A Crash To Success

today’s talk

is about a journey and like so many

journeys

it begins in a cure but this is not your

dreamy country vacation type

as my head flung back against the seats

and the airbags pushed into my face

i woke up as i get out of the car

commotion

ensued it was 10 30 a.m on a saturday

morning

with locals taking their kids to play

football

one of those locals enraged in what he

seen took action

and as my head bounced off the concrete

from his action all i could think about

was i need to get away but in hindsight

this was impossible who i was trying to

get away from

was myself all that time

i had just turned 21 years old and i was

on a personal slippery slope

to nowhere i just smashed my car head on

into a wall

after two days of drinking partying and

taking drugs

i say i woke up as i have no

recollection of getting into the car

i was arrested and taken to the police

station to be charged

to make matters even worse i find myself

in court for another 12 months

as being sued by sony and playstation

for 45 000 pounds worth of damages

for selling counterfeit goods around the

markets here in northern ireland

why is change so hard it’s what i

thought a lot

at that time i would begin to understand

as i delved into self-development

i get back involved with what i’ve

always loved which has been exercise

and fitness and i joined the gym

here in derry and got my head into

bodybuilding

after some encouraging words from the

owner big dave fox

i borrowed his belief and has confidence

in me

and i applied that into every day

training

and keeping fit and keeping healthy i

know i had a purpose to my days

something that i didn’t have before

and this is such a pivotal point when

we’re looking to create

change i entered the mr northern ireland

naba bodybuilding competition

and i now had a burning desire within me

i had a focus

on something that i was putting my mind

towards

fast forward a year and i stood in that

stage in a packed hall in belfast

and i claimed first place all the

sacrifice dedication and hard work

was now worth it i was proud of what i’d

achieved

as a personal trainer i began to learn

more about the body and the mind

but it was only after more events of

sabotage that i really wanted to

understand

why do we do what we do

what i discovered was we all have

an internal mental blueprint whether

we’re conscious of this

or not our formative years play such a

crucial role

and what that identity and mental

blueprint consists of

our perceptions our values our beliefs

what we see and experience growing up

plays a huge role in who we think we are

what we think we’re capable of

what we think we deserve and so much

so what i discovered was my internal

mental blueprint

wasn’t taking me to where i wanted to go

this resulted in two steps forward and

three steps back

a lot of the time now i’m sure you can

relate maybe you might not have smashed

your car head on into a wall

but you can relate to starting your

fitness plan maybe stopping

going to launch that new business

pulling back at the last moment

why is that why do we do these things

so what i discovered was my internal

mental blueprint

wasn’t helping me succeed i grew up here

in derry in galia

in one of the most economically deprived

areas of the city

i’m the youngest of seven and i grew up

like many in my area

with unemployed parents living on

benefits

so what i discovered was my blueprint

didn’t teach me success

prosperity abundance confidence

in fact it was quite the opposite and my

environment at that time

molded that image further

you see here’s what’s important we all

want growth

or something more from this life but

if your internal blueprint has taught

you the opposite of what it is that

you’re seeking

then that change can become so hard

i began to understand more of how they

actually changed that internal blueprint

i delved into self-development books and

psychology and mindset

and at that time someone handed me the

movie the secret

that began they wake me up it woke me up

how important my thoughts were to my

results

how important my energy and my focus was

to my results

and how important my environment was to

my results

i began to course correct and change my

environment

at that time getting away from people

who

through no fault of their own were not

supporting the growth i wanted to see

or help me succeed

environment is the invisible hand that

shapes human behavior

as james clear so perfectly put it in

his book atomic habits

by me shifting my environment i started

to think different feel different

and perform different i took

responsibility responsibility for my

thoughts my actions my behaviors

my results i stepped out of the victim

mode

and stepped up and took action and you

can too

change happens through inspiration or

desperation

as jim rohn perfectly put it for me

it doesn’t matter what the trigger is

what’s important is you use that trigger

to create discipline desire resilience

to show up in life

as the version of you that you want to

and we all can do that

over the years as a personal trainer i

began to see the confidence and value in

myself

i was helping other people achieve the

results that they wanted to achieve

in life i was bringing value to other

people’s lives

and i want to ask you this question

what value can you bring to other

people’s lives that maybe you’re

suppressing

right now we can all create the changes

that we want to see

how do we create that change we shift

that internal mental blueprint

we shift our identity what we think

we’re capable of and what we think we

deserve

in this life we imagine change to begin

with

we dream about something different and

then we make a committed decision

to getting something different from this

life

what i want to leave you with is one of

my favorite quotes

is from jim rohn again stand guard at

the door of your mind

every single day his mentor er schoff

taught him that lesson i live by it i

apply it

and i teach it to the other people i

empower you

to do the same stand guard the door of

your mind

every single day don’t allow the

negative

influences of other people to drag you

down

they tell you why you can’t why you

shouldn’t

take back control of your mind take it

back control of what you allow

into your mind step up take action

and go after the things that you truly

want to achieve in your life

the things that are meaningful to you

not what other people tell you you

should do

you could do or would do this is about

your life

this is about the things that you want

to create and live how you

want to live so as i say stand guard at

the door of your mind

step up and take action