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We all like winning awards, trophies and recognition. Whether it’s winning the cup with your football team or being top of the class we all like to see a reward for our hard work. In a world which if you believe the press has an increasing amount of youth related crime happening it seems that more organisations are creating awards to reward young people doing great things in society whilst trying to get some good publicity for young people.

Have you been watching the latest series of the X-Factor? If you have been you will know that two weekends ago a guy called Scott Bruton got voted off the show. Now this is hardly newsworthy as someone gets voted off the show every week but the reason I wanted to talk about it is that it has been rumoured since getting voted off he has wanted to get out of his contract with the show.

This week I want to talk about an email I got this week from some of the guys working on the E4 series Skins telling me about competitions they are running for young people to get their music featured on the show and to secure speaking roles. This got me thinking for my blog this week.

As the year draws closer to its end, thoughts turn to Christmas and as the nights start to draw in it can be a time that many people start to take their foot off the pedal and get caught up in the season. It is so, so easy just to let these last couple of months go to waste and to relax but this week I want to use this chance to encourage you to get the most out of the end of the year.

I want to draw on a personal experience for this week’s blog which is all about making steps to change your life.

In life there are so many opportunities available to us and around us that we don’t take up because they may not be quite what we are looking for, not a big enough or important enough opportunity in our eyes. By doing this and not taking opportunities like this we never know where they might have lead.

Many years ago the Pay it Forward movement began. Pay it Forward was an idea to change the world which started from one person doing a random act of kindness for someone and then getting the person who has received the kindness to go and do the same for someone else. The movement got that big that there was an even a Hollywood film made about it starring Kevin Spacey.

In this week’s blog I want to talk about a situation every young person wanting to achieve something with their life will experience the moment they have to deliver on their talent. Whether it is a trial, an audition, an exam or a job interview everyone will have a situation where the time for talking and practising is over and where they have to show they are better than all the competition.

I got thinking about this subject this week because X-Factor is starting to reach the business end and because last weekend the football team I help coach kicked off their league campaign.

Now one of the main vocal points behind Talented Young People is our desire to see a better world for our youngsters to live in and to create a world of more fulfilled young people who have dreams and ambitions that they are working hard to fulfil. In the programme it really struck a chord with us as the majority of the programme was highlighting how everybody can make their own positive difference to the world whilst highlighting people that already were.

After all the hype surrounding the Olympics who has been following the Paralympics? After all the pages of press Team GB got for their medal haul in Beijing many people are unaware that our Paralympians have already amassed a staggering 42 Golds, 29 Silvers and 31 Bronzes outshining the success of the Olympics.