You can achieve anything you want
Over the weekend, people of the South West were treated to two days of food, fitness and fun.
The Achieve event, orchestrated by TV’S Martin Roberts, took place at The Passenger Shed in Bristol Temple Meads after a successful stint in Bath last year.
The weekend focused around ‘health, wealth and happiness’ and
Elise Britten attended Achieve on Sunday and came away with unexpected life lessons. She shares a handful of them here
Eating out of bins may just be the key to success
Kicking off the day, Eddie the Eagle got us off to a flying start with his simply incredulous story about his journey from plasterer’s son to ski jumping in the Olympics.
The lengths Eddie went to achieve his goals with very limited means are breathtaking. In fact, at one point he even resorted to scraping girl guides’ leftovers out of bins in order to sustain himself while training.
While I hope I won’t be rummaging through rubbish any time soon, Eddie the Eagle certainly is a shining example of not giving up on your dreams.
“The best tool in my tool belt was resilience and tenacity,” he said. “And I never ever gave up.”
Looking at him now, after an extensive career – including a stint as a Finnish pop star – he is a picture of success, without even a whiff of bin juice.
Lesson: Expect to roll your sleeves up for humbling work on your way to success
Lee Johnson doesn’t recruit based on great football skills
Okay, so football skills obviously come into the equation, but according to the Bristol City manager he would prefer to hire a great person who can be taught team cohesion, than a great footballer.
“No individual is bigger than the team,” Johnson explained.
“Unless you’ve got the culture right, you’ve got nothing.”
And the 37-year-old manager must be getting something right after leading Bristol City to the semi-finals of the 2017–18 EFL Cup, beating several Premier League clubs including Manchester United.
The young and very attractive (forgive my swooning) manager told me how it was tough to be taken seriously at first, competing with teams who have four or five times your budget and more experienced managers. offered an array of talks, demos, workshops and exhibits from a selection of celebrities and experts.
Saturday opened with a ribboncutting ceremony by Lord-lieutenant of the County and City of Bristol Peaches Golding OBE.
What followed was a day of delicious dishes and delectable demos – a real feast for foodies.
Main stage speaker, Gregg Wallace, talked of his weight loss and ability to still eat all that he loves. He then treated guests to a trio of treats in the cooking theatre.
Coeliac chef, Christine Bailey,
“But as time goes on you earn your stripes and become more respected,” he said.
Lesson: Your character matters at least as much as your skills
Some parents are going to hell and back fighting for basic rights
I was horrified to hear what some parents are going through to secure the basic right of a good education for their children.
Sue Walsh shared her emotional story of her dyslexic son Jack who was rejected by a total of 29 schools and then still had to fight for funding to attend the one school which could offer him the style of education he needed – St David’s College in North Wales.
For years until he found the college Jack kept begging Sue: “Mum, keep me out of school. They don’t know how to teach me.”
Despite being effectively written off as ‘unteachable,’ Jack went on to pass his GCSES and A levels and achieve much more besides in the conducive environment at St David’s.
With one in six children who are tested being diagnosed with dyslexia, Sue believes that it shouldn’t be a struggle to find a school for was also on hand whipping up healthy and gluten-free dishes.
Further speakers on day one included inspirational Dilys Price, an 86-year-old skydiver and model ad presenter Calum Best.
Martin Roberts, who founded the idea of Achieve after spending time in the I’m A Celebrity jungle, said: “Wow, what a weekend!
“I am still on cloud nine, particularly re-living the sensory delight of the Achieve cookery theatre and positive vibes all round! Thank you to everyone who made this weekend happen!” them. She makes a strong case for a shake-up of the educational system and for more teachers being trained in how to teach children with different needs.
Understandably, Sue was getting teary sharing her story – admittedly, so was I!
Lesson: No child is unteachable
Nigel Owens is just as fabulous in person
They say never to meet your heroes as you are bound to be disappointed – but Nigel Owens MBE is certainly an exception.
Listening to his harrowing story of bullying, depression, bulimia, a steroid addiction and a suicide attempt in person, you can’t help but have even more respect for how he emerged from the ashes to become the renowned and muchloved rugby referee he is today.
Owens struggled for a long time with accepting who he was.
“At 19 years of age, I had never met a person who was gay,” he said.
“I thought something was wrong with me.”
He even asked a doctor if he could be chemically castrated.
After eventually accepting that he was gay, the concealed truth still had deep effects on Owens.
“Mental well-being and physical well-being go hand in hand.
“I still wasn’t refereeing well as I was still worried about having to choose between my passion and being who I was,” Nigel explained.
“No-one should have to make that choice.”
Coming out publicly around the age of 32 freed Nigel to confidently be the best referee he could be.
He showed great affection for the rugby world, when I asked him a question about the effect of the culture of rugby.
“Value and respect are instilled in young people when they first start playing and they become better people,” he explained, attributing part of his positive experience coming out to this.
But he also conceded he had already earned their respect as someone at the top of his field.
“Perhaps people have accepted me because of who I was.”
Not everyone who has faced similar struggles to Nigel has had the same advantage.
Lesson: Be true to yourself and accept others for who they are
I really have no excuses
The day concluded with the motivational story of Jaco Van Gass, an Afghanistan war veteran who lost his arm among other serious injuries in the line of duty.
Despite his disablement turning his world upside down Jaco, through an incredible amount of hard work, ended up on the Walking with the Wounded expedition to the North Pole. He then almost made it to the peak of Everest.
The fact that weather conditions forced the Everest summit attempt to be called off in no way lessens Jaco’s achievements.
“Success is not final. Failure is not final. It is the courage to continue that counts,” he encouraged us.
Lesson: No matter how dark life gets – there’s always hope. (It’s corny but true!)
You missed out if you weren’t at Achieve – but look out for next year’s event!