as an evaluation of self” and things I was doing to rebuild my energy became very important to me. 

I started spending my weekends at the Wimbledon Art Studio doing expressionist painting that was non-intellectual and more of an embodied physical art. I was painting, but in a responsive way that focused on texture, colour, and layering. I can thank my school art teacher, Mr Lichkus, for pushing (and pushing and pushing) me to my limits in this space. In one class review, he stood there saying “no one bump me, no one bump me”... then a classmate tapped him on the shoulder and he went “OOOPS!!!” and put shoe polish across my painting... so that it “broke it” and stopped me being so precious. 

I managed to loosen up my very earnest, tight, approach... and I used my weekends to reconnect to releasing some of that wilder energy onto the canvas. Between art and yoga, I was trying to reconnect with who or what I was. That was not defined by under- or outperforming anybody's benchmarks or expectations.

Reclaiming Mojo

A pivotal moment happened in my career when I had a particularly stressful month while on a roadshow to South Africa. I still remember it (and always will) as Red October. A big part of being client facing in the investment world is managing expectations. As a contrarian investor, there are regularly periods of (sustained) underperformance where the price disconnects from a deeply considered view of the value of the underlying businesses. My job was to explain to clients and advisers who were under pressure what we were doing with their money. 

One of the colleagues I was with also found it tough... and both of us “headed for the mountains” in different ways. He left shortly afterwards for a year and a half course, that trains you to be dropped anywhere in the world and make it out alive! I just booked a month-long yoga teacher training course I had had my eye on. Taking a whole month of leave seemed unfathomable, but it was over the new year, and my sanity had been pushed to an extreme where I needed this carrot to put one foot in front of the other. Fortunately, I was at the stage of my career where I could approve my own leave. Probably because they trusted me not to give myself four weeks, but a good friend reminded me that “sometimes it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission”. 

I also started renting a lock-and-go art studio at Wimbledon Art Studios. When I started work, I had justified my career choice by saying “it is easier to make money from maths and do art as a hobby than the other way around”... but work can be a time vacuum, and I hadn’t painted in a few years. I felt like I was losing myself and getting sucked into the anxiety of work. 2011 became my “year of the mojo” to reclaim my spark.

Relax into Discomfort

The process of learning and engaging with the craziness of the world creates trials where it is okay to make errors. When you are in an environment where you have confident control over the risk of ruin. 

It is not a big deal if things go wrong. You want to be surprised. Like a child who delights in things not going in the way they expected. You can incorporate that learning and curiously see what is going to happen when you again poke the unknown. Confident in the ability to relax into discomfort to create powerful questions. 

This is something I have to work on. I find that when you care, and like caring, it can create tension. Those I care about the most sometimes don’t get the best version of me because I care so much. When something becomes so important that nothing else matters, humour can disappear. You can lose the things you care about most because you are trying too hard. 

One of the ideas I have wrestled with is “unconditional love”. The lack of boundaries can ironically mean it is impossible to relax. I don’t like the idea of escape hatches. I think you need to do the work when things go wrong. You can’t build if you are constantly restarting. 

Returning to some basic self-care, and holding onto the ability to repair, recover, and regenerate, can increase the capacity for commitment. Awareness of the limits of temporary learning, and when retreat is necessary. 

You don’t need to learn through pain. Controlled stress is sufficient. Playing within limits, and having a good sense of what limits you are comfortable with. Part of investing is taking risks, but you are not rewarded for taking risks. You are rewarded for adding value. 

The key to a powerful timeframe is self-awareness, self-knowledge, self-love, and returning to a foundation of basics.

Regeneration

Under Pressure

You can get into a situation where you do have a stable, decent, income, and yet are still not able to still the waves of money anxiety. Trapped with a big portion of that income servicing past consumption. Where you are not paying enough to get the hovering debt to shrink. Struggling for scraps to feed the beast. Cornered there, it is difficult to get to the point where “your money is making money”. 

Finding stillness requires both a source of income and control of spending. External forces make that difficult. The goal is shifting that challenge internally. Where you are the one creating the discipline. Limits don’t disappear, but you want their form to be your conscious choice. Where the boundaries are not “there is no money” or “I owe someone money” or “you must do this for money”. 

Where your money is available and working, and you can choose not to harass it or have it harass you. Where your money is capable of absorbing your shocks and stress in bad times. Where you are capable of repairing and building your capital in good times. Getting to this point, even with a job or stable business, can be difficult if you are under spending pressure from your own behaviour or your chosen community. You need to gain control of the collisions in your container.

Pressure through Collisions in a Closed Container

Forrest in Forest

My dream when I “stopped working” in 2014 was not to do nothing. I just wanted to not have to think about how what I would do would make money. I also did not like my fate being in other people’s hands. In a pure meritocracy, everyone would line up on a theoretical starting line and the gun would go. In reality, there are plenty of gate keepers to opportunity. There is not a path you choose and then knuckle down and crack on. So washing your hands of that rubbish, and saying “I am done” had incredible appeal. Front loading the effort, then constraining expenses going forward. The problem with that idea is I do see myself as part of others. It does not help if I am not stressed, if others are stressed. Like the scene in Forrest Gump where he runs back into the forest (with one r) to rescue people. The idea of financial independence is an illusion. I celebrated stopping working for money as “Independence Days”, but the problem is we aren’t independent. We are interdependent. So even though I talk of financial security and stilling the waves of money anxiety, the reality is it is a process of practice. The struggle to still the waves will continue. Part of stilling is acceptance and perception. Stillness where you are, not where you are aiming for. Stillness within the chaos, not after the chaos.

 

To the Backline

My growth spurt was delayed. After being a fearless forward in my introduction to rugby, I was introduced to high school. I had not grown, and my mother was not happy on the sidelines (not) seeing a tiny boy being swallowed up in the middle of a scrum with a habit of collapsing. I was not fast at all, nor particularly skillful with the ball, and didn’t have any strategic insight and overview of field positioning. The choice to move to the backline also seemed to sap my courage when monsters had run-ups. A friend of mine, Shaun, used to delight in running towards me and screaming because I would just throw the ball away. Fearlessness kicked in at various stages when my voice deepened, and centimeters stretched. I once again became more willing to throw myself into situations where I could potentially get hurt.  

 

Entry Ticket

You can think of risk as stress, and stress is not all bad. “Discomfort is the entry ticket to a meaningful life”. In exercise, you have High Impact Interval Training. Putting the body under stress in a controlled fashion can be a good thing. That is the way we learn. The body follows a use-it-or-lose-it strategy, and is ruthlessly efficient at redistributing its energy. If you start doing press-ups, your muscles will get bigger as your body responds. If you stop doing those press-ups, your muscles will get smaller. If you go for runs regularly, you will get faster and it will become more comfortable. If you stop running for a while, you start getting tired when you go for random, irregular runs. The body directs resources to where they are needed, and takes them away when they are not used. If you want to build up strength, you put your body under stress in a controlled fashion to build up your capacity for when you are in uncontrolled situations. Developing the strength and flexibility to maintain control when you are not in a planned environment. 

1930s Turnstile

 

Holding the Flood

Money anxiety has the ability to flood our minds. This can be long-term stress where we don’t know how to overcome the barriers to the income required to fund the consumption dictated by our vision of what our lives should look like. The homes we want. The holidays. The entertainment. The fashion. The signals of conspicuous success. It can be stress about the trade-offs, even if we can over come those barriers. Habitual work for money consuming every morsel of energy we possess. It can also be short term anxiety. More immediate. Where the financial waves make our decisions as we hop from crisis to crisis. With brief gasps of air in between bills, or the rising damp of debt nibbling at our foundations. Before controlled movement, comes calm. Finding a path to stillness.

Holding the Flood

Making Up

Trev:

Competence and Confidence are guys' version of Make-Up and Fashion. Trying to understand why men struggle expressing vulnerability is similar to understanding why even modern women still tend to beautify themselves. We still seem trapped in the behaviours that are deep soaked into us. If I show vulnerability, it feels like I am asking for a response. It doesn't feel like I am able to just say, "Yes, this is difficult. I don't want input. I don't need help. Just expressing what is going on is sufficient". For the most part, this disturbs the illusion that all is under control. I hate feeling like people are worried about me. It seems connected to whether they respect me or not. I get that respect is supposed to come from within, but that isn't the way any of the communities I have ever operated in work. Respect is the currency.

Sacha:
Sharing the thoughts and feelings going on in your head doesn't mean you are asking for help. It is just letting down the filter. It helps us all realise that everyone is struggling. Otherwise we get a Facebook Profile version of everyone's lives full of exciting holidays, smiley moments, and great successes. We don't hear from the people who get back from work on a Friday night absolutely shattered, feeling lonely, but without the energy to reach out to anyone. Perhaps they have been working so hard, they haven't even invested in friendships enough to be able to reach out. Maybe if the picture that was painted in what we share was more honest, then it wouldn't be something people need to hide.

Richard:
Except the world is designed for winners. The news we follow is about the winners. The Motivational Speakers we hear from are the guys who get up at 5am, run a half-marathon, and then do more before their morning tea break than most people do in a week. We read books about people who have built Businesses. We watch ultra-athletes from around the world performing spectacular feats that are much easier to watch from the couch than to try an emulate. We are constantly being measured, and like it or not, Men are still not really allowed to opt out. Then you are a loser. And losers lose.

Francois:
So why take any notice of that rubbish? It is all in the mind anyway. You choose your own reality. You control the way you respond to the world, and how you feel about it. We all end up dust anyway. Nothing you do really matters. It just seems like it matters. Just make different choices. Feel deeply. Express your weakness confidently.  You'll find, like Sacha says, that you are not alone. The way you feel things is your own, but it is a combination of feelings others have. We are one big web of emotions and actions and reactions and just letting go is a powerful way of actually engaging with the world more strongly.

Arthur:
You lost me there. The traditional model works. If you fight it, it will be more complicated. If you are a man, your job is to be a provider. Your job is to build a solid foundation around which others can thrive. Most great men had huge internal struggles, but they didn't go around have a cry about it. Life is hard? And so? Get on with it. Your boss doesn't give you credit? So? Work harder and start your own company if you don't like working for someone else. You aren't doing the work you like? And so? You made bad choices when you were younger. Take the pain and find out what skills you need to do thing you to get there. Long hours? Shame. Would you like a hug? No. Do what you need to do.

Mary:
That is harsh. Why do you think so many Men crack if you put that kind of pressure on them? To think that you can't express vulnerability and still be successful is ridiculous. There is more to life. The idea that men won't be attractive if they don't come across as competent and confident is also a bit backwards. Authenticity is incredibly attractive. Faking might get you through the door, but if you are talking about building a life the is something sustainable, then you will eventually get found out.

Trev:
I am comfortable opening up about my struggles, but I do have to work on a fairly deeply wired defensiveness. If I open up and then someone proceeds to give me advice, I actually start feeling a little sick. I value my self-sufficiency. I really like being able to make decisions for myself. As soon as someone gives me feedback, it feels like I have to implement it or they will stop giving it. Feedback with strings. I approach ambiguity, uncertainty, and complexity in a fairly detached way. I try be decisive knowing that I will often be wrong. Making small decisions that have limited unintended consequences. Opening up sometimes makes me have to justify myself.  Sometimes opening up feels more like something I am doing for the other person, than something I need myself. I don't actually feel like it.

Paul:
Feedback is incredibly helpful. Most advice is advice to ourselves. You should take it as that. The person can only see the thing your are sharing through their own context. Their advice can only be a projection of their own anxieties, baggage, and world view. You can hold what they say lightly. Sharing doesn't have to be a way of "finding a solution". A good listener can listen without actually interfering with your thought process. Listening as lubrication rather than intervention. If people feel a desire to change your course of direction, that is their issue, not yours.

Trev:
I get that intellectually, but I hate feeling on the wrong side of people. Feeling like I am misunderstood, or that I have disappointed them. Like I haven't met their expectations. I have a high degree of internal confidence, but am much weaker when it comes to feeling that I am a "failure" in other people's eyes. Going back to my initial metaphor. I can imagine it being like someone who acknowledges make-up and fashion are expensive time-wasters, but still wears them because that is the way the world works. You can't pick every battle. Sometimes bottling things up a little is just way easier. Having things under control means I don't have to put so much effort into appeasing the people I care about.

Angela:
We are busy reinventing society. The traditional Masculine/Feminine stereotypes were thrust upon us. As Arthur said, this was perhaps for a reason... but those reasons have changed. If we want a healthier world where we aren't torn up internally just to please others externally, then we have to have these tough discussion. I really don't think this is a Male/Female thing. Much of it is simply cultural roles we have inherited. The more strong men are allowed to show weakness without being judged, the more likely others are to feel free to follow in their path.

[Sacha, Richard, Francois, Arthur, Mary, Paul, and Angela are fictional]

Strength in Stopping

There is seldom a reason to rush. Doing something may make us feel better, because it gives the impression we tried. In a world biased to action, sometimes strength lies in doing nothing. Not passively. Doing nothing with full awareness. Waiting. Listening. Focusing. 'When there is nothing particularly clever to do, the potential pitfall lies in insisting on being clever' (Howard Marks). Reality is a complicated, ambiguous, random beast. Fighting it, is meeting it on its terms. It will win. In active stillness, we can build resilience. The ability to withstand the battering, and come out on the other side stronger. There is strength in stopping.

Sometimes the best way to fight the Beast, is not to

Emotional Attention

Strong and weak are not opposites. One reason vulnerability is difficult to show is because it feels like the price is respect. We only have so much concern to give people. Our emotional attention is not an unlimited resource. Pity is the squeaky wheel that gets the oil. So it is easier to bottle up the challenges that being strong in the face of adversity ensures. Dr Chopper prescribes a dose of Harden Up. When someone indicates they are struggling, our natural inclination is to feel like we need to offer advice or help. Sometimes all that person needs is to express that life is hard. No help is needed. No action. Just someone seeing. Hearing. Acknowledging their strength.

Deal

There are four tools to deal with risk - avoid, mitigate, transfer or accept. 'A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.' Risk is like stress, it isn't that it shouldn't be taken, it is that it should be taken consciously. Our muscles respond to stress. It is what builds strength. Strength is built over time through regular exposure. Avoiding risk altogether is impossible. Life has a way of putting us to the test. We can mitigate it through knowledge and preparation. We can transfer or share it by building support. We can accept it if we build the confidence that we can cope. We can deal.

A painting I did as a schoolboy

Sponge

I find it easier to deal with my own stress than I do to deal with the stress of those I care about. In restaurants I struggle to even sit next to people (who I don't know from a bar of soap), that are in distress. I am like a sponge. When I do know people, and care from them, it is multiples more difficult. With myself, I value the philosophy of sitting with the light and the dark. A life without struggle would be a life without flavour. I work hard on my ability to, with the help of the relationships that hold me, cope. I would like to get to the point where I can accept the broader world's struggles too. I am not there yet.

The Raft of the Medusa

The Raft of the Medusa

On 5 July 1816, 147 people were set adrift after a ship wreck off the coast of modern Mauritania. 15 people survived the 13 days it took to rescue them. Théodore Géricault captured their struggle in my favourite painting - a larger than life epic portrayal of struggle. There are two sweeping triangles, one reaches up to the tip of the sails, the other to a shirt being waved to signal to a rescue ship in the distance. They build from utter despair at the base upwards towards hope at the top. Bottom left - a head resting despondently on the knee, an arm draped over a friend who has passed. Top right - a symbol of our resilience. Our ability to never give up. To fight on in our darkest moments. A celebration of the human spirit.

More Kews

I grew up amongst a few monsters. Their names were Carlton Ave, Dawncliffe Road, and Kew Avenue. The fact that Vista avenue was the choice is like a Republican choosing between Trump and Cruz. My excuse is that I moved age 13, but my block of choice was just 1.8km. Just over a mile. I could be done and dusted with any training I was doing before people knew I was gone. I knew that instead of Vista-Trevor-Carlton (loved that I had my own road nearby), I could brave Vista-Hillside-Cotswold-(Kew-)Carlton, but I left that up to my big brothers. You only added Kew if you were nuts. Even cars struggled with the climb. The hilly nature of Westville shrunk my world to about a 5km radius. The beaches of Durban were 14km away and became a rare visit.

Trevs, Trees and Hills

I often tried out for things. I would have been called a 'Try Hard'. I seldom really trained hard. With my body changing so much, I figured maybe I will have become good at something that I wasn't good at the year before. I would sometimes make the reserves of the B team for athletics. By pitching up for practice week after week, someone would fall out and I would get a chance to run in the team. Or jump. Or throw. Whatever team didn't have enough players.

About a year and a half ago, I read 'Born to Run' in which one of the main characters is Scott Jurek. He is like the Lance Armstrong of Ultramarathons without the money, and without the drugs. The interesting thing is that he wasn't ridiculously awesome at short distances. He just enjoyed it, and carried on doing it. His trick was that he didn't do a little less than those who were talented. He did a little more. The theory being that if you want to do well, just carry on running. People slowly drop out.

A friend of mine who is ridiculously spider-like on walls and has ranked highly in both South Africa and the world said he wasn't very good to start. He just carried on. Jurek's best marathon time is 2h38min. That isn't very quick. The world record is 2:02:57. Jurek just carried on running. My friend just carried on climbing.

I don't regard myself as even close to a natural athlete. I have always spent more time on reading and creative pursuits than exercise. I will admit to buying into the western separation of the body and the mind. This can lead to exercise feeling a little like a distraction from work or study. I now believe the opposite. That if you just treat your body as a transportation devise for your head (see Ken Robinson), your head won't work as well. So I am chipping away at the years of sitting at a desk slowly.

Today I ran my first half marathon in Las Vegas. In two weeks time, I will be attempting my first marathon, with my brother, in Stratford-upon-Avon (The Shakespeare Marathon). I really enjoyed seeing the range of people running, and the range of goals. The winner shot home in 1 hour and 10 minutes. More impressive to me are the people still coming home well after Jurek would have finished a marathon. Pushing on after 3 hours. Trying to catch the person in front of them. Just trying to run the next 100 metres before thinking about the following 100 metres. I tried to run while keeping my breathing ok. Feeling comfortable till I got to halfway. I then focused on the runner in front of me... using my breath as my pacemaker. If someone past me, I tried to pass two people. Chip. Chip. Chip. 

On the floor after my first half

My goal wasn't competitive. My time would still make me reserve for the B team, waiting for someone to drop out. But by taking on more hills, more Cotswolds, and with the help of my brother, more Kews, whether or not I regarded myself as an athlete at the start is irrelevant. I will be able to run further, with more comfort, and expand my world beyond a 1.8km block. 

Take the Kews life presents.

Four Humours

I tell people that I study 'happiness and learning' which basically means I can think and write about anything. Because if it is not about one of those, what is the point? I got push back yesterday, and a book recommendation. There is more to life than happiness. There are the four humours (sanguine, choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic / air, fire, earth, water / spring, summer, autumn, winter). Life is hollow if it is just the pursuit of happiness. I do believe in 'The Art of Pain', and that the best you can wish someone is a little misfortune. Life comes through flavour and contrast. Strength comes through a little stress. But perhaps the stress itself has value, in and of itself, not just because it allows us to savour the other moments?

'Against Happiness'

How Little

The fourth chapter of The Book of Life's Curriculum is on 'The Stoics'. One of of the cornerstones of what I look for in a philosophy on life is 'the ability to deal'. I think we all choose ways to fill the gaps in our understanding. To make sense in a world we don't have capacity to make sense of. The leaps, fudges, fakings and role playing lets us pretend to be confident. The beliefs help us think we have cracked the code. That the gaps are filled by something solid. What works for me is to try and find a philosophy that basically says I and we will be ok. That we are already ok. That helps you take the next step forward, whatever happens. I still think that our control is very limited to the moment in which we find ourselves. Sometimes our control is overwhelmed by the moments which lead us there, and we miss our chance.

The Stoics lend a solid foundation to that world view. If you imagine the 'Worst Case Scenario', it is often not nearly as bad as you think it is. It is one of the problems with woe is me moaning. It is very difficult to be self reflective. We can see the humour in other's complaints. How lucky they have it from a different perspective. It is very difficult to see how lucky you have it from your own perspective. The Stoics believed in something very similar to the Yogic practice of Tapas. A form of austerity or pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Some take it to extremes, but the way it was described to me, Tapas should never do permanent damage. The point is to strengthen. Not to break. Much like the physical yoga exercises. Pain is never a good thing. A little positive stress is. A little harder. A little stronger.

We think in contrasts. If you are always fine dining or sleeping in an awesome bed, it won't feel fine or awesome. Michelin Star dining may have the same impact on you as Jungle Oats porridge. A First Class flight may be as forgetful as a daily commute on the London Underground. The Stoics suggested sleeping on the floor for a week a year, eating nothing but stale bread and water. I haven't done anything that extreme. My bed felt amazing after spending a week in a hostel though! Something as simple as making a cup of tea becomes a treasure.

One issue with Tapas I have is you can't claim that it helps you experience what it must be like for the people for whom that is not Tapas. The last World Bank estimate in 2012 suggests around 900 million people live at or below $1.90/day. I want to find out more about what that means practically. I can't wrap my head around the possibility. Particularly, what it must feel like if that isn't some philosophical exercise you are doing. If that is reality. Marcus Aurelius, one of the most famous stoics, said these exercise help you realise how little material stuff is needed to live a happy life. And that is the irony, even within the most extremely impoverished situations, there are bursts of energy, strength and resilience that inspire profound admiration.

I found this book on Kindle... still to read

Do Stress

Stress builds happiness. Excessive stress causes anxiety and pain, but insufficient stress causes boredom and stagnation. If I could, I would tweak our standard question of 'what do you do?' to 'what are you working on?'. Having a problem/question/dream you are working on is part of the magic of life. It means you are engaged. Positive Psychologists call periods of this good stress 'Flow'. When we are in flow, we stop worrying about whether or not we are happy. We stop pursuing happiness because we are doing happiness. We don't find it, but realise it found us.

Comfortably Awkward

Learning is awkward. When you are a baby stumbling taking your first steps, there are lots of people showing delight at every movement and utterance. When you are a gangly teenager very aware of different parts of your body stretching and growing, you have fewer cheerleaders and perhaps even some malice from school 'buddies' figuring out how to behave themselves. You expect that at some point you will know. A bright shining light will come down through the clouds and illuminate all your doubts. As you get older you start twiddling your thumbs waiting for this light to arrive. Then you start to realise that no one knows. The 'experts' can even be the wrong place to look for the truth. We are all just figuring it out, and doing the best we can. As Warren Berger puts it, we are just honing 'A More Beautiful Question'.

In Jeffrey's guest post about lifelong learning, I really liked the idea of 'interval training' style learning. I think there are more similarities between the various types of physical, emotional and mental learning we do than we acknowledge. In 'Antifragile', Nassim Taleb makes the case for good stress. This is effectively what interval training/learning is. When you push yourself to the limits of what you can do in short bursts with periods of relaxation in between. If something is antifragile it actually benefits from stress. It is the same case that Christopher McDougall made in 'Born to Run' where by not pushing through some of the discomfort we have in running and trying to soften impacts (e.g. with cushioned shoes) we actually end up doing ourselves harm. Tim Ferriss aims to refine this approach by finding the highest impact, least time-consuming ways of exercising (he tries to do it with work, cooking and everything else too).

In realising that everyone is figuring things out, and becoming comfortable with periods of awkwardness, confusion, haze and doubt perhaps we can become more like brave babies learning than terrified teenagers. It also means we need to be more like the supporting parents to each other than the schoolyard bullies. We can be comfortably awkward.

Boundless Energy

Nature is super efficient at shifting limited resources to where they are need it. Our bodies seem to follow a 'use it or lose it' principle. Going to a park is a great visual reminder of this. Especially if you toss a ball around or start being silly on some of the climbing equipment. Kids seem to have boundless energy. Adults, and definitely this adult, seem very bounded. Admittedly the half pints have less to bound, but I don't think that explains it all. I have heard it said that sitting at a desk is the smoking of this generation. Working long office hours stooped in your chair is a pretty clear indication to the body to shift the energy elsewhere. Many who prioritise exercise manage to squeeze in 2 or 3 sessions a week. So it is no surprise that the little guys run circles around us. We know activity is important for kids. They have after school activities and are always being encouraged to play outside. When was the last time you went for a ride on your bike without a destination?

In the last few years I was lucky enough on two occasions to fit in one month yoga courses. It is very unusual to be able to get that big a gap once you enter the real world. One part of what was great about those times was the ability to fit in some maintainance. To tell my body that even though I have more grey hair and some crease marks between my eyes from overthinking things, I still would like to use the rest of my body. As Ken Robinson says, the body is not just a transportion vehicle for the head. It is incredible what happens when you are able to fit in daily exercise, periods of proper relaxation, a bit of nature and you eat well. Even washing the dishes (with the addition of some singing and silliness) becomes a lot of fun. Stress slowly falls off the body and you feel lighter.

 

What was also great about a month dedicated 'recovery' was that not only did I know I was relaxed now, I knew I would be relaxed in a weeks time. This meant there wasn't that impending doom of the upcoming week. Now I have been lucky enough to enjoy my work, so doom isn't really the right word, but all jobs come with a level of stress.

I am busy listening to Russell Brand's Revolution. I find him very entertaining even though he does require a slightly bigger bull for his bull quota. As a comedian that is his prerogative. He makes no pretence at writing the book for a balanced view or for those who disagree with him. He is writing to stir up those who already think what he thinks. There are trews in the book but I am not a revolutionary. I think the world has done a pretty great job wrenching more and more of itself out of poverty. That said, I think there are big challenges. Admitting that doesn't mean that the challenges are bigger that they have been. If you are not white or are a woman, gay, or in any way disadvantaged... life is improving over the long term. The remaining barriers are frustrating. They do get people angry. They are hard to change. But we are becoming aware of them. I am not going to stand on Hyde Park corner decrying the evils of the office environment and limited holidays as an evil conspiracy. I do think we can do a better job. Many of the things that allow us to be happy are within our grasp, it is just a case of prioritisation.