Success can be a mindset - even if you suffer the odd crash along the way!

Anyway it’s done and dusted and for me I am doing what I always do which is looking forward and planning ahead.

The New Year has started off for me in a really positive way as I have just launched my book, ‘A Crash to Success’.

The book has been four years in the making and finally, after a few hurdles, is now available on pre-order and will be available to buy on Amazon later this month.

Exciting, yes, but it wasn’t without problems as in writing this book, and especially when deciding to publish it, I had to overcome a last minute wobble which almost prevented me from releasing it.

I had been really excited about the launch, having the book finished and ready to go when one morning as I sat reading it and the realisation suddenly dawned on me that people were actually going to be reading it.

It hit me that I was putting myself and what I have worked on over the last few years out into the world to be judged.

That struck a sense of fear in me and I considered turning back, changing the book, rewriting chapters and, well, basically scratching it. Yes, a serious wobble was had so I had stern word with myself, basically telling that inner critic to pipe down!

You see we all experience fear but so many times we let that fear cripple us and prevent us from following through on what we know we want and need to do in life, even though everything else is screaming ‘DO IT’ at you. Yet the hand-brake is on and you can’t explain why?

Well, in my book I go through so many principles that explain how to get out of that feeling and why we feel it to begin with.

The book looks at how we can allbegin to take back control of our minds, especially at such an important time.

The beginning of a new year is a time when a lot of people want to bring about change but statistics show only a very small percentage ever follow through on these resolutions.

Subconsciously at times our conditioning and image of ourselves doesn’t match up to what we say we want on the first of January every year and not until you change that can you can change that blue print.

I have changed mine and I’ve helped many others do the same. I want to share a passage from ‘A Crash to Success’ to give you a feel for what the book is about. It isn’t a life story.

This book is designed for you to learn and apply the tools that are within to help you raise more awareness around the changes you might want to see and experience in your own life. In it I share my path and the lessons learned on it to help show you how to apply these better.

This passage is from a chapter on resilience, something we all need if we want to achieve any goal in life.

Resilience ‘Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving; we get stronger and more resilient.’ * Dr. Steve Maraboli

What is Resilience? What does that word mean to you? Resilience is; ‘the ability to be happy and successful after something difficult has happened.’ It is resilience that will help you through any tough days. Resilience will support you in pursuit of your goals and the life that you want.

In Chapter One I shared how my story really started to change when I set the goal of competing in a body-building competition that I went on to win.

Looking back I developed a lot of resilience in the weeks and months of training because I was so focused on my goal that I became tunnel-visioned. I found the resilience to just keep going - I had my goal, I knew what I wanted and I was creating change in my life.

There were times when I couldn’t even make it up the stairs to get ready to go to training, but I still had to go and when I got home those same stairs often felt like a mountain.

Many times I crawled up them on my hands and knees. Anyone who has competed in a body-building competition will be familiar with the last few weeks of torture.

When training at that level I was solely focused on training, eating, recovering then back to training in a repetitive process that set out to push me to my absolute limits to develop the muscle mass and condition necessary.

Let’s face it, every single one of us are resilient. We maybe just don’t know how resilient we actually are until it’s something we really need to draw upon in life.

A mother who needs to take action and protect her kids will pick herself back up again and again. That mother will draw upon resilience daily to keep showing up and do what is needed for herself and her children.

A father who may have lost a job and a way to provide for his family will find the inner resilience to keep pushing forward regardless of what has been thrown at him to make sure he can do the best for his family.

A recovering drug addict or an alcoholic will have come to a point in their lives whereby they accepted that enough was enough but then found the help and support needed to overcome their inner battles, persevere and come out the other side.

I am sure everyone reading this can relate to or has experienced a time in their lives when you have had use your resilience in order to show up, find your ability to bounce back and overcome. It is a natural part of life and something that we can hone and develop.

I feel that we must condition ourselves to be resilient if we are ever to grow into the best version of ourselves and become who we want to be.

Resilience is a super power that we all can and do tap into whether we realise it or not. Make sure you use yours in pursuit of your goals.

As I write this in November 2020 we have been through one of the most testing years in humanity. We have experienced life this year like no other year due to a global pandemic.

The whole world stopped for a long period and it has not yet got back to where it once was before as I write this chapter.

We are still in lockdown in Northern Ireland. Most businesses are closed and people have had no choice this year but to be resilient.

Our human nature shows how we can handle almost anything as long as we have a strong purpose and a strong spirit. Every single person this year has had to adapt and change and do what has been needed to - in a lot of cases - just to survive.

The uncertainty that has surrounded a lot of this year left a real heightened state of fear and anxiety for a lot of people.

Then there are the people who adapt faster and are able to get creative and be resilient in the face of adversity. If you have been tested before in life you will have learned the lessons from those tests and you carry those tests as your armour.

They psychologically prepare and protect you to navigate choppy waters faster because you have been there before, for better or worse.

Similar to how a muscle grows and gets stronger, you must tear those muscle fibres down, first with stress and repetitive strain.

We then feed it with the nourishment that’s needed - adequate rest and recovery so our muscles adapt and come back stronger and then we start the process all over again as soon as we hit the gym. Getting uncomfortable is what it is called and ultimately building resilience.

To get more on this chapter and all the other lessons in the book, you can pre-order it now.

The book ‘A Crash to Success is now available to pre-order on my website www.mindset-junkie.com or go to any of my social media pages and click the link in my biography and order there. Happy New Year!