The Mindset Junkie: It's okay to start all over again

I had built up a successful personal training business from scratch the years previous here at home, but due to a few personal reasons I wanted to try something different so I travelled 'Down Under'.

It was scary at first as I was giving up a business that I worked so hard to create, to start from scratch in Oz.

However, I've always been pretty optimistic and I knew I could do the same in Australia given the opportunity.

I spent a few months in Perth and I loved the experience. I had already built up a good client base working as a personal trainer in Australia and things were going pretty well. But after a few months the pangs to come back home again grew stronger and I booked a flight.

When I left I had a very good business here in Derry, but now it was gone and I was coming home again to start all over from scratch. Little did I know that it was one of the best things to happen for me.

I came home and created a new business with a few people to begin with on a beach, which then grew from 20 to 30 people to 50 to 100.

That led me onto opening up several premises and creating one of the biggest bootcamps in the north west. That business has evolved into so much more today and I have created more businesses since that return home.

That was 2012. It's now eight years later and we are in the middle of one of the strangest times we have seen, with a lot of uncertainty and with businesses closing and collapsing each week. It is a time where people are afraid, anxious and left confused.

But I believe that it is also a time of potential growth. We never grow in times of comfort, we grow when we are tested to bring ourselves through uncomfortable situations and times of adversity that test your true character.

“Tough times do not build character, they reveal it.”

So how can we look at the positives in economic uncertainty or business collapse?

Right now you might have been given the opportunity to self reflect during lockdown so that you can course correct for the future, or maybe you have got a lucky escape to get out of a business or position that was dragging you down for years.

I know that there are a lot of people in that situation and that will take this as a positive so that they can pursue something they truly feel passionate about.

No matter what the situation is there is no such thing as failure.

I believe life is one big lesson that never ends and we can either learn and grow to the next level or we stay and repeat the same processes until we learn the lesson.

Either way, it is ok to start over and go again. Maybe this time with a new lease of life, a new perspective on how you want your future to be, with stronger insight and foresight on how to navigate further problems along the way. As we all know there will be more of those as that is the way of life.

You are not inferior, you are not superior, you are simply you and that's always enough to begin with again - no matter what hurdles life throws at us.

Your Coach

Seamus Fox.