free books - impostor syndrome - 400 lives changed

good morning bigmoose blog readers,

welcome to my first bigmoose blog giveaway.

well, i’ve decided to give away a load of my books.

since i was an extremely young man i have had a thirst for knowledge, and have read voraciously, books on business, books on mountaineering, books on running, if i was interested in something, i immersed myself in the subject matter, pretty deeply, enveloping myself in the subject matter.

i can remember reading books by aristotle onassis, once the richest man in the world, lee iacocca, former president of ford motor company, and akio morita, co founder of sony, all extremely interesting, creative, complex leaders in their time, and at 18 they opened my eyes to a world i had no experience of, but wanted to learn about, probably if i’m honest to lift myself out of my extremely humble early life.

i read, and i read about negotiation, deals, creativity, and if they all had a common denominator, it was probably people with humble beginnings having big dreams, never ever giving up, and becoming successful, and as i sit in my home office this chilly october morning i have a eureka moment, this is what i have been striving for all my life.

wow, welcome to jeff’s therapy session, ha ha, whenever i sit to write this blog, i never know what direction it’s going to take, well this morning it’s a self realisation that probably every adventure i have embarked on was influenced by my childhood, which i guess if we all rewind our stories, we will find lifelong influences, good and bad, that influence our adult lives.

shoot, we got very deep very quickly there 😂

so.

i have a massive collection of books, in four main genres, business, mountains, running, and autobiographies, and they all sit in cupboards, most of them having been read once, and then destined to a life of inactiveness, so i have come to the realisation that by giving them away, we can all share the contents, the stories, the inspiration, etc, with new readers, and inevitably the contents will change peoples lives, hopefully for good, even if they pull just one golden nugget from the prose.

so, it’s a simple plan, if you’d like a free book on any of the topics mentioned, just email me your name, address and topic, and i will send you one, no postage, no hidden costs, just a request that after you read it, you pass it on to somebody you think might appreciate reading it.

which reminds me, i have been writing a book about my life’s adventures, growing up in finsbury park before it was gentrified, hockey, climbing, running, losing my best friend, creating a legacy, and never giving up, which readers of this blog from it’s early days might remember, but i have been extremely lazy, and not written a word for probably a couple of years, probably impacted by my diagnosis, and if  i’m being totally honest with you and myself, major league impostor syndrome, and fear of failure.

who am i to write a book?

when i finish it, i’ll have to publish it.

when i publish it, it might bomb.

no-one will buy it.

i will be a laughing stock.

i will disintegrate into vapour.

i will have failed.

all the above are flimsy reasons not to finish writing it, so if i don’t finish it i don’t need to risk all of the above, i will live within my comfort zone, cocooned in cotton wool, comfortable in my previous sixty years of life, taking the easy path to senility.

what a load of b******s.

that’s not how i want to live my life.

making excuses.

i’m too old.

i have parkinsons.

nobody will read it.

blah blah blah!

so this morning dear blog reader, by opening this blog and reading it, unbeknownst to you, you have inspired me.

inspired me to dig deep, and be bold, risking failure, but come what may, trying.

having a go.

and doing my best.

so here is my pledge to you, i will write a minimum of one thousand words every week, until my book is finished, and every week i will report back to you.

you have unwittingly become my accountability partner, without doing a thing 😂

and as this book writing journey unfolds, maybe you can become my proofreaders?

wow, this is quite the blog today, sometimes self reflection is good right?

as the rain beats down outside, on this dark friday morning, i feel a relief, almost a catharsis by writing this, hopefully not in a selfish way, but more in a way that by exposing my vulnerability i might possibly inspire you to reflect in some way on your own life, and do something that scares you, join that dance class, learn to play that guitar, write your own life story, even if not to publish, but to inspire your family, and if anything, don’t have regrets about not doing stuff, that will suck.

thanks for reading, and if you wanna free book, drop me a line, and, if this blog encourages you to do something you wouldn’t have done, please let me know, i love that stuff, i get lots of lovely messages from blog readers, and one recent one was from a blog reader that decided to commit to fundraising £15,000 for bigmoose next year through his business, very exciting, so if you have any aspirations to do something wild and outside you comfort zone, we have abseils, wing walking, runs, climbs, etc, just let me know, the fundraising help you give allows us save peoples lives, and this week we topped over 400 people that have graduated through our therapy programme since january 2022, so thank you from every one of them, their family’s, friends, coworkers, 400 is a pretty big number.  

so to finish off, be bold, be brave, and in the words of phil knight, founder of nike, just do it.

blue skies,

jeff