Why strive

When a person decides to go beyond average and strive for excellence, it causes them to stand out. They rise above the rest. Most people are looking to improve their lives. They want more connection, more joy, more income, and a better job. These improvements only come when we consistently put out excellent work in our homes and at work.

At the end of each day, I try to spend some time reflecting. In the end, excellence delivers. It blesses you by opening doors and providing personal satisfaction.

It rubs off on your family, your team, and even the community in which you live. He and his wife Jackie have three children and live in Greenwood. Danny aspires to make a positive impact on as many lives as he can. He believes that everyone can live an awesome life! Why should you and I strive for excellence? There is a constant feeling of reward. Knowing you have believed in yourself enough to set yourself goals requires self-worth and along the way you gain many attributes including resilience, communication and team building qualities - life skills that are so important and the foundation to becoming a healthy, happy and productive individual.

I don't believe these so called soft skills are being valued enough in the growth of young people and the current system makes it hard for them to be taught well enough at school.

This is a complicated world of new challenges and opportunities that await school leavers, and the more comfortable they feel about embarking on new challenges the better. It isn't just academics that is a key factor in success. My cousin Noah and i wanted to come up with an idea which could be a vehicle for a conversation on life skills and a way to support the amazing projects in the UK doing such great work in this area.

A few years ago I co-founded a charity called Big Change with some friends and family. The charity's main focus is to improve the lives of young people in the UK and be a catalyst for positive change in the world. Almost a year ago today, an idea began to develop within the Big Change team The Virgin STRIVE Challenge is something that we hope will capture the imagination of the public and really emphasise the importance of these building blocks to life.

The Virgin STRIVE Challenge is a mass participation ultra-endurance event that will see a core team including myself, Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli, Innocent Drinks co-founder Richard Reed and paralympian gold medalist Ade Adepitan , travel from London to the summit of the Matterhorn the most iconic mountain in Switzerland , entirely under human power.

That means three back-to-back marathons from London to the coast, rowing the English Channel, cycling km to Verbier, hiking 7 days over the iconic Haute Route to Zermatt and then climbing the Matterhorn, all of which will take just over a month August It's going to an epic adventure - something that will test my mental and physical limits to the edge. But by using these incredibly important life skills to help us tackle this challenge, I'm hoping that it will show people that you can achieve your goals, if you really set your mind to it and you can also learn a hell of a lot in the process.

High up over London with a great perspective. And while it wasn't as high as the top of the Matterhorn will be, it was still a brilliant place to literally fly the flag for Strive.