Gavin’s glee guide
sundaypost.com wanted more of that excitement,” he says. “Then we failed, too – but it taught me to fail and not to be scared of failure.”
Ga v i n had his “lightbulb moment” when he went to a workshop run by a company called Tree of Knowledge.
“It mashed my two loves together – teaching and stand- up comedy,” he says. “It blew my mind. I quit my job that day, went to work for Tree of Knowledge and nine years later I led a management buyout.”
Gavin now teaches courses to workplaces, schools and others.
He met Dr Cope when they were both booked to speak at an event in St Andrews. “Andy is one of my heroes. They say you should never meet your heroes, but it’s worked for me,” he says.
“I read one of his books called The Art Of Being Brilliant and it made me so angry. I’ve read loads of books like this and they’re not for me. But this one was edgy, a wee bit sweary, rude and energetic. I was so annoyed. It was the book I should have written.”
After meeting at a conference, the pair began writing together.
Gavin and Andy believe we need to stop getting so wound up. That £ 30.04 at the petrol station? It’s fine. Let it go. Still festering about what your boss or your ex did in the past? You guessed it. Let it go.
Always busy and on the go? You need to stop that, too.
“You need to sit and do nothing,” Gavin says. “We very rarely live in the now. We’re too busy worrying about the future, or thinking about the past. I looked out of the window for 15 minutes. How many of us do that these days?”
Gavin believes technology has a lot to answer for in our daily lives.
“We’re always switched on, thanks to our phones and social media. It’s amazing to think when mobile phones first came out, they
Plot twist
When something doesn’t go according to plan, it’s not a crisis, it’s merely a plot twist. Shout it out!
Let it go
We’ve all felt wronged. But it’s time to let it all go and move on. The world has finished with your past if you have.
Scratch your itch
We all need that something special... Your itch is your drive, the reason you get up in the morning.
Upgrade your pants
were praised for allowing us to live freer lives,” he says. Now we rarely stop and just be in the moment.”
Gavin, 38, believes it’s OK to be sad and have down days, though. “Being sad is an important part of being happy. If we’re not ever sad, bored or lethargic, we won’t know what happiness is.”
So how does he cope when he’s got the blues?
“I run. I only came to it about two and a half years ago,” he says.
“Then I lost my dad to pancreatic cancer six years ago and got the fright of my life. I tried running and I couldn’t even make it round the block. But my wife Ali made me get back out there, until I could run one kilometre, then 10.”
Last year, Gavin ran the London Marathon and raised £11,500 for a pancreatic cancer charity.
“That was one of the most emotional days of my life,” he says.
“I tried to film myself thanking people who’d helped me raise the money at the finish line. But I was so emotional I couldn’t get the words out. When I run, the worries of the world that can be sitting on my shoulders disappear.”
Needless to say, Gavin believes we need to get outside, stop staring at our phones all the time and talk to each other more.
Oh, and next time you get wound up because someone’s put the butter back in the fridge on the wrong shelf – just let it go.