I posted this on my old
blog about a year ago. This is the original post, untouched from almost exactly a year ago. Some of the business stuff is a little embarrassing now but I thought I'd leave it as a window into my thoughts of that time. The business stuff is still something I'm working on but it is coming together! Here's the post...
I tell most clients I come across where I got my passion for health and fitness but I was recently listening to something that made me think I hadn't really revealed my full story, not even to myself, so I thought I would take the opportunity to open up and show you where I came from and what really drives me. As a young boy I was terrified of my mortality, so much so that some nights I would end up hysterical in mum and dad's bedroom while they tried to calm me down. I think I would've been around 10 years old. I've always thought deeply about the human condition, it absolutely fascinates me. Why we act, think, speak the way we do. How our environment, diet and social interactions affect us and how we affect our environment. What is consciousness and what influence does our sub-conscious have. How we behave in groups, communities, countries. Our past and our future and even as a young boy, life and death. As a 14 year old I experienced death first hand when my cousin, Corey, died of cancer at just 18. Corey was probably the nicest young guy you could ever hope to meet, he was a bit of a rebel but he was always about having fun. I definitely saw him as a role model and he was one of my best friends. I can still remember saying to him, maybe a year or so before he died, I was jealous he got to have a year off school while undergoing treatment. I still hate myself for saying it. I didn't realise the pain he was going through, nor did I realise he wouldn't make it. I never believed it would happen to him. All through my teens I'd been very unhealthy and although I played multiple sports I was extremely overweight. I've always had a sweet tooth and still do to this day, but back then it was coco pops and a milo for breakfast and a bowl of ice cream every night, as well as handfuls of lollies and cans of soft drink at every opportunity. Looking back now I was probably moderately depressed, I remember looking in the mirror in tears wondering 'why me?' and thinking I was just supposed to be fat with complete ignorance to how my diet was holding me back. At 15 we had a major house fire and lived out of home for 6 months while it was rebuilt. Being away from home meant even more take away food so I put on even more weight. It all came to a head one day when we went home to see how the rebuild was going and I came across a set of scales in the shed. I hadn't weighed myself for months and I was pretty shocked to see the scales top out at 121.6kgs, (yes I still remember the exact weight) about 10kgs more than I'd ever been. It was right then in that shed that I decided I'd had enough, from that moment on I did everything I thought would help me lose weight. Every time I wanted to give up I would think about my cousin and how I had the opportunity to enjoy life that he didn't get so I had to (and still have to) make the most of it. This may be the reason I find it hard to accept people who don't want to put energy into their health. By 17 I was around 83 kilograms and I've stayed thereabouts ever since. The effect on my quality of life was immeasurable, the increase in performance and confidence was amazing and actually getting female attention for a change was certainly appreciated! My passion for helping and understanding others is what drives me to repeat the feeling of having your life completely change and countless new possibilities open up.
Let me rephrase the point I was just trying to make; Becoming healthy completely changes your world, you see things differently, you act differently and you're more open and able to take opportunities. My goal with my business and in life is to literally change the world. How we look at and treat health, how we act toward each other and how we live. For a long time I have felt that my purpose in life was to do something extraordinary and have a global impact. It is a heavy weight to carry knowing I've got billions of people to help and thousands of years of social and cultural dogmas to overturn. Sometimes it completely overwhelms me and I feel like I should just give up but there's too much at stake. I am not a good business person, it's something I have almost completely avoided, thinking my skill, passion and knowledge as a trainer would allow my business to grow almost effortlessly. This has certainly not been the case and I've found it very difficult to increase my client base as I have come to realise I have deep insecurities particularly around asking for money even though I KNOW my service is one of the most valuable money can buy. A part of me has felt that if I ran a successful business it would mean I was somehow greedy or selfish for having lots of people pay me. I have now come to the realisation that a successful business means I am helping more people to live a much fuller, richer life that you just can't put a price on. To be still alive as a business after nearly 18 months despite all my insecurities around business (not the training side, I think anyone who has trained with me knows I dominate that!) and my reluctance to seek help with marketing, etc, is something that I'm very proud of. My reluctance has just made me realise that I am also a bit of a control freak and I'm well aware of my sometimes debilitating perfectionism. Having said all that, from now on will be about thriving as a business. I sometimes struggle to take action and that's generally because I take on too many things at once but this time I'm completely determined to keep surging ahead, letting go of my need to control and asking for help when I need it. I want to make every one of my clients feel special, because they are, even though it's something I haven't done well in the past. I want new clients to know they are in the hands of an expert who will get them to whatever health destination they want to go and further and that the investment in themselves is incredibly insignificant compared to the amazing benefits they will receive. I want to be known in the community for providing fantastic service and creating real lasting change, getting people to open up to their emotions and fear and let go of the limitations they place on their health and life in general. Consider this your call to action. My invitation to you to help me change the world, one person at a time. I now realise I can't do this on my own. It could be as simple as sharing my posts, so more people get the message. Maybe you know some people who would benefit from my coaching. Maybe you know a thing or two about business or marketing and helping me in that aspect or you might just be able to introduce me to someone who does. You could just tell me some things that you would appreciate as a client or topics you'd like to read about. Any little feedback helps. Together we can change the world. Are you in?
