After 31 days of ColdTurkeyTober I can report an 8lb weight loss, 202 km of running completed and a general feeling of well-being that manifested itself in last Saturday’s Beachy Head Marathon – a run I enjoyed more than many in recent history.

Looking back, I reached 87% of my target on nutrition and 81% of my (ambitious) running target for the month, indicating that this particular “perfect imperfectionist” is going strong – I didn’t use this occasion to raise any money for charity and so the percentages are quite acceptable, given my constant travel and the usual busy Q4.

Looking forward (and this is the really important part), I’ve developed some new embedded habits around regular exercise and no beige food that I intend to maintain until the fancy takes me to start eating and drinking the wrong stuff more regularly (it will happen). For now, it’s going to be Paleo nutrition 6 days a week (Saturday is cheat day) and a targeted minimum of 200km training every month.

The psychological as well as physical benefits are so obvious that I can allow myself to feel stupid for not starting sooner – but that’s the nature of these things – we are human and not mechanical, subject to weakness and distraction, capable of waxing and waning.

It comes as no surprise to find that business is going well during this period – I’m sure we do give off a better aura (or summat) when we are on these personal campaigns and that rubs off on those around us. Clients/patients become more fun to work with, as do team members and suppliers.

Confidence is attractive.

Sometimes we do need to kick-start ourselves to achieve that confidence.

So – 1st November tomorrow and we begin the pre-Christmas period. The lights were off on Oxford Street last night as I struggled through the crowds in the new early evening darkness. This year’s 750,000 LED lightbulbs will be illuminated on 7th November (as they will in many other towns and cities in the days ahead) and the race will begin to finish the business year in style, hit the targets we set ourselves earlier and start thinking about what we want to achieve in 2018.

You will know that I’m working hard with my existing clients at the moment, as well as recruiting for the brand new workshop programme – Extreme Business 2018 with Coach Barrow. After launching at the BDIA, registrations are off to a flying start with 16 confirmed as of this morning and plenty more marketing activity and pipeline management ahead.

I’ll be pushing Extreme Business 2018 hard as I think it’s going to be a superb experience for the owners and managers attending and the line up of clients already committed is exciting me.

Full details are HERE.

Think about your own targets for 2018 – set them at EXTREME and you will send a message to yourself and your team that next year will be special. I’d love to have the chance of helping you with that.