If you had been with me in September 2012 you would have seen me sitting outside a restaurant near the Falkirk wheel.
It’s 9:30am, I am supposed to be in my gym coaching my clients. I’m not though. I am sitting on a grey metal chair just staring into space.
I’ve been feeling low and empty for a while, working really hard and burning the candle at both ends and now I am tired, fed up and having a bit of an episode. This isn’t the first time either. It’s happened before but this is the most intense it has been.
I’ve fallen out with Julie, she’s holding the fort and keeping the gym going.
It’s all my fault. I can’t handle the pressure in my life from my roles and responsibilities. I am in a constant battle with myself and swimming against the tide of fear.
I’m worried about the debts we are in and can’t see a way out because each month we scrape by to pay the gyms running cost and wages while we are living off of credit cards.
I’m scared about the money we owe the HMRC in unpaid taxes. The invoices keep pilling up and it’s keeping me awake at night.
I’m unsure how to develop and grow the business. We’ve been running at a huge loss for 4 years now and I don’t know how to fix it.
I’m drinking and binge eating all weekend.
I’m stressed out of my box and can’t manage at all.
They say in life you either win or learn.
I had a lesson to learn and the lesson at that time was planning ahead and have things to be excited about and look forward to.
I went home with my tail between my legs, apologised, said it wouldn’t happen again and got stuck back in.
The following weekend I went on a training workshop with the globally renowned motivation speaker and self-made multi-millionaire Les Brown. The event was called “Live Your Dreams” and was in the Millennium hotel.
I had a great time that weekend. Met some great people and worked really hard on myself. I can say it was a massive breakthrough moment for me I enjoyed the workshop and came home with a set of intentions and ideas.
The very first thing I did was invite Julie into my office with a Calendar and agree on the dates and times of year that we would go on holiday. These all got agreed and then instantly we had something to look forward to.
Julie asked about money and how we wound fund it. I said, “agree on the where and when we are going and let the “how” take care of itself. “
Then we set individual goals around, what we wanted to achieve and experience in our personal lives.
We set the intention of taking our boys to enjoy the magic of Disney in Orlando Florida. We went into great detail describing the house we would stay in, the jeep we would hire and the fun we would have.
We had a great time and even hosted Julie’s mum and dad. We did Disney and all of the parks. The roller coaster were epic. We went on them all.
One day I bought Lewis and James Transformer costumes. Lewis loved being Optimus Prime. The woman in charge of the fast lane let us through because of Lewis and his costume. We had a great night have a photo memory and Lewis still talks about it to this day.
We set a goal to run the London Marathon together in 2014. Julie raising Sponsorship for Muscular Dystrophy and me raising money for the Maggie’s charity.
Julie was running in memory of Gary and for Gregor Anderson.
I was running for my mum who maggies had helped in her ongoing battles with cancer.
Sadly 8 weeks out I tore both my calves and couldn’t take part. Julie finished the Marathon and raised £2800.
I deferred my participation to the following year, made some strategic changes to my plan and completed the London Marathon in 2015 raising £2000.
We set the intention of family holidays to Spain and Turkey.
I said I wanted to go clubbing in Ibiza and have weekend breaks.
We agreed we would go to live music concerts.
I said I wanted to climb some Munro’s and experience the great outdoors of Bonnie Scotland.
I’m happy to say that we achieved all our goals and had incredible experiences.
That set the standard for going forward and today at the time of writing this May 2019 I always have a strong list of things to look forward to.
We grew the business, paid HMRC the money owed and all the things I was fearful about didn’t happen.
Do you have a list of things to be excited about ?
If not I encourage you to book an hour out of your day. Sit where you won’t be disturbed and start to jot down all the things you are passionate about and the kind of experiences you want to have around your passions.
We should all celebrate our wins in life. I’m talking about all wins big and small and everything in between.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the struggles of life feel a bit overwhelmed and end up sad. It’s doesn’t have to be that way.
Make a long list of your own goals and set about achieving them in every and any way you can.
As soon as you start setting your intentions in life you will make progress and life will be more fun.
I went as far as creating a vision board designed around my goals and put it up in my station in the gym.
I started working on it in November of 2011 I still have the emails. In these last 8 years I’ve achieved over 90% of the goals I set myself
Try it out for yourselves.
Until the next time, “Strength for Life
Davie McConnachie
Davie McConnachie is Scotland’s leading health and wellness coach, multi-award-winning gym owner, motivational speaker and the founder of DMC Fitness, a fitness education facility known as the premier choice for 1-2-1 personal training. He has inspired thousands of people to fall in love with fitness – his true purpose and mission in life.
Diving into the world of fitness and wellness has helped Davie to deal with his own trauma and inner demons. He, overcame many dark times using his own unique methods to continue his cycle of healing.