Beating Bipolar – The Proof is in the Pudding… As long as there’s no Dairy!

Having hit over 500,000 people globally with my story to date, you may be tuning in expecting some solid answers!?!

That said, there are NO solid answers…

But I do feel for once in my life, like I’m almost beating the Bipolar at its own game, I’m on the path to happiness and although it’s still fraught with anxiety, mostly driven by peoples perception of me, or my own self doubt, I do feel that there’s a route through the tree’s and I’m beginning to see the variation in the different types of wood…

Does this mean I’ve got the cure, no, but it does mean that I’m building the mechanics.

If you’re new to my, sometimes seemingly ranty, blogs, then you should note that I was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder around 12 years ago and I tried medication for about 30 days, at which point, not able to string a sentence together by 3pm each day, I threw them in the bin, off the back of the consideration, that if I was going to deal with a ‘mental’ issue, then I should do it mentally and evolve my mind into functioning without any sort of suppressant…

12+ years and copious drugs and drinks binges later, I’m t-total on the drug front and am able to enjoy a beer for pleasure and not to the point where I’m debilitated by it…

So, what am I doing differently now, why do I feel such a dramatic shift at this point…?

1. I quit doing the work that didn’t give me any enjoyment, I was running a company that had small profits doing everything for everyone and fundamentally that made me a busy fool, helping everyone but myself, while I drove my mental state into a hole, enveloped in the facade of a businessman on a roll…
2. I stopped trying to help everyone and started initially just trying to help myself for a change. This doesn’t mean I simply shat on everyone who I thought might need help, I just started to be more realistic with my time and helped people passively with support and guidance, while I cut back on the 1-2-1 meetings where people just bleed you for business insights, that aid them financially and debilitate your time.
3. I found what I loved to do and what I was good at… I realised that amidst the chaos of the companies that I’d created, there was an element that made me happy, the creative element surrounding clothing design and the clever thinking that meant less customers, better customer management, more money, meaning more sustainable and more time to just breathe… I went all Jerry Maguire!
4. I started to look at the right opportunities… I found them and the chance to shape the future of a few British Brand’s and beyond…
5. I decided that if you’re late, you’re late and that we don’t have to trample an old woman or a small child in London, just to get to a meeting (not that I ever would have Mum), we don’t have to arrive sweating… nothing in life is as important as the life that surrounds us and ebbs through us and with calm, comes respect and with respect, comes positive energy… I was 45 minutes late for a meeting yesterday, the traffic was bad, my partner was driving, my new son was in the back, I was changing nappies; I hadn’t eaten because of a string of meeting delays throughout the day and I made the mistake of having a Redbull and a Crunchie 10 minutes before hand, as I fought to get diesel off my hands; so, when I got in I said too much, I was a bit of an arse, I almost sunk the opportunity before it began and was thrown off kilter because the guy thought I had no integrity and I sat there and thought wait!?! This is not me… I’m the guy fighting the stigma of mental health, who’s not quite made it yet (in the traditional sense = £), in a posh suit with a cravat, trying to navigate through the last 3 wet wipes and his final nappy, with his son’s little bottom way too close to the double breasted cream waistcoat, as his fiance bombs around town like Colin McRae (pre-helicopter) to get us there on time and I sat back to breathe… And it was like being back at the start of the journey, when all I wanted to be was happy…

Everything we put on ourselves in life, is because of the cause and effect that we’ve seen on the way. We’re over zealous, we’re foolhardy, we stop thinking about others outside ourselves…

I constantly tell people we’re working to give ourselves back time, but what we never stop to realise, is that we are the keepers of our own time; if you didn’t finish your work, if you’re late to a meeting, if the guy cut in front on the tube… what happens?

You’re works not finished… But you’re not dead… You’re late to a meeting anyway, so why knock that child in front of you out of the way? You’re already late, be a human… The guy cut you up and jumped on the tube first, f**k it, the tube doors don’t close until we’re all on anyway, who cares, you’re still at the tube door…

Give yourself back the time, watch the rush as you know that you’re not in it… Watch the chefs through the window on the cobbled high street, on your way to work, taking in their fish in the morning, or doing their prep, as others rush past you, ignorant; look up, stand on walls, see the architecture and the colour, pull your umbrella to one side and just feel the rain… View everything from a different perspective and your time will be your own again…

And even if your boss spits negativity in your face as you arrive, you’ll know then, as I do, that you can close your eyes and bring those moments back… Back when you need them, back when you knuckle down…

If all you recall amongst the rumble this weekend is this; remember it’s ‘your’ time, ‘you’ are the keeper, ‘you’ are the leader, you are not a slave to it, you are not bound by it, you are free within it, to shape it and to shift it to your whim, to float above it and to breathe…

And do you know what, when you’re back in the room, the meeting just might turn out ok…