Just Say Yes!
ILLUSTRATION: JO VINCENT ART AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Local Dad Geoff Long explains why he had to get in involved with the charity initiative - The Biggest Book of Yes. Be inspired by his journey and others, you may find you have more in common than you would have ever imagined.
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o you ever get that feeling that life is getting busier and busier? Of being bombarded with information, facts and questions from every angle and through a multitude of communication channels? Updates from schools, questions from the kids, offers from companies, not to mention a tsunami of blogs, images and memes from the plethora of social media platforms. All of this on top of the everyday tasks of shopping, managing family squabbles and earning a living. So often I find myself working flat-out to wade through all of this and I’ve noticed it’s easy to get caught in a place where dealing with the ‘admin’ starts to consume the majority of my time. It detracts from where my focus should be, looking for ways to incorporate rewarding experiences into mine and my family’s life. The constant challenge of keeping things interesting is an approach that has permeated my life to a greater or lesser extent, sometimes I’ve failed spectacularly and other times it’s lead me to embark on some life-changing adventures. What is important to me is that I keep reflecting on where I am, whether I’m stuck in a rut and what changes, whether big or small, I can make to bring
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things back to a better balance. I’ve recently been involved in contributing to a book called The Biggest Book of Yes – a compilation of 49 stories from head editor and author Jon Doolan and other different authors who've written about their own challenges and ways that they said ‘YES!’ to life. The stories cover everything from getting up 2 hours earlier every day, to epic overland trips across the Himalayas, and it brings together an amazing collection of personal accounts of how individuals have shifted things in pursuit of a more fulfilling life. This has created an incredible book that makes for an amazingly emotive, entertaining and inspirational read. It’s also all for charity, raising money for the Teddington Trust, with ALL proceeds from the book going to help those with the genetic condition Xeroderma Pigmentosum which causes extreme sensitivity to sunlight and UV radiation. It's been 6 months in the making, with a fantastic volunteer team of authors, artists and editors, pulling out all of the stops to create one of the most inspirational collections of adventure stories you'll ever read – includingstories from parents who have embraced the challenge of pursuing adventures with their children.
