Hi all,

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend? Today’s Monday Motivation is a bit of a numbers game, but don’t worry – we won’t talk about maths (too much).

We’ve all heard of ‘word of the day’, but how about ‘number of the day’? My son Lachie introduced me to new numbers I didn’t know existed. Follow this link to understand what a googolplexian is. Hint: it’s bigger than a googolplex and way bigger than a googol. And if you think all of these numbers are sounding a bit familiar, then yes, it’s true – the ‘googol’ was behind the naming of ‘Google’.

Speaking of numbers with lots of zeros, I was reminded the other day of a cool movie from 1977 called The Powers of Ten, which zooms in and out to the powers of ten. It’s 9 minutes long (I know, not 10) but it’s pretty mind-blowing, especially given it was made over 40 years ago!

Monopoly, that age-old method of teaching our kids how to handle money, pay rent and go broke has had a fast-paced makeover that I wasn’t aware of until recently. Called ‘Monopoly Deal’, it’s a card game based on the board game in which each round lasts for about 15 minutes, rather than three hours. Buy it here.

Moving onto statistics, did you know the America’s Cup is the oldest sporting competition in the world? But here’s the most interesting statistic: despite having originated in Britain in 1851, no British team has ever won it. However, sailing legend Sir Ben Ainslie is determined to change that with Ineos Team UK, who are bidding to become the first British winners of the America’s Cup. I listened to this great podcast by BBC4 interviewing Sir Ben before the Americas Cup trials take place later this year.

And lastly, did you know once we hit 65 years of age we have a one-in-three chance of taking a fall, and at 80 years there’s almost a 50% chance of falling, at least once a year? The reason behind this is, as we age, our nerve pathways get slower and our balance and flexibility declines. The good news? I know of something that keeps the pathways open and your flexibility and movement in good shape… (yes, maintaining a healthy spine and nervous system!).

Ciao for now,

Craig