The Hope Initiative

“And that's where there's a difference of culture too. I think in our culture, ego can be a good thing too. Ego inspires people. It pushes them along. It gives them perhaps determination and perseverance , but I think we do have a lot more ego in our culture when it comes to relationships, compared to others in different cultures. In Argentina, no one has any shame in saying or admitting love for...

“I think the hard part to answer your question is defining what you want. I think that is so easy to say. And so impossibly hard to do; to get clear on what you want. In my experience, which I can talk to, is the reason that was so hard is because there were things in my life that I knew I didn't want, that I was living with every day. That was a job and a relationship for me at the time. And so t...

“It was one of those sessions, I went in just for a shoot around and the varsity team were training. I was like, “Oh shit, these guys are tall. They're fast. They're athletic. I do not fit in here at all.” I couldn't believe that that was the standard of basketball that I was trying to get to. And that was just in the division two level. And already I felt like, okay, there's a lot of catching up...

“I learned concept called a trade off. And it's this acknowledgement that when you choose one thing, you are leaving another thing behind. Often in life we're faced with trade offs all the time, all day long, you can drive yourself crazy obsessing over trade offs. But at the end of the day, you've got to ‘decide’; the Latin root meaning to ‘cut away’. You've got to choose the life that you want to...

“Everyone thinks that you have to have your life sorted by the time you're in your twenties. But you don't. That's still really young, you have your whole life ahead of you. But actually, Grandma, the other day, she was asking me what I wanted to do when I'm older, and I was like, “I don't know.” And she was like, “Well you better figure it out soon.” And I was like, “Okay, Grandma!” And mom was l...

“I think I would tell my 17 year old self that the lifestyle that I was looking to get to get into with the drinking and drugs is more of a scam than anything. It's not what it seems to be. And I would tell my 17 year old self, that I could just be happy and secure with who I am and what I have, and stop searching for the person that I'm not. I would tell my 17 year old self that I'm gonna be okay...

"It's just the forever game. We're kind of constantly adapting and growing and to pass that on to general population… You are much stronger than you think you are, I just need to show you, I need you to experience it. I'm going to push if I can see potential, I'll push you to your potential. And then I want you to see it in your own eyes that you can do is coming.” Episode #79 of The Hope Initiati...

“I'm so grateful for my Twitter friends. It's such a cool way to meet people. You and I met, or you found me on Twitter. To me, it's like we all see these thought bubbles. And we're like, “Oh, I like that persons thought”, that's such a cool way to like meet somebody, you know? Cause when you're growing up, you meet people - this is going to sound like it has a negative connotation - but it's conv...

“I wanted it so bad. Like it was like they had something I was addicted to and I held out, I held out to the point where I was about to say, “Let me have one piece”. And I'm sitting there and a guy sitting beside me and his wife, she was in the military as well. They were talking and they were talking about me and I looked at him and he said, “We wish we had your willpower.” Now when they said tha...

“It was just the consistency of doing it every single day and knowing that I had to do it all again the next day after completing all of that. Because it the beginning, especially doing all of those tasks in one day, it can be overwhelming... I feel like we do big things in our lives, you then take days off or you rest. But going to bed after doing two workouts and doing everything right, and thin...

“Love is the reason for everything, so yeah, maybe vague wasn’t the right word. But I feel like if you tell someone to ‘love yourself’, it sounds so simple. But I don’t think many people have actually fully been there. I haven’t for sure. It’s a lifelong journey to fully loving yourself because you have to love yourself at every stage to have the most fulfilling life. In my opinion, to have love f...

A different sort of episode, one specifically for me. I hope it helps you too. Thanks for listening.

“I choose who I want in my circle. Life is short. I had a beautiful friend of mine pass away from cancer 6 years ago. Benny. I didn’t see him often, but when we did catch up, it was a beautiful, powerful friendship. That was someone I made an effort to catch up with. So for me, having blood is not necessarily the reason to have a relationship with someone. But it’s that connection of similar value...

"You've got to love yourself in order to get any love or admiration from another. And if you really know who you are. And that's the hard bit. People don't." Episode #71 of The Hope Initiative with Geoff Serra.

"Give yourself 10 years of doing this. You know, it's a long-term, it's treat yourself as if you deserve it for 10 years. And see where you're going to be 10 years from now. So I often think about that. I'm about two years into this journey of quitting smoking, quitting drinking, starting running, and I'm not going to stop." Episode #67 of The Hope Initiative with Jeremy Meeks.

"I remember my lecturer came to me one time and she sat me down and said, ‘There comes a time of life when you need to choose soccer or your career. And I want you to choose very wisely, and to be totally honest, I don’t think soccer is quite the career for you.’ I said, ‘Sorry, I’m still going to have to juggle both because you don’t realise the level here. And then I signed for Melbourne City an...

It's been 364 days since I released an episode on this podcast. A lot has happened, but it's time to get back to it. Here's some thoughts and an update of what you can expect. Thanks for tuning (back) in! Now let's go create some life...

"The fear of failure and having a failure can sort of over overcome me and stop people from actually chasing their dreams and their goals, due to fear. I don't do that anymore. I definitely did for much longer than I'd like to admit." Episode 60 of The Hope Initiative with Johanna Clark.

"So every day is a choice for all of us. A choice of what we do with what's in our hands, the energy we've got, the focus of attention and that kind of stuff. And some days are more fruitful than others, but if there's a general direction that you're headed in, then you can build step by step and actually do something..." Episode #59 of The Hope Initiative with Steve Heatherington.

"I finished law school and - I hope my boss isn't listening... I didn't think I wanted to be a lawyer anymore. I finished all of that. The day I actually graduated, not just law school, but also my practicing certificate, that day I literally just came home and cried." Episode #58 of The Hope Initiative with Zac Galloway.

"I just went back into the degree that I got entered into, got through it and really had no idea what I was doing with my life. I just had so much I'd experienced and I had no passions really. And I felt lost, but I would just do it because someone had paved the path in front of me. Maybe I was lacking courage to think on my own feet... I guess as a younger sibling, that often happens where you do...

"I spent most of that day completely rattled - absolutely completely rattled. Then you flow to the next day and we sell a six and a half million dollar house after 10 days of negotiation. The ups and downs in what I guess most real estate agents' or most people in life have, I guess, the bad makes the good. So if you don't go through the shit, so to speak, the good isn't as good. And that's what I...

"There's a difference between blind ego and self-esteem, I think a big difference. I had blind ego and on the one hand, it took me to some fascinating places and I did some amazing jobs. On the other hand, a lot of it was done being alcohol and drug induced... So, that was the low self esteem part of it. But look, I'm a great believer in believing in yourself, of course, but also I think you have...

"You don't necessarily have to go off and be a screaming expert or something before you actually try and do it. Just do it. Make mistakes, learn from it and move forward." Episode #44 with Andrew Nott Andrew is the father of three of my best mates, wife to my godmother and like a father to me! He's also a housemate on a semi-casual basis, working in Melbourne but living in Cooma, New South Wales....

"I hope that I still give a crap when I'm 40 about these issues and everything, and that if I have kids by the time I'm 40 I hope I'm enforcing that notion on them to give a crap. Giving a crap is cool." Episode #43 of The Hope Initiative with Sinead Coulter I have known Sinead for almost 20 years now since playing soccer with her eldest brother and one of my best mates, Liam...