The GiFT that changed my world!

Seminyak, Bali 29th September 2016

My 50th birthday changed a great deal in my life. Not immediately but the decisions made that day accelerated a process that led to fundamental change.

I had been in financial services since leaving University and often dreamt about being my own boss, running my own business and having time/financial freedom. Until that point I hadn’t acted upon this dream with any real conviction. I had taken redundancy from a major UK bank at the height of the global financial crisis and made some tentative steps into starting my own business called ‘Expect2Win’ but soon thereafter I was recruited to move to Australia to work for another bank. I returned to the world I knew, just on the opposite side of the world.

My dream was exactly that - a dream! It was in danger of staying that way for the rest of my working life.

Then on my 50th birthday, my eldest daughter Emma did one of the most amazing things anyone has ever done for me. We were celebrating in a private villa with close friends. Whilst my wife Leona and I were taking an early morning walk on the beach, Emma strung up 50 photos from 50 different moments of my life in the living area of the villa. Between each photo was a speech card written by someone who was there. Each person wrote multiple cards. Some were deep and meaningful, others fun.??Each one started ‘ I love Andy because….…’?

I walked around reading the cards and looking at the photos with tears in my eyes at this beautiful, heartfelt & creative gesture. It made me question what I had achieved so far in my life and what I was capable of achieving during the rest of my life. I know I had a long way to go to be satisfied and reach anywhere near my own potential.

50 photos and 50 comments on speech cards, fundamentally changed my life. It was the spark that ignited a burning desire within me.

As I looked at the photos and read the cards,?I took the 'Sir Richard Branson rocking chair test’ in my mind.?Sir Richard asks you to think about being 90 years old and sitting in your rocking chair outside your house, looking back on your life.??He asks you to consider what you want to be saying to yourself.

What did I WANT to be saying to MYSELF?

Did I want to be saying: ’If only I had done this, I wish I had done that’ or even ‘I could have done this or I should have done that with my life.’ The answer was NO!

I decided to achieve more in the next 25 years of my life than the previous 50 years. To do that I needed to clearly define my purpose, break free of my own self-limiting belief and create significant change.

Many would consider my career to have been a success but I felt I had so much more to achieve and to give. I wanted to take my learnings, my winning habits, routines, frameworks and leadership practices out into the world. I saw many people trapped in a job they didn’t enjoy, working for a boss who didn’t value or respect them and yet those people did not have the self-belief or the confidence to create change. They lacked the courage to follow their dreams. Their own self-limiting beliefs convinced them that?their current circumstances ‘paid the bills’ and that it was worth ‘making sacrifices’ until their children had grown up or they had retired. For some, they had money but no wealth.

To help others believe in themselves and stretch from their comfort zone, I had to go first.

Many people advised me to play it safe, stay with what I knew, ‘hang on to what I had got’ and to think about the risks. People shared the failure rate of start-ups and focused on what I could lose as opposed to what I could gain.

Those closest to me gave me the greatest level of support and encouragement and were the ‘wind beneath my wings.’ Leona gave me the confidence to go for it. I am forever grateful.

The decision was made, I committed and it was time to ‘Go!’

After returning to Australia from Bali, I journaled at two levels. Firstly about my purpose and the vision for the remainder of my life. Clarity emerged.

The life vision and purpose came first. My purpose or ‘why’ is:

‘To help as many people as possible strive to reach their true potential by being the wind beneath their wings so they soar to new heights.’

Secondly I focused on the more practical side of thinking through the plan for my own business, the problems I would help people, teams and businesses solve and what I would need to do to hit the ground running. How would I serve my audience and what and how did I intend to make a difference?

6 months later, I left the corporate world and founded?GiFT631. I grew up at a house number called 631 in a small town between Coventry and Birmingham in the English Midlands. I wanted my parents and grandfather’s legacy lives on in the name of my business. Through my journalling, I had wrestled with a few business names until GiFT fell into place:

Growth?- Personal, team and business. Without growth we stagnate and decline.

Inspiration?- Inspiring others to strive to reach their true potential by moving from where they are to where they want to be.

Fulfilment?- Helping people pass their own ‘rocking chair test’ by finding their own value and living through to their passions and purpose.

Transformation?- Helping People, teams and businesses pivot, evolve and soar.

Once I ‘took the plunge’ I went from being a GM of a big bank to a self-employed founder of a start-up. I immediately saw the value of the winning habits, routines and frameworks I had developed over the previous 20 years.??As a new entrepreneur involved in the world of self-improvement I have continued to develop these habits, routines and frameworks.

They became my?‘success system.’?In essence this system helps me set stretch goals, develop and sustain a ‘champions mindset’, take consistent, high value action and??seek continuous improvement so i always moving forward and improving. The more I work these routines, the more robust they become. In turn this gives me the confidence to stretch my thinking and go for bigger goals.

Now, I have the pleasure and privilege to share these habits, routines and frameworks through my work as a coach, consultant, speaker, facilitator and writer. I continually see the difference they can make but only for those who are willing to work with them. Nothing changes without action.

The purpose of this book is to share these learnings in the most simple, practical and actionable way. I hope to encourage you to move in the direction of your potential, goals, dreams and aspirations. Be?#allin?and?#dare2soar

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