Here are some key points that I would advise you to concentrate on

• Your starting point does not need to be your end point – you can change at any moment. Your history doesn’t equal your future.
• It can be very easy to lose a sense of who you are, and try and build a facade or an image of a life that isn’t real that you try and keep to. Pretending to be an unreal version of yourself will put a terrible strain on yourself and your mental health. 
• Prison or getting into trouble does not need to be your defining moment, you can change and go on to live a good life and contribute to others.
• A true apology is a change in behavior. 
• We need to break this stupid image of men that they need to be ‘strong, manly and sort all their problems themselves’ – there is nothing wrong with asking for help, it is a sign of strength to look for help or advice. 
• You can make your biggest failure, your biggest success – you can use it as a motivational tool to help others and support and help others.
• No matter how dark and alone things feel, you need to remember that “there are so many people around you … plenty of people who will love and support you“. You are never truly alone, there are charity groups, free law advice, doctors etc that can help you no matter what. 
• Own the situation, apologize where possible, learn from it, grow and change and live a better life thereafter. No matter how bad it is, things will get better. 
• If you want to rehabilitate yourself, you need to be proactive and ask for the help. 
• You are not worthless, no matter how much you are told you are, your self-worth is never defined by your past or what others think of you.
• Treat everyone as an individual, not a label or a number. 
• Prison should be about teaching people to grow and change so they never go back there, that they learn from their darkest time.
• Dr Sarah Lewis – Penial Reform Solutions
• A kind word, offer of support, even helping someone in a small way can change theirs or your life. Be the change you want to see in the world.
• Criminal records are no longer a stop to getting jobs, it may restrict some work options but thankfully things are offering chances to people who have been in jail and want to change their lives.
• Everyone makes mistakes and does bad things, but it only defines you if you keep doing it. 
• Most people rarely commit crime because they want to, there is normally a story behind and a reason that caused it. We need to stop punishing the symptoms and fix the cause of the issue. 
• “… failing doesn’t make you a failure, it just makes you someone who has failed and you just need to embrace the failure, grow, change your ways and come back stronger.“
• “You need to find your why in life.”
• Sport and adventure can help us find and define who we are, and find a purpose and challenge in our life. 
• Find an adventure on a level that works for you , to find out about yourself and challenge yourself. There are a lot of methods that you can try if you have kids, are older etc, you don’t need to paddle board but it is great fun! 
• Build your self-worth by making promises of changed behavior … and then achieve them! Stick to your word to yourself, learn that you can achieve what you say you will and that you matter. 
• You may need to leave a friendship, a behavior or even an area if you want to truly change. 
• Break down your goal or challenge into manageable parts, take the overall goal, and look for what you need, why you are doing it, what you are going to do, what you need to do it, how you will fund it, how you will fuel it and work on achieving each area.
• Only you can change yourself, you need to take charge of your own life and own change. 
• Punishment is a great tool but it needs an element of rehabilitation in it or it is just a revolving door for people to commit crime after crime.