Being a parent isn’t a part-time job. It’s the most important role you’ll ever play – more than your job, more than anything. You have to give your children the best of you. Pay attention to people you invest in relationships with and talk about things you actually care about.

You can push yourself through pain if you harness your mind and develop an excitement towards physical discomfort. When your mind and body are in harmony you can push yourself to your limits … and beyond. Work hard to make them operate in unison, and you’ll soon see the benefits.Lie beget lies. One lie leads to another. Then another. Then another. Before long, your whole existence will be a fabrication. Is that what you really want? To push yourself to your limits- you have to work hard to develop a strong harmony between your mind and body. Lies don’t work. You might be able to stay out of trouble for a little while by telling a lie, but your dishonesty will always catch up with you. Your confidence should be based on what you know you’re capable of, not the opinions of others. When you have internal confidence you’ll be more resilient, more willing to try new things, and you’ll be able to take whatever life throws at you in your stride. Your mind and body are not separate, they’re all part of the same system. When you’re struggling physically, it will affect you mentally. If your mind isn’t strong, your body will suffer.

We are all a work in progress. None of us is perfect, none of us is the finished article. We all have so much space to grow and change. Embrace your potential, shrug off your fears and take another step towards becoming the best version of you. Your emotional make-up is unique to you. Only you can do the work of becoming intimately familiar with your emotions. Break what you’re feeling down. What is it? Why is it happening now? Keep asking questions until you know those feelings inside out.No body is ever perfect. Everyone has parts of their physique that they dislike. Work out what you can change, make peace with the things you can’t change. Your authentic self is precious. Guard it fiercely. Resist any attempts to make you go down paths you know aren’t right for you. There’s only one person whose opinion should matter: you. Every relationship is a shared project. The true value of that bond isn’t in how good it is in the first month, it’s how it looks after five, then ten years. The lessons he echoes are crucial to not just a life demanding physical and mental toughness but generally any meaningful life. Here's what I took from each lesson:

Don’t get trapped in the world of ‘what if?’ We can’t predict the future. We can’t change the past. So work hard to live in the moment.

Books Multibuys

The war against pain is as much mental as it is physical. If you’re ever contemplating taking on an awesome physical challenge, don’t neglect your mental preparations. Expose your emotions before they expose you. You have to go out and expose your emotions to the world. Make sure you know what anger or fear feels like.