This was one of my biggest challenges – what's yours?

A year ago today, I was in hospital in Peru.  I had been admitted with suspected pulmonary oedema. In Cusco, some 3,400 metres above sea level, my potentially life-threatening illness was brought on by the altitude. Although it feels a tad dramatic now, with a night of struggling to breathe and a brain that felt like mush, I was glad to be taken seriously!

It was a tough 24 hours whilst I underwent treatment and investigations.  The worst thing about the situation was that due to my school-girl Spanish, I didn’t really understand what was going on. With my head being muddled too, everything I did or thought took many times longer than it would do normally.

Luckily I was OK and after treatment, the Doctors reluctantly discharged me the following morning. I was also allowed to join my group of ladies on our charity trek to walk the Inca Trail.  This was partially due to having a Doctor with our group, and also because the trek started at a lower altitude – which certainly helped at the time.

Although I was discharged, it wasn’t an easy few days.  I don’t suppose many people have trekked the Inca Trail with a cannula sticking out their arm (with drugs inserted twice a day), or having to have a daily injection in their bottom to get them through the hike!  Also, upon returning home from Peru, it took many months of slow recovery to get back to full strength.

But I always believe that we wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for the challenges in our lives.  Many of my clients have experienced difficulties (and some still do), and it is often these that spur them onto bigger things. These enable them to understand the needs of their own clients, and encourages them on to take on new experiences like launch a business or write a book.

This is what I’ve learnt through my personal challenges:

1. Don’t rely on a business model when you’re only providing one-to-one work.  After experiencing two difficult situations last year, I’ve created a robust business model with books, information products, events and a membership club (as well as working one-to-one) – and help my clients to do the same. Imagine if you weren’t able to run your business, how would you cope and what would you do?

2. Teach through the challenges that you’ve faced.  This particularly works in coaching and therapy situations, and I’ve found that many of my clients http://healthsavy.com/product/clomid/ choose to specialise in areas where they’ve worked through their own difficulties. It’s OK that you’ve had these experiences as it makes you a real human-being!

3. If you have an important message to share, be ready to get noticed or become visible in a bigger way.  You’ll struggle to be successful if you keep your strategies to yourself and you don’t reach the people who need you. Get whatever support you need to do this.

4. Have multiple ways in which people can access your knowledge and expertise, and spread the message far and wide.  Whether you write a book, share a blog or speak on stage, get your message out to more people and make a bigger difference.

5. Take time to see the benefits of your challenges and communicate them – a little like I’ve done in this post. Although you may feel a little vulnerable or fearful about what people might think, your learning will help others.  The reward for me in doing the Inca Trail challenge was raising thousands of pounds for charity, and the reward for me sharing this post is to inspire you to take action!

Lastly, I was asked last week by one of my business colleagues what I’d like to have done differently when I started out.  The answer that I shared with her was this: I really wish I’d spent as much on my business development than I did my coaching and NLP training.  That’s not to say that I didn’t benefit hugely from the training that I did, but I didn’t put anywhere near enough emphasis on the business development than I needed to do. However, in saying this, if I hadn’t struggled when I started, I wouldn’t be here with you today teaching you this stuff that I’ve learnt over the last 8 years!

What challenges have you faced that have changed your life? 

I’ve never shared this story explicitly before, and the experiences I’ve been through certainly weren’t easy at the time.  However, I feel that I’ve got an important message. I like to be real with the stuff that I share and I could be ‘life is great’, but it isn’t all the time, is it? That’s why I’d love your comments on this blog post – what challenges have you faced that have changed your life? Why is this an important message to share?

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