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I am having a wonderful time here in Dubai. I have presented two Masterclasses to two world class organisations, and I’ve met some amazing people.
One thought which dominates my thinking is when I was last here 2.5 years ago in early March 2020. I landed looking forward to delivering 3 Masterclasses and meeting with the British University in Dubai. Then the following day the Universities and Schools were closed and all but one of my Masterclasses was cancelled due to Covid.
It all went very wrong
The only Masterclass I delivered was to Deloitte which went well but apart from that nothing. When I arrived back in the UK everything changed, and the country shut down. I had 6 months forward bookings and things were looking rosy then it all came crashing down. Within 3 days all my bookings were cancelled.
I can’t help thinking about that difficult time on this trip but as I reflect on it, I am reminded that even at the age of 66 I still reverted to mental resilience techniques to get me back on track.
It would have been much easier to retire as I was 66 years of age and receiving my pension. But I felt that I had more to give and that the best was yet to come so I wrote a second book ‘100 Days to Mental Resilience’ and I split my full day Mental Resilience masterclass into 3 x 1-hour Masterclasses to be delivered online.
This changed everything
Slowly but surely, I started to sell these Masterclasses online and I paid all the bills and made enough money to be comfortable. Then as we came out of lockdown, I was in a position to take advantage of my online offering and I was booked by larger organisations like Siemens, NSG Pilkington and the world’s most successful company Aramco.
Then as we opened up more, I started working with Rolls Royce again and more recently APPLUS, a company with over 25,000 staff across the world in over 70 countries.
Max Eyre, a former employee of Rolls Royce who had attended one of my Masterclasses 4 years ago, moved to APPLUS and he contacted me to see if I was free to speak to his new team of managers in the UK. He was now Operations Director, and we agreed on a date in late November.
A moment of inspiration
In our online talk to discuss his session he mentioned that they had an office in the UAE and so I asked him if he had any contacts there for me to meet when I came over. He mentioned me to Brian Dawes the Executive Vice President for Middle East, Africa and India and by coincidence Brian was at that very time looking for something different to start his conference.
By a remarkable coincidence their annual senior managers’ meeting for Middle East, Africa and India just happened to land in the week that I had booked to come to Dubai. Or was it meant to be? What I do know is that if I hadn’t had the courage to ask Max for a recommendation, I wouldn’t have received the booking for this conference. The timing was crucial.
The presentation went really well, and the interaction of the team was brilliant. Brian told me that he felt the energy in the room was great. Each person received a signed copy of 100 Days to Mental Resilience which will help them incorporate the techniques into their daily routines.
This was a very exciting day, and I was then invited to Brian’s home with the whole team to enjoy a great BBQ. They are a wonderful organisation who have a great team spirit.
Vistage Dubai
Then I had the pleasure to deliver my 3-hour session to the new Dubai Vistage group set up by MD Nathan Farrugia. Vistage is the world’s largest CEO coaching and peer advisory organization for small and midsize business leaders. I was the first Vistage speaker to speak to their group which was a real privilege.
This was an excellent group of leaders, their energy and discussion feedback was outstanding, and the individual feedback was fabulous. They also received a signed copy of my new book which wouldn’t exist if I had given up.
I first met Nathan when I spoke to a couple of his Vistage groups in Malta in 2018 Julie and I had a great time out there and when I saw that he was developing Vistage groups in Dubai I felt that speaking there would be a great adventure.
The power of the mind
This reflection has made me realise how powerful the mind is and we can respond in two ways when adversity hits us. We can either give up or we can fight and often the choice is ours.
I believe that we can choose how we respond to around 90% of all negative situations. Once we realise that we don’t have to go down the usual response paths, we can change these paths and experience a better outcome.
‘It’s not what happens to you in life which counts, it’s how you respond which makes all the difference.”
This is a fundamental truth and once you grasp this you will change the way you respond when things go wrong. This is what I did 8 years ago when I was broke and decorating. This is what I did 2.5 years ago when I lost all my business. It really is in your hands or should I say in your mind and actions.
My life has completely changed
Using this principle and the techniques I share I am now completely debt free when not long ago I was £40,000 in debt. Our home and our cars are paid off, we have no credit cards or loans, and we have money in the bank.
This is truly remarkable, and I know that it’s using the principles I teach and having the right belief system which has led to this amazing turnaround. But this is available to everyone. It just takes time, patience, and application.
So, I challenge you to apply the techniques I teach in these blogs, in my Masterclasses and in my books and see for yourselves what can happen in your lives when you do this.
Thoughts for the week
- What do you do when things go wrong?
- How do you react to negative situations?
- This week think about your life and see if there are things in the past where you could have tried again but didn’t.
- To achieve great things in life you have to first Visualise it, then Believe it then you Achieve it.
Well that’s it for this week have a wonderful weekend and keep believing.
Warm regards
John
https://jdmindcoach.com/product/off-the-wall-how-to-develop-world-class-mental-resilience/
https://jdmindcoach.com/product/100-days-to-mental-resilience/
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