It’s been a while since I last wrote an update. With so much going on this summer, it felt like the right time to share my latest news. As always I hope you find this interesting, will engage with your thoughts, and share your news too.
Health and Wellbeing
With my disability, summer is usually good health wise. Which is a relief this year after the terrible winter I had with colds. My relatively new morning routine has been a great positive factor.
Every morning I make sure I do my meditation and physio routine. I also make sure I drink lots of water and eat more healthily through the day. Something I was bad at doing previously.
If you are interested in more of this topic, watch out for my new video series. It’s called ‘The Good Life’. Recorded in Poland, the scenery is beautiful, and the content will help you with many aspects of living a fulfilled life.
The Foundations
There is a whole post to come about my new wheelchair. But otherwise my care, equipment, housing and general independence prerequisites have been behaving this summer. Long may this continue!
Eternal Student
When I was at school and university, I wasn’t the world’s most prolific reader. Then when I graduated and the lessons stopped, I just couldn’t stop reading books.
I’ve always enjoyed inspirational biographies of people past and present. Occasionally I will read the odd fiction book too. More recently I have read a lot on personal development. Which has taken me on an amazing journey. A journey that any protagonist in a fiction story would be proud of.
This journey particularly kicked off after reading ‘The code of the extraordinary mind’ by Vishen Lakhiani. His book and his words showed how important our beliefs and habits are in creating many parts of our life.
Coming from the traditional disability activist way, this would usually really grate. Simply because the social model explains how the barriers in society are the cause of being disabled. So self empowerment is irrelevant when the world disables us.
In reading this book, I believe the two can go together. With empowering beliefs and effective habits, there is more chance that we can tear down the barriers in our way.
Like Ghandi said, we must be the change we want to see in the world.
From Student to Teacher
It turned out that Vishen founded an education company called Mindvalley. After reading his book, I attended a few of their free online master classes. Then in Barcelona last May, I attended their experimental project called Mindvalley University. The speakers were leading experts in their field. The other students were awesome people from around the world. I just loved it.
Following on from this fantastic trip, I did a couple of the paid courses online. Particularly learning about nutrition, stress management and having a more powerful brain. The courses varied in length and in content. But they all gave me fantastic growth and progress in the rest of my life.
So when I found out that the University project was a runaway success, I signed up immediately. This is why back in June and July I was in Tallinn, Estonia. It was amazing catching up with old friends from Barcelona. Meeting new friends too. Plus the speakers and the topics were mind-blowing!
My last post covered Tallinn from a wheelchair accessible perspective.
This all made me realise and appreciate the power of constant education and learning. You’ll see later in this post how much of my work has progressed, in part because of my recent studies.
My new aim is to help my community embrace the benefits of everything I’ve learnt.
In feeling so excited about teaching from my experiences, not just from Mindvalley, but in life – I ran a workshop in Mindvalley University! It was on the topic of blogging to change the world. You can see here the cool group of people who attended my session.
Leisure and Social
Apart from that visit to Estonia, I’ve either been working from home or going to meetings relatively close by. For fun I’ve been playing battleships and chess with Kasia. Plus taking Sunny the Golden Retriever puppy for nice walks. And seeing family and friends for food and drink.
Excitedly I’m off to Portugal, Poland and Spain in the next couple of months. Lisbon is for a work project with Portugal for all Senses. You can see their first article here. Poland is to see Kasia’s family and we’ll be driving there with Sunny. Valencia is for another work trip 🙂
Work Work Work
I’ve always loved serving the disabled community. Obviously I have a personal vested interest in inclusion. However I get so much pleasure from supporting many other people in their day-to-day Pursuits.
My job has evolved a lot since leaving London a few years ago. I’m working more with organisations looking for help in how to be more accessible. This is where true change will occur.
I currently see three main areas in the business.
One is as a speaker and coach on ways to change the world. This took me to Glasgow last week, to deliver a keynote speech for the Archives and Records Association. I will share lots of content around the subject on my blog too.
The second is our new social media marketing agency. Where we help organisations with blog content and digital marketing. If you or anyone you know is interested in this, please do get in touch with us. We’re already working with some amazing clients.
The third is of course Disability Horizons. I’m really proud of the growth in our readership this year, and we’re working on some great plans at the moment with strategic partners. Particularly in the above-mentioned field of online education.
So watch this space…
Your World
I’d love to know how your summer has been. Particularly if any of the above is relevant. Of course I would love it if it benefits you. But most importantly I love conversations and learning from each other. So please do stay in touch with whatever is happening in your world.
I’ll be in touch soon with updates on health, foundations, leisure pursuits and world changer work stuff 🙂
Martyn Sibley
– World Changer @ martynsibley.com.
– Author @ ‘Everything is Possible’ (on Amazon).
– Inclusion Captain @ disabilityhorizons.com.
– Presenter and Speaker @ visablepeople.com.
– Adviser @ Governments/Businesses/
Also @ Twitter | Facebook | Linked In | Skype.
Mobile @ +44 (0) 7798 746551.
