You Pay the Price for Success

The alarm went off at 5.15 this lovely Sunday morning, on the day when I normally have a lovely lie in. Julie brings me a cup of tea in bed and we eat breakfast and have a quiet time together – I love it!

This morning I had to sacrifice the precious time because I have a commitment to write my blog every weekend and the only way I can fit this in is to get up this early. I have had a cup of tea and it’s still very early as I write this. It reminds me very much of my earlier years playing basketball and I would get up early to run when I would rather stay in bed.

The Price

There is a price to pay for success and there is no way around it – all successful people pay the price to achieve what they dream of. The reason that I have to get up so early is that I have run out of time with the other important things I have to do this weekend. One of those things was spending a lovely evening yesterday with my wife Julie which I will not sacrifice for my work.

Work life balance is so important and I won’t let this get out of balance no matter what. I don’t want to end up with a successful business and an unhappy marriage – I believe strongly that both are achievable. Awareness is one of the key things as well as raising the level of importance of this to a very high level.

Book completed

Yesterday was the final day to get my book finished to proof reading stage and I made it. It’s a good feeling to have come this far and to have my first book on the way. I have been blessed with a proof reader who has offered his services to proof read my book having read about it in my blogs. So you never know who you are going to reach with the blogs you write – thank you James!

I received a call yesterday from a number I didn’t recognise. The lady spoke and asked if I would decorate her house in a posh part of Nottingham. This was a total shock as I haven’t decorated for about two and a half years. It turned out that I had priced the job up and she was now coming back for me to look at the job again to re-price it. I explained to her that I no longer decorate.

Defining Moment

This was a real defining moment for me – a real moment to reflect on how far I have come. When I first started this business about 4 years ago I didn’t have any clients to I had to pay the bills somehow. The way I did that was to decorate, so I set up my own decorating business and ended up with some very nice clients.

It was very hard work and I would spend many evenings finishing off the painting or wallpapering, wishing I was doing something else. But there is a price to pay for success and I was paying it. I decorated for about 2 years until the day came when the money I was making from my business was enough to stop decorating – that was a happy day!

A sale in Overalls

One time I remember taking a call from a managing director from a company, while sat in my overalls covered in paint, on the staircase of a house and I got the workshop confirmed! Those were tough days but they were part of the journey and they make me appreciate how fortunate I am to have this speaking, training and coaching business.

The fact that I had just completed my book to proof reading stage and I received this call to decorate was amazing timing. It almost felt like a divine message to say well done you are moving on. I received a first draft of the cover of the book yesterday and it’s looking good just need a few changes to it.

Atlantic Crossing

I am visiting Dave Clarke and his family with Julie today and I won’t let anything get in the way of that. People are really important and I have discovered the importance of not letting people down when you have made arrangements. Dave is the reason I got into this business. He is a double Guinness World Record holder for both sailing and rowing solo across the Atlantic.

We met when I was introduced to him about 8 years ago and I helped him with some visualisation coaching for his row across the Atlantic. I spent many hours with him and he made it across in 83 days which was amazing. This experience made me think what a wonderful life it would be to coach people and help them. This led me to set up JD Mindcoach a few years later.

Dave and his wife Elaine came to our wedding in May and he has written the foreword to my book and will be there for the launch on the 24^th October at Waterstones Nottingham. It’s exciting and it looks like there will be a lot of people there for the signing.

Actions for this week

1. Think about what you are putting off that may be too hard to do
2. Visualise the way things would be if you were to do these things
3. Feel how you will feel when you achieve the things you want
4. Use those feelings to motivate you to do those things you are finding hard
5. It’s like a runner getting up each morning to run – it’s hard but once you have done it a few times it gets easier
6. You need to understand that without doing these tough things you won’t succeed as much as you would hope
7. Pay the price of doing the tough things – it’s worth it!

By the way you will be pleased to know that I will be back with Julie at 9am this morning to have that breakfast and quiet time with her – I wouldn’t miss that for the world!

Until next weekend have a great week and stay positive.

Warm regards

John