“The way you think, the way you behave, the way you eat, can influence your life by 30 to 50 years.” 

Deepak Chopra

I often thought my business was built on my recovery from breast cancer in my early forty’s. It was the reason why I took the plunge into entrepreneurialism when most were thinking about how to retire early, and the motivation I clearly needed to get off my ass and do that thing I’d wanted to do for years.

In my pre-cancer days I wanted to be a florist. I’d worked hard wonderfully making millions for others, but I was drawn to doing something for myself, to start my own florist, getting up early and heading to the flower market (I lived in London at the time) and creating ways to make people happy and feel loved and appreciated. Plus I’m drawn to beauty.

In my early post-cancer days I turned that need to give back, to make a difference to people’s lives into the skills I already had, that I was already qualified in and was already proven to get results with. Coaching.

I’d spent the first forty years of my life believing I was only good enough to work for someone else. It was how I did everything. I farmed out the responsibility for my happiness to my work, my relationships and my lack of self belief. Not a winning strategy.

Dealing with a cancer diagnosis allowed me to see who I truly was. The saying goes that when you’re really up against it your true colours shine out, for good or for bad. Well, mine were full of courage and drive and a desire for life on my own terms, not a life managed by other people. It changed how I think, how I behave and even how I eat. My business may have been born out of trauma, but grew out of good health.

You don’t need the trauma of a diagnosis to help you start, grow, exit a business or make a change you’ve been longing to make. It can be as simple as focusing on the health of everything you do.

It sounds obvious now, but it’s normally the obvious we miss. As soon as I focused on the health of my body, I connected my emotional health and then I connected my financial health, my career health and the health of all my relationships. It was never as simple as cooking better food. It was creating more, different and better of that which felt healthy to me.

My own bad health (cancer) created good health in every single area of my life and helped me realise potential in my business that I’d not deemed possible before. The mindset shift to a healthy perspective, enabled me to release all that felt unhealthy, and that included drama, people, groups, spending habits, consumption triggers, lack of confidence and a whole lot more.

So how does this work in practice?

How we do one thing we do everything. It’s a fact. And a relief. We’re all good at something, knowing that means we can be good at everything.

Start by reminding yourself how you’re feeling about all areas of your life. A simple but very effective exercise is the wheel of life. I have one here you can do right away. I do this every month, I ask clients to do this before we even start and then to retake this every month to show the progress they’re making. It provides insight and understanding and stops coasting and pretending.

When you write your bio, write the bio of your brand as-well. It helps you see how healthy your brand really is. When I say health, I don’t mean green kale and wheatgrass. I mean vibrance, life force, innovation, growth.

Do you know your values personally and for your business? It’s easy to think you do, but when asked, it can feel a little mystifying. You can check in with you personal values here, you may find that your business values are the same, either way it’ll help you get back to some important basics. Your business’s vision, mission and values are the back bone of your brand. If you’re unclear what they are, ask yourself;

What are you trying to achieve, what’s the big vision? It should feel out of reach, but possible with a plan. I want to coach the world because my world view is one that believes everyone should have access to the power of coaching to help them achieve their results. There you have my vision and my mission. And my values, they’re easy to suss when you know me! Creativity (innovation), integrity, respect, adventure, love and freedom. Once you have the backbone of your business, everything hangs from it. Your ideal client is easy to work out because you’ve got the framework ready. And so on.

The health of my life, my business, my relationships and my money is all built on this. So you don’t need a drama to start the butt kicking, you can do it yourself with the help of some easy and quick exercises that can flip your thinking towards a life of health rather than mixed messages and survival.