Paul Mort’s F*cking Unstoppable!

Discovering Paul Mort’s content has helped me through a really difficult period in my life. I read his latest book, F*cking Unstoppable! and here’s what I thought.

Discovering Paul Mort’s content has helped me through a really difficult period in my life. I read his latest book, F*cking Unstoppable! and here’s what I thought.

I first heard about Paul Mort when he appeared on Sean Spooner’s podcast, Life and Lessons. His say it as it is approach really resonated with me. The timing of the episode was ideal – I was going through an extremely tough time, and his straight talking approach encouraged me to pick myself and get on with things. I immediately purchased his book, F*cking Unstoppable!

Since reading his book I have been trying really hard to put his ideas into practice. I have been a million miles from getting it right, but the approaches he describes are things I’ve been trying to use each day since reading it.

He describes five elements to our lives that if we are aware of, and set goals and outcomes for, will make a real difference to our lives and the people’s around us.

The five areas (he calls them the F5) are:

  • Focus
  • Fitness
  • Family
  • Finance
  • Fun

Focus: this relates to your mindset – the ability to deal with stress, chaos and anxiety and coping with all those negative thoughts that can distract you from your life. I have been very conscious of my thought processes and tried hard to keep a daily journal where I explore my thoughts and feelings and how I want to feel. I dabbled with meditation but need to explore this more

Fitness: “If you feel like shite, you will perform like shite.” Simple advice. Since reading the book I am keeping better tabs on what I eat and drink, especially the amount of water I drink, the amount of sleep I have and the exercise I take part in. Walking has really improved my wellbeing recently.

Family: Spending time with my family and friends has been absolutely wonderful lately. During this difficult period, everyone has been so great at looking after me and I have never valued them all more highly. I am determined to spend quality time with my family and friends and the book has encouraged me to make this a resolution.

Finance: This is an extremely difficult time of my life financially and I am fearful for the future. Paul Mort has encouraged me to be more aware of the importance of finance and to set goals. I am taking this F more slowly due to the uncertainty in my life. But I will get there.

Fun: I have tried hard to build in fun into my life. We have planned fun things to look forward to, and also learned to find fun in simple things like tidying the house, doing jobs around the house

I am now setting goals for each of the F5 and I believe in doing so it will make me a better person.

The book is well worth reading and you can purchase it here.

From The Oasthouse

Alan Partridge has just released Series Two of his Audible podcast, From the Oasthouse.

It had felt like so long after the first series that I thought a second series of From The Oasthouse would never happen. However, I am delighted that, after two years, the podcast is back and it’s as good as ever!

I have really grown to love Partridge through the audio medium. I listen to I, Partridge and Nomad at least twice a year, and have done since Nomad was released in 2016. When From The Oasthouse Series One was released in 2020 it added a third Partridge regular listen to my list. I loved Series One. It was true Partridge – he rambled (not wittered, which is a slightly different thing) through eighteen episodes, showed vulnerability and overconfidence at the same time and was absolutely hilarious throughout. It was an instant classic for me.

I wondered what direction Series Two would go in. Would it involve more of his nervous breakdown caused by High Noon? In fact, in Series Two High Noon isn’t even mentioned, but Partridge is still going through some sort of a breakdown after losing his job on TV (oh no! No more This Time?!) and also the sad death of his dog, Seldom. He is desperately trying find something to fill his timem whether that is potholing or trying to get a job back at North Norfold Digital. It is great that the relationship with his grandchildren, which began in Series One, has continued. Somehow, you end up feeling sorry for Alan at the same time as finding him hilarious.

Series Two is shorter and he hints at a Series Three (or Series Two Second Tranche) and this is, of course, the best news I’ve heard since the announcement of Series Two!

During a horrible, tough time for the country, Alan Partidge arrives with hilarity and it is, as always, great to have him back!

The Slight Edge

I read The Slight Edge after hearing it recommended by Sean Spooner in his podcast.

It is a really powerful book with an important message:

Your philosophy creates your attitude, your actions, your results and these create your life. Little steps, compounded, do make a difference. The things you do every single day, the things that don’t look dramatic, that don’t even look like they matter, do matter. That they not only make a difference – they make all the difference.

The book describes the power of good habits and how quickly bad habits form. A message that really resonated with me is, “It’s more effective to take one business-building action every day for a week, than to take seven… all at once and then take the rest of the week off… The daily rhythm of the thing starts to change you. It becomes part of your routine, and as it does, it becomes part of who you are. That doesn’t happen with a once-in-a-while, all-out effort.”

Towards the end, I felt that the book became a bit preachy. This idea of doing something every day to improve became quite draining. I was reading the book in bed and was lying there feeling very guilty for all of the things I hadn’t done that day. The fact that I was reading this in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and all routine I had had been cancelled out in the lockdown made the guilt even worse!

What have I learned by reading the book?

I need to try to find ways to create habits and do things regularly to improve. These things matter and will add up over time.

Stuffocation

I’ve just finished reading Stuffocation by James Wallman. If I’m honest, I found it really hard going. Ironically, the book itself is now just ‘stuff’ that I’ve got left in the house that I don’t need.

It’s not that that I didn’t like the idea of the book. Living more with less is a powerful message that has really resonated with me. It’s more that this message could have been written in about two pages and not the 358 that this takes up.

The key message in the book is that stuff doesn’t bring happiness – experiences bring happiness. And there’s an important environmental message accompanying this too. These principles have really hit home with me and I’m going to do my best to follow them in future.

The most useful part of the book is the appendix: The 7 habits of Highly Effective Experientials. Here is my interpretation of these seven habits:

  1. Know your stuff: Only buy stuff that makes a difference and adds value to your life. Do you really need it?
  2. Find your ladder: Do something that you love. Life is about enjoying the journey, not reaching a destination.
  3. Be here now: Don’t treat experiences as a tick list. Enjoy them – be in the flow and savour the moment.
  4. Be your own audience: Do things for you, not so you can share your experiences on Instagram to make yourself look great and impress others.
  5. Put people first: Put simply, connections are what makes life. Build them and enjoy them.
  6. Spend well and feel good: Use your resources carefully, consciously and sustainably. Be mindful of the energy, time and money that you use so that using it makes you feel good.
  7. Choose life, choose experience: Be less goal-oriented and worry a little less about achieving the future. Slow down and enjoy life and value experience. Memories live longer than dreams. Be happy.

Daisy And The Trouble with Books…

Recently my daughter and I have fallen in love with Daisy Butters books.

Daisy Butters always seems to find herself getting into trouble somehow, and it’s never her fault. She, and her best friend Gabby, get up to all sorts of mischief which usually ends up embarrassing her mum, or her neighbour Mrs Pike. Daisy takes great delight in winding up her enemy, Jack Beechwhistle.

Written by Kes Gray, the books are really funny to read as an adult. Lily laughs her head off at the adventures which are narrated by the child herself which makes them even funnier!

So far, our favourite has been Daisy and the Trouble with Life which is all about a strawberry dib dab.

So far we have read…

We are currently reading Daisy and the Trouble with Chocolate. But we still have Daisy and the Trouble with Vampires from the library still to read! There are also some Daisy books suitable for younger readers and we have read 006 and a Bit and Eat Your Peas a few years ago!

The author has started to write books starring Daisy’s archenemy Jack Beechwhistle and we will be reading Jack Beechwhistle and the Rise of the Hairy Horror next.

I can highly recommend the stories, Lily is seven, nearly eight and we love reading them together!

Leave a comment with your own book recommendations!