Rest

Wednesday 23rd Feb

20, 25, 30 squats. 30 x 3 tough sit-ups (on a ball, leaning right back so head was almost on floor and spine curved).

Followed by a 5.5k run, that included 6 x 400m sprints with 2 minutes rest between each.

The sprints were at a speed of 12.5 – 14 kph.

Thursday 24th Feb

Rest

Friday 25th FebRest

Saturday 26th Feb

Was away in a hotel. Swam about 10 lengths. That doesn’t really count.

Sunday 27th Feb

Rest

Monday 28th Feb

Ran 5.5k in 33 minutes, after a warm-up, most of the run was at 10.7kph with the final 1.5k gradually increasing up to 14k.

I should be targeting a pace of 12 kph for a 5k run, slowing slightly for 10k, and further still for a full marathon.

Food: Wednesday breakfast Wednesday snack Wednesday lunchWednesday dinner – 2 x fillet-o-fish from McDonalds + chips.  I know its bad, but I was in a rush and had to smuggle something in the cinema.Thursday breakfast – home made soup & bread. Thursday snack  Thursday snacks which I ate instead of lunch Thursday dinner – fish curry, veg and potatoes! Thursday dessert.Friday breakfastFriday snackMore Friday snacksFriday lunch (hot wrap)Friday dinner – lovely salad (but not just any salad)Friday late night snack at the hotelSaturday breakfast (I had 2 plates)Friday lunchFriday snackFriday dinner – MexicanFriday dessert – chocolate fudge something or otherSunday breakfastSunday lunch – noodlesSunday dinnerMonday breakfastMonday morning biscuitMonday snacksMore Monday snacksMonday lunch – wrap and soupMonday dinnerMonday dessert – finish off the crisps from the hotel

I recently reached my 26th birthday and have yet to make a million, learn a language, learn to speed read, run a marathon, be on TV, publish a book, drive a Ferrari, appear in the Times Rich List, set up a business, hire someone, fire someone, manage people, get Knighted, meet the President, run for Parliament or in fact accomplish many of the things that I wholeheartedly believed that I could.

There are some things I have accomplished, I am 6 months into a very happy marriage, I earn good wages for a 26 year old, I am a qualified accountant, I’ve run a few 10k’s, cycled from London to Southend (56 miles) and walked 100km over the very hilly South Downs to raise £2,000 for Oxfam in the process, taking 27.5 hours to do so.  You can donate here.

Whilst I am very grateful for my life I feel there is something missing and I would be letting myself down by not trying to achieve a bit more. Money, fame, success, recognition are all means to an end that cannot make someone truly happy, but I firmly believe that working hard and pursuing worth goals can make someone happy. The age old quote that the journey is more important than the destination…

That’s true in marriage, the 3 years of getting to know each other are much more important and shape your life a lot more than the few crucial hours of the actual wedding day itself, but the wedding day is the milestone to tell you that you have reached your destination and it is now time to prepare for the next journey (probably kids).

I’ve heard it time and time again that you can’t have it all. I have been repeatedly told that in order to achieve success you must make one thing your sole priority and pursue it constantly and consistently each day. However there are some people who seem to have it all, health, wealth, happiness, still on their first marriage with normal not named after fruits/vegetables or the location of their conception and non drug taking offspring. That is what I will try to achieve and will be dabbling with various degrees of focusing entirely on one project, to trying to do 10 things at once (like I am now, at work, spread betting on the stock market, downloading self help audio programs and books, trying to write notes on all the books I read, listening to a wealth course on my ipod and planning how much time jogging at the gym I will get between now and Sunday).

I want the world to read what I am doing and to benefit from your counsel. I want you to hold me to account when my actions fall short of what is required to achieve, I want to create peer pressure so I soon get whipped back into shape when I go off course. Perhaps some of you reading will have specific skills that will allow us to work together on similar goals to improve our chances of success.

I also want this to be a real practical success manual for people to refer to as well as myself so I can learn from my own mistakes. We can all see in real time how successful various techniques are and what doesn’t work and I hope many of you will get inspired and push out of your comfort zones and do something you’ve always wanted to do!

So lets do it! LETS ACHIEVE ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING!

The Quest Begins

Just when I was getting really positive with my life after starting the post yesterday… things took a turn for the worst.

Some time ago I expressed interest in a company called TCA who train you in how to trade the stock market, then after 3 months take you on and you can trade with their funds for a 50:50 profit split.

Sound too good to be true? Well I never had any training from them yet they are now taking me to court. There is a bit more to it than that though…

The original company TCA Futures Limited was liquidated owing nearly £1million. Quite a lot about that on the net, lots of people lost money and had their training interrupted. My dubious contract however is with TCA Financial Limited who have the same website same staff etc… This is now being wound up and they have assigned the debt to another firm Global Financial Markets Limited…. However TCA Financial Limited never filed a return and then applied to be wound up (the requirement for this is to cease trading 3 months prior to this application).

There is a lot more to it than meets the eye. Their website says they have been trading successfully since 1997 which is clearly a blatant lie.

So now I will be writing about my challenges with TCA and trying to overcome these without letting this affect my life too much and detract from my progress in other areas.

If however anyone reading knows about contract law or company law and all these strokes they are pulling and can help me combat this then please let me know. I will of course pay for any formal advice.

Turn for the worst!

I searched around online and got a lot of free legal advice, got a book on small claims procedures so I was up to speed with the legal process. I also hired a solicitor to return my defence to the court… they are not cheap! But I feel I’ve got a lot of excellent advice and legally the company seeing me has only a slim chance of success, but I won’t reveal too much here as I don’t want them to know my plans.

My training, reading, business plans have all been on hold. But now I’m getting right back into it… for a start I need to try and make enough money to pay my solicitor and there is still a risk I may lose and have to pay the £3,000 plus their costs and mine!

Enough excuses – so what am I going to do now…

I desperately need to get back out running, I’ve been very tired recently and think it is due to lack of exercise.

I have a 10k race on the 4th October with a target of 45 minutes. My personal best is 55 minutes with a lot of training so I’m in serious danger of taking longer than an hour. But competing will still be better than quitting and give me a good idea of my current fitness level for next years Marathon.

So that will be health under control, what about wealth?

I found a scrap of paper the other day where I had made my New Years resolutions, one that stood out was to make £7,000 (profit) this year in addition to my regular wages and rents. So far I’ve not made a penny and time is rapidly running out, but I still believe that target is far from impossible!

I’ve put some plans in place to capitalise on the Olympics… I think I could be on to a good idea but it will take a long time to come to anything and ideally I’d like to be rich by then anyway. I can’t say too much about that though as if the millions don’t roll in by 2012 I may need to fall back on that idea!

Needing to find something more short term I was thinking about the common phrase people say “Do what you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life”. That got me thinking about what I would enjoy doing every day, in no particular order they are; to run my own business, be a TV/Film critic, run a specialist bookshop or travel around the world having fun and getting paid for it.

Picking the most immediately achievable of those career choices I have decided to expand on just having Amazon links posted on this site and will be launching an affiliate bookstore. You can take a look at the store here:

My Bookstore

I intend to be adding more books to it over the coming weeks in preparation for the official launch of this site.

All I saw on the way to work were adverts for Dan Browns new book, people reading it on the train and articles about it in the paper. So I thought to myself, if a lot of people want this book then maybe I can help them buy it and get a small commission.

So now I’ve set up a Dan Brown store

Dan Brown Store

If you search for the right keywords on Google, my advert comes up, people visit the site and hopefully buy. The starting commission is 5% per sale, but I’ve already sold 28 books so soon it will rise to 5.5%. If I can sell 30,000 items then the commission rises to 10%!

The rising commission means I can gradually spend more and more on advertising. I think I have a lot of work to make the store better to increase the number of buyers. Perhaps organise the DVD’s, audio books and novels in a better order. Adding Google Analytics will help me establish what keywords are resulting in a sale and which customers are coming and leaving without buying. This will help me focus my advertising.

I’ve created the store in a blog rather than a stand alone store as Amazon keep beating me with their own adverts (Google wont display ads to a Google store when Amazon themselves have a competing ad.. wasn’t hard to get around that one).

I’ve set all this up, but at the end of the day I won’t be retiring any time soon. At 5% of a £4.99 book, you do the maths! I have spotted another gap in the market. Arbitrage. This is where you exploit prices differences in two different markets. It could mean importing cheap tea from India (or Cocaine from Columbia) and selling it in a Starbucks in London (or a dark side street nearby) for much more than its value where its grown.

I’ve been exploiting these differences to sell The Lost Symbol on another website for £9. When I get an order, I log on to Amazon and have the book shipped directly by Amazon to my customer (using the gift options to withhold the price I paid). Its not automated, but there is no risk as I don’t order stock until I’m paid and there is no handling of stock either.

I’ve recently been inspired by two of my cousins who are both becoming increasingly successful in achieving what they want. In addition one of their partners recently performed a Michael Buble tribute night to a sell out crowd of several hundred. I find myself looking up to them, even though they are younger than I am.

As each day I get closer and closer to turning 30 I can’t help feeling I need to get a move on!

Its great how the power of the web gives me the power to complete with Waterstones, Tesco, WH Smith and Amazon from the comfort of my own home without needing to handle any stock or payments myself!

I’ve been having a few technical problems and had to delete and re-post some of my posts, so what is written may not relate to the date it was posted. I have however (thanks to OCD) put them all in the right order.

I’ve been talking a lot about my web activity and neglecting to talk about everything else….

I have been running in preparation for my 10k on the 4th October that I still plan to compete in.

My last 4 runs are as follows: These are all for the same 3.55 mile route around some streets in minutes and seconds.

Run 1 – 46:31 – this I found quite tough… I did walk for some of this.

Run 2 – 41:28 – a massive improvement, run 97% this time

Run 3 – 38:15 – another huge improvement. Ran all the way, no sign of slowing down.

Run 4 – 37:50 – despite improving slightly, it was really hard to keep this pace up for the entire run

I will be doing this route for the 5th time probably tomorrow night. Whilst I really want to keep improving, my progress is definitely slowing down.

To run the 10k in one hour (almost double my route) I’d need to do this route in a 34:15 pace.

To meet my 45 minute target for the run I’d have to complete this route in 25:40 and run almost as much again at the same pace!

I like a challenge, lets see how close I can get!

I’ve got a week and a half to run at a slightly faster pace, but keep it up for an hour.  I think realistically now its unlikely I’ll make 45 minutes.  I will see what other 10k runs are in the local area before it gets too cold and try for 45 minutes in one of those.  Another 6 weeks and I think I’ll manage it.

I found quite a few more 10K runs on runnersworld.co.uk for 1st and 15th November.  A lot more after that, but I don’t fancy running in December!

Perhaps I should keep entering until I meet the 45 minute target.  Then there is a big incentive to get it out of the way before the sub-zero December/January!

My latest run was 37:19. That is quite outside the pace I need for the 10k so looks like I will be running them well into the winter. Perhaps I had not given my legs long enough to recover from the previous run. I’ve probably got time for one more session before the race on Sunday.

I’ve also done a lot of work setting up this domain and blog and also my own personal domain, however my Adsense account was suspended. This removes the easiest source of revenue generation for this blog, my youtube account and my website. I have filed a claim with the Nottingham County Court taking Google to court for lost revenue unless they overturn the suspension. I will not be bullied by big companies who do not provide any customer service or allow people to get these matters looked into properly.

On a positive note though I have set up a new FIFA 10 store to conincide with the release of the new FIFA game on Friday.

FIFA Store

As the prices of these games are higher than the Dan Brown novels it will be interesting to see if the revenue generated exceeds that spent on advertising.

My goals for the following week are:

• Monitor sales & revenue from my latest store
• Get one more good training session in before the race on Sunday
• Find out about setting up web hosting not on Google Apps as Goole Sites are not flexible enough
• Have some fun as I’ve been so busy working on all this in my spare time

I remember collecting Max from the dog rescue place when I was 14. He was so tiny I never thought he would grow as big as he did. Our other dog Lucky hated him at first, but over time learned to love him. She also passed away much earlier this year after 16 years. They both accompanied me on many runs in my local woods and I always appreciated having a training partner. I hope you are both now reunited and have an endless supply of cat food (all dogs prefer this to dog food) and things to sniff on your walks.

This is a picture of Max taken last weekend with the new addition, Patch who I hope help brighten up Max’s final days.

Back to running… last week I ran my personal best for the 3.5mile track. 33:28! That’s nearly 2 minutes faster than my previous personal best and 4 minutes faster than my previous run.

How did I mange this…? Here are my top tips:

1. I drank plenty of water all day to stay hydrated and avoid bloating by trying to drink lots just before I start running
2. I didn’t take an iPod or anything else to distract me. I often have to slow down to change songs… not this time.
3. I tried to get in the zone. I just looked a few feet ahead and kept going. I tried to ignore other people out and about and also tried to avoid looking at my timer too much. I was wearing a heart rate monitor but I didn’t check it as I have a habit of getting worried when my heart rate is in the 180’s and 190’s and slowing down.
4. I ignored small pains and the desire to slow down or stop and just kept going.

I really felt like I was a lot more focused and using mind over matter. I was exhausted when I finished but it was well worth it. I find it more enjoyable to run with some music but I will do the odd naked run with no music or equipment weighing me down.

I had quite a bit of water with breakfast then about 1 hour before the race started on my first Lucozade. The second I would carry with me for the race.

I lined up in the race by the 1hour sign. Once previously when I ran I thought being near the front would be an advantage, but starting too fast by trying to keep up with people who are better than you isn’t a great strategy!

At 3km there was the first (that I saw) distance marker. For a one hour race I should be averaging 6 minutes per km, so should be about 18 minutes at this point. I had been running for just 17 minutes, and with the 33 seconds it took to actually make the start line that isn’t too bad!

At 5km into the race my watch was telling me 28:50 so I’d kept my minute lead and kept to the correct pace.

I definitely felt myself slowing around 7km. I tried several times to speed up again. I felt a surge of energy when I crossed the 8km and 9km marks but that surge only lasted 20 seconds, not the 6 minutes I needed to get to the next marker!

When I finally crossed the line the official race time was 59:something. I did a sprint finish and was really not able to focus on the time. The official time will be published soon so I look forward to getting that official time.

I am in the middle in the green T-Shirt.  Proof that I really did go for it as I crossed the finish line, I’m the only one completely in the air!

The fact I had something in reserve for a sprint finish tells me perhaps I could have run a little faster, but it really did take everything I had to sprint those final 30 seconds. I had also ran almost double the distance I had been running in training.

For a 45minute 10k I will need to average 4:30 per km as apposed to my current 6 minutes. That is a very significant improvement!

All in all, I need to get a lot more practise in if I am going to get my time down by any significant amount. There is no reason why I can’t do it, except for the weather keeping me indoors!