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. You won’t become confident overnight. Nothing worth anything comes together instantly. You build your confidence step by step. Confidence is not a natural trait. Confidence isn’t a quality that some people are born with and others aren’t. Everyone who is willing to put the right work in can become confident. Don’t wait for somebody else to tell you what you’re capable of; go out there straight away and prove it to yourself. Your body is amazing and unique. Cherish it. Celebrate the things that make your body different from anybody else’s. 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?

You fit 100 per cent into your own skin. Learn as much as you can from other people, but never try to imitate them. Your children didn’t ask to be born. You have a responsibility to them and their welfare that will not end until the day you take your last breath. Don’t be a square peg in a round hole. When you suppress your instincts and personality to fit somebody else’s agenda, you’ll end up living a crushed, unsatisfying life.

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. Set up good habits when you’re young. The older you get, the harder it becomes to change the way you eat, sleep and – most importantly – exercise. Normal’ is a concept designed to make us conform. You should never forget that everybody’s ‘normal’ is different. So don’t let anybody persuade you otherwise.

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. Lies erode trust. People don’t trust liars. They don’t confide in them, they don’t like them and they don’t want to be around them.

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Don’t get caught in the kindness trap. The sooner your kids get exposed to the world’s rough edges, the better they’ll be able to deal with them.