It is such a tough time at the moment for everyone. Not knowing what is happening with your own health, your family’s health, your job, your finances. Scary…………………
Personally I have been through a huge roller coaster in the last 2 weeks. 2020 is an important year for me professionally and personally. In the last 2 weeks it has been turned on its head. I have been driving for a goal in July that I set nearly 10 years ago, I was well on track to achieve it and now everything has changed. I feel like someone who has been training for the Olympic Marathon, is leading the race at 24 miles and then the race is abandoned for some crazy reason.
Last week and this week I have had cancellation after cancellation of corporate events, workshops, training classes etc. I have seen my investments collapse around my ears and to be honest I have turned inwards and felt sorry for myself, felt depressed and felt despondent.
I have been using all the techniques I know to lift myself up from meditation, positive thinking, spending time with great people and going for runs. All have helped in the short term, but with the ever changing situation I kept slipping back.
This morning my gorgeous wife and I were out for a run and she gave me a kick up the backside. I have never been one to be negative, I have never been one to look at the downside, I have never been one to give up in fact on my arm I have a tattoo that says “Never Ever Give Up”. My whole attitude to life has always been there is always a way. Whatever your goal, whatever your challenge, whatever your needs there is always a way to get there.
I also know that many people look to me to help them get motivated, get inspired, find a way forward. It is therefore my responsibility to stop thinking about me and start thinking about other people who need my help.
So this morning was a bit of a trigger for me, I suddenly felt like I was down on the canvas and needed to come out swinging, take control and step forward, make progress, take action.
If you are feeling any or all of the things that I have mentioned above then I want to help you with some thoughts.
What can you control ?
Most of what is going on a the moment is outside of our control. We cannot control the virus, we cannot control the actions government take, we cannot control what happens in the markets, what we can control is:
- What we do
- What we think
- What we focus on
- How we feel
What is in your control that you can focus on now and take action on that is going to help you feel better ? What can you control ?
- What could you do to help your customers or your employees with a phone call or an email?
- What could you do to review your finances – in and out?
- What could you create while you are working at home that might help your team, your customers or others ? Create a video, write a book, write a blog, post something positive?
So are you ready to take control, to get off the canvas to start taking ownership and fighting back ?
If you need any help or encouragement or ideas please reach out to me at any time. My email is [email protected], my phone number 07801244628.
Deep breath, punch one hand into in the other and Let’s Go.
cheers…………… Neil…………………….
Comments (5)
Great words of encouragement Neil.
You were always one to motivate me when I worked for you at IBM.
Truly inspirational. I absolutely agree you cannot be responsible for what others do or say. You cannot be responsible for things totally out of your control but what one can do is be responsible for you own behaviour , actions and thoughts.
Thanks for all your positivity and encouragement.Neil, I was thinking that you could do a live u tube everyday at the same time. Like Joe Wicks does for exercise ( he does it at 9am ) the kids have been doing it since Monday. But instead of exercise you could do motivational talks, mind exercises, calm and positive ways to help people stay calm and positive. I know loads of people would tune in to listen to you and it would help this nation see the positives. Just an idea?
Author
Hi Clare, thank you for this it is a great idea, I will think about what I could do. Need to work out the technology 🙂 but definitely something that would interest e and hope I could add some value.
thank you………………
Totally agree Clare, great idea. Come on Neil.
I attended IBM’s 100% Club in Barcelona back in 2014 and was absolutely inspired by you.
Prior to 2003 I was.top of my game, fit as a lop having boxed heavyweight at a good level. Unfortunately I contracted pneumonia and sepsis / endocarditis in 2003 just as my wife and I were due to have our IVF baby which we waited 11 years for. I was hospitalised into ICU, ventilated and too unwell to be selected for a helicoper flight to go on a specialist ECMO trial at Leicester hospital.
My life hung in the balance as my family were informed I’d around 6 hours to live as my organs continued to fail and heart valves perished, it was best they kept me local so my family could be there with me when I slipped away. My families HOPE for me dimished but not that of our amazing NHS.
I’d say I’m lucky that I had nurses and Dr’s aligned to me who took their roles immensely seriously thus gave me the best diagnosis, treatments and care possible, which ultinately got me through and out the other side. My memories of coma and ICU is one for another time.
My friends and my colleagues of IBM were there for my family and I, whilst I lay in ICU on life support in an induced coma and I’m forever in their debt for that.
I really believe we are by nature strong in spirit, some just don’t realise as unlike me, thankfully maybe NEVER need to dig deep and take things to that ,next level’.
I had to pull strength from places I didn’t know existed. I called it HOPE. Hope for a better day, hour, minute or second than the one I was living in at that time. Now, I look back and can safely say I rekon I fought for the want to be there for my unborn baby, my wife and all those ho meant something to me and whom I maybe meant something to them. People who made me who I was. People who gave me a sense of value to even want to fight through what I still say was the tuffest times I could ever imagine. I dreaded the excruciating pain of hourly suctioning of my lungs to remove fluid, intense physiotherapy on battered lungs to help me breathe. But the hardest thing of all was finding all the strength to take one breath after another.
I fought through those tuff times and was well enough to be transferred to see our beautiful baby girl born and cherished a couple of hours before been transferred back to await my open heart surgery valve transplant to fix the valve damaged by sepsis, which in high insight, given what I’d been through was considered a breeze.
I then spent almost 12 months intense physio and recouperation to get me fit enough to live independently. I returned back to life but not as I knew it. I now have a completely different outlook. I learned of skills I have that I didn’t know I possessed and decided to go back to work with IBM, trained as a SAP Developer, later I took on Sales School as a 35 years old techie in a Non Sales role and smashed it.
I’ve travelled the world with IBM, had 16 amazing years with family, friends and colleagues but most importantly with our IVF baby.I’ve since had another open heart surgeries in 2014 to receive a further heart valve transplant of the same and live life to the fullest.
I continue to use HOPE to get me through tuff times. Admittedly not as tuff as I’ve been through but hey ho each and every one of us are resilient and beautiful complex creatures with skills and abilities we learn during the tuffest of times.
A couple of sayings of mine.
In TUFF TIMES, DIG DEEP, you’ll never know what you may find!
Live life, LOVE life, be kind and continue to positively influence and INSPIRE others, that is just one of YOUR given skills Neil.
Take care and god bless.
I’m always happy to chat or help others in difficult times.Great article Neil, we all need to give ourselves a kick up the backside, sometimes on a daily basis at the moment.
My motto in hard times is : Tomorrow it will be in the past.
This works 🙂
All the best!
