The Best You August 2015 by The Best You Magazine

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THE BEST YOU TRANSFORM • INSPIRE • MOTIVATE • ENRICH • EMPOWER • ENJOY AUGUST 2015 / Price £3.99

LEWIS

HAMILTON A LIFE OF SUCCESS ON THE TRACK

JOHN AMAECHI

THE JOURNEY FROM NBA TO MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER

ALL THAT I YOU CAN WANT TO BE LOSE IT! EMILIE WAPNICK ON BEING A MULTIPOTENTIALITE

USE YOUR HEAD TO REACH YOUR IDEAL WEIGHT

WORKING WEEKEND BUILD A BUSINESS AT SUMMER CAMP

PLUS: RIVER COTTAGE’S GUIDE TO SUMMER FOOD

£29.99 www.thebestyoumagazine.co

THE BEST YOU TRANSFORM • INSPIRE • MOTIVATE • ENRICH • EMPOWER • ENJOY AUGUST 2015

LEWIS

HAMILTON A LIFE OF SUCCESS ON THE TRACK JOHN AMAECHI

THE JOURNEY FROM NBA TO MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER

ALL THAT I WANT TO BE

EMILIE WAPNICK ON BEING A MULTIPOTENTIALITE

YOU CAN LOSE IT!

USE YOUR HEAD TO REACH YOUR IDEAL WEIGHT

WORK THE WEEKEND

BUILD A BUSINESS AT SUMMER CAMP

PLUS: RIVER COTTAGE’S GUIDE TO SUMMER FOOD

EDITORIAL

GET READY TO TRAIN FOR

YOUR SUCCESS A summer of sport is one of the season’s treats, and each year I am astounded by the levels of physical achievement that athletes around the globe reach in every event. If, like me, you’ve ever pondered what it takes to become an elite sports star, we have real insight in this month’s issue. I was privileged to spend time recently with NBA player and motivational speaker John Amaechi OBE, and Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson (don’t miss our September issue to read The Best You’s interview with her!). Both are amazingly modest about their sporting achievements, but the one thing that unites them and every other sports star is the sheer hard work, determination and courage that it takes to reach the top of their league. It’s an insight that we can all share and apply to our own dreams, in whichever area of life that we strive to achieve in. Self-belief, along with determined effort, are key to success and at The Best You our goal is to bring you the best advice to help you on your own journey of personal development. Along with our interview with John Amaechi, this month we also chat with Sky Sports presenter Tony Wrighton who has used NLP to transform his career, and profile Lewis Hamilton who has achieved so much on the track from an early age. Whether your goal is to get in shape, improve your fitness, start a business or improve your state of mind, this month’s issue has all you need to succeed. And for further inspiration, book your tickets for our Inspiring People Talks and The Best You Exhibition – email us at info@thebestyou.co for details.

BERNARDO MOYA, Editor-in-chief

Follow me: @Bernardo_Moya

To enjoy additional digital content, video and online galleries, download The Best You app at

thebestyoumagazine.co

Exclusive bonus shots on iPad, iPhone and Android devices

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THE BEST YOU MAGAZINE/ C O N TE N TS /AUGUST 2015

REGULARS 03

EDITOR’S LETTER

COULD YOU BE ONE OF THE BEST YOU’S STARS?

Bernardo Moya welcomes you to this month’s issue of The Best You

How to become a contributor to The Best You

WE SUPPORT...

Mind, the health charity working to make sure that no-one has to face a mental health problem alone

BOOK REVIEWS

A few of our favourite recently published books – plus your chance to win some great reads

THE BEST YOU DIRECTORY

Where to find the best coaches, trainers and practitioners

FEATURES 22

LEWIS HAMILTON

A remarkable life of achievement on the F1 track

16 TOP 6 EUROPEAN CITIES

Take a break...

JOHN AMAECHI

From NBA to inspirational speaker and philanthropist

TONY WRIGHTON

How the Sky Sports presenter uses NLP for success

INNER YOU 10

SENSORY PURSUITS

Sam Red explores the joy of finding a depth of feeling in life, in her forthcoming book

SETTING THE MOOD

Stephen Doran ponders whether a bad mood can be averted with a simple smile

ENJOY LIFE 16

Where to head for a long weekend or more

THE GOOD NEWS

With so much of what we read in the papers being negative, The Best You brings you some good news

TOP 6 EUROPEAN CITIES

FOLLOW YOUR PATHS

Emilie Wapnick ponders why we should choose just one path in life

EDITOR/PUBLISHER Bernardo Moya · DEPUTY EDITOR Daska Davis ASSOCIATE EDITORS Cynthia Phillips and Gail Kingsbury ADVERTISING advertising@thebestyou.co

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22 LEWIS HAMILTON Life on and off the track for the F1 star

THE BEST YOU MAGAZINE/ CO NTENTS /AUGUST 2015

LIVE LOVE LEGACY 40

AN INSPIRATIONAL STORY

How one woman found strength through exercise to boost her mental health

THE BRIGHT SIDE

Jon Gordon believes that we can all spread a little happiness as we go through life

IT’S ON YOUR BOOKSHELF

Jim Aitkins urges us to read what’s around us

WHAT DOES IT TAKE…

…to create perfect summer food? River Cottage’s Gillon Meller has some fresh ideas

FEEL & LOOK GOOD

55 JOZIE DIMARIA Living a rock star life, without the excess

YOU CAN LOSE IT!

Ali Campbell believes NLP techniques can help us to get into shape for good

THE RUNNING MAN

Gary Hawke is leading runs and walks with a difference across the capital

READY TO ROCK

JoZie DiMaria talks fitness on the road

WEALTH & RICHES 58

Take a workation and build your business at the Happy Startup Summer Camp

Samir Parikh explores life as a consultant

JOIN US AT THE BEST YOU EXHIBITION

The Best You brings together the world’s leading personal development speakers and brands in 2016

THE ROCKY ROAD TO SUCCESS

The Best You looks at people, past and present, who worked hard for their moment in the spotlight

21ST CENTURY LIVING 68

MEDIA DIRECTOR Allan Banford DIGITAL DESIGNER Monica Notarnicola TECHNICAL CONSULTANT Martin Carter

EXPERT ADVICE

WORKING HOLIDAY Meet the team helping entrepreneurs get their ideas into play

HAPPY CAMPERS

VLOGGERS MAKING A DIFFERENCE The Best You recognises vlogstars doing good

GREAT OUTDOORS

Bryan Szabo reviews the latest gadgets

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CONTRIBUTORS

DASKA DAVIS

is deputy editor at The Best You. This issue she interviews Gillon Meller, Gary Hawke, JoZie DiMaria and Laurence McCahill. “With fantastic ideas for entertaining, getting fit and boosting your business this summer, The Best You should be your go to place for the month ahead.”

@TheBestYou

SAM RED

is author of two books with a third, Looking for Tantra, to be published this autumn. “Spiritual issues have interested me ever since I had an existential crisis in my late 20s,” she says. “My search for spiritual truth and meaning has brought me in contact with Taoism, Reiki, the Arcane School and most recently Tantra”.

@AuthorSamRed

JON GORDON

has written numerous bestselling books and talks that have inspired readers and audiences around the world. His principles have been put to the test by numerous NFL, NBA, MLB coaches and teams, Fortune 500 companies, school districts, hospitals and non-profits.

@JonGordon11

JIM AITKINS

is an American author. He speaks and trains for corporations and organisations on the topics that he also writes about. He believes that personal growth is not only easier than most people think, but can be fun as well. Visit Jim’s blog at

obstacleblaster. com

BRYAN SZABO

is a Canadian-born freelance editor and writer who specialises in helping authors realise their full potential as writers. He believes that everybody has a story that should be told. His appearance on the acknowledgement page of dozens of titles proves that the voice he is helping budding authors to find is a precious thing indeed.

@eidolonink

DR STEPHEN SIMPSON

is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, and elite performance and confidence expert. He regularly appears on TV and radio, and his clients include leading names from the diverse worlds of sport, business and entertainment. He is a best-selling author and presenter.

@dr_sr_simpson

EMILIE WAPNICK

describes herself variously as an artist, entrepreneur, writer, speaker and coach, saying, “All of this could change tomorrow. That’s why I don’t like labels. Because I am not one thing. ‘Multipotentialite’ is the only accurate label for me”. Read her story and thoughts on following many paths on page 20.

MATT WINGETT

is a Portsmouthbased author who is also an NLP master. He uses skills learned from hypnotist Paul McKenna and NLP co-creator Richard Bandler in his work. For The Best You, he writes about former NBA star John Amaechi and Sky Sports presenter Tony Wrighton.

@MattWingett

@emiliewapnick

ALI CAMPBELL

is one of the world’s leading life coaches and NLP’ers. He has built an enviable reputation as a highly motivational coach, therapist, author and presenter. With expertise gained at the cutting edge of personal development his no nonsense ‘arm round your shoulder and a kick up the butt’ style makes him unique.

@ali_campbell

SAMIR PARIKH

is CEO of SPConsulting AB. His new book The Consultant’s Handbook: A Practical Guide to Delivering High-value and Differentiated Services in a Competitive Marketplace is published by Wiley and provides practical guidelines, supported by reallife examples related to the consulting profession.

@SamirParikh00

The Best You is published by The Best You Corporation Ltd, 5 Percy Street, W1T 1DG. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect The Best You Corporation Ltd, policy. The Best You Corporation Ltd accepts no responsibility for views expressed by its contributors. Advertisements and reader offers are not endorsed by The Best You or The Best You Corporation Ltd.

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COULD YOU BE ONE OF

THE BEST YOU’S

STARS?

Would you like to be part of the UK’s leading personal development magazine? Here’s your chance to share your story of success

At The Best You, we are passionate about helping people to reach their goals and achieve their full potential. Each month, we bring you inspiring interviews and articles from individuals who are living life to the full and realising their dreams through personal development and following their path to success.

Are you a writer, blogger or vlogstar? Now it’s your chance to share your story with The Best You. We are looking to publish articles within the magazine and at our digital channel, thebestyoumagazine.co, plus your videos on The Best You TV channels. Additionally, each month we will be focusing on an area of personal development, and we would like to share your tips for success with The Best You’s audience. Tell us your: • • • • • •

Coaching tips Mindfulness ideas Weight-loss solutions How you tackle phobias Ways to boost your self-esteem Finding a partner and making your relationship sparkle

In addition to having your article published and the opportunity to share your story with those who are actively seeking personal development advice, we will pay for every published article and video. So, get your thinking cap on and tell us about how you’ve become the Best You.

To find out more and how to upload your content, visit

thebestyoumagazine.co/ become-a-contributor

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INNER YOU Connect with the wonderful, special and powerful inside. Learn ways to get your mind and body in balance, bringing out the rich core of your being. Discover the secrets that will enable you to take charge of your inner life and become The Best You.

FEEL SENSATIONAL

How to experience life more fully and with more meaning

GOOD DAY, BAD DAY

Turn your frown upside down, says Stephen Doran

Put your company in this space! To sponsor this page and be part of The Best You, email us at advertising@thebestyou.co

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How deeply do you experience life? In her forthcoming book, author Sam Red explores a life led by our senses

SENSORY

PURSUITS

INNER YOU

The ability to connect more closely with our senses is related to the capacity to be more deeply and consciously aware of the moment. Being in the moment is something that’s recommended as a practice by many authors and spiritual paths – not only by proponents of Tantra. This awareness of the present is something that differs from the self-absorbed intensity of the ego-centric consciousness. By this I mean that at a certain stage in the development of our human consciousness, we’re highly identified with our personalities and will most likely consider our self to equate with our rational mind. During this stage, we may well experience a distinct sense of separateness and can be easily swayed, or even overwhelmed, by thoughts and emotions that we appear to have little control over. Awareness of the present moment, as recommended by Tantra and spiritual teachers such as Eckhart Tolle, is a technique that enables us to respond to this human reality. It encourages us to access the stillness and peacefulness that’s an innate part of our being when the rational mind is kept out of the equation. Moreover, it provides us with a means to connect more deeply with our senses so that we can experience situations in heightened and more meaningful ways. So often, I’ve had the impression that I’m going about my daily business with my head totally in the clouds, wrapped up in the thoughts and chimeras of the monkey, rational mind. I could be walking in the most stunning landscape and yet afterwards I can hardly recall what I saw, heard or felt. It’s as if my sensitivity has been on low or mute for years now. The older I get – or the further from

my childhood, the blunter my sensations. I’m disturbed to find that often external visual or aural stimuli don’t touch me deeply enough to hold my focus for even a few minutes at a time. The rational mind can be overpowering – like a self-proclaimed master dominating a serf. I believe this is largely the outcome of conventional Western-style living, even though my life has been far from mainstream. Still, I’m bombarded by the standards, prejudices and social constructs of my society, which all urge me to be busy, compete in a dog-eat-dog world, show how intellectually clever I am, curtail my instinct and be a ‘good’ wife. I remember being totally struck one year by a woman I met when I was on holiday in France. She seemed to be deeply appreciative of each and every thing she was experiencing. At the breakfast table in the gîte, where all guests ate together in the morning, she would extol the virtues of the jam and the bread made by the owner. It was clear she could savour the tastes and smells to an extent that far surpassed the experience of the rest of us. She also regularly referred to the beauty of the surrounding gardens, making detailed comments about the vegetation that clearly indicated she had noticed, and hugely appreciated, an array of flowers, the garden and its ornaments. It was captivating to see and hear her. I felt in awe of her, grateful to her. My partner of the time didn’t feel that way at all. He complained that: “She’s so exaggerated!” But, for me, I immediately recognised something unique in that woman – the ability to deeply appreciate

the inputs her sensory organs were offering her. The memory of her has remained in my mind for over a decade. At the time I didn’t know about Tantra, although I was on a spiritual path. Now, I would most certainly identify her as a person who was capable of living her life tantrically. Seeing her ability to connect with her senses, I became profoundly aware of how cut off I was from my own. Well, no more cut off than the majority of people, perhaps. However, seeing her, I knew I didn’t want to be like the majority of people, who were missing out on so many subtle facets of physicalplane existence because they weren’t able to really experience their senses – due perhaps to their imprisonment in ego identification, including ongoing contemplation of what other people were thinking about them in any given moment. Many people consciously, or unconsciously, aware of the barrenness of their daily nonsense lives seek to find relief by resorting to drugs, sex, adventure sports or gambling. They crave excitement and the chance to feel really alive, perhaps. Yet, the simple act of giving full attention to the stimuli presented to our sensory organs in everyday circumstances can open the existential door to a new outlook or feeling about life and awareness of who we intrinsically are – beyond what’s most obviously apparent.

This article is an extract from the book, Looking for Tantra – living the tantric dream by Sam Red, to be published this autumn. Find out more at sam-red.com

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Stephen Doran says that the way we present ourselves can have an enormous effect on our mindset

SETTING

THE MOOD 12

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INNER YOU

in that tone. If you close your eyes and really allow yourself to experience the tonality, what physiological and emotional response do you realise? Now try the same phrase again but proud, as though you are almost bragging at how well you completed a task, ‘just like that!’ How does this make you feel? What do you notice? I’m sure the two responses are totally different. The responses of course greatly influence the response, which in turn influences the behaviour, which in turn determines our results. Finally repeat the same phrase in your mind but this time whisper it in an attractive and seductive tone, ‘just – like – that!’ Need I say more?! When it comes to our body language and facial expressions, there has been extensive research done around the link between psychology and physiology. Specific areas of the brain are stimulated by body positioning to create happiness and the value for us lies in knowing how we can better enable this stimulation, in order to instil regular happiness in ourselves. Smiling is something that has been widely studied; amongst the better known reports is the 1989 work by Robert Zajonc. In this, subjects were not asked to smile, this would have given the game away somewhat, instead it was a blind study, meaning the participants weren’t aware what was being observed. So how do you make someone smile without telling them and without making them happy first? I’m glad you asked. Zajonc had participants repeat vowel sounds such as a long ‘e’ sound, which stretches the edges of the mouths. Other vowel sounds used were the long ‘u’ which forces the mouth into a pout. In short the results were as follows: subjects reported feeling good after an ‘e’ and feeling bad after a ‘u’ sound. Similar studies have been performed with equivalent results. What came first – the frown or the bad mood? We know that one’s internal state is often clearly demonstrated through an overt physiology. Slumped shoulders, drooping head and frowning face. Yet physiology and mind state are not too dissimilar to the chicken and egg paradox. Our tone also tends to run in alignment with our mood; we know when someone is sulking or ecstatic from the way they say what they say. Your body language and tonality don’t merely reflect your internal emotions; they are in fact often the cause. This is great news as it means we can consciously utilise them to influence our emotions. Let’s face it; a happy life is a good one. When we open our body language and adopt more empowering expressions, we communicate to our mind to also open up. Another added bonus is the way this non-verbal communication is received by others. We have all heard the old saying, extracting (and often misrepresented) from the work of Albert Mehrabian in 1971, that only 7 per cent of our communication is words. The remainder comprises of 55 per cent body language and 38 per cent tonality. Avoiding being pedantic over the precision and context of these statistics, what we can agree on is that what they do indicate is a huge chunk of our communication lies beyond our words alone. People often say they can hear a smile through the phone; of course what they are in fact referring to is the tonality. Interestingly Mehrabian goes on to say that if there is any incongruence between your words and your tonality, 86 per cent of the time people will trust what they gauged from the tonality over what was handed to them linguistically. This is also true of our inner dialogue; the way in which we say what we say to ourselves. In NLP this would fall under sub modalities; the difference in tone, speed, volume, pace, analogue marking and so forth that one presents or represents dialogue to oneself is bound to influence the reception. Try it for yourself and you will see. First try a voice of judgement and anger, shouting the message to yourself: ‘just like that!’ See how it makes you feel to attack yourself

One asked participants to hold a pen in their mouth either by pouting and holding the pen with their lips or holding it horizontally within their teeth, forcing a smile-like position with the mouth. Their hypotheses are all that there is a clear cause and effect relationship between the physical performance of a smile and the psychological response. Zajonc went on to explain not only that there is a relationship between the smile and the mood but also why; with interesting theory of blood flow to the brain dictating temperature of the brain. It’s a very interesting study; the most beneficial part is not the why something is how it is, as much as it is about knowing what it is and most importantly the how, how can we use it to our advantage? As they say, you don’t need to study the root in order to pick the fruit. Finally, our body language; in short, the poses we adopt to make ourselves confident involve making our bodies bigger and nerves tend to make us smaller. A study conducted by Amy Cuddy, Caroline Wilmouth and Dana Carney from Harvard Business School shows the benefits of adopting ‘power poses’ prior to ‘high-stakes social evaluation’. Amy Cuddy gave a fantastic Ted Talk entitled ‘Your body language shapes who you are’. In short, they asked candidates to adopt either high or low power poses for a two minute period. They found that when high power poses were adopted prior to a controlled job interview, people achieved greater success and were more likely to perform, the opposite was also true. Again this was a blind study, and again the cause and effect seems clear. We know then that it is important to adopt particular behaviour in order to elicit desirable emotions, which in turn result in more desirable behaviour. Behaviour of course is the single most important factor governing the results we achieve in the external world. Acting as if we are already confident, happy or otherwise is then bound to influence our ability to become so. The old saying ‘fake it until you make it’ could otherwise be amended by adding to it, ‘fake it until you make it true’. Maybe there is value in turning that frown upside down after all.

ENJOY LIFE Laughter, humour, travel, love – these are the things that add the sparkle that makes life worth living. Climb a mountain, give to others, start a family, embrace life. What are the things you wish you had done but haven’t yet? Life is no rehearsal – enjoy life every day.

TOP 6 EUROPEAN CITIES

The best city breaks to take

IT’S THE GOOD NEWS

The Best You brings you positive stories

FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS

Why have just one, says Emilie Wapnick

Put your company in this space! To sponsor this page and be part of The Best You, email us at advertising@thebestyou.co

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TOP 6

EUROPEAN

CITIES

Culture, history, architecture and culinary experiences – what’s not to love about a European city break? Here’s The Best You’s hit list of weekend wonders

1. BARCELONA Top of the list with its architectural maze of Gothic facades and modern buildings. But that’s just this city’s starting point, with a thriving arts scene, designer clothes and shoes to be bought, plus a fantastic range of eateries and nightclubs that go on late into the night. You might find a weekend is just the beginning and you plan a longer return trip before you leave…

2. VENICE

3. AMSTERDAM

A magical city with endless waterways, treat yourself to a gondola ride and marvel at the precision with which the gondoliers navigate the tightest turns. As Bellini was created in Venice, it would be rude not to raise a glass and maybe enjoy a dish of salted codfish alongside.

Walk, cycle, maybe take a river taxi – there are plenty of ways to enjoy the well-proportioned streets of Amsterdam. Alongside its relaxed lifestyle, the city houses an amazing array of artwork in its fantastically curated museums, so enjoy the culture too.

ENJOY LIFE

4. ROME As history goes, Rome has plenty to show with its ancient ruins and wealth of art. Alongside there are trattorias, piazzas and shops that live up to the city’s familial and friendly atmosphere, plus a climate that make this city break feel like a real escape.

5. PARIS While Parisians typically depart the big smoke for the month of August, for cooler country and coast, this can be a fabulous month to explore the French capital. While you’ll undoubtedly still queue to see the Mona Lisa behind her glass shield, you’ll find courtyards and gardens with a more relaxed view of Paris.

6. LONDON For many it’s a place to live and work, but there’s a reason that millions of visitors flock to London. Slip into tourist mode and tour some of the world’s best museums, sit on Southbank and people watch over a glass of Pimm’s, before catching a theatre show.

WE SUPPORT

MIND The mental health charity campaigns to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding For more than 60 years, Mind has worked to improve the lives of all people with experience of mental health problems. Recently the charity has been working on new research which shows that people with mental health problems are put off sport, because they are not ‘gym body ready’. The positive effects of exercise on both mind and body are well-documented, but the charity’s recent study shows that four fifths (80 per cent) of people with mental health problems who do not take part in sport, are put off because they feel self-conscious about their bodies. Nearly 70 per cent of people told Mind that they feel their mental health makes taking part too difficult. The findings come as the charity launches Get Set to Go, a new programme to support 75,000 people with mental health problems to take up sport. Mind’s poll, of 660 people, found that four fifths of people don’t feel confident in their sporting ability. Get Set to Go, supported by Sport England and the National Lottery, will help people with mental health problems become more active through sports projects at eight local Minds. People taking part will receive one-to-one support from others with shared experiences, who understand the additional challenges a mental health problem presents to those who want to get active. Of those who do take part in sport, more than one in five say it is because their GP or another health professional had recommended it, while more than 90 per cent participate because it is good for their mental wellbeing. Nearly three quarters (72 per cent) of people with mental health problems say they enjoy taking part in sport, or exercising, however around nearly two thirds (64 per cent) are worried about taking part in sport by themselves. Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, the mental health charity, says: “Our research shows that

Photography by Michael Lishman

people with mental health problems do want to participate in sport, however feelings of low self-confidence, exhaustion or fear of crowded spaces are preventing them from getting started. “We want more people with mental health problems to be able to enjoy exercising and Get Set to Go will help people to better look after their physical and mental health through sport. Our online community, Elefriends, is also a great place to find support and advice from others with mental health problems who use sport and exercise to stay well.” Mind’s research also revealed a perception amongst respondents that you need to look a certain way to participate. Over half (55 per cent) of people told the charity they are not ‘gym body ready’, saying they are not members of sports clubs, gyms or leisure centres, because they are embarrassed about their body shape or size.

To find out more about Get Set to Go, visit www.mind.org.uk

ENJOY LIFE

THE

GOOD NEWS LET THE KIDS GO WILD If you love Autumnwatch, pre-order a self-build Wildlife Cam Kit from naturebytes.org, a waterproof Raspberry Pi-powered, heat sensitive camera that snaps backyard prowlers (hedgehogs, squirrels, foxes and cats). Priced £95 it could be the making of a budding Chris Packham or Michaela Strachan.

WASTE ENERGY Students at Lund University in Sweden have created FoPo food powder from waste produce – the freeze-dried fruit product will be processed into a nutritious powder to be used in soups, smoothies or baking, and potentially used in humanitarian relief packages too.

CATCH THAT THOUGHT If you’ve ever wracked your brain to recall that great idea you had last week, Myle Tap could be the answer. A Canadian touch-activated wearable voice recorder that syncs with a smartphone via Bluetooth, the Myle Tap converts recordings into text. Take note!

HAZARD AHEAD! Sat Nav for bikes might be just around the corner. Byxee is a smart safety device that attaches to a bike’s handlebars and uses an advanced video system to flag up potholes, bumps, pedestrians or car doors, and warns cyclists with an audible beep. Scheduled for launch in February 2016, the device can be pre-ordered for US$139.

ENJOY LIFE

YOUR PATHS For multipotentialite Emilie Wapnick, lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about following every opportunity that ignites something within you

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When I was 17, a school advisor asked our class to anonymously submit our college-related questions. As the advisor read my question aloud, a look of confusion swept over the room. ”Are we allowed to take maths classes?” she read. My classmates giggled. We were in an art programme. ”Why would anyone voluntarily choose to take a maths class?” one of them asked in disbelief. I smiled along, trying to hide the fact that it was I who had submitted the question. What I didn’t realise back then was that I was, and am, a multipotentialite. A multipotentialite is someone with many interests and creative pursuits. We become fascinated by various subjects, absorb all of the information we can get our hands on, then eventually either lose interest or simply fall in love with something new. We often have multiple projects and passions on the go at any given time. My multipotentiality explained my desire to study both art and math. I enjoyed them both. I used to think that my zigzagging nature and hyphenated credentials were a problem, that I would never find my ‘one true calling’, or be able to stick with something long enough to make a living at it. Worst of all, I worried that there was something wrong with me for being unable to choose one thing. In my mid-twenties, I began learning more about my ‘curse’. I started speaking with other people who had multiple passions and publishing my ideas online. What

I learned was that having several interests wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. I met successful artists who worked in multiple media, serial entrepreneurs, a lawyer who was also a critically-acclaimed novelist, a freelancer who did web design, video editing, and consulting, a psychotherapist, and just about every combination you can imagine. It turns out there are people in most sectors who are tapping into their love and knowledge of multiple disciplines on a regular basis. These people also tend to be leaders in their fields. It was once true that becoming an expert in a narrow field was the key to financial success. However, as the market becomes more saturated and the economy more unpredictable, it is becoming increasingly important to be versatile, to be able to pick up new skills quickly, and to be able to work with teams in different disciplines. As author Daniel Pink explains, it is the cross-pollinators who are becoming desirable in the marketplace of the twenty-first century: ‘What’s the most prevalent, and perhaps most important, prefix of our times? Multi. Our jobs require multitasking. Our communities are multicultural. Our entertainment is multimedia. While detailed knowledge of a single area once guaranteed success, today the top rewards go to those who can operate with equal aplomb in starkly different realms.’

Fast Company Magazine recently published a series of articles on what it coins, ‘Generation Flux’ – young professionals who are

embracing their plurality and taking on projects that interest them, regardless of medium or field. They argue that it is the individuals and organisations who can adapt in order to meet the needs of the market who are going to thrive in the new economy. Many of us grow up hearing the message that we need to choose one thing to be about. It can cause us a lot of anxiety, and make us feel as though there’s something wrong with us. It can also force us into a box, and lead to a life of unhappiness where we feel stifled and unable to express the breadth of who we are. The good news is that the world is changing rapidly, and as careers become less linear, multipotentialites are becoming increasingly desirable. So instead of choosing one thing and denying all of your other interests, why not explore ways of integrating your many passions into your life? Not only is it more possible than ever to work in multiple realms, it is one of the best ways to make an impact in the world.

Find out more at puttylike.com – watch Emilie Wapnick’s TED Talk at thebestyoumagazine.co

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TRACK

MASTER Lewis Hamiltonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dominance of the F1 circuit is legendary, with a recent second win at the British Grand Prix â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but what has been key to his success? Dr Stephen Simpson reports

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COVER STORY

ewis Hamilton is a British racing car driver, and current Formula One World Champion. He has broken almost all records in this dangerous motor sport and is still only aged 30. So what are the secrets of his phenomenal success, and what drives him to step into a racing car and put his life on the line almost every day? The truth is that Hamilton is not an ordinary person. He demonstrated this from an early age. At the age of 10, he famously approached the McLaren team chief Ron Dennis at an event and stated simply that, “I want to race for you one day”.

Sure enough just three years later he was invited to join its Young Driver programme, and made his F1 debut in 2007, winning his sixth race, and notching three more wins to come second overall in his first year. 2008 was even more spectacular, winning the Championship with five wins. To date he has 38 wins, and despite being only 30 is already the fifth most successful driver in history. So what are the secrets of his success? Often, but not always, one secret is to be born to the right parents. This is not essential for success, but it certainly helps. Lewis was not greatly interested in school, but obsessed by motor sport. His father, Anthony, promised him he would support his racing career if he would work hard at his studies. Many fathers have fallen into this trap without fully understanding the size of this commitment. Training to be a racing driver is the most expensive of any sport, and costs much more than to study to be a brain surgeon. To cut a long story short, Hamilton’s father worked up to three jobs at any one time, as well as travelling to all of his son’s races. Without this paternal sacrifice it is doubtful that Lewis would be World Champion today. Another secret of success common to most high achievers is that Hamilton is tough, very tough indeed. Champions are different to the rest of us, and we should always remember this. Hamilton does not risk death and race to make friends. At best his relationship with other drivers is fiercely competitive. From his early years he has been fighting tooth and nail to prove that he is a better driver than Nico Rosberg. Now they both drive on the same Mercedes team. Hamilton is tough off the track too, and demonstrated this by his direct negotiations with his employer. Rather than use agents and managers he chose to deal directly with Mercedes. The result was a three-year deal rumoured to be worth at least £100 million. Interestingly he also negotiated to keep his image rights. These could be worth a fortune too. However Hamilton’s greatest strength is the control he exerts over his mind. This above all else is what makes him a champion. So where does this strength come from? Hamilton believes much of this mental strength comes from his father. Especially his mental preparation and the way he thinks. Races can be won and lost by a fraction of a second, and therefore it is no surprise that teams explore every possible avenue to shave a split second off a lap time. One avenue many have explored is mind coaching for their drivers. Some athletes see mind coaching as only for those

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who have a problem that needs fixing, whilst others view it as a way to expand their already prestigious mental powers. Therefore it comes as no surprise that Mercedes hired Dr Ceri Evans to work with its team. He is both a psychologist and a psychiatrist. Considering Hamilton’s towering mental strength it is also no surprise that he felt he did not require Dr Evans’s input. “I’ve never had it, never needed it and will never have it. So we’ll never speak of it again unless I start going crazy,” he said in an interview with The Guardian in 2014. “For me, as a driver, it’s not something I feel I need because since I was eight years old I’ve won every championship I’ve competed in, and all I’ve needed is me and my family.”

need to be in to react correctly or intelligently.” So the challenge is to be alert, focussed, and calm. How can this be possible under these extreme conditions? The answer is by practice, and the right kind of practice too. By breaking a race down into small segments and rehearsing them time and time again, either on the track, or increasingly in the simulator. Curiously enough this practice can also be entirely mental, lying in the comfort of a hotel bed, with eyes closed. Repeating these sequences accompanied by minute muscle movements simulating the movements Hamilton would make in a real race.

However Hamilton has certainly spent thousands of hours developing his mind skills in different ways. In an earlier interview with The Guardian, Dr Kerry Spackman shared details of his work with Hamilton. Dr Spackman is a mathematician, neuroscientist and psychophysicist. He spent hours working with Hamilton in Mercedes’s simulator in Surrey, England.

It is not only F1 drivers that practice these techniques. This is an extract from one of my books, Play Magic Golf. ‘Skiers do the same too. Physiologists have wired their muscles, and attached them to recording machines. This is called electromyography. They discovered that when a skier is standing in the laboratory with eyes closed visualising their next competition run the same muscle groups are being flexed, and at the same time, as would happen on the real run, mirroring the ski terrain.’

Spackman explains why control of emotions is so important for a driver. “The engines are revving, the red lights are going, all these cars are slamming into the corner – natural anxiety alone would make you absolutely petrified, but that’s not the state you

The results from these kind of exercises can be phenomenal. Something has certainly clicked in Hamilton’s brain. Back to Dr Spackman again describing how Hamilton handles emergency situations. “He probably has 25 solutions in his

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COVER STORY

mind. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exceptionally well prepared. Most people turn up and drive and just deal with situations as they occur. He has the structure to handle it.â&#x20AC;? He certainly does. These mind skills work equally well in other sports. They work in business and your personal life too. So I wonder what you can do next to release the champion that is waiting to burst out of you?

Dr Stephen Simpson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, and an elite performance and confidence expert. He regularly appears on TV and radio, and his clients include leading names from the diverse worlds of sport, business, the entertainment industries, and even professional poker. Dr Simpson is also a best-selling author, presenter and writer. Full details of his articles, audiobooks, books, podcasts, and videos can be found at drstephensimpson.com

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FEATURE

JOHN AMAECHI

THE FORCE TO SUCCEED It’s not everyone who turns down the offer of a $17 million contract to play for one of the world’s top basketball teams on a point of principle. But John Amaechi is always going to surprise – after all, he is the first Englishman to play in the world’s most prestigious basketball league, the NBA. His story is as everyday in parts as it is unique in others. Born in 1970 to an English mother and a Nigerian father in Boston, USA, where his mother worked as a doctor in the General Hospital, he returned with her and two sisters to England after his parents divorced. He grew up in Stockport near Manchester, where he says he hated school. “It was ironic, really,” he reflects. “I loved to learn things and I loved to read things,” he confides with a warm smile. But what wasn’t right for him was the school experience with its didactic methods, alongside his own sense of being an outsider. “I didn’t fit anywhere I went... I was definitely the only person who looked like this. I was massive when I was in primary school, I was massive when I was in secondary school. I think I was the only black kid in my primary school, one of two in my secondary school and everywhere I went I didn’t quite fit in.”

Bernardo Moya speaks to basketball pro John Amaechi to find out whether the force in Star Wars helped him succeed – or whether it was something a little bit more down to earth

During his early years, Amaechi found his inspiration close to home. His mum, he affirms, was his number one inspiration. Her skills made him decide to become a “Jedi”. Laughing at how this sounds he says, “It’s a long story”, then goes on to explain, “I used to go on visits with my mother. She was a General Practitioner, and I would watch as she sat in living rooms with distraught families and she did a lot of palliative care. Really she played more of what I thought was like a psychiatrist role; helping them be resilient and helping them cope – and all of this within this tiny window of eight minutes or so that she had for all of these visits she had to do every day.” He remembers she would wave her hands at people and change the way they thought about things. She would say, “No, no, no, you can do this, this is what you are going to do and then I will see you in a week – and then they would parrot back what she had just said.” When Amaechi saw Star Wars for the first time as a 7-year-old and saw Obi Wan Kenobi tell the Stormtrooper, ‘These aren’t the droids you’re looking for,’ he says: “I sat in the theatre with my mother and I just stared at her, mouth wide open, because I’m like, ‘that’s what you do’. She looks at me, and she just kind of nods at me. I think she was just acknowledging me, but to me at seven years old it was like that was validation: ‘yes I am a Jedi’.” Amaechi went to the library and tried to explain to the librarians that he wanted to find out about this, and they responded that they thought he must be talking about psychology – and so his love of psychology was born. But the other thing that attracted Amaechi so very strongly was basketball, and at the age of 17 after his O levels, and just as he was about to start his A levels, he decided he must give it a try. He found a coach in Toledo, Ohio and went to High School for a year there, acculturating and learning about basketball. It would be a lovely story to say that his success came to him straight away, but Amaechi had to learn to play basketball among some of the best basketball players in the world.

FEATURE

The work was hard, gruelling, and there certainly wasn’t a straight line to success. He found himself scraping into trainings by the skin of his teeth, but persisting, always persisting, and improving as time went on. All the while, he had a clear goal in his mind, and would picture himself over and again, playing with the NBA. Anything seemed possible. In America at High School, the local press covers the college games. Massive crowds are pulled in to see the players – and he soon became used to playing before large crowds. “You suddenly realise that even at that stage you’re almost a semi-professional athlete, because you know you’re competing. I remember distinctly there was a kid in the same conference I was in and he was six feet nine. I knew we were competing for a scholarship and I knew that without that scholarship I would have to go home in disgrace. So it felt very professional, even at that point.” Amaechi was just 18, but his mature attitude drove him on. He also learned to sidestep the BS from coaches – choosing the Penn State coach who told him the truth – that to get where he wanted to go, he would need to work hard. As time went on and he progressed, Amaechi also started to give free motivational talks, much to the amazement of the students on the receiving end, who respected the college athletes like rock stars. “I think if you are authentic and connect with people you can actually have like a little group therapy session where people get to connect with somebody who really cares... I visited a couple of schools; they couldn’t believe that I had actually bothered to show; how do you have time for us... When you see that impact, it’s addictive!” Amaechi did indeed begin to play in the US league for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1996, but realised he needed to sharpen his skills in Europe, where the game was not quite so tough. He did exactly that, playing in European leagues, before, in 1999, returning to the US to play for Orlando Magic. It was then that he was offered $17 million to come over to the Legenday Los Angeles Lakers. But Amaechi turned it down, choosing to stay with Orlando. “It wasn’t for reasons of nobility or whatever,” he says. “It was simply that Orlando Magic was the team that gave me my shot when nobody else would give me a chance to show them how good I could be.” For him, it was about being able to live with himself and have some integrity. It was a major career decision and he carried on as a successful professional player – the very first British NBA player, later playing with Utah Jazz in 2001-3. His career in the US continued until 2004-5 season in which he signed with the Houston Rockets and was bought out of his contract by the New York Knicks. It was a fabulous achievement – indeed, a unique one. Having retired from the game, Amaechi continues to work in motivational speaking, helping others just as he saw his mother do when he was a 7-year-old. So, is the force with him? Perhaps not, it’s true to say that there are no secret powers in going for what you want. It takes grit, guts and determination. It takes hard work – and if there is any force at all, it is the force of personality and sheer will that drove him on to succeed.

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AMAECHI’S GOLDEN NUGGETS OF WISDOM For success, you must have a great tolerance for mundanity

“After the game, you go home, eat some food and fall asleep. You wake up the next day and you have to stretch and it sounds simple but you know 100 games a year; stretching gets to be a challenge. You go to the gym, you do your weights, you do your yoga, you practice for two hours, you eat some food, you come back you practice for an hour on your own, you sleep and it’s just repeat, repeat, repeat.”

Commitment can be tough

“My mother had been in remission from cancer when I went away to the US. During my second year at Penn State her cancer came back. Every day I’m thinking I can’t waste my time here because all my time here is time I am away from my mum. Every day was a day that I at some point would lament with not having with my mother.”

On coming out as gay

“Of course there was always going to be a backlash in America. America is amazing in its ability to embrace oddness and yet at the same time try and destroy it and it has, you know it has some problems with extremism. On a weekly basis I will get an email or a tweet which says I should die or they would like to kill me, but you know this is the way of cowards right. Cowards send emails, anonymous emails to 6ft 9”, 25-stone black guys. They don’t walk up to them on the street and say that.” w w w . t he b e s t yo uma ga z i ne . c o

ZEST FOR LIFE

Sky Sports presenter Tony Wrighton has had a varied and fascinating career, also publishing hugely popular self-help books on communication, motivation and much more as well as starting zestology â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a podcast pulling big audiences. Bernardo Moya finds out how NLP helped him draw massive radio audiences and accompanied him every step of the way to success

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FEATURE

Tony Wrighton’s easy, quick-paced delivery is familiar to anyone who’s seen Sky TV. He credits his relaxed communication style to growing up surrounded by women, stage acting at university – and to the magic ingredient of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Tony first encountered NLP in 2004 when he was working in radio. “I went through a stage where I was very preoccupied, not quite getting depressed but definitely not as happy as I normally was,” he recalls. Being what he calls a “Type A personality”, he did some research, and booked onto an NLP practitioner course. He remembers the first time he encountered hypnosis during the training, in which he spent the weekend “floating”. “That was just magnificent for me. I really loved it... I just felt so energised by what I’d been learning,” he recalls. Soon after finishing the NLP practitioner course he applied his newly acquired NLP skills to presenting drive-time radio in Manchester. “I started to think, well, there’s a lot of language skills here and some of them can be quite persuasive.” Very soon he was getting amazing results, with his show getting more listeners than the prime-time breakfast show. “I couldn’t believe it. You only get listening figures every three months in radio. I started these techniques and three months later my listening figures started to go up.” So what did the NLP course teach him? “I just learned to become a better communicator,” he says. Next, he decided to write an NLP-inspired audiobook. Luck was on his side. He contacted Audible in London, which had just signed a deal with iTunes. Two weeks after his audiobook was published, it was featured on the British and American iTunes store. “Straight away this NLP practitioner, with not that many skills, who’d written a short half-hour audio book on body language and recorded it in his radio station’s studio at night, without asking the boss, was selling quite a large volume of audiobooks straight away. I couldn’t believe it.” These days, Tony has published 12 titles which have been translated in 16 languages, and he’s had more than 300,000 downloads. Not bad for someone whose first book was written when he was still a fresh NLP Practitioner. Tony went on to qualify at NLP trainer level and continued to use his skills to help him. Like, when he went for his screen test at Sky. “I used a lot of NLP skills to get myself into the right frame of mind for that,” he says. “I did some hypnosis, I did some goal setting, I wrote out the date I would be the presenter on Sky

Sports News – that came true almost to the date that I wrote down,” he grins. His latest project was inspired by an illness he contracted whilst on holiday in a jungle retreat in the Philippines. A virus left him deeply fatigued and with numb patches. After months off work, desperate for a cure, Tony went to an Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) practitioner. Through EFT Tony put the zest back in his life. He also found many others saying the same thing – they, too, were out of energy and wanted to find their mojo again. That’s when Tony came up with the idea for zestology, a podcast in which he interviews top authors, sports psychologists, businessmen, sports men and women, nutritionists and many more. Tony says zestology is about living life with more energy, vitality and purpose. So is there a handy tip he can give us now? “Two different aspects come up again and again,” he says. “The first is to make time for yourself. That might sound counter-intuitive if you’ve lost your job and you’re looking for a new one, or you want to change your life.” Some of his guests are very specific about how that’s to be done, ensuring that they go to a yoga class at a certain point in the day, or they’ll just have chill-out time in between the frenetic rush of their lives. Indeed, Tony says, he makes room for himself by limiting the times he looks at his phone, so he’s not continually dealing with emails. And the second aspect? “Being open to new experiences and going outside your comfort zone. That comes up again and again; being able to adapt and change.” He goes on to explain that with the media world continually evolving, if he hadn’t been able to leave himself open to new ideas, to adapt and change, he wouldn’t have been able to survive. “I notice that, especially those in business who get to their 60s and 70s and are still really cracking it every time, they’re the ones who’ve managed to change and adapt, whether it’s their business or themselves, probably both.”

Tony Wrighton will speak at NLP Life Talks on 2 October – book your tickets at nlplifetraining.com/events/ nlp-life-talks. To find out more about Tony Wrighton’s zestology, visit tonywrighton.com

Visit thebestyoumagazine.co to watch Tony Wrighton’s interview

BOOK

CLUB

This month we are giving away a wide range of fantastic books. If you’d like to be in with a chance of winning , simply email your name and contact details to

prizegiveaways@thebestyou.co with the name of the prize you would like to win in the subject title before 31 August 2015*

VISUALIZATION FOR WEIGHT LOSS: THE GABRIEL METHOD GUIDE TO USING YOUR MIND TO TRANSFORM YOUR BODY BY JON GABRIEL This powerful technique helped Jon drop 220 pounds without dieting or deprivation because it didn’t depend on calorie counting or extreme exercise – rather it changed his biochemistry and neural pathways. In turn, this helped lower stress and its associated inflammatory chemicals in his body, allowing him to lose weight easily and naturally.

WIN!

We have one copy of Visualization for Weight Loss by Jon Gabriel to give away.

HEART OF MIRACLES: MY JOURNEY BACK TO LIFE AFTER A NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE BY KAREN HENSON JONES

Karen Henson Jones was on the conventional path to success in the corporate world when a sudden cardiac event at the age of 30 took her to the brink of death. During an otherworldly experience, she was presented with a choice to leave her body or to return to Earth. When her request to live was granted, Karen was forced to come to terms with the life she had been living. Exploring the power of meditation, Western medical science, the transformative doctrines of reincarnation, and the teachings of Jesus, Karen encourages us to embrace the full possibilities of our spiritual selves.

WIN!

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We have one copy of Heart of Miracles by Karen Henson to give away.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: One entry per household. Entry implies acceptance of rules and conditions. No purchase necessary. Open to all UK residents aged 18 years or over, other than employees of The Best You and companies associated with it. Draw will be conducted by The Best You Corporation. Prize is as stated and will be awarded to the entry drawn at random on the draw date. No cash alternative is available. No correspondence will be entered into. Delayed entries will be deemed invalid. Winners’ names may be published and the winners may be required to participate in publicity. Promoter: The Best You Corporation.

WIN!

Need some inspired thinking? Enter our lucky dip and we’ll send one lucky winner a book from The Best You’s bookshelf.

TRANSFORM YOUR BELIEFS, TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE: EFT TAPPING USING MATRIX REIMPRINTING BY KARL DAWSON AND KATE MARILLAT New science proves that it is our core beliefs that drive the chemical changes in the body, control our thought patterns and essentially produce our reactions to the external world. If we can change what we believe about ourselves and the world around us, we can change our thoughts, and if we can change our thoughts... well, we can change anything.

We have one copy of Transform Your Beliefs, Transform Your Life by Karl Dawson & Kate Marillat to give away.

WIN!

FROCH: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY CARL FROCH When Carl Froch defeated George Groves in their Wembley Stadium re-match in front of 80,000 fans, it went down as the biggest fight in British boxing history, cementing Carl’s place as our greatest boxer – a pure warrior who has never accepted the easy way. Carl grew up a tough kid on a Nottingham estate, where boxing helped to keep him out of trouble. Carl’s career has always been defined by taking on the odds with blisteringly tough fights. He was never scared to fight in someone else’s backyard and always faced the hardest opponents to prove himself.

We have one copy of Froch: My Autobiography by Carl Froch to give away.

WIN!

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BOOK

REVIEWS With the power to entertain, enrich and empower your life, books are as important today as they have been for millennia. Here’s what’s catching our eye at The Best You this month…

BOOKS NOT BULLETS

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who is the award’s youngest ever recipient, called upon world leaders to invest in, “books not bullets”, as she turned 18.

an adult, on behalf of the world’s children, I demand of leaders we must invest in books instead of bullets.” The speech triggered a hashtag #booksnotbullets on social media.

Speaking in Syria at the opening of a school for refugee girls on the third annual Malala Day, she said: “Today, on my first day as

“The Nobel Peace Prize opened up a door in my heart”

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– Aung San Suu Kyi

BOOK REVIEWS

THE ENERGY BUS:

10 RULES TO FUEL YOUR LIFE, WORK, AND TEAM WITH POSITIVE ENERGY BY JON GORDON

Jon Gordon takes readers on an enlightening and inspiring ride that reveals 10 secrets for approaching life and work with the kind of positive, forward thinking that leads to true accomplishment at work and at home. Drawing upon his experience and work with thousands of leaders, sales professionals, teams, non-profit organisations, schools and athletes, Gordon infuses this engaging story with keen insights, actionable strategies and a big dose of positive infectious energy.

”Jon’s energy and advice will leap off the page and help you cultivate positive energy in everything you do – and you will make the world a better place for your having been here.” – Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager and Leading at a Higher Level

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BOOK REVIEWS

NLP:

HOW TO USE NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE BY ALI CAMPBELL

This book is a no-nonsense, fun, allyou-need-to-know guide to the world of neuro-linguistic programming. Learn how to: • • • • •

Re-programme your mind to create the life you want Change your emotional state quickly and easily Overcome fears, phobias and frustrations Transform even lifelong habits quickly Be at your best when you really need it

“With an enviable list of high-profile clients, Ali is known as ’Mr Fix It’ and is uniquely placed to help you reach your goals” – Hay House

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BOOK REVIEWS

ROCK HARD:

A BACKSTAGE PASS TO STAYING FIT ON THE ROAD THE ROCKSTAR WAY BY JOZIE DIMARIA

An outstanding fitness guide and a nostalgic behind the scenes account of JoZie DiMaria’s incredible life on the road. Her easy-to-follow routines prove that you can work out anytime, anywhere. Beautiful paintings of her rockstar gym buddies accompany hand-drawn illustrations of work out moves, making it easy and fun to train along with her – a fitness book worthy of any rock God.

“I can think of a few ways I like to stay fit ;-) ....... but staying ‘FIT’ the rockstar way takes on a whole new meaning in JoZie’s new book!” – Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe

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BOOK REVIEWS

MAN IN THE MIDDLE:

MY LIFE IN AND OUT OF BOUNDS BY JOHN AMAECHI

On 7 February 2007, NBA legend John Amaechi, the only Briton to achieve basketball superstardom, a man inculcated into the NBA Hall of Fame for scoring the first points of the new millennium, came out as a homosexual athlete. Man In The Middle chronicles his extraordinary journey from awkward, overweight child to jet-setting NBA star. Along the way, he encounters endless obstacles to the fulfilment of his dream, all the while protecting the secret that could end his career.

“Well worth the read, inspirational and an eye opener to how John Amaechi got were he is today, could not put it down till it was read” – C Davis

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LIVE LOVE LEGACY What do you want to be remembered for? What are your relationships like with those around you? How does life treat you… and how do you treat your life? There is so much good in you. Enrich your life with the passion you feel and the connections you make.

ACTIVE HELP

Tackling mental health through exercise

THINK POSITIVE...

...even when others don’t!

WHAT DOES IT TAKE…

to create perfect summer food

Put your company in this space! To sponsor this page and be part of The Best You, email us at advertising@thebestyou.co

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LIVE LOVE LEGACY

For Claire Greaves, exercise has been transformational in helping her cope with mental illness. Here she shares her life experience as part of Mindâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Get Set to Go campaign

I got involved with Mind a few years ago. I was pretty much housebound with my illness and rarely spoke to anyone when I saw a tweet asking for someone who had ended up in a police cell when detained under section 136. Normally I’d stay quiet with anxiety but I replied and did a piece on national news about my experience, and it brought meaning into my life. I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason and the night in the cell was traumatic but being able to share my experiences through Mind and the media means some of the best days have happened as a direct result of my worst days. I have struggled with anorexia since early childhood however it was not recognised until my teenage years. I have a diagnosis of anorexia, clinical depression and avoidant personality disorder. I’ve also struggled with self-harming and have tried to end my life. Dance had always been a part of my life but I became too unwell to continue with it. I was heartbroken that I had to give up on my dreams and for a long time I avoided even thinking about dancing. Last year we moved house and I ended up attending a dance class through a youth centre and it got me back into it. I now go to a ballet class each week. I also attend ice-skating lessons. I didn’t think it

was going to improve my mental wellbeing when I began these sports but I quickly realised that it did. Sport is an excellent way to practise mindfulness. When I’m doing ballet exercises at the bar I am completely in the moment. Ice-skating takes a lot of concentration and I find that when my mind wanders I tend to lose my balance. I think dancing and skating really help me because they give me a sense of achievement and a small amount of respite from the torturous thoughts in my mind. I struggle socially and attending these classes helps me to meet other people. Walking into the room often feels very difficult but I take a deep breath and push myself to do it with the hope that I will walk out of the lesson feeling better. Exercise has really helped me to connect with others. In the depth of my illness I had problems with over exercising and it was always very lonely but now my exercise is very sociable. Skating round, holding hands with my best friend is worlds away from what exercise used to be. Ballet barre exercises teach me to appreciate my body rather than point out all the flaws to myself in the mirror. The best thing about exercising is the feeling of achieving something with a body I once wanted to destroy.

FEELING GOOD INSIDE AND OUT To find out more about Mind’s Get Set to Go campaign, visit www.mind.org.uk

Positive energy… It’s a term being talked about a lot more frequently in conference rooms, classrooms, locker rooms, and even living rooms. Perhaps it’s because there is an abundance of new research that shows that positive people, positive communication, positive interactions and positive work and team cultures produce positive results. Or perhaps at a deeper level we all know that every person, every career, every company, every organisation, every family, and every team will have to overcome negativity, adversity, and challenges to define themselves and create success. No-one goes through life untested, and the answer to these tests is positive energy – not the rah-rah, cheering kind of positive energy, although there certainly is a time and a place for that as well. But rather, when I talk about positive energy I’m referring to the optimism, trust, enthusiasm, love, purpose, joy, passion and spirit to live, work, and perform at a higher level; to build and lead successful teams; to overcome adversity in life and at work; to share contagious energy with employees, colleagues, and customers; to bring out the best in others and in yourself; and to overcome all the negative people (whom I call energy vampires) and negative situations that threaten to sabotage your health, family, team and success. Positive energy is very real, and in my work with thousands of leaders, sales people, teams, coaches, organisations, teachers, athletes, mums, dads and even children, I have witnessed the amazing power of positive energy. I have seen head teachers turn their schools around and enhance morale. Leaders have told me how they used my strategies to help their employees and teams become more successful. Cancer survivors have told me how they won with a positive attitude. Athletes have shared how they’ve overcome adversity to reach their goal. Hardworking employees have e-mailed me and told me countless stories of promotions and accomplishments at work. And one mum even called to tell me a story about her son, Joshua, who, after hearing that his mum and dad were getting a divorce, said he was going to try to be strong and positive through it all because positive people live longer, happier and healthier lives. It turns out Joshua remembered what I said to him a year earlier when I spoke at his school about the importance of positive energy. Not only was I touched, but I was deeply inspired. People like Joshua inspire me to write about and share positive energy because deep down I know it matters and I know it works. My hope is that you will cultivate positive energy in your own life and career and then share it with your colleagues, customers, organisation, team, friends, and family. I’m confident that when you apply the principles you’ll find greater happiness, enhanced success, higher performance, inspired teamwork and significant results.

Keeping upbeat and others in good spirits really can bring about positive results, says author Jon Gordon

THE BRIGHT SIDE

LIVE LOVE LEGACY

This is an edited extract from The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy, by Jon Gordon, published by Wiley. Visit thebestyoumagazine.co to read Jonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s five tips for staying positive.

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LIVE LOVE LEGACY

IT’S ON YOUR

BOOKSHELF Summers are made for reading, but before you head to the store, take a look at the books you already have, says Jim Aitkin

We generally buy books we want to read; books that we believe will make an impact in some way. And those are the books we keep on the bookshelf after we’ve read them. The non-fiction books we buy in hope that they might help solve a problem or help us see things in a different light, are the ones that stand to make the greatest impact. But if you’re like me, you, too often, don’t study those books. You merely read them. And when you do, you read too fast (because you want fast relief). Worse yet is when we don’t even finish reading a good book. We let it sit there on the coffee table, end table, nightstand, or in the I’ll-keep-it-here-inthe-open-to-remind-me-to-pick-up-and-resumereading-as-soon-as-I-have-the-time-and focus-thisbook-deserves area… wherever that is. This book, or stack of books, is too good – contains too much important and needful information – to put on the shelf... for a while. We know this material contains an epiphany or two, but we also know it will take time and focus to really immerse ourselves into it – time and focus we don’t have… not right now. Not yet. But then the day arrives when guests are coming over for dinner and we finally ‘break up’ with all the books we’ve been stringing along in this ‘don’t call me, I’ll call you’ one-sided, abusive relationship we have been carrying on with them.

One-sided and abusive? Damn straight! These faithful books sit right where we put them without moving, gathering dust, attracting wine and coffee stains. They don’t ask for much; what, a half hour a week? Yet we ignore them for extended periods of time. And then occasionally, usually while hurrying past in the morning, we lie to them. We occasionally glance at them and say to them, ‘I know you’ve been holding in some really important stuff you want to share with me. I will hang out with you for a little while this evening for sure!’ And why do we lie? So we’ll feel better, less guilty, that’s why. So then, finally and unceremoniously, these books get assigned to a place on the shelf, a little more out of sight and quite a bit more out of mind. While placing the ‘new’ unread books on the shelf, we try not to look directly at the ‘old’ unread books already there. Shame on us. Okay, I’m being a little silly. But isn’t it even more silly to not read or finish reading a book you know contains information and perspective that you need? One of the answers you are looking for in your life right now is contained in one of the books on your bookshelf... right now. With the possible exception of this awesome magazine, say ‘No’ to whatever you have to in order to say ‘Yes’ to one of these neglected treasures on your shelf. When you do, don’t just read; study. Underline. Take notes. Share with others what you’re learning and how you are being positively impacted. Press forward with the progress you were reaching for when you picked up such books the first time.

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Gillon Meller is group head chef at River Cottage, which holds its Summer Fair later this month

WHAT DOES IT TAKE...

TO CREATE PERFECT

SUMMER FOOD?

Photography by Mr Nick Hook

LIVE LOVE LEGACY

TELL US ABOUT THE RIVER COTTAGE SUMMER FAIR Twice a year we open the farm up to a larger number of guests, suppliers, partners and food producers who we love to work with and showcase their wares over a weekend packed with activities, entertainment, live music, cookery demonstrations and stalls. There’s a great ambience and plenty of food on offer, it’s a really lovely family festival. HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN RIVER COTTAGE? I had worked in the Dorset and Devon area since I was 17, and a few years later I met Hugh (FearnleyWhittingstall) at a party. We got talking about food and I was interested in his work and recently published River Cottage Cookbook. He invited me to come on board and the job role went from ad hoc projects to running the kitchen.

ARE YOU A FAN OF THE BARBECUE? I love to barbecue and more recently I’ve been cooking lots of fish and vegetables as I feel it’s a lovely area to explore. We go down to the beach where there’s an old fire pit and I take a ton of vegetables and herbs in a rucksack – I don’t even pack a pan to cook in, we pick stones, wash them in the sea and cook the food on top. Successful barbecuing is about managing heat correctly – if you’re barbecuing slow cooked pork you don’t want it too hot, but if you’re cooking pork chops, particularly traditional cuts which carry extra fat that you might want to trim back, you want to sear the meat over a hot grill. WHAT FOOD TRENDS ARE YOU ENJOYING AT THE MOMENT? My interest lies in trying to eat less meat and in developing my repertoire of vegetable cookery. With the right understanding there are combinations of fresh vegetables and spices that can rival fish or meat.

The River Cottage Summer Fair takes place 15-16 August from 10am-4pm. Find out more and book tickets at rivercottage.net

WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY AT RIVER COTTAGE HOLD? At the moment I’m doing a lot of writing so I could be at home, testing new recipes, or I may be at one of River Cottage’s canteens working on menus with our chefs, or teaching at one of our many cookery courses. We also offer courses in gardening, butchery and bee-keeping. YOUR BOOK, PIGS & PORK, PROVIDES A GUIDE TO REARING, BUTCHERING AND COOKING WITH PORK – WHAT IS IT THAT FASCINATES YOU ABOUT PIGS? Pork is certainly a meat that I enjoy cooking and it is incredibly versatile. With a thrifty approach, you can cook almost every part of a good, free range, organically reared pig, and the meat of traditional rare breeds has a wonderful flavour that is unmatched by any other meat. WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT SUMMER COOKING? It’s the one point in the year that you can cook and enjoy fresh, seasonal food, simply prepared. There is an abundance of produce and you can take advantage of this to get the most from simple ingredients – ripe, sweet tomatoes; small, firm courgettes; fresh salad and fish are all at their best and you don’t need to mess around so much to enjoy their flavours.

Gillon Meller

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NARROW MINDSET

How to use your mind to lose weight

CITY RUNNER

Sightseeing as you sprint

ROCK HARD

JoZie DiMaria talks life on the road

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If you could bottle the ‘secret’ to easy, effective weight loss you could sell that bottle for a LOT of money. The bad news is that no such bottle exists, the good news is that you don’t need it anyway. Not only do you not need the secret potion, you don’t need the latest celeb diet or supplement either. Here’s the news… Weight loss has virtually nothing to do with food and everything to do with your relationship with food. Here’s some more good news – it’s not your fault. We are all a product of our thinking, and so when we find ourselves acting (and eating) in a way we want to change, we first need to look at where to make that change. Despite what you might have been told by the diet industry, the answer is in your head not in the fridge. Thought creates feeling and feeling creates action, and those actions shape our lives… literally. So instead of using food to ‘self medicate’ and change the feelings, how about if we just change your thinking instead? NLP is said by many to be one of the fastest, easiest and least invasive ways to make powerful changes in your thinking, much faster than you might believe possible! Here are my top NLP tips for changing your mind to change your body. CHANGE THE WAY YOU SEE FOOD If you want to change what you see in the mirror, you first need to change what you see in your mind. Close your eyes and picture your favourite ‘bad’ food. All those things that you go to when you need a pick-me-up. You know they’re not good for you, but in your mind’s eye I bet they look so very big and inviting don’t they? Good, now take that picture and make it black and white, then pop a border around it, then shrink the picture all the way down so it’s tiny and off in the distance. How does it feel now? Quite different, right? Squeeze together your finger and thumb to anchor it, then open your eyes. Repeat as many times as you like but you should notice the picture changing and getting less and less appealing each time you revisit it. PARTS INTEGRATION TECHNIQUE Here’s a very simple but quite precise guide for you to learn how to integrate those conflicting parts in yourself, the part that wants to be slim and the part that just wants cheesecake. The following are the exact steps you should follow in order to unite your conflicting parts under the single common goal of your wellbeing. The best thing to do is familiarise yourself with this, then close your eyes and do it; it’s quite a trick to read with your eyes closed, even with NLP.

STEP 1: IDENTIFY THE PARTS Sit palms up with your hands free to move and with your eyes closed. Then, go inside and ask the part that is causing the problem to make itself known to you. Now imagine that part moving out into the palm of your left hand and hold it there. STEP 2: ASK THE FIRST PART ABOUT ITS INTENTION Ask it for a sense of its positive intention, ‘Why do you want to eat that chocolate?’ And notice what comes up for you. The answers will unpack gradually. At first it might be something like, ‘Because I want you to enjoy the taste of chocolate’. So then ask it again, ‘Why do you want me to enjoy the taste of chocolate?’ Perhaps this time the answer will be something like, ‘Because I want you to be happy’. As you ask more questions, you move towards determining the highest positive intention of the part, which is the ‘real’ reason you eat chocolate. This is what we are going to work with and change. Keep going until you get to the ‘root’ of the matter. Don’t worry, you’ll know on the inside when you’ve got there. STEP 3: THE PROBLEM-SOLVING PART Now we are going to find another part to work with the first, in order to fulfil that same positive intention in a way that does not involve sabotaging yourself by eating chocolate. Repeat the following as closely as you can remember when you close your eyes: ‘I’m talking to the creative, problem-solving part of my own subconscious mind, the part that helps me make decisions every day without my even having to think about it. I’m asking that part for one new, healthy way to fulfil that same positive intention but without the need for chocolate. I do not need to know what that new way is going to be, just have a sense of it, and when I have a sense of that my subconscious mind can put that part in the palm of my right hand.’ STEP 4: BRING THEM/ALLOW THEM TO COME TOGETHER Talk to both parts and tell them that they have the same intention for you; that there is no need for any conflict. If you were doing it right from the beginning, you will probably notice that your hands have already started coming closer together by themselves. They will continue to do so, guided by your subconscious mind, until they touch; all you have to do is sit there and stay out of the way while your subconscious mind sorts things out for you. All behaviour has a positive intention but we always have the ability to fulfill that positive intention in a different, healthier way. Change can be much easier than you think… When you know how of course.

FEEL & LOOK GOOD

NLP practitioner Ali Campbell has the answer to successful weight loss â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and it is within you to achieve

YOU CAN

LOSE IT! w w w . t he b e s t yo uma ga z i ne . c o

THE RUNNING

MAN

Whether you are visiting London or looking for a new way to get to the office, Gary Hawke wants you to enjoy an early morning run with a difference

FEEL & LOOK GOOD

6.30am, Central London. As the capital begins to awaken, a small band of runners, led by licensed Run England group leader Gary Hawke, is about to set off for a 60-minute tour. Depending on the day, it could be a dip into the City of London’s Square Mile, a pinball course between Royal London and Park spaces, a circuit of historical landmarks, or one of three river routes, all ranging in distances of between 5-10k. Originally created for tourists, Hawke has been amazed at the number of commuters and running clubs who are joining him on the current series of his early morning runs. Although devised to make the most of summer weather, Hawke runs most mornings, year round, and says that the initial Run Around London series, which cost £8 per run, may be extended. “I mentioned the idea to my sister, and she thought it was a really good one so I set up Run Around London, and I was surprised how quickly it has become a successful business,” explains Hawke. “People want to experience running in a different way. “It’s a lovely time of morning to run and the added motivation of seeing London from different perspectives really seems to appeal to people. I split the area into different quadrants, so that each offers something different. Most routes are cyclical and as we go along I point things out. Tourists can get up early and see attractions before the rush, and even people who live here get to see different places.” For those who prefer to exercise at a more moderate pace, Hawke also offers Mindful Walking sessions around Highgate Wood and Queens Wood Nature Reserve, which combine the opportunity to explore life, work and relationship issues, while exercising. Anna-Cajsa Johansson

describes how profound she found the experience: “It was almost surprising how private the session felt considering we were outside in a public area. I felt the soft ground and green shades of the trees added something very special. It made me reflect on how the colour green is in the middle of the visible spectrum of colour encouraging balance and harmony and how in colour therapy, colour, being the colour of the heart, it relates in to patterns and cycles of our thinking process, and is emotionally expressed in how we relate to everyone and everything.” The benefits of exercising outside are welldocumented and Hawke says early mornings are particularly energising. “Running early morning is incredible and London is timeless at that time, There’s a stillness, particularly in summer, before the capital gears into life.” Although Hawke incorporates challenges for different levels of ability, he aims to offer a relaxed run. “Run England promotes a particular style of movement that is enjoyable. We suggest imagining a balloon floating out of the top of your head, and this allows everything to relax. Smiling as you run also reduces injury, as it keeps you in a relaxed space, and when we cool down afterwards we encourage some meditation or yoga.” A chance to change the pace of busy daily life, running or walking with an added agenda is a great way to escape the rat race.

To find out more about Gary Hawke’s sessions, visit runaroundlondon.com and www. alethic-coaching.org/mindful

FEEL & LOOK GOOD

READY TO ROCK Life on the road and staying fit is possible, says JoZie DiMaria who has written a book after touring the world with some of the greatest rock bands A rock star life is usually associated with late starts, long nights, endless partying and plenty of excess, but for backing dancer JoZie DiMaria, who has toured with Mötley Crüe, Papa Roach and Jane’s Addiction, there’s a definite discipline in maintaining a physique that most of us can only dream of. Originally from New Jersey, DiMaria started out as a make-up artist and stylist, before being spotted by Mötley Crüe who were astounded by her incredibly toned body and high level of fitness, inviting her to join their tour as a dancer. ”Tommy Lee is responsible for much of my start in the rock industry,” says DiMaria. “My body was very ripped and the band was amazed by how I looked – it fitted really well with their stage show. I had a great time on the road, but living on a tour bus was tough. “There’s not much personal space and I would meditate to stay sane. Tommy got into the spiritual side of things too and soon I was working with a group of guys on fitness and keeping mind, body and spirit in good shape.” In her new book, Rock Hard, DiMaria shares her intense fitness guide along with a nostalgic behind the scenes account of her life on the road with Lee, Billy Idol and Josh Todd of Buckcherry. Whether your life is more executive than rock star, her workouts can be accommodated in hotels, airports or offices, to build a strong and healthy physique, inside and out.

But do the temptations of rock star excess not tempt her? “The healthier I am, the less I want to party,” says DiMaria, “It’s a conscious choice not to be tempted after a show, as I need energy to get through the next day. If we have a break in our schedule, it’s OK to let your hair down but when you’re playing in the next city the next day, it’s really important to stay in good shape, mentally and physically.” DiMaria also maintains a gluten free, low fat, high fruit and vegetable diet to help her stay in good health. Having backed away from touring, DiMaria was inspired to write her book after she was repeatedly asked by both male and female fans how she kept her body in such good shape. “You’ve got to find your own motivation,” she says. “I use music when I am working out as it’s integral to my life.”

Rock Hard: A Backstage Pass to Staying Fit on the Road the Rockstar Way by JoZie DiMaria, published by Clink Street, is available online at retailers and to order at all good bookstores. For more information visit www.rockhard.fit

Visit thebestyoumagazine.co to read JoZie DiMaria’s top tips for getting into shape.

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WEALTH & RICHES Building your career or business can bring both financial reward and personal growth in every aspect of your life. Seek out advice and support to ensure your success today and for the future.

LETâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S GO CAMPING

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HAPPY CAMPERS Business conferences. Scary? Uninspiring? Soul-destroying? The Happy Startup School is out to change all that with its Summer Camp, taking place next month

WEALTH & RICHES As anyone who’s ever been to a conference knows, there’s a certain protocol of behaviour that starts with putting a badge on your suit, listening to highly lauded speakers for hours, punctuated by tea, biscuits and lunch. If you’ve ever found yourself uninspired by this scenario, you might find The Happy Startup School’s approach more engaging. Next month, 100 people will gather at a farm set in 300 acres of rolling Sussex countryside to hear inspiring speakers, participate in workshops, clarify their start-up pitch, find business mentors, oh, and listen to live music, try their hand at fishing, play the ukulele and enjoy a karaoke sauna. With an emphasis on mind, body and soul, this is a business conference with a holistic difference. The Happy Startup Summer Camp is the brainchild of a small team led by co-founders Laurence McCahill and Carlos Saba, who created a small yet highly successful digital agency. “We got a bit disillusioned with big campaigns that had little real value,” says McCahill, “and we started to work with people who were passionate about bringing their business ideas to life. “We wanted to help entrepreneurs on their journey to create start-ups for the right reasons, as opposed to financial reward and focusing on the exit. We’re not alone and there’s an appetite among people to do more than just chase cash. We started off with meetups at online and offline events, and the last two years have been a journey working towards creating the Happy Startup School.” Although initially focused on a UK audience, the school has already attracted an increasingly international following, and earlier this year it hosted its first overseas event, Alpitude, a mountainside retreat of 25 entrepreneurs over seven days who gathered to enjoy mountain hiking, fondues, talks and, of course, business planning. “Our events are characterised by community, commonality and collaboration,” says McCahill. “The Startup School is still in its infancy but it feels like a lot of good stuff is happening and this thinking will become mainstream in a few years. The next generation wants more than just a pay cheque and they are much more choosy on how they spend their time and want companies to support their dreams. It’s a good way to do business and even big firms can do it and still be authentic. It takes a lot of guts to stand up to shareholders, but it’s absolutely the way to go in the future.” The blurring of personal and professional lives is reflected in The Happy Startup School’s events where partners and kids are welcomed too. “We are fed so much information each day,” adds McCahill. “Lots of events assume that speakers know everything and are giving the content, but we don’t need a prescriptive approach. “At conferences we are expected to be charged up, but our events are intended to allow people to wind down, to be contemplative and to seek clarity, not just on the positive, but also where things are going wrong, to create a way forward. I’m often at my most creative on holiday, when I’m away from a screen. Even Branson has his hammock on Necker Island! “For anyone who wants a more fulfilled life, needs to re-connect with their vision or simply wants to unwind for a few days in a stunning setting, the Happy Startup Summercamp offers mentors, brain food, the opportunity to re-energise and connect with others.” With a growing online global community, plans for a second Alpitude, an event in the Greek islands, plus connections to explore in Brazil and India, The Happy Startup School is on the crest of a wave of transformation in business and the future looks bright for both it and its followers.

The Happy Startup Summercamp takes place 18-20 September. To find out more and book tickets, visit happystartupsummer.camp

WEALTH & RICHES

EXPERT ADVICE Fancy yourself as a consultant? Author Samir Parikh knows when the time is right to advise others

have worked for some years are likely to offer a mixed proposition leaning on the experience that they have gained in their field. With this in mind consider your potential profile as a consultant. What makes you qualified to consult, and how would you explain this to others?

Consulting can be a very rewarding profession. It offers exposure to diverse and often leadingedge issues, the opportunity to work with a wide variety of client stakeholders and offers an accelerated career path paralleled by few other professions.

DAY IN THE LIFE

Day-to-day life as a consultant will depend upon the firm that you join and the type of consulting that you are doing. Having said that, consulting is an industrious profession for industrious people. There will be ups and downs in your workload, but often more ups than downs. From time to time you may need to work long hours and crunch to tight deadlines. An element of travel may also be required for client-facing engagements, which are often conducted at the clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premises. While this type of lifestyle calls for a degree of flexibility it is certainly not dull. In fact it is often savoured by those who thrive on challenge and yet are able to maintain a healthy work-life balance. So, having considered these factors, are you ready to be a consultant?

Consulting attracts both fresh graduates who tend to look towards the larger consulting firms, and seasoned professionals who have worked in industry for some time and aim to leverage their knowledge in making a logical career change. At the same time consulting is not for everybody, and some factors should be considered before taking the plunge. The most fundamental relate to your proposition as a consultant, your ability to engage effectively and the lifestyle associated with consulting.

REFINE YOUR PROPOSITION

As a consultant you will need a proposition. This is what will get you hired by a consulting firm and will ultimately be the main reason that clients want to work with you. Your individual proposition will be based upon two elements: Expertise and experience. For younger people the driving element tends to be expertise quantified by educational achievements whereas those who

necessarily expected to have fully mastered these skills, some of which are personality-related, but should be able to demonstrate clear evidence of them. Consider how these capabilities resonate with your own profile and ambitions.

Samir Parikh is the CEO of SPConsulting AB. READY TO HELP

Whether your proposition is expertise or experience weighted you will need a set of skills to put it into action. This is something that consulting firms pay a lot of attention to when recruiting. Consultants are expected to engage with confidence, communicate in a structured way, solve problems analytically, resolve interpersonal conflicts and formulate recommendations creatively. Those who are new to consulting are not

His new book The Consultantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Handbook: A Practical Guide to Delivering High-value and Differentiated Services in a Competitive Marketplace is published by Wiley and provides practical guidelines, supported by real-life examples related to the consulting profession.

JOIN US AT

A unique opportunity to meet some of the world’s greatest personal development experts As leaders in the personal development industry, The Best You is set to host the first global gathering of trainers, mentors, therapists, publishers and people who really want to achieve their full potential. The Best You Exhibition will take place in London on 27-28 February 2016, and over two days will bring together an audience of experts and those looking for ideas and inspiration. Alongside trade stands, the event will also feature talks and seminars from some of the industry’s biggest names. In fact, all you need to achieve change and growth in your personal life and business will be under one roof. Four amazing transformative spaces include the Grand Seminar Hall with world leaders from the personal development industry; workshops with hypnotherapists, business and coaching specialists; seminar rooms dedicated to business, health and wellbeing, plus a practitioners’ one-stop shop.

The event is set to be televised live globally in partnership with TV4 and Real Wisdom TV, along with broadcast via Hulu, Amazon and Samsung.

The Best You Exhibition will include: • Trainers • Publishers • Mentors • Healers • Media advisors

For more information go to http://thebestyoumagazine. co/category/blog/ and also send an email to info@thebestyou.co to find out more.

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WEALTH & RICHES

THE ROCKY ROAD TO SUCCESS

WINSTON CHURCHILL NO IMPEDIMENT TO LIBERTY

During the first part of his childhood, Winston Churchill lived in Dublin, Ireland with his mother and father, who themselves were of mixed descent, including American lineage on his mother’s side. His parents were very much an integral part of Irish political society, where his grandfather served as Viceroy. As such, Churchill was always tended to by his nanny, who became a surrogate mother to him. She taught him the educational basics, including reading and writing, though his family would come to learn that Churchill did not have much of an affinity for formal education, at least early on. He was scolded regularly for his inferior marks in school, which fuelled his restless fire even further. During his later educational years, Churchill put his defiant nature to better use, directing that energy to excel in mathematics and to holding himself to a higher standard. It was at this time though that a pronounced speech impediment began to show itself. He had a severe stutter, which he fought to control for most of his life and career. For Churchill however, this made the chip on his shoulder even larger. The death of his father convinced him that he wanted to create a warmer legacy in the world, as his relationship with both of his parents had always been distant and strained. It was at this turning point that Churchill first entered public service. He actively sought any military action he could, so as to gain a better understanding of war. Indeed, this aided him well when he first entered Parliament and helped to bring stability to South Africa. Winston Churchill reached his career apex when he became Prime Minister, overcoming many personal and professional hardships to fight and help lead the British, and the globe, through World War II.

www.thebe sty o u m ag az i n e . co

JESSE VENTURA

A BETTER BODY OF WORK Born in Minneapolis to parents who had each seen service in the Second World War, Jesse Ventura could be described as having hard work and grit in his DNA. Indeed, after finishing high school, Ventura went directly into the United States Navy’s SEAL programme. He served as a SEAL during the Vietnam War, braving wartime life as an underwater demolition expert. After his service to the United States came to an end in the mid-1970s, Ventura wasn’t ready to give up the adrenalin-fuelled lifestyle to which he had become accustomed. He slowly rose up the ranks in the San Diego-based Mongols motorcycle club, at the time a chief rival to the Hells Angels. Perhaps making the wisest decision he could have at the time, Ventura left the Mongols in 1974 and returned to his home state of Minnesota. Rolling the dice on his career, he tried his hand at competitive wrestling and weightlifting, all while attending college. He quickly attained the moniker Jesse ‘the body’ Ventura when in the wrestling ring. He chose to retire amid mounting health concerns stemming from several years in the ring, choosing instead to become a wrestling television commentator. Ventura’s heightened visibility at the time led to roles in major Hollywood films such as Predator, The Running Man and Batman & Robin. Taking the advice of one of his former teachers, he then parlayed his screen success into politics, first becoming mayor of a small Minnesota town, and later taking the Governorship of the same state. Jesse Ventura has gone from actual war, to war in movies and ultimately war with political rivals on the big stage, all the while proving that a physically strong man can have an even stronger work ethic.

THE ROCKY ROAD TO SUCCESS

ELLEN DEGENERES FUNNY ON THE UP

Ellen DeGeneres spent most of her formative years in a place not many would expect: the Southern United States. Metairie, Louisiana was the setting for early hardship in DeGeneres’s life; her family was in and out of different religions, and when she was just a teenager her parents divorced. Perhaps knowing her future career could benefit from different varied life experiences, DeGeneres took early leave from her university studies and subsequently worked a series of odd jobs, including stints selling clothes at department stores, waiting tables and painting houses. Beginning her comedy career in her then home base of New Orleans, DeGeneres had a steady rise over the next decade. She went from performing stand-up comedy in small clubs, to touring extensively, to landing a coveted slot performing on The Tonight Show. Slowly, she began to earn roles in television and film, culminating with the success of her eponymous sitcom Ellen. After she came out as lesbian in both real life and on her sitcom, DeGeneres faced homophobia in the form of her series being cancelled, even though ratings were bigger than ever. She publicly criticised the cut, saying it was a move by her own network to put a lid on her show’s controversial storylines and lifestyle portrayal. Her career in shambles, DeGeneres turned to the one area where she knew she would be accepted and could succeed: stand-up comedy. Feeling energised with a renewed purpose, she was offered her own talk show in 2003. DeGeneres’ comedy roots provided the show a whimsical and fun atmosphere that both celebrities and audiences loved. The show has become a pop-culture phenomenon, showcasing the staying power and natural charisma that has made Ellen DeGeneres so beloved for the past three decades.

WEALTH & RICHES

AVA DUVERNAY

PRODUCING HISTORY Ava DuVernay was raised in the infamous city of Compton, near Los Angeles, California. Growing up she spent summers travelling between old world and new, spending summer months with family in a small town between Montgomery and Selma, Alabama. While she was attending UCLA in the mid-1990s, DuVernay was intrigued by journalism. She didn’t know how fortuitous it would be for her at the time, as she was tasked as a broadcast intern to assist in telling the story of the O.J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles. After graduation, she was able to use her growing industry connections to land a public relations job at Fox Studios. Gearing up to take a risky jump into making her own films, DuVernay learned as much as she could about the marketing of films. She had transitioned to running her own public relations firm, learning what it meant to run things while working with some of the most successful directors in the business, including Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg. She parlayed this experience into her ultra-small budget, well-reviewed directorial debut film I Will Follow. Even though the film was made on an extremely small scale, insiders began to take notice of DuVernay’s talents. She quickly signed on to direct the Martin Luther Kingcentric historical film Selma. She rewrote much of the original screenplay, putting her own stamp on the project before cameras even rolled. This proved to be a shrewd move, as the film garnered much acclaim upon its wide release, earned two Oscar nominations and propelled Ava DuVernay way beyond her humble roots in Compton and onto Hollywood’s directing A-list.

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MAKING A DIFFERENCE At The Best You, we recognise those who are using their digital space to educate, empower and do good for others

21ST CENTURY LIVING

CHARLOTTE EADES Diagnosed with cancer at 16, vlogger Charlotte Eades recently teamed up with young people’s cancer support charity CLIC Sargent to create a powerful short film to raise awareness of the devastating impact of the disease and raise funds. Although her initial prognosis was poor, her tumours have now shrunk and the film ends with the words, ‘I’m still here’. Having set-up a YouTube channel a year ago to inspire other young people with cancer, she shares advice on coping with hair loss, relationships, make-up, tackling misconceptions and how the disease has affected her sight and hearing.

Watch Chalotte’s CLIC Sargent video here https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UC6bE4OSCx99n7pF3vtZQMrw

MARIE FORLEO Lauded by Oprah, Marie Forleo describes herself as the imaginary love child of the chat show host, blended with Tony Robbins, Richard Branson and Jay-Z – quite the combo! With a best-selling book, fitness DVDs and MarieTV, she has inspired dreamers to put their plans into motion and achieve big time. Creativity, productivity, health and wellbeing, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, spirituality and technology all fall into her inspiring world. A thought leader for the next generation and one of Inc’s 500 fastest-growing companies of 2014, she has reached more than 275,000 readers in 193 countries.

Watch MarieTV here https://www.youtube.com/user/marieforleo

SCOLA DONDO Scola Dondo is a 19-year-old qualified personal trainer and food lover, but just five years ago she was an obese teenager. Having lost more than 50lbs through healthy eating and exercise, she shares her tips and tricks to get healthy along with inspiring ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots that prove anyone can achieve change with determination. With an appearance at Summer In The City this month, she is a rising vlogstar with a growing fan base.

Watch Scola’s inspiring videos here https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UC6nGCgPrmSlDxP0MWMIo8sA

w w w . t he b e s t yo uma ga z i ne . c o

21ST CENTURY LIVING

GREAT

OUTDOORS

With summer upon us, we’ve found a few items to help you make the most out of the great outdoors. Throw them in your backpack or boot and enjoy those warm temperatures before they start to head south for the winter

While the Wink Relay won’t make your home smarter with the flick of a switch, it will help you to manage all your smart appliances and devices in one central location and, best of all, it syncs neatly with them, so it makes it easier than ever to manage your home as though you’re there – even when you’re not. The device contains a number of sensors – proximity, temperature, and humidity – to ensure all is safe and sound while you’re not around. If you’re running more than a few smart home devices (lighting, heating, locks, security) having one centrally located touchpad makes fantastic sense. Suggested retail price: £199

WINK RELAY TOUCHSCREEN

AMAZON KINDLE PAPERWHITE Call me a purist, but I’ve always preferred the feel and the look of real pages to an illuminated screen. I’ve also found that the backlit screens in early e-readers strained my eyes after as little as a few minutes of reading. I held out as long as I could, but you can now count me among the converted. The Paperwhite 2 (released earlier this year) is a truly readable e-reader. There are too many features to list here, so, if you haven’t yet boarded the e-reader train, it might be wise to take an in-depth look at what the device can do. My favourite feature isn’t really a feature at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. While some e-readers offer full connectivity, the Paperwhite actively discourages distraction by preventing you from using the device for anything that isn’t directly related to your reading experience. Suggested retail price: £99

Bowers and Wilkins has been around since the 60s, but it didn’t break into the mass market until the last decade. It quickly moved from new-kid-on-theblock status to major market player with its range of sleek and moderately priced hi-fi gear that has won it accolades and fans by the busload. Its headphones are a particularly important part of the brand, and the latest addition to the market, this sophisticated pair of wireless headphones, shows that the company is not about to lose its kudos anytime soon. The sound is crisp (as you’d expect at this price point) and the bass response is perfectly suited to nearly every kind of music imaginable. Bluetooth® compatible, the headphones make the ideal companion for a night of stargazing far from the big city’s lights. Suggested retail price: £325

B&W WIRELESS P5

LEATHERMAN SIGNAL A bit of lo-tech goes a long way when you’re in the thicket. In the thick of it, each of us has our devices that plug in, but when we’re miles from the nearest outlet, it’s the simple things that can make the biggest difference to our comfort – or even our survival. Leathermans have long been the multi-tools of choice for outdoor enthusiasts; much more rugged than their Swiss cousin, they can often be found on the belts or in the tool chests of beard-sporting lumberjacks or, indeed, anybody else who wants or needs to be prepared. The Leatherman Signal is packed with everything you’d expect a good multi-tool to have, but it also boasts configurable driver bits, a fire starter, and even a whistle in case of emergencies. Though you may never use half the tools on the Signal, the whole idea is to be prepared for absolutely everything. Suggested retail price: £69

BIOLITE NANOGRID BioLite’s been producing sexy and sophisticated camping gear for the modern outdoorsman for some time, and its latest offering, the NanoGrid, is a nice complement to its line. The surprisingly small 200-lumen LED lamp is absolutely perfect for sitting on a picnic table or hanging in your tent. For the truly modern tent dweller, the lantern also has a USB port, which allows you to (you guessed it) charge your devices. The lantern comes packaged with two 150-lumen pods that you can daisy chain to turn your dim tent into a well-lit living space. Perfect for the camper who can’t go to sleep without their late night read or for the social camper who wants to keep the conversation going well into the night. Suggested retail price: £89

THE BEST YOU DIRECTORY The best professionals in personal development

UNITED KINGDOM

SPORTS THERAPISTS AND NUTRITIONISTS

Dr Stephen Simpson NLP, hypnotherapy and havening Email: doc@drstephensimpson.com Website: www.drstephensimpson.com Clients include leading names from the world of sport, business and the entertainment industries

Shayna Schulman Attitude adjuster and flexibility enhancer Email: Shayna.s@virgin.net Phone: +44 (0) 208 960 7715 Licensed trainer, coaching, consulting, yoga, nutrition

NLP TRAINERS Tina Taylor: Licensed master trainer and practitioner Email: kay@the-me-group.com Phone: +44 (0) 7946 351640 Website: tina@tina-taylor.com Tina’s experience allows her to create and provide some unique coaching services, from stopping addictions to pregnancy and pain control

Ulrika Shaw: Thrive consultant and hypnotherapist Email: enquiry@shawmind.co.uk Phone: +44 (0)7810 556029 Website: www.shawmind.co.uk Are you suffering from anxieties or depression? Maybe you’re struggling with bad habits such as overeating or smoking? I help people overcome anything that holds them back!

Geoff Rolls: Corporate coach and kinesiologist Email: geoff@geoffrolls.co.uk Phone: +44 (0)7905 056 513 Website: www.geoffrolls.co.uk Learning and development, NLP trainer, TFH kinesiology instructor

June O’Driscoll: Exec coach, business coach, trainer Email: june@thoughtitude.co.uk Phone: +44 (0)7876 657 8055 Website: www.thoughtitude.co.uk NLP, coaching and hypnotherapy training school and consultancy

LIFE COACHES Dr Andrew A Parsons Mindfulness, resilience and finding clear purpose Email: aaparsons@reciprocalminds.com Phone: +44 (0)7854 029 268 Support people, build awareness and make changes for success

Dustin Vice Personal and business development coaching Email: dustin@alliancecoachingsystem.com Website: www.alliancecoachingsystem.com Professional coaching, coaching business system for professional coaches

Gail Cherry: Torchlight coaching Email: gail@torchlightcoaching.co.uk Phone: +44 (0)1143 489 161 Website: www.torchlightcoaching.co.uk Helping people with their personal and professional development. We work together to be the best you

Ruth Hepworth: Life coach Email: ruth.hepworth@ntlworld.com Phone: +44 (0)1252 655 849

Those Life Consultant Guys: Coaching, seminars, business, goal setting and more Website: www.thoselifeconsultantguys.com A coaching company which prides itself on helping you to live your best life; every day, through one-on-one sessions and seminar programmes

Nick Nanton Career and life coaching, consultancy and public speaking Website: www.nicknanton.com Phone: (407) 215-7737 Recognised as one of the top thought-leaders in the business world

Edson Williams: Life coaching Email: edson@leadbyexample.com Phone: +44(0)7867517777 Website: www.leadbyexample.com Specialising in leadership development and sport coaching

David Owen: Life coach & NLP trainer Email: bestyou@excel-yourself.com Phone: 07900 243494 Website: www.excel-yourself.com Stop smoking, slimming, phobias, relationships, stress, confidence, self-esteem

THE BEST YOU DIRECTORY The best professionals in personal development

PHOBIA SPECIALISTS John Vincent Public speaking without fear Email: John@JohnVincent.tv Phone: +44 (0)7808 545 421 Website: www.johnvincent.tv

Paul Wright Phobias, anxieties, panic attacks Email: paul@phobiagone.com Phone: +44 (0)203 086 8444 Website: www.phobiagone.com

NLP THERAPISTS / HYPNOTHERAPISTS Linda Cameron and Gail Walshe Inspire for impact Email: say-hello@inspireforimpact.com Phone: +44 (0)845 601 7567 Website: www.inspireforimpact.com NLP trainers, NLP master practitioners, NLP life coaches, hypnotherapists

Debbie Williams Birmingham NLP Practice Group Website: www.debbiewilliams.co.uk Phone: +44 (0)121 241 0728 Life coaching, public speaking, sports coaching, all eating disorders, emotional mastery, OCD, stopping blushing, cocaine addiction, binge drinking

Edson Williams Coaching, NLP, personal development Email: say-hello@inspireforimpact.com Phone: +44 (0) 7867517777 Website: www.leadbyexample.com With an holistic approach, Edson specialises in performance coaching

Laura Spicer: Public speaking skills and confidence Email: laura.spicer@gmail.com Phone: 01752 361 576 Website: www.laura-spicer.com The only accredited sound practice trainer for the Society of NLP

EATING DISORDERS John Arroyo Coaching, personal development Email: john@johnarroyo.co.uk I have been a therapist and personal development trainer for 20 years, specialising in eating disorders for the last 10 years

EUROPE

NLP TRAINERS

Pasquale Acampora (Italy) Master trainer and mental coach, NLP, team building Website: www.blackship.it Phone: +39 (0)335 70 99 000 Pasqualeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s key areas are sport and business; he has worked with top athletes and multinational companies

Alessandro Mora (Italy) Sport coaching Email: a.mora@ekis.it Phone: +39 (0)522 337 611 Website: www.pnlekis.com NLP, coaching and team building applied to sport and business all over Italy

Xavier Pirla (Spain): NLP master trainer and NLP coach Email: kay@the-me-group.com Phone: 91 002 84 44 (Madrid) 93 193 6449 (Barcelona) Website: www.the-me-group.com NLP, NLP business applications, coaching workshops and consultancy

Aleksander Sinigoj (Slovenia) Mastermind academy Email: info@itnlp.com Website: www.aleksandersinigoj.com Leadership, motivation, sales, business NLP

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THE BEST YOU TRANSFORM • INSPIRE • MOTIVATE • ENRICH • EMPOWER • ENJOY AUGUST 2015

LEWIS

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YOU CAN LOSE IT!

USE YOUR HEAD TO REACH YOUR IDEAL WEIGHT

WORK THE WEEKEND

BUILD A BUSINESS AT SUMMER CAMP

PLUS: RIVER COTTAGE’S GUIDE TO SUMMER FOOD