About Me — Patrick Duane. Blazing my own trail
By: Patrick Duane
Tags: Life, Introduction, About Me, Storytelling, Ｍedium

About Me — Patrick Duane

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Looking back, I was never one for planning for the future. I focused on living in the moment, having as much fun as I could. Growing up on a farm in the countryside of county Cork and with my parents also running a bar on the premises, life was chaotic. I did pretty much as I pleased which was great.

I preferred being outdoors and playing sport. Soccer, hurling, Gaelic football, basketball, golf, cycling and tennis were some of my favourites. During the Summer, me and my friends would get up early and would go on adventures for hours. Where we grew up felt safe, and we were oblivious to any potential danger. Although we all preferred the outdoor life, we did all did go through our phase of playing video games. Nintendo 64 and PlayStation were in fashion back then.

School, surprisingly never really suffered. I always did well, I wasn’t one for studying long hours and never wanted to be top of the class. I didn’t really care what college I went to. Heck, when I completed my Masters in Business Information Systems, it felt more like I stumbled across it as opposed to chasing after it.

Fast-forward 10 years, I just finished another year with a global financial services company in Dublin city. I liked the areas of technology and stocks, so having a job that combined both was interesting. However, I was getting tired of the daily grind of office politics and all the meetings about meetings.

I was never driven in the job, sure I was good, and got regular promotions to the point where I was managing staff. The biggest benefit of the job was the networking opportunities. I met so many great people in the company, friends for life and for that, I am truly thankful.

Although the area of fitness wasn’t big throughout school, no one I knew went to a gym. There wasn’t a gym close to my home town anyway, sport was more about natural ability. I started doing a fitness certification 2 nights during the week and all day Saturday for 6 months. It felt like the right move because I became more passionate about fitness over the years.

My certification as a personal trainer was completed around the same time I finished up in the job, which was nicely timed for the start of summer. That summer I travelled a lot which is another huge area of interest for me. On the subject of travel. When people ask me about where to travel in Ireland, I tell them for more of the authentic feel, you have to visit the Aran Islands.

Fast-forward another 2 years and I’m still out of the financial services world. Although, I do dabble in trading. I’ve invested in other business ventures also. I like to place my eggs in multiple baskets. Taking calculated risks is the name of the game.

From the fitness perspective, I have focused more on my online presence over the last year. I haven’t been to a gym since March. I have my own space for home workouts and I do permit the occasional client to use my facility.

The main benefit is that I can pump the music as loud as I like as there is no one else around for miles. It’s not a good workout unless the walls are shaking. I’m starting every workout with The Pretender by Foo Fighters.

“It’s never-ending, never-ending

Same old story”

I found Medium in February of this year and have been a big fan ever since.

The top 3 things I like about Medium:

1. Real stories by Real people. Tired of mainstream media and the constant misdirection.

2. The variety. One day I could be writing a poem, the next day I could be writing a story about some pictures I took or a story about a place I travelled to.

3. Brimming with creative people that inspires me in multiple areas.

I’m a writer in several publications and also have my own publication called The Gist. You will find stories by myself and several contributors. A thank you to them also. Always looking for new contributors! If you think you have something to add, check out the Join the Team tab.

My most successful story on Medium to date, is titled 5 Muscle Building Cardio Exercises You Should Be Doing, was published back in September in the publication Runner’s Life. This story was also curated by Medium. 3 months on, and the story is performing very well.

Other social media platforms I put time into include my Blog. Throwing myself in at deep end with the blog, making some mistakes, but it is the best way to learn! Answering questions on Quora, I like this platform a lot. I also use Pinterest. Creating pins is fun, the gateways to the end game.

I’m a firm believer in living life to the max, it’s unclear when our time is up. Horror stories happening around the world daily, most we don’t even know about. This kind of stuff makes me sad and shows how fragile life can be.

Who knows where I’ll be in 10 years time. I’m sceptical about the world we live in and where it all is heading.

“Machine men with machine minds and machine hearts!” - Charlie Chaplin

The more things change, the more they stay the same you could say.

That aside, I'm going to keep focusing on things that I can control. I do know that fitness will be a big part of my future. You find a job you like, you’ll never work a day in your life and I do believe in this. Other things I believe in is don’t be afraid to diversify, have fun, travel, get out of your lane.

There is too many things in the world that we won’t even get time to enjoy and understand. However, I’m full throttle on my quest to do, learn and have as much fun as possible.