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Never ever put yourself down. 

Reasons:

1. Some people will revel in doing it for you. For their sake as much as yours, don’t make the conditions easy for them.
2. Don’t diminish life; whoever you are, you are amazing and unique.
3. Faux modesty is dishonesty.
4. Don’t insult other people’s good opinions.
5. Be strong for others. 

 Some personal pep talk points:

1. Be in a position to help.
2. Your growth should enable others to grow too. 
3. This isn’t a zero-sum game.
4. Relative measurements are irrelevant.
5. Have fun!

A little target I’ve set myself is to make it to 100. Yes I know, quality is more important than quantity, and yes many of the factors are out of my control. I don’t take it too seriously but I like having something to aim towards.

The best way to be in good health is to be grateful for each day and appreciate the moments I am living – ironically this is a lot easier when in good health.

Noticing the aliveness of the body feels pleasurable and there is palpable relief if any tension is found and released. Mindfulness can be as simple as noticing the breathing.

I’ve been writing a thought a day here for the previous few days. I will flip now to an actual pen and paper because the closeness to the handwritten words feels more personal to me.

Cats and dogs are similar, only in that they both like living with you. Cats are beautiful, elegant, magical; it feels like you are honoured if they grace you with their attention. Dogs love you; all they want is to run and play, sniff things, eat food, and mostly importantly: your affection.

I add to a file any interesting little phrases that occur to me, removing them later on if used in a song or other writing. For example, I just added: “A lived life transcends its genre.”

In retrospect similar phrases may grate on the ear with cheesiness but if I like the sentiment at the time, then it goes in.

The content is currently about 8,000 words.

I seem to get satisfaction out of pushing myself physically – maybe because in my mind I am subscribing to the saying “no pain, no gain”. A variation on the theme is that anything initially perceived as negative could be viewed as part of a greater improvement process.

Tip:

Whenever you are talking about someone, assume they can hear every word. Hopefully this will remind you to be kinder.

I wouldn’t call London a beautiful city, but it is endlessly fascinating. The maze of streets emerged not by grand design but grew from what had been before. It is eccentric, hickety-pickety, throbbing with history and humanity.

Muddled, confused, unaware – what on earth were you doing? Why were you sleep-walking for so long?

In the distant pre-internet days when I was a kid, I designed a board game then forgot all about it. The game actually looks pretty fun; it has a blend of strategy, risk and probability – like many good games. So I think I’ll have a few physical sets made-up, thanks to the internet and finding out there are specialist businesses that do this sort of thing.

Combining football with golf was another one of my games, which I called “Folf”. Well if I had the internet, I would have been able to find out the sport has been around for a while and is called “Foot Golf”.

Just 15 years ago or so, it wasn’t particularly easy to share photos and updates with friends and family; there were fewer easily accessible outlets for self-expression and it was more difficult to find interesting information or media.

The downsides are well-known, although if fully acknowledged there would have been more energy to find effective solutions. There was a speed in breaking things but less appetite in clearing-up the mess.

I walk and run about 50 miles per week, usually while listening to podcasts.

My most effective thinking tool is sleep. I realise now the importance of the advice “sleep on it”.

I yo-yo between the Southwark part of the Thames and the Colchester countryside. Many of my artsy pictures are what I see during my wanderings: reallybobster.com/arty