Never Never Never Give Up

I’m sat in Costa in Buxton as I write this and I’ve had one of those moments which has made me realise how far I have come since I first started this business several years ago. I got here this morning at 7am and have had my very important motivation time reading my books and visualising all the things I have on my Dream Board and I’ve just experienced every one of them in my mind.

This time lasts at least one hour every morning and gets me into a positive state and I find that my day goes much better when I do this. On the few occasions when I have skipped this time I have found that my day just doesn’t get going and I struggle through it without the usual energy. This morning routine gets me into a positive state which seems to attract positive things to me.

It was just under 3 years ago when I was in Buxton decorating a house and I can remember this clear as day. At that time I only had one business client and so I was decorating full time to pay the bills. I remember sleeping on the floor of the house on a blow up bed for a couple of weeks and was working 14 hour days to get the house finished so I could get back home. It was a very tough period for me because I was building my business in a recession and had to do this manual work to keep the dream alive.

I ended up with a full time decorating business which was going well but it was not what I wanted to be doing; but there are times when you need to pay the price for success and this period was one of those times. I used to decorate a bit many years ago so I decided to start up the business as I had very few clients for my speaking, training and coaching business JD Mindcoach.

There is a time I remember taking a call from a Managing Director of a company and I was sat on the staircase of a house which I was decorating. I was in my overalls covered in paint discussing a workshop with him. It made me laugh to think that he wouldn’t have a clue that I was in this state and the great thing is I got the workshop!

There were many times I wanted to give up and the physical pain of the actual decorating got to me at times. I remember that at the time I had a heart condition and would often get to the top of the ladder outside at roof level and have to hold on as I felt really faint due to lack of oxygen going through my body due to the heart condition. You’ll be pleased to know that I never fell off once! I would have to stop 30 times a day to catch my breath as I decorated to pay those bills.

Every month I had no idea how I was going to pay my mortgage but I decided to use something that I now coach, and it was this phrase: If you can do something about something then do it – if you can’t then don’t think about it. What I could do about the mortgage was to decorate and complete one day at a time and I am pleased to report that I never missed a single payment. By using this phrase I could sleep like baby at night which gave me the energy to keep going.

Now as I sit here in Costa ready to coach my client in less than an hour I realise how much has happened in less than 3 years. I have recently got married, I’ve spoken on a Cruise liner in the Caribbean, and I’ve spoken at the 02 Arena in London at the Euro Basket finals between Real Madrid and Olympiacos. I’ve also trained staff of companies across the UK in Mental Resilience and am currently coaching a Surgeon in the Isle of Man.

I’ve spoken at Expo’s and at company conferences across the country. I’m booked to speak at a Rotary Club conference to 650 people in October as well as 120 teaching staff of a private school in Surrey in September.  I have over 2,000 twitter followers and my website is progressing nicely. I’m also going to Dubai in November to follow up several leads I have established there.

I have a new Mental Resilience Programme just launched which takes people through a 6 workshop programme over 6 months to develop World Class Mental Resilience and I am writing a book. The book writing still astounds me as it was my worst subject in school and I got the lowest possible grade in my exams.

Yet now I love writing and the book is being launched at Waterstones on Saturday 24^th October at 5pm where I will be presenting my 30 minute keynote talk on Mental Resilience then signing the books. There are still free places left for you to come along to support me, so if you can make it on the day please let me know by replying to this e-mail it would be fantastic to see you there on this special day. 

Thank you to those of you who have already confirmed you are coming I am delighted that you can share this milestone with me. There will be plenty of food and drinks to enjoy and great people to meet.

I share all of this with you because I believe it is my positive attitude which has helped me build the amazing business I now run. I did suffer during the period of decorating but it is all so worth it and there are times where you have to do the tough stuff. I employ my sister Christina who has great talents in many areas and is helping the business develop in new areas.

It is such a privilege to help people grow in confidence and self-belief and to see them discover talents they didn’t know they had and this business allows me to do that. I often think back to those decorating days when I am a little negative (yes I am human) and this immediately cheers me up as the life I lead now is amazing by comparison.

Today’s tip

I encourage you to spend the first part of your day with motivation material of some sort to get you in the right frame of mind for the day. I also encourage you to create a Dream Board with wonderful things on it for you to achieve and visualise yourself having achieved them.

This will give you a great start to your day and you should see more positive things happening as you go through the day. If you would like any book suggestions just reply to this blog.

Until next week have a great weekend and stay positive

Warm regards

John