Unleash the Monkey Army

I’ve fallen into the clutches of a challenge again! You’d have thought by this stage in my life that I’d have outgrown the whole “I dare you” thing. And in truth, I have. I’m doing it because at some level it works for me. That is to say that at some level, I want to do it. That raises the uncomfortable realisation that what happens next is nobody’s fault but my own and the question “what is wrong with you?” The challenge is simple enough. From 10th November to Christmas Eve (44 days) you have to complete 30 Half-marathons (21,097m) on the indoor rower or Skierg. Simple, not easy. Fear not gentle reader, this isn’t interfering with the latest 100 day burpee ladder (last day 9th December). Granted I don’t think anybody has ever climbed off a rower and thought “Yeah, I know what would be belting right about now. 80 burpees.” Even if they’ve done said Half-marathon as slowly as I have. I was supposed to be in the home run towards a strongman competition in December too. M...

Resolution season is but a glow in the dieing embers of the new year's festivities. By this point many will have given up on theirs. Many more will be on the threshold of pulling the plug on theirs, ready to go back to "normal" life.  Awaiting them is the security of the usual. The comfort, or at least the familiar discomfort of the day-to-day. We are able to re-programme ourselves to live and to learn but to do so we need to embrace failure and the stultifying fear of it. Without discomfort we have little of substance to respond to, to learn from, to prompt re-wiring in the loft spaces of our minds. But like everything in life it doesn't come cheap and as it is worthwhile it will seldom come easy. And that's where the process loses the majority. "Can you write me a new diet?" "Sure, but that will absolutely have to go." "Oh, I couldn't do that" It's nonsense of course. You can. You just do not want to. And that is fi...