Niall Clerkin

I was born, raised and educated in Ireland, growing up during the "troubles" in a border town with Northern Ireland. I have lived and worked in Ireland, Poland, France, Spain, USA and Australia. When I got to Australia in 2010 I knew it was for me immediately. The outdoor life here is a real match for my aspirations and inclinations. In my almost half century I was a champion athlete in my teenage years, a wasteful alcoholic magazine editor in my 20s, a world adventurer in my 30s and now, in the later part of my 40's I am a husband, father, community activist and business coach. I was running trail marathons and ultras until last year when I had a surprise quadruple bypass operation. I've spent 9 months convalescing, writing and designing workshops. I love learning, I enjoy life to the full, sunrise to sunset everyday.

The 2 biggest passions are: 1) Fatherhood and family. Being a father is a gift that I adore, and I believe we are morally obliged to be effortful in it. Being a loving husband and putting family before money, success, ego, and everything else is my response. 2) Health, body and brain. They are connected, and what is good for one is usually good for the other. I enjoy opening minds who are "all body" or "all brain" focused and introducing the crossover.

The value of the morning, and sunrise in particular. Sleep is vastly improved if the circadian rhythms are set properly with morning sunlight. The improved sleep means better cognition and better decision making throughout the day. This in turn leaves a person feeling complete or fulfilled for their days activities and inclined for bed again - to facilitate the next morning. This virtuous cycle has been dropped from many lives.

Coaching, CSR, HR, Recruitment

I suppose like everyone else in the modern world I've been watching Ted talks on YouTube for a decade. Sometimes I leave it on auto-play and get annoyed, surprised, impressed and educated. Very often I end up "googling" a speaker to find their extended work. It is really rather amazing that the TED enterprise exists at all but perhaps the quality and the breath of topics spoken to has enabled the scale we all know it for at this point.

trusting my gut. I like to let my mind wander and trust that the answers will find me. And they often do! Running is really good for this.