Just Say

Just Say Yes!

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 journeyand others, you may fi nd you have more in common than you would haveever imagined.

Do 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

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.

I wrote Chapter 25: Go Daddy! - about being a single Dad, and a bike-packing trip my son Josh and I took around Jersey together when he was 5 years old. I speak of the stigma I felt of being a single parent (whether real or self-imposed) and how I’ve always tried to take him, and now my new partner plus 2 year old, on adventures big and small wherever possible. I’m a great advocate of engaging and empowering kids to realise their potential. Getting them to tackle things that they don’t realise they can manage until you show them it’s possible. The selfconfidence this develops in them transfers to all aspects of their lives and is great for building a trusting relationship.

I’m keen to emphasize that any changes we might make or challenges we undertake don’t need to be heroic. For a kid who is used to grabbing a tablet at every opportunity - going for a bike ride somewhere new, climbing a hill or camping out in the garden, can mean the world to them and seem like an awesome adventure. I also think it’s important to acknowledge that they don’t all need to be raring successes. Sometimes it’s the times you get lost, breakdown or end up doing something completely different than you planned that make for the most memorable experiences. The phrase “we’ll look back and laugh...”

springs to mind!

It’s also important to say that these experiences are more than just a temporary distraction. Whilst in the short term they will help to take our minds off immediate issues we are facing, they also provide a perspective and vital space that allows for some reflection, a chance to calm a little, breathe and hopefully deal with the more everyday tasks in a better way once we’re back in the thick of it.

So if you’re looking for inspiration and motivation, The Biggest Book of Yes is a treasure trove of ideas from people who have taken big and small steps to reclaim something they were missing in their day-to-day lives. We can find all kinds of reasons to avoid doing something different - finances, kids, perceived ability, time, age, the weather... And whilst many things might influence what we can do, none of them need stop us.

Finally, if I ever need reminding why this is all so important, I recall the last line of Mary Oliver’s poem The Summer’s Day; “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

You can buy The Biggest Book of Yes at www.amazon.co.uk