​If you’re a parent, chances are you’ve heard about Fortnite, been nagged about ‘Battle Passes’ and they haven’t stopped talking about the thing!
The free multiplayer has been available since July 2017 on both Windows and MAC as well as Xbox One, Playstation 4 and more recently the Nintendo Switch.  The more popular ‘Battle Royale’ version puts 100 different players onto a big island in a solo mode, duo or a squad of 4 to battle it out for survival until there is one winner! 
The bright colourful cartoon-like graphics have prevented a blood-fest that some shooters have given us over the years and this helps attract the younger gamer although its rated for mild violence.

With over 40 million downloads of this game, its safe to safe that the creator, Epic Games are onto a huge winner and although the game is free to download, it’s the in-game purchases that have let the creators have a holiday or two in the sun!

Like anything, the hype will begin to drop and recently with the arrival of ‘Apex Legends’, another free multiplayer battle royale adventure, the numbers may have taken a dip with the Fortnite servers.  As anything ages, the constant new content is key to keeping the fan base coming back, Grand Theft Auto 5 is an example that is in another league.  The game will be 6 years old later this year, but is still one of the most played online games across all formats.

So why are we still talking about games here?  As mentioned before, Fortnite possibly had a dip in active players and gave an incentive to all its players within the challenges that are set week by week/ by season.  ‘Complete 13 of the Overtime challenges to win a free Season 8 Battle Pass’, it’s a sure winner to have any of those Fortnite players that may have disappeared for a bit to come back and play/ make in-game purchases.  How much is this worth then?  The Battle Pass itself costs 1,000 V-Bucks (the in game currency) which is around £7.99, but the money that can be made by the other in game purchases that can be made is insane!  An outfit (or skin as the kids call them) can cost 1,500 V-Bucks which when you work out is around £12 in real money terms, different gliders can be bought as well different harvesting tools (which you start with), none of these things do anything different, just different designs!  Again, the latter two would be worth around £4 each!  Its reported that Fortnite made over £1.8bn in 2018 alone, you don’t need me to explain why its so important to keep players coming back!

Getting back to the subject, my growing-up-too-fast little girl, Kacey, wanted to complete the challenges to win a free Battle Pass and aside from not using the V-Bucks already on her account, I saw this as something that could be done.. and why not!
As a disclaimer here, I’ve tried playing Fortnite and can not get into it at all, I’ll stick to Grand Theft Auto but I do understand how it works and much rather just watch someone hacking down trees with a pickaxe!

So how did we manage to smash the challenges and end up doing 15 or so instead?  Well, the answer is simple and it was ‘focus’.  “Where focus goes, energy flows!”

In a rare moment where an almost near teenager (how did she get to this age so quick?) actually listened to some gaming advice, there was a bit of a change in her approach to playing each game.  Instead of trying to do part of a challenge like search a treasure chest in one place and then play until that character was killed, I helped install the mindset that each game played was to do one or two challenges and quit the game and start a new one.

Slowly, after a few hours of jumping out of the flying party bus and hacking away at trees, we had 12 challenges completed and hallelujah we unlocked the next season’s battle pass!
Probably the most rewarding part for me was that after the few hours on that Friday night and Saturday morning, the focus that was spent on looking at what the challenges were, what had to be done to complete them and then finally the happiness and fulfilment that Kacey had on her face was well worth the time.  It was rewarding to see that despite the time it took, the plan was stuck to, the idea that you can start a game, do part of a challenge and then just quit that game to help her cause was something I hadn’t really seen before in her approach with anything.  By the end of that weekend, there were 15 challenges completed, more than what was needed but again, take an approach, run with it and smash it!

The message is focus and this is something that you do every single day with so many different things without even thinking about it.  If you have a project at work, you focus on it and the project moves along.  The cupboards at home are empty so you focus on that and go shopping, if you didn’t, what would you eat, you can’t have a takeaway every night can you!?  Even when you need to brush your teeth before bed, if you do of course, you still need to focus some of your time and energy to be able to do it.  Whatever it is you want to do, plan what you want, how you will do it, stick to your plan unless it fails a little and change it to suit the mission and you’ll be surprised at how far you will get!

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So I took an unplanned week away from Instagram and then just social media in general, but it wasn't by choice!

One day I noticed a couple of my Insta posts weren't getting much love with the interaction, likes, comments etc and while I don't get hundreds of likes for a post, I do get more than a few over a whole day.

After working out that my posts were appearing and even the hashtags appeared with their search, I sent Instagram a message which obviously they didn't reply too.

A day later, the problem is still there so I started looking online for an answer and it didn't take me long to find out what it probably was.

Ladies & gentleman, boys & girls, I present to you, 'Shadow Banning'. It's a great title isn't it?
Now for those you who haven't heard of it, Shadow Banning, Shadow Banned, or one of the other many different titles is best described as when Instagram still let's you post but blocks you from new followers. 

The new algorithms that started in 2016 within Instagram saw peoples interaction sliced in half! Instagram acknowledged there was a 'hashtag glitch' or was it to cover up the fact they are flushing out the constant spammers?
If you are banned, you can still post but only your followers can see you're posting meaning any hashtag you may have used is actually useless!

If the interaction is down, you could ask a few people who don't follow you to see if they can see your posts within a hashtag you've used, if they can't, its a good sign you're banned!

So how do you fix it?  There is no clear way, people have tried different things and some people have been banned for a few days, others a few weeks.
I was banned for a week and tried different things, switching from a business account to a personal account, unlinking Facebook, taking out hashtags from recent posts, not posting for a day or two and constant 'Report a problem' within the Instagram app.
Whichever of those things that worked, if you do get banned, just try them all!

What has this taught us today then class? Well, if you have a problem, look to find out as much as possible about it to help solve it, the people's experiences you will read about, they were all like you once upon a time.

Share your experience with others, you will probably help someone somewhere!

Bonjour & good day!

Millions of people travel across London on the Underground everyday, miles below the surface of the world, it's probably the best reason it's described as the 'rat race', no offence intended.. I'm one of them!

While I play my role as one of the many sardines in the tin can they call a London Underground tube, you have few options to how you spend your time before your view becomes someone's big rucksack in your face!

Music or a podcast keeping you occupied, standing with your eyes closed (definitely a morning thing), no room to try and read that free newspaper you picked up or a favourite of mine is attempting to breath again with the whiff of body odour creeping up your nose (yes even at 5.30am!)

Sometimes it occurs to me that every single person on this tube has a 'story', everyone has got some sort of life experience, some happiness, some sadness and heartbreak to name just a few.

Imagine the experiences you could learn about from talking to just one of these people, not just squashed together on the tube but in world we live in!

A chance friendship started one afternoon on a tube platform at Euston London tube, waiting for the the tube to High Barnet.

A woman in her 60's at a guess was dressed in ripped jeans and leather jacket (really fit well with the Camden Town scene) with dyed pink hair (yes I was very jealous!)

This woman was offered a seat by a young girl as we waited for the tube, they started having a chat and ended up sitting with each other.

As I was close by, their conversation was in ear-shot, before you think it, I wasn't being nosey, I'm going to call it 'learning!'

This lady used to work in the theatre and loved It, the performance, the drama and the excitement the whole atmosphere were the things that drove her to that love.

The two chatted for 20 minutes or so before the young girl got off and it left me thinking, what does it take to drive people to what they really want to do?  Is it the love, the money or just fullfilment?

What do 'you' really want to do? Are you happy still working in retail, behind that desk everyday?  Are you stressed because your job makes you hate waking up everyday?

There is a strong chance you could relate to some of those questions, I was one of those people after almost 18 years in retail, yes 18 years clearing up after people, watching countless child tantrums in different toy shops, but it had to all change so I started to change that.  My story will appear at some point but right now this is about you!

So what do 'you' want to do then? What would you like to do with your life instead of the same old job that you currently hate and wish you'd never have to go back to?

The world out there is a big place and there is something especially for you but you need to work what you want to do!

I left retail and the 4.30am wake ups and instantly gained 10 hours of my life back a week, if you didn't count the 4 weeks for holidays) that's 520 hours a year gained! By not working in retail, working until 10.30pm at night, working weekends (the list of reasons goes on) I've been able to launch 'Learn Develop Live', you wouldn't be reading this had i still been in retail!

I could go on but how about instead, you think about yourself and what you want to change for the better, you're worth it and you deserve it!
​

There is a lot of rejection around the world and the natural human instinct is to take it to heart, beat yourself up about it and for most, just give up.

So let's put a bit of a spin on rejection and why it can often be the better outcome than getting the result you want first time, yes as crazy as that sounds, it also makes a lot of sense!

I'm no love doctor and can't help you with ways of the heart, but I can help put your mind straight when it comes to sorting your head out with the world of rejection.  We've all been gone through all different levels of the rejection world, but let's use it for the positive vibes for a change and see just what it did to some people you may have heard of...

Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star in 1919 because he editor said Walt 'lacked imagination and had no good ideas', that was Walt Disney!
Lady Gaga was fired from her first major record label after just 3 months!
Michael Jordan was cut by his high school basketball team!
Elvis Presley was told by a concert hall manager that he should go back to driving trucks instead of singing!
If Howard Schultz gave up after being turned down by banks 242 times, there would be no Starbucks!
Albert Einstein was unable to speak until he was 4, read until he was 7 and expelled from school!
Steven Spielberg was rejected from the University of Southern California School of Theater, Film & Television three times!
J.K Rowling had her first Harry Potter book rejected 12 times by publishers!

Each one of those people were hit by rejection, but they carried on, they tried again and again.  If you've been hit by rejection lately, take a step back, a quick break and start again, you could well be the next big thing!

A few years ago I rediscovered my 'chillout time' with the Xbox, now I'm not a competitive gamer, I don't scream and throw the controller at the TV if I concede a 90th minute goal playing FIFA, I'm not sure the TV would appreciate it and neither would I once the shouting had stopped!

I've also never really ventured into the world of online gaming and whilst playing Grand Theft Auto 5, I said I'd give it a go after completing the 'Story Mode' and go from there.

As the many people will know about the GTA train, it's a money making machine, the production costs were around £170m and that included marketing the beast.  While the game has a bigger budget than some films, the game itself took $800m in one day.  Whilst I'm not a mathematician (far from it!) its safe to say GTA paid for itself!

I'm sure people will agree, the GTA world is very different online compared to the normal game, all the players are loaded up with some serious hardware, speeding around in these flash cars and then there's me who's just standing there on a screen looking back at myself!

After taking out a few online players in a few different sessions and coming to my own death probably more times, it clicked to me that I am just not as in tune to this online gaming as most of the kids were who were sniping me from a distance!

While I will probably go back to trying to finish Assassins Creed Black Flag after this, my priority is definitely continuing to build the empire that is 'Learn Develop Live', but what about all those people playing GTA?  The majority of them are probably school kids, but what about the adults who could spend all day playing games?  Yes it's great that on GTA you have $5m, three properties, ten cars, a rocket launcher and a helicopter, but what about when you leave that online world?  Or when you move onto the next game?  What if the time you spent playing the Xbox was spent making something of your own?

​You have the power and energy to try and make something in the real world existence, I'm not saying throw your Xbox in a skip, but I want you to want more from yourself and make something that shows what you're capable of, not that you've got a pixelated private jet that you can only fly in GTA, what about having your own real jet of your own made of real metal.. why not??

​Originally posted - September 2016

I was at Borehamwood FC's Meadow Park last night to watch the Arsenal u23 team play in the newly formed Premier League 2.  I've been an Arsenal fan all my life which hasn't been easy at times I can tell you!  So, the chance to go and see the team you support surely can not be passed up.

It was a home match against the Everton u23 team and there was a bigger crowd than I thought there would be, it was free entry so that probably helped!

With Arsenal playing Nottingham Forest in the EFL Cup tonight, it is tradition that Arsenal play a second string side with some youth players mixed it and with at least eight or so involved, it that explains why so many of the regular Academy first team players weren't playing against Everton... they were sorely missed!

The story about the game is that Arsenal played like a group of 11 individuals whereas Everton were a solid team, they ran all over them, constantly moving forward, calling for every ball, working for each other.  When the final whistle blew, it's probably best it only ended 5-0 to Everton and not more!

Now I'm not saying I could have played any better last night (bad knee and all that plus I'm not under the age of 23!)  But last night was a massive opportunity for some of these kids who may not often get a chance but last night they did.

So what is the message here if you haven't already guessed, you are smart people after all!  If you are given a chance to do something new or an opportunity at work comes up or how about something towards your dream? As Nike would say, 'Just Do It!'  

If you don't take that chance, I can promise you, you will probably regret it and if you take it, the least you'll get is a bit of experience you didn't have before.

If I didn't take that chance, I'd have never started 'Learn Develop Live!

A Stage 3 Induction session for my recent job of 8 months, the power of learning is obvious and can lead to many possibilities.

Being sat at a table in a small group and getting 15 minutes or so with a Director or Deputy gave us the chance to fire all sorts of questions at them in a no holds barred Question and Answer session.

It was interesting to learn how people got to where they wanted to be, the ideas they had and how where ended up today wasn't in the plan at all!

The point of this is to say, why don't you go learn something new?  Network a bit and see what opportunities you can open up for yourself.
Does it matter how big or small it is?  As Spiderman has said, "With great knowledge, comes great power".  Thanks Spiderman for your words of wisdom!
​
Broaden your horizons, build up your knowledge and see where you end up!

Life is short, life flies by, days roll into weeks, weeks roll into months and then years, and then all of a sudden, it's over.

In truth, very few people have any idea just 'how long they have' in this world, just how much time they have to make something of themselves.. or to just do nothing.

From the moment you are born and running around in nappies, playing in the park before becoming an emotional teenager and then the big world of being an adult arrives, just getting that far is an achievement in itself. Sometimes some people aren't lucky enough to even reach adulthood, everyday you wake up, you should see it as an instant win even if it is with some of those aches and pains.. I know them well!

As the tag line from Eminem's film, 8 Mile says, "Every moment is another chance." Take that advice because it's true, if you've got a chance to change the way you do something for the better, why not just start now? Don't leave it until a Monday because it's the start of a week, why not start to chase a dream now, go for a run somewhere if you want to get fitter, start small and getting bigger in your approach and the time you can give towards what exactly you actually want to do with your life.
If you want to start a business, do some research, learn how to do something, there are millions of videos on YouTube that can show you how to do something, if you want to learn how to do it, "Just do it", now we are getting Nike involved!

Sitting on the sofa watching the Kardashians isn't going to help you get anywhere is it, go learn something, go do something different, break your routine, to give your life a new dimension. At the end of it all, only you can get yourself going, unless you try, how will you now just what you are capable of?

​Life is a journey, go and find yourself a new adventure!
​

So you will obviously have a Monday coming up soon, maybe today, but depending on when you read this, this will still apply to you.. yes YOU!

Anyway, congratulations for making it this far!

Seeing as for most people, Monday is the marker for a new week, what is it that you are going to do in that new week for a change? What are you going to 'try', what are you going to 'finally' start?

So what's the plan then? What's been at the back of your mind? How about we use running as the example today? Going out for a jog to warm those muscles up and how you feel afterwards is actually pretty good!

If you've been planning on starting that 'get fit' idea you've been having, why not actually go for a run! I know, could you imagine?!! If running hurts, go for a power walk, if you can't do that, just go for an extra walk outside, literally every 'step' helps!

Too many people look for the smallest excuse to not start to do what they say they are going to do, if you aren't going to do it, then why are you giving your ambition false hope?? Just think of your ambition just being left in the corner of the room.. all by itself!

Remember, you don't need to be able to do a marathon by next week, let's be realistic here people, but even just by trying, just that extra walk instead of sitting down watching the Kardashians is a bigger start to your plan than you think.. and sanity.. what do the Kardashians even do???

​Every tree started as a seed at the beginning, you my little sapling, are no different.

​A part of life that people seem to forget is what they take from it, people perceive this in different ways.

The Ed Sheeren song, 'Photograph' is a great example of a family that spent so much time taking photos and recording a young Ed as he grew up and you can see the potential he had as a performer from an early age.  All those memories that Ed himself may not have even known happened were seen because his family have taken the time to keep those memories alive.

Let's say you have a young family, a little boy or girl around four years old, the only world they know is you (the same could also be said for a dog but that's another story!)  They don't know about the high pressures of getting the bills paid or how keeping them safe from the bad stuff in the world continually plays on your mind, they worry when you aren't with them or when is dinner.

If you were to send a card of the family around the holidays, that would be Christmas for me but depending on where you're from, people that send cards, they might send a card with a photo of the family doing something special from that year.  If you've spent most of your time just working or down the pub every night and not spending time with your kids, I'm sure people will love to see a photo of your bank balance or you being sick down the toilet.. yay for you!

I recently saw a young boy playing football with his Nan.  Despite being an older lady, very well dressed, you'd think she'd be extremely upper class had you passed her on the street.. But, in reality, at that moment, she was the goalkeeper for her Grandson who was kicking his ball at her.. think about that.. what will his memories be of her..

Life is about making memories, go and be like that Nan... why wouldn't you?

​The football (or soccer) world is still, at the time of writing this, or maybe forever, in shock about Claudio Ranieri's sacking at Leicester City.

The success of Leicester City when they won the Barclays Premiership was huge but that's another blog for another day.

Now football management is brutal, you can be the best thing since Arsenal's 'Invincibles' season and then a bad result or three and people want you to be sacked.  Football is results based and with the amount of money involved, owners and directors can't have their team being relegated as financially it can start a dramatic drop, just take a look at how many clubs relegated from the top flight are still suffering.

The players need to take responsibility for how they perform, yes it's the manager/ coach that needs to motivate them but if you've watched how much effort the players are not putting in, considering they are the current champions, the players don't care with their four year contracts earning tens of thousands of pounds!  The person in charge is always the one to get the chop even if they have a long term contract.

The sacking led to shock, the general feeling across football felt that what was achieved only 9 months ago was already forgotten, Leicester winning the league, that group of journeymen worked hard and won.  Working hard is the message here but it always shows what happens when you aren't consistent with your performance and while getting to the top is one thing, staying there is something else.

The other message from the Ranieri story is just how much the things you achieve can be forgotten in this day and age, an achievement that was spoken about around the world, just forgotten.  That saying about, "You're only as good as your last performance" comes to mind but that is the world of football now.

Focus on what you want, work hard, be consistent, and once you reach the top, work twice as hard to stay there!

The mobile phone for many years now, has been seen by most as the lifeline to the world.
You can play games, listen to music, take photos, send text messages, even order a pizza to be delivered.
As I travel through London on a tube under the 'Big Smoke', there are probably at least 60 odd mobile phones in this carriage alone if each person has one and it's not even crowded!

So why have I become the 'phone police' today?

Thinking about how much I use my phone, I'm always doing some sort of work for a project like 'Learn Develop Live' or finishing off an Ebay sale or a review for TripAdvisor. I look at things like Facebook and Twitter but it's more about how the Fan Page is doing or how a post was received or how can I make something better.

Starting to write a new Blog entry is a favourite and maybe I'll have a quick game of something before I have some sort of signal again.

The point is, you have locked up in your phone, more technology in your hands than NASA had back in 1969, so why not use that to your advantage?? Learn something new, build a website, start a business, use both the time you have and technology that people didn't have 20 years ago to help you.
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There's doubt though isn't there? Do you think it will be difficult? Do you think people will judge you and tell you it's not a good idea? Those things will probably happen but that's part of the adventure! Those people who put doubt in your head because their friend's cousin's cat tried something once and it didn't work the first time so they quit, well look how 'perfect' their world isn't, doing the same thing everyday, nothing to show for their life, the biggest risk they take is whether to cut their toes nails on a Friday when its meant to be bad luck!

But with nail clippers put one side, ignore the negativity people can give you. Use the technology and information you have at hand (literally) to give you the edge. If I didnt, then you wouldn't be reading this post from a website I didn't make!

Don't expect success overnight and remember that every expert was once a beginner who people doubted too.

It's been said many times, and along with the studies and research that has gone on, that, a banging tune is sometimes all you need to 'sort you out!'

Whatever your taste is, music can have an incredible effect on both your feeling and 'get up and go' that can sometimes lack!

I currently have a 'Jaguar Skills' track blaring in my earphones on a tube travelling around North London (and it's Camden Town as I type this for all those tube and travel fans!)

I'm no scientist as you know, but what exactly is it that gets the adrenaline pumping from listening to your favourite tunes even if you are still sitting at the same desk looking at the same spreadsheet sitting on your screen? Well that's a great question!

The quick science answer talks about "music causing slight variations in physiological characteristics like respiration, heart rate and muscle tension."
My own unofficial answer is, well it just wakes up your brain and the beat gets you moving.

Whatever way you look at it, music can be the influence you need to kick start whatever it is you want to be doing.. even that exciting spreadsheet!

So, earphones in (especially if you are in that quiet office) get your favourite tracks playing and watch that work get done.. unless you got up to have a dance instead!

First of all, ‘Happy New Year!’

Now if you’re currently enjoying a hangover from last night or you are feeling fresh after your first morning run of the year, I hope it’s been amazing so far!

So we have the nice bits out the way, now let’s talk about new starts!

It's January, new start, New Year’s Resolutions are set to start, some people who do polls and stuff like that, say that in the end, only 8% of the people that wanted to make some ‘new resolutions’ actually make it to the end of the year, it’s like that 365 day race to the finish line with very few that make it to the finish line.

So what’s it to be then, do you want to become healthier or more active and run all over the world, see more of your friends and family? Each of those are possible, each of those can be done… IF you want to do it enough.

Whatever it is that you are doing to make your resolution come true, go for a run before work or the gym on the way home, research (yes that word again) says that if you can manage to make whatever you are doing to make your resolution happen and include it in your routine for 21 days, it becomes a habit.. Make it a good habit!

There are thousands of different guides to help you kick start a resolution, but here is the quick guide to hopefully help you make them happen.

Just one resolution… concentrate on getting one thing sorted, trying to juggle more than one thing at a time won’t help!

Think about what you are going to do, not just start it. Failing to plan is planning to fail and all that.

Friends and family supporting you can help keep you encouraged to keep going when you do hit those moments of doubt.\n

Having one goal is a common mistake, you need to break down those goals with benchmarks. Try set a realistic goal each month to help try and keep that resolution on track.

This is always probably the most mentioned pointer from all the guides. It’s going to take time, start slowly to help alter your routine. Cutting down on your smoking week by week will eventually see you not having any because you will be used to not having any.

Expect to stumble! There will be hiccups, there will be slips, there will be days you aren’t able to keep to the plan but you can still ‘get back on the saddle’ as they say!

This isn’t a point but more a question to why you need the 1st January to be when you start making changes in your life, you could start ANYTIME… It’s all down to YOU!

Now enough of me waffling, get that resolution started and good luck, “Use the force” and all that!

After coming down sick last week resulting in an 18 hour 'going in and out of sleep' session, it was a reminder that catching some snore time needs to happen more often!


Long gone are my days of living off 4 hours sleep a night and still waking up like a fresh springtime chick or a daffodil or anything born around March this year!

Like a lot of the 'older' generation of footballers who pass their 30's, they have to adapt their play, the days of running around the pitch like a headless chicken have now gone, the body isn't able to do it anymore (unless you are Cristiano Ronaldo) so they use their head more, using the experience they have gained, they adapt and become an effective player in that way.


As my better half will tell me, sleep is the best cure for when you aren't feeling well and obviously (like most of the time) she is right!


So those people who live at the fast pace, being awake every hour of the day, if you are chasing that dream or ambition, just slow down every so often when you are starting to feel a bit 'Meh!' You need to rest too!


Grab an early night here and there, you'll probably find that ambition and drive becomes stronger all because you caught an hour or three, extra hours sleep.