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
more
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
more
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
to
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
be
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