I love change. This is just as well because my life has just changed quite dramatically. I like change for several reasons, but perhaps the core factor is that I have never allowed any alteration in the circumstances that surround me to in any way dislocate my great belief in what the future has in store for me.

I used to think a lot. But over time I found thinking can very easily become obstructive to progression. Thinking is fine and I have to proclaim my propensity to ponder was at one time quite prodigious. As well as that, I have been fortunate enough to encounter some profound thinkers; individuals who possessed the acumen, and the patience, to immerse their lives in wondrous bouts of methodical mental meandering which, more often than not, unfortunately prevented any consequential action taking place in their lives.

It is my belief that most of us think too much. So much time and energy is wasted and so many careers put on hold by people who think rather than do.

So when something negative happens in my life I attempt to release it as soon as I can and move on. This however, does not infer that I am simply a reactionary.

On the surface there is little satisfaction in simply turning right or left in ones life and carrying on as if nothing had occurred. In my profession especially, one not only has to take full stock of any event of consequence, one has to be aware enough to sense or even see it on the horizon.

I do not believe in coincidence. I am too long on this earth, and in professional football, to abdicate responsibility for my circumstances by apportioning accountability to chance. Rather, I accept totally that whatever happens to me be it good, bad or indifferent happens with my consent.

If something or somebody makes me feel inferior, superior, sad or glad it, whatever "it" is, always occurs with my consent.

The fact that we stand at the starting gates of 2008 is quite apt in the light of my previous paragraphs. The proposals I have placed before you may appear somewhat deep and philosophical with far too much "thinking" encased therein. But I am only suggesting that we place far too much emphasis on the bad that has already happened in our lives and far too much time thinking about what our response should be. For example, literally thousands of us will approach the 2008 steeplechase with a mindset of changing what is not good about our lives.