I now ask myself, “If I know what I am doing is wrong, why am I doing it?” Just STOP! The biggest waste of talent, care, interest in others and progression is doing the things we know we shouldn’t. It takes time to think about those time wasters. It takes time to waste all that…
The worldwide parkrun phenomenon that got kicked off with a few pals meeting up in Bushy Park, Teddington UK in 2004 has changed the lives of thousands of people. Want to know more, read on. Where did it all begin? The premise was simple according to one of the original founders, Paul Sinton-Hewitt. “Turn up…
Summertime is here, and feeling the blues about your weight or muscle definition? Don’t stress the Park Gym is here to get you out of the house and get active. From the gentle leg pushes to the hardcore pull-ups, Park gyms are exploding all over the UK and they are for you to use. What…
T’ai Chi, tai qi, t’ai qi, or tàijí, either way you want to learn T’ai Chi and see if it really is beneficial to your health? A bit of history T’ai chi was first seen being practised in the small Chen village about 500 years. There are a few theories about how it came to be…
Have you always wanted to understand your food and how Calories directly affect you body? Here is a brief, and simplified version of What is a Calorie and what it does for you. What is a Calorie? First, let’s understand a Calorie. A Calorie (written with a capital C) is actually a kilocalorie (kcal) or…
Ever considered the On-Meal-a-Day Diet? Yes, it is exactly as it sounds… One meal, a day, every day… Read on to learn more about the One-Meal-a Day Diet Plan. What is the 1 Meal a Day Diet? One meal a day diet is a plan where you choose to forgo all snacks, all meals and…
No. 2 – The Elephant and Six Blind Men is an amazing story originating out of Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism to teach us about our misplaced thinking we each have the only truth! Here is my version of The Elephant and Six Blind Men, in rhyme form. The Elephant and Six Blind Men Come sit…
Ever notice your world outlook is different from the next persons? That’s what I began to notice! It isn’t so much that there are physical differences in the world around us. We all experience rain, we know what the warmth of the afternoon sun can do for us and at night the beauty of a…
No. 1 – Here is my very first Rhyme from the Nose to Tales series. I hope you enjoy it. To listen to The Owl and the Frog, press the play button below. The Owl and the Frog To-whit To-whoo and down swooped the owl all feathers a flutter out on the prowl Mr Frog…
There comes a moment when it’s time to redesign the amazing things we create. To refocus on what is important and to improve on what we already have. That moment passed a few days ago and, though starting from the ground up, it is also a mental journey of rebuild what I know and want…
Last week I was talking to Ash, a new acquaintance I met as part of my interest in permaculture. We got talking about the plants and the way nature really does take care of itself to provide for us the best fruit and veg when we let nature do the work. It was a garden, correction,…
Ever caught yourself saying, “I’ll do that later’, or “Maybe next year”? That is exactly what I woke up to the realisation of this morning. I cannot say that I will do something later and in effect place some form of credit in the time bank! It just cannot work. You see, time is a…
2017. It’s arrived and already the days are ticking past. 2016 was a busy and an equally slow year for me, but 2017 is already shaping up to be a lot busier. It is then that the word “Resolutions” has crept up on me too. That word that can spell for many certain failure and…
Success Requires Interest AND Activity In a previous post I wrote titled, Focus for Success, I examined how focus requires attention to work and that attention is a finite resource we all have. Together with attention, Focus requires that we also have interest and activity in what we are doing to succeed. To have an interest in something according…
Focus in writing is what every writer needs to do. Focus on getting words on paper. Focus for success in whatever you do, is setting those goals and achieving them. This lesson has been a hard one to learn! It’s “Focus for Success”, Dummy! This has been the phrase that has been swimming around my head…
I am an Existentialist! What a strange statement to make! Who really cares about what I am? I care, and I am interested to know what you are! We all have outlooks in life. Some are tinted by a religious belief, others have thick blinkers on to avoid looking around. If anything, being a something…
Start Turning Your Phone Off! When I was thinking about the post title I was wondering how I could convey the importance of our time! Our phone’s are “stealing” it from us and along with it our curiosity of the world. Remember the times when you haven’t had your phone, when you thought of something and you…
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. H. Jackson Brown Jr. (P.S. I Love You) Our brains thrive on exploration. The difference of a situation, the excitement of a new experience. It is mind-blowing to think of all the…
A short rhyme while out in the garden. Oh why Oh why, butterfly do you fly like a butterfly Flitting from here like a bouncy ball to over there breaking your fall With each flap of the wings you ascend to the sky yet with certainty, descend to earth with a dive Oh why Oh…
It’s Thursday already. The week has been flying past and I have been busy – I know I have been busy but there is a growing list of to-dos on my right side and I seem to not even notice the light anymore. It’s Thursday and I need to prioritise! Today I thought it’s time…
First day at Primary School. New class, check. New friends, check. Shiny new school bag, check. Bell rings, children run about, and a teacher directs everyone to their various classrooms. We are introduced to our new teacher. I forget her name, as I have for all my teachers’ names; The lesson introductions begin. We get…
Failure is not falling down but refusing to get back up! Chinese Proverb I recently received a message from a friend and the message read fine until the bottom of the last paragraph where it read, “I feel like a failure”. These words ran through my mind and I wondered for a long time why…
The World is a Book, and those who do not travel read only a page! Saint Augustine
Variety is the spice of life. Routine is killing you! It is a fact that when you do something as a matter of routine you cannot take any excitement in life anymore. When you stand in the morning to brush you teeth and you take the toothbrush from it’s same spot, put the toothpaste on the…
Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. Maya Angelou We all know the 5 second rule exists! There is the 5 second rule for food – drop it on the ground and you have just 5 seconds to recover it before it becomes…
The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity! Amelia Earhart Nike, have “Just Do It” as their slogan. An internet search on Google currently lists 51,300,000 results for the Boolean search on those specific words! When you are standing on the ledge of a bungee jump wondering if you should…
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Emerson makes the point of perseverance, and as I wrote previously about it I want to give you the encouragement to continue to get up. It is failure that creates the necessity to invent!
No one succeeds without effort… Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance. Ramana Maharshi There is a reason why you have to wait for success! You need to be tested, and you also need to know within yourself that this is what you want to do!
It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to learn the lessons from failure. Bill Gates A few months ago I wrote a post on how I could not fail now! I didn’t publish it as I was caught up digging a garden up and generally wandering around. Last night as I…
To stand tall in this world, you need the strength of perseverance! Maurice Randall Listening to the radio today, I heard Rachel Platten singing her Fight Song. I thought; do we all need a fight song or is it that we all need the encouragement for self assurance to keep us on track?
Be organised and your creativity can flow freely. I have often told friends and family about Evernote and then tried to explain how you can best use it for your own personal life. So I have made tutorials to help point them and perhaps you in the right direction.
We must end our journey to begin a new one, or else how will be appreciate them! It’s time to leave and head back to where I began nine days ago!
Jagged peaks to rolling plains, the journey is varied and never the same! Today was really about going somewhere to be somewhere. (654km) I had to meet my folks and friends by nightfall and the distance in between us was vast. It is only when you are on the road and moving that you realise…
A dash from the roar of the sea to the height of the Drakensberg Mountains Waking up to the warm humidity of East London this morning and looking out my window at the green vegetation and lovely blue sky, I felt like my trip had gone well. I had visited a National Park, seen animals,…
Waking to the sea, driving past wind farms and arriving at an Estuary Harbour. The sound of the sea evokes all kinds of emotions in me. The rush of the waves, the ebb and flow of the low rumble always moves me. It seems to connect with some deep down feeling of calm that all…
What does a Coffee, Cape Hare and a Waterfall have in common? It’s a Long Drive of Course! I woke before sunrise today in the Karoo National Park. In the distance I can hear a lion roaring letting us all know that it is morning again and he is off to bed! What a sound…
To see the morning rise and enjoy the evening pass is to experience the day in full! What an amazing place to be! Thomas’s Place is certainly worth the stay, even if it is not far from the road, the air is crisp, the sky clear and I could hear the sheep having a little…
Burning Heat and Salt Pans, oh what excitement! Salt pans, in the middle of the burning heat of the Orange Free state in South Africa, no I wouldn’t believe it… not unless I had seen it today with my own eyes. Areas of land, drying out to leave behind crystal white salt. The temperature here…
Any trip begins with the first 324kms! South Africa is Big, their holes are big, the food is big and the animals are big, but nothing makes it feel so much bigger than when you drive between different points. I set off on Thursday afternoon for a trip to the Orange Free state, the farming…
The Latent Lifestyle Foundation Belief on our Purpose in this life.
To dedicate time to a good decision is to dedicate you life to a purpose.
Allowing your inner thoughts to dominate your decisions without proper investigation, results in indecision and apathy. Maurice Randall
Decision making is easy if you know what the choices are!
There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow. Today is the right day to Love, Believe, Do and mostly live. Dali Lama XIV
Potential is within, reality is how you use it! Watching a Ring Necked Parakeet yesterday I was fascinated by the way it held its food in its claws and bent its neck over to eat the tiny small piece of food. But what happened next sparked this realisation – Are we accepting less than our…
Established 1898: SANParks – Kruger National Park is unrivalled in the diversity of its life forms and a world leader in advanced environmental management techniques and policies. South African National Parks
Just came across this and wanted to pass on the good work they are producing. The video on stuff is rather enlightening! There are loads of resources and a whole YouTube channel.
A National Park to Rival the World – Kruger National Park The Size of Wales or Israel, this really is a park dedicated to wildlife in South Africa and possibly the world. Why, would I give this so much praise, such a high accolade, you will have to continue reading…
Here are some of my all time feel good videos. I really hope they inspire you as they do me. Heard of Dave Cornthwaite, well here is his story to get you all inspired… [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHvWufuo-Ew&w=560&h=315] Matt Harding from www.wherethehellismatt.com [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNF_P281Uu4&w=560&h=315] Kien Lam a time lapse photographer who can be found here: http://whereandwander.com [youtube…
I came across this post on the BBC Website (all pictures are from the BBC website too by the way) and wanted to share it on. I would suggest you look at it on a computer as the images and site display the journey beautifully. An amazing story of Gunther and Christine and their…
Dundee – South Africa, the heart for a Battlefields Trip This was my first time to Dundee, well Dundee in South Africa. I have been to Dundee in Scotland and I can assure you it was certainly not as cold not was it all rock! No Dundee in South Africa has its roots in coal,…
As you have by now noticed, this blog is called Latent Lifestyle and so there is a clue to the potential lifestyle you can have in the title. However, our overwhelming need to de-clutter and minimise today is something that is becoming a movement. A realisation that there is more to life than buying stuff!
Stuff needs a piece of me and a piece of my space! As I continue with this series on procrastination and stuff, it is worth looking at our desire to store the items we have. Free stuff especially, takes even more from you…
We all know we have it, we can hear it sneering at us from the pile in the corner or the overstuffed drawer. It creeps in when you are not looking then slowly but surely does a small dance on the peaceful landscape of your mind. Get enough dancing thoughts and you have a…
Gather them, Gather them all together! It is apparent that procrastination is happening in many areas of our lives. From the visible (washing up) to the less visible (paperwork, life decisions, and ignoring the credit card bill!). However, each has it’s own measure of mental fatigue!
Are you Leaving it till later? Procrastination happens in most of our lives in various abundance and with some what of a stealth approach. It seems to sneak up and pounce on us, and before we know it we have been wrestling with it for days, weeks, and months. That warm fuzzy feeling that says in…
Memories – Worth their weight in Gold? As I write my book, this is almost the epitome of a memory and how it can be valued. There are so many quotes and sayings to represent these ideas, but this quote best describes our stuff!
If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself. Albert Einstein
Look about the space you are in and look at the stuff around you. Nothing is floating around you! Your stuff has a presence in your home, and in my home that is unexplainable. It is there, it is useful and yet it is stuff. So why is it causing you and my problems?
Amazing Migrating Birds and Majestic Wildlife I have already been expressing the peace and tranquillity of South Uist, but one thing that Uist is famous for with Twitchers is it’s bird life. Yip, if you want to see a multitude of birds, all migrating through or stopping off for a relaxing break then this is…
Off to see beauty in landscape One thing you can certainly say about South Uist is that it is prime walking country! I have managed to do quite a bit of exploring here and I can say that this little island (in comparison to a large continent) has so many nooks and crannies that you…
South Uist is set in a vast ocean of water! There said it! Although the mainland can be seen on clear days it is some distance in the North Atlantic. So between South Uist and the Mainland is a body of water known as the Minch. To get to the island of South Uist…
Weigh Stuff Out If stuff is, as I said, memories in small containers, then those small containers are necessary – right? Lets see if we can weigh this out…
An overview of South Uist History and it’s dwellings Herring, 8000 years of humanity and a few stone Cairns – Yup post 2 is about the History and Dwellings of South Uist.
An Introduction to a Special, Peaceful Place A little group of islands clings to the coast line of Scotland on the Wild West coast. A land with its own ancient language and its inhabitants that seem to span time itself. Exact Location – – 57.2667° N, 7.3167° W. Over the series I will look at the island…
Our minds are filled with memories of the lives we lead. Each memory we have an attributed feeling or emotional tie and each time we think back on that memory the feelings and emotions return too. To look at it closer, your brain is storing all types of different data it is receiving from…
We guard it, polish it, look at it, are nostalgic about it, hold onto it, fight for it, pack it away, uncover it, display it and store it. Our Stuff is really stressful! Take a look at all the things around you. They may comprise the small items you collected or the items from…
“Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters.” Nathaniel Emmons
Chocks away, Welcome… Great to have you along. I am Maurice – this is my blog! I know, it is pure self indugence to write a post just about starting a blog, there are few things less stressful than this post that is for sure, but I did want to make a post that started…