Sorry a long one today, you might need to read in two parts.

Today is my birthday.  A time when lots of people struggle with becoming a year older on the clock. 

I guess it's a matter of perception and how you see yourself doing in life.  A perception that changes as the years go on.

I remember in my late teens being at my Kung Fu instructors 30th party and wondering if I would still be doing martial arts when I was as old as him.  Pondering the technicalities of kicking when that old, here I am at 42 and still teaching and still kicking, although a little more care is taken in the preparation now :)

I remember in my late 20's calling my sister to take the p!ss that she was 40, she turned it around on me.  Telling me that she was good with being 40 and knew where she was in life; when I had a  part-time job, lived with my parents and couldn't make a relationship last past a month.  That also highlights how tolerant Fran is with me; although this morning she has already told me I'm a knob and a twit.  Charming.

Now in my early 40's I can see where my sister was coming from.  I can take stock on what I have in my life and where it is going, although that terrifies me at times.

I run a business with my wife / best-friend that I love.  Every day we get to help people achieve more with their bodies and take them closer to their goals.  

I have people struggle in to my therapy room in pain and leave feeling much better.  

I help people 'get their head straight' and know who they are and who they want to become; to face their fears and be confident.

I inspire people to set goals that they believed were beyond them and achieve so much more.

I teach my students that there is much more than the 'martial' side of kung fu and how to use their training in every aspect of their lives to become people they and I are proud of.

I have my health, we should never take this for granted.  I struggle with holding on to a bit of puppy fat but can generally move without pain and perform any task I want to with out worrying if I can.

It was through this reflection that I remembered a task my friend and mentor Dax set me years ago.  I re-read it and tweaked it a little but I'm really pleased to see that I still live true to the core beliefs and values I set then.

Here they are:

I believe in respect.

In all of its meanings and guises.

I have studied and taught martial arts for over 25 years; respect is a major part of many styles. The style of Kung Fu that I study and teach has respect as the first club rule.

I believe respect should be given freely rather than earned, we should respect everything and everyone around us; our belongings, our friends and family, nature and most importantly ourselves.

As a health coach, I spend a large amount of my time educating people on how to treat their bodies to get the most out of them.

Too many people abuse their bodies; be it with alcohol, smoking, poor quality foods or a combination of all three.  They are often then surprised when they find themselves troubled with illness and injury.

If we treat our bodies well they will return the favour.

Many of my beliefs are centred around respect.

I believe in honesty.

This is with ourselves and everybody we come into contact with.

So often we lie to ourselves about what we really want from our lives.  I think many people are unhappy because they are not being honest with themselves and living true to their beliefs or even know what their beliefs are.

Honesty with others doesn’t mean being thoughtless or nasty; we should always strive to be nice but we should let others know our true thoughts in a constructive way.  I am always honest with my clients on what they need to do to achieve their goals and what is possible for them to achieve; often way beyond what they thought would be possible.

I wouldn’t still be in this business if I wasn’t honest with people.

I believe everybody should live with passion.

In business, relationships, free-time and everything that you do.

Some people say that I’m lucky to be in a role that I am passionate about; but I have made the choices and sacrifices necessary to work in this business.  I have put in a lot of hard work and study but it didn’t feel like a burden, I love what I do.  

I believe I have found my purpose and I work hard to stay at the top of my industry.  I have surrounded myself with people that can help me become better at what I do and offer constructive and valid advice.

If you are passionate about the work that you do, it doesn’t feel like work.  

If you are not passionate about your job you need to make sure it rewards you enough in other ways that you can follow your passions in other areas of your life. The time you spend away from your work, your free-time should be filled with things that make your job worth it.

If you are highly paid but don’t use the money to pursue happiness in some way, you are working for work’s sake.  We are not on this planet for long and we should strive to enjoy our lives; as my nephew says ‘you don’t want to be the richest skeleton in the graveyard’.

I believe you should plan for the future but living is more important than saving.  If you are in a role you hate and the pay is poor, do something about it.  Study, work harder, change jobs, whatever it takes to change your life positively, but don’t stay in a role that makes you unhappy and doesn’t deliver the rewards to pursue your dreams in other areas.

I try to spend as much of my free-time out with my family and dogs, we enjoy mountain walking; and getting out in nature helps you to put things into perspective and feel free.

I struggled with the passion side of things when we went through our fertility journey and mis-carriage.  Looking back now I realise I was drifting, no really pursuing anything and simply going through the motions.  I wasn't aware of it at the time and we're now in a great place and well in to our journey to adoption, as I said above this terrifies me at times but mostly I'm uber excited about being a parent.  

Which leads on to ...

I believe that you should trust in your abilities.

Too many people don’t pursue the things that they really want because they are scared about failing.  We're all guilty of this.

As long as we learn from the failing experience, it was worth while.

The people I coach show disbelief when we discuss their goals and what I believe they could achieve; with hard work, a plan and determination we can all achieve our goals.

Many successful people are where they are because somebody else initially believed they could be.

As Dax often says 'My belief is greater than your fear'.

I believe you should give graciously and accept willingly.

Be it a gift, a complement, your knowledge or your time.

I believe we should all be nice.

That is, try to see the glass half full, be positive.

When bad things happen it is easy to get angry and start being negative about it, but anger doesn’t really solve anything and ultimately leads to the dark side.

We should try to focus on the bigger picture and establish the best course of action to take to accomplish what we want.  By being nice we put others at ease and they can focus on helping us achieve.

It can be hard at times when the world seems to be plotting against you but taking a deep breath, smiling and looking for the best of the situation will give a better result long term.

We generally find what we're looking for; if you look for the best in people you will see it.  It can backfire, I'm told I'm too trusting with money and payments, which sometimes bites me in the ass when people don't pay or take advantage.  However, it's a rare occurrence and I'd rather see the good in people than let my vision be blurred by the minority.

I believe everybody has the right to good health.

It is the choices we make in life that defines our health.

Only a small number of health problems are due to genetics; but I often hear that excuse for obesity and other weight related problems.

I could play the genetics card if I chose to become obese, most of my family are overweight. I make the right choices with nutrition and exercise most of the time to maintain a fit and healthy body.  I do struggle at ties but I admit that I'm not perfect.

Many health problems are a result of poor nutrition and lack of exercise, yet we seek the advice of the medical profession who are trained to deal with the consequences of ill health rather than promote good health.

We want the quick fix, surgery or magic pill / potion to take that will solve all of our problems; the results of which are short lived and often leave us in a worse position.

If you really want to improve your health and are tired of being ill every time there’s as much of a sniffle in the air; do something about it.

It might be hard work initially, everything worthwhile is, but the results are life-changing.

Seek help from someone who deals with promoting good health on a daily basis, take their advice and take action upon it.  It is the taking action that really makes the difference and helps us improve.

This advice isn’t limited to your health; if you want to improve your financial situation seek the help of an expert who can give you the best advice for your circumstances.

Whatever your goals maybe, become more educated about the things that you need to do to achieve them and surround yourself with people who can help you achieve them; don’t listen to the people you feel are trying to hold you back.

I hope you have found this post about my beliefs interesting and you are inspired to review your own.

We all have the power to live the life we dream of, we just need to take consistent positive action towards that life, I will be, it’s your choice if you want to.