BY WAY OF HELLO, my name is Alisdair Chisholm, happily, and I've talked about motivation most of my life and I thought it was about time I started writing about it in a blog, although it's not quite as simple as that, is it ever?

As a kid, a teenager, I mean, I travelled and loved it, but ran out of money, so armed only with a couple of card tricks I became a street magician and loved that too. I started with a couple of pretty lame card tricks but soon managed to get an act together and became a performer, with way too much confidence for everyone I knew, and enough wanderlust to fuel a lifetime on the road.

After a couple of years I was back in London, sold advertising for a while, in Soho, fell in love with just about every girl I met, made friends, mostly lost, ran a few sales training courses and before I really knew it had bought a failing training company and slowly it became pretty big, and mostly pretty good, and I ran courses and seminars and spoke at conferences all over the world, just about everywhere you can think of going.

I met many thousands of people and quickly realised that the ability to motivate yourself, through triumph and disaster, is the single skill that most shapes our destiny. It started a lifelong obsession with what makes some people tick faster than the rest, why do some have a fire within that everyone else can see, burning them up, leading them headlong down their very own golden path.

I studied, and learned everything I could about motivation, and wherever I went, whatever the audience, that is what I talked about and I'm pretty sure it helped a lot of people, and it always felt like good work, the closest I've come to a calling. I was least like every other trainer and speaker I ever met, way too showy, not a Powerpoint in sight, just stories and stunts and magic - first loves are always with you - and some simple ideas that really work. I loved every day of it, all the wild highs, and the desolate lows.

I sold the business, to a kind old man with an evil look in his eye, or something like that, and started over, working the conference circuit, happy as can be.

Then, locked up in lockdown, stir crazy in my house by the sea in England, I saw a small fortune of bookings wiped away, and closed the door on talking for a living. Over the years I've called time on a few great loves, people and places and crazy ideas, and it breaks your heart and opens your eyes, and that's ok by me.

Since then, I've coached a lot of people online, done some magic shows, written another book, grown a lifetime supply of tobacco and a tiny amount of coffee in my garden, my idea of self-sufficiency, and a hundred and one things besides, like we all do.

Somewhere along the way, where once I had been a seeker, I became a wanderer, and found myself completely lost.

Lost is ok, I had sort of expected it, and it's not the first time, and I hope it won't be the last, and I found new secrets and knew I had to write this blog about motivation, and picked up a pencil - and a cup of coffee, a deck of cards, a big cigar and a Zippo, and a silver dollar, for luck - and began.

I want to talk to you, and your friends and your cousin you don't know about in Alaska, and that guy in the pub and the girl behind the bar he ran away with and went to America, or was it Australia. This is for anyone, and everyone, but mostly, lost or not, for you.

 I will be here every Saturday, trying to help, giving it my all, so let's see where we go. Maybe we'll find treasure.