ADVENTURE + ALIVENESS Page 14 of 22

Make 2014 amazing (and meet our baby girl!)

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Sienna May Kempton and Beth

Happy New Year! We hope you had a lovely festive season and have eased into 2014 with high hopes for the year ahead. Here at DWYL the past couple of weeks have been something of a blur after welcoming our baby girl into the world on Christmas Day! Sienna May Kempton was born at 3am as the perfect Christmas present, and has filled our days with wonder, smiles and not much sleep ever since! We feel like we have started 2014 with the ultimate new beginning, and are stepping into the greatest adventure of our lives.

We have no doubt that our sweet girl will change everything, and have a major impact on the kind of year 2014 will become. But we also want to consider our wider dreams and plans, and have been using our free kit ‘New Year’s Revolution’ to help us do this.

If you haven’t downloaded your copy you can get it here for free. You can also join the hundreds of people already in the New Year’s Revolution Facebook group where we will be sharing prompts, discussions and encouragement throughout the year to help you make 2014 amazing.

Wherever you find yourself at the beginning of this shiny new year, we wish you health and happiness, and hope you can make 2014 exactly the kind of year you want it to be.

Beth and the team

Business book giveaway winner announced…

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Let My People Go Surfing

The winner of our giveaway of the brilliant book ‘Let me people go surfing’ by Yvon Chouinard is…

Shari Sherman

Congratulations Shari! We will be in touch by email shortly. If you missed our inspiring interview with Lucia Griggi, one of the world’s only female pro surf photographers, you can find it here.

Do What You Love Interview – Lucia Griggi

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thebiginterview

Lucia Griggi is one of the world’s only female professional surf photographers, and an award winning one at that. Does she need more introduction than that? This is clearly a woman doing what she loves (and what talent!) 

 

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Here is how Lucia describes herself:

“My father is from Venice, Italy and my mother is from London, England so maybe I’m pulled by whatever inspired Marco Polo overland to China or the same psychic winds that took Captain Cook halfway around the world to Hawaii and Alaska. Marco Polo went east, Captain Cook went west and I want to go both ways at the same time. Some say wanderlust is in your blood, some say it gets in your blood. With me it’s both.

See a little, and you want to see a lot. See a lot, and you want to see a lot more. And if by chance you see it all, you can start all over again, because change is a constant. Becoming a photographer has given me a chance to realize what I genuinely believe is my destiny: to travel the world and understand it. I began as a surf photographer, obsessed with the search for the perfect wave. But that search has lead me on paths away from the beach, to worlds I didn’t know existed. Getting to know the unknown is now my passion.

My site www.luciagriggi.com is for those eager to look beyond everyday life – a showcase of my journey so far: North to Alaska; as far south as South Africa; west to California and as far east as Sri Lanka. Hawaii, the Maldives, Vietnam, Morocco, Australia: North, south, east and west. I’ve seen a lot but I haven’t seen it all and I share these photos, hoping they will inspire in others what I have found in myself: The desire to travel, have adventures and learn and experience different cultures. All I want to do is see the world and capture it in a way that will encourage others to follow their passions and make their dreams become a reality.”

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Life According to Mr K – Love Life (5) Who are you?

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lifeaccordingtomrk

There is great comfort to be found in the sense of belonging and thinking, “I do that too!” I do hope that at times whilst reading my blog posts you may nod and chuckle to yourself in agreement. In those moments we can relax and breathe a sigh of relief. We are not alone!

Finding common ground with humour can allow us to bond, seek perspective and has definitely helped ‘break the ice’ in varying situations over the years.

I particularly love observational humour. One of my favourite comedians is Lee Evans. I remember one sketch in particular when he demonstrates how we attempt to get into a hot bath. It was priceless. I was in stitches… it was as if he had been spying on me, observing and noting all the ridiculous faces and noises I make. Judging by the audience I was not alone.

We often find great comfort belonging to a group, whether that be family, friends, teammates, classmates, work colleagues or any other collection of people. Safety in numbers if you like. This may be in part dictated by the society in which we live. In Japan, where there is a strong sense of collectivism, there is a famous saying, “The nail which sticks out gets hammered down”. Whilst here in the UK the sense of ‘group-think’ is nowhere near as strong, and individualism (especially in places like Brighton where we live) is often celebrated, in our social groups there is still a tendency to do what your mates do. It can take courage to step away and do your own thing.

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Life According To Mr. K – Love Life (3)

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lifeaccordingtomrk

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.

Life is a dream, realize it.

Life is a challenge, meet it.

Life is a duty, complete it.

Life is a game, play it.

Life is a promise, fulfill it.

–       Mother Theresa

Our lives are all unique. Our own personal stories are made all the more colourful as they blend and interweave with one another’s when our paths meet. They are filled with experiences that create memories, thus providing us with an opportunity to gain knowledge and wisdom for the next chapter.

Every step of our adventure is dictated by the decisions we make. The places we go dictates the people we meet. Science fiction may let us believe different but unfortunately we cannot journey down two separate paths simultaneously, to check where it may lead us. We have to trust our gut instinct and experiences to guide us.

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Life According To Mr.K – Love Life (2) + Book Give Away!

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lifeaccordingtomrk

Love Life!  This is our theme for August, and perhaps the most important one yet.

To love something we must treasure it. To really love life requires an appreciation of life itself. And when you really begin to appreciate your life you become increasingly aware how fragile and short it is in the grand scheme of things. The importance of  life has been exaggerated by the news that come Christmas I am going to become a Dad!

I mentioned last week that I believe we get one shot at life and I was going to make damn sure I was going to live my life to its maximum. What I forgot to mention was that I am also very keen to live a very long and healthy life – but aren’t we all? This has never been more true than now, with a baby on the way.

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Life According to Mr. K – Love Life (1)

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lifeaccordingtomrk

I have the great pleasure to introduce you to our next month’s theme – Love Life.

Working for Do What You Love does mean that more and more hyperbole appears in sentences that you either write or speak, love being a perfect example. This is not a coincidence!

I certainly do not want to get all bohemian on you but when you find that right direction and combine it with the right balance, life becomes one great adventure. And living that adventure becomes the reason you jump out of bed every morning. It is only natural that you want to share this with your family and friends, and in our case through Do What You Love to the whole world.

As you may be aware if you read this blog often, my life has changed massively over the past couple of years. I have reflected and written retrospectively about my experiences in my old career and during my time in Japan, but now, given the new theme, it is time to dedicate this month’s posts to the present moment.

Depending on your religious beliefs you may well have different views on what life means and the value of it. I believe that we get one shot at it so I am going to make damn sure that I use my time to live it to its very maximum.

What does living life mean to you? Is it grasping every opportunity that comes your way? Is it dedicating it to a good cause? Is it experiencing as many things as possible? Is it about being happy? Or could it be described as leaving a legacy for the next generation? I think it is most probably a combination of them all with lots of others thrown in depending upon the individual. For me it is Doing What You Love.

Doing what you love does not mean drinking cold beer all the time, constantly sunbathing, not working or necessarily getting rich. Doing what you love is finding the right balance in your life to ensure you remain enthused, interested, motivated and healthy. For example, a cold beer tastes so much sweeter when it is earned and sun bathing may be a much needed re-charge of the batteries after being cold or cooped up inside.

Although I have changed career some of my favourite memories of the summer have been spent ensuring huge concrete pours go off (literally) without a hitch. Then having a cold beer and sharing that achievement with my work colleagues. The trouble was the good days were hugely outweighed by the not so good. This balance of my life had to be readdressed. It would be considered stupid to continue down a path so out of proportion.

“Life’s hard. It’s even harder when you’re stupid.” –  John Wayne

My life now finds me down in Brighton. For those of you not from the UK it is directly below London on the coast. It is vibrant, diverse but has a sense of perspective about it. And like most coastal towns/cities it has a relaxed and laid- back undertone to it. Most mornings I wake early and go either running or cycling along the front. This way I manage not only to get my exercise in for the day but also to enjoy the view with a few select others before the crowds flock. It is also my time when the world and my thoughts are mine alone. Priceless.

I return home and shower before most have even woken up. This early bird routine has been with me since my paper rounds at the age of 11. Personally I think it really is hard to beat an early morning, when the air is fresh and the optimism that a great day is in-store is still a reality.

Another advantage of living by the sea is eating on the roof terrace. Nothing special, but it is a quiet private space where my wife and I eat, plan, laugh and look over the rooftops out to sea. Every now and again we do hold our breath as another seagull flies over our heads waiting to see if we are going to be their next victim(!) but that is a small price to pay… I guess gazing out to sea encourages you to dream. Well this is how I feel life is now. Limitless!!

I then work. Yes work! We are forging our own path and we both truly believe that the world will be a better place if more people were doing what they loved. This is a hugely motivating ideal, which I am sure we can help others achieve. So every email that is sent or blog post written or course content devised may just be that little part of someone else’s day that makes all the difference.

I allow time in the day to go to the gym and to get outside. One thing I miss in particular about my previous career is the outside element of the work. For me now to sit behind a computer all day would be hypocritical, boring and unhealthy. It just isn’t me. So to design my day to suit me provides the balance and variety I crave. We can all do this. The level of freedom we have may fluctuate be we are all in charge. So take charge.

After work we cook and chat about various things, whatever is important, humorous or even annoying! At the moment it is predominantly about the prospect of being parents. Then we eat. I have, do and always will love my food. Then most importantly we have some private time. We may walk, watch a good film or just read. The quiet moments are some of my favourites, then off to bed. What the next day has in store I never know but I can’t wait to find out. This hasn’t always been the case.

This is just a snippet of a common day in my life now. I have made changes to allow me to live it and enjoy it. Do not wait for someone else to live your life for you.

Get up, get involved!

I would be interested to hear your thoughts and how you could readdress the balance in your life so it suits you better!

until next time…

Mr K

Do What You Love interview – Mandy Henry

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Do What You Love interview - Mandy Henry thebiginterview

Today’s interview is Mandy Henry, who I first met when she interviewed me for television! That was nearly 10 years ago, back in 2004 when I worked at UNICEF and the Asian Tsunami struck. As a full time presenter at MUTV (Manchester United television), she and her team did a brilliant job helping us create a high profile appeal with the Manchester United first team players to raise emergency funds from the fans.

We have stayed in touch ever since, and some time back Mandy took the Do What You Love e-course at a time when she was getting itchy feet in her job. It was clear that TV presenting is something that Mandy is brilliant at, and loves, but the way the job worked wasn’t working for her.

Today Mandy shares how she made the leap into freelance presenting, to allow her to stay doing what she loves, but in a way which suits her lifestyle, and talks about what she has discovered along the way. – Beth

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