By Patrick Cahillane – Life, Executive & Business Coach with One Source International Coaching & Training and Founder of the One Source Personal Development Network
| My Story – |
I’ll never forget the exact moment I realized my life was about to go from bad to worse. At the time I had been working an insane work schedule of between sixty to seventy hours per week as a self-employed business consultant.
I was on the road travelling six days a week, which led to an extremely unhealthy lifestyle. Poor diet, no exercise, no water (unless you count the eight cups of coffee a day I was drinking), stressed out all the time and lucky to get four or five hours of sleep on a good night.
When I look back on things now, it was insane. I had been working this way for years and as you may have guessed, eventually, I hit the wall. I had a heart attack.
I ended up in the hospital and required heart surgery to remove a blockage. To make things worse, the surgery did not go exactly as planned, and I ended up going into a coma for almost four days and came as close to death’s door as I ever want to come again until it is time to meet my maker.
Eventually, I did manage to recover, and when I did, I knew things had to change. I knew I couldn’t live this lifestyle anymore, or next time I might not be so lucky. I promised myself the day I came home; things were going to change. Somehow I was going to turn things around and get my life back on track.
I had been given a second chance at life and I wasn’t about to throw it away. This was my wake-up call and I was grateful for the opportunity. I began by taking a good hard look at my life. How did I end up here? How did I end up at the age of forty-nine in this situation?
I was grossly overweight and looked ten years older than I really was. My relationship with my wife and kids consisted mainly of phone calls from the road and the odd few hours on the weekend, which I can only imagine was no treat for them as I was always exhausted and stressed out.
I had no real friends or interest outside of my profession and it was all work and no play. The only area of my life that I thought I was somewhat happy with was my career; however, the truth be told, when I think about all the hours I worked and the level of stress I put myself under, I was grossly underpaid.
This was not the life I signed up for when I boarded that plane in Chicago headed to the republic of Ireland more than a decade earlier with my wife and three small children. At the time my vision of the future was bright and full of promise.
I was determined to get back that vision of a better life. I was determined to not only design a better life for both my family and me but to live it. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I was committed.
After taking some time to recover from my near-death experience, I began the process of looking into various personal development programs. I really took it seriously and completely immersed myself in the process. Literally, anything I could get my hands on I read, listened to or attended.
Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Napoleon Hill, Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, Les Brown, and so many more. I studied NLP, NAC and listened to an endless amount of Ted Talks and local seminars. Basically, if I could get my hands on it, I read or listened to it and if I could get my foot in the door, I attended it.
After a while, I started making some progress. I lost a few pounds, improved my relationships, and even eliminated some negative behaviours such as eating junk food and limited my alcohol consumption.
But something would always seem to happen, and I would start to slip back into my old negative habits. It was two steps forward and one step back, one step forward and three steps back. Up and down, side to side and back and forth. It seemed as hard as I tried, I just couldn’t create the lasting change that I was looking for.
This continued for months, and I was beyond frustrated, but I was committed. I knew there was a way that would work for me. I just hadn’t found it yet. I followed the advice I had provided to the many sales professionals I had trained over the years. Persistence is always the key to success. Never give up.
Then one day, like a bolt of lightning, it came to me. A system! What I needed was a system of personal development that worked for me.
This made perfect sense to me. After all this was my speciality when I consulted with clients all around the globe. I created data management systems, sales systems, commission systems and training systems. Why not a system of personal development?
I was excited. I knew I was onto something big. I was beyond confident that I could create a system of personal development that would work for me. That would help me to create the lasting change that I desired and that I needed.
Now it’s important to note that when I initially decided to create a personal development system, I had no intention of ever sharing it with another living soul. It was to be used by me and me alone.
I had no desire to create a system of personal development to be used by the masses and absolutely zero interest in creating another business to get involved in. After all, I had more than enough work in my consulting business. In fact, I was looking to reduce my workload by fifty percent minimum and not take on more work.
So, I started the process of designing my system. I was never a big believer in reinventing the wheel, so I started reviewing all the programs I had studied, listened to, or attended up to this point. I spent countless hours researching, reviewing, reading, and listening to materials.
After a few weeks or more, I started noticing a trend. All the programs that had achieved any real measure of success in the marketplace had certain things in common. In fact, I narrowed it down to three.
I refer to them as the three common denominators that all the great programs have in common. They all devoted a huge amount of time to the topics of:
- Focus
- Balance
- Purpose
I don’t care if it was Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor or Napoleon Hill. All the greats spent a huge amount of time covering the importance of these three core principles.
Why? Because they work.
The problem was in my opinion; none of them had created what I believe to be a simple system that I could personally incorporate into my life that would ensure I stay on track.
Please note, I am not saying that the programs or systems they have created are not effective or worth using. I am simply saying that they did not work for me.
I accept 100% of the responsibility for my failures. I have nothing but respect and admiration for all the individuals I have mentioned. They are the true greats, and I encourage all who are interested in personal development to study their methods and systems.
I began by creating a system to control my focus. A system designed to direct my attention to the most important areas of my life on a consistent daily basis. Areas such as the following:
- My Relationships
- My Level of Health and Fitness
- My Personal Growth
- My Finances
Next, I created a system that would not only allow me to achieve balance in these key areas but maintain it as well. I knew from my own life and my own failures in life that balance was the key.
After a lot of hard work, a lot of trial and error, I had it. I had created an extremely powerful tool or a system of how anyone could achieve and maintain balance in their lives. The best part was it’s so easy to use and it only takes a few minutes per day.
Finally, I began working on a system of how I could not only identify my life’s purpose but live my life’s purpose every day.
Believe it or not this was much easier than it sounds. Fortunately for me there is a lot of great information out there about how to live a life with purpose, and years earlier, my wife and I spent a lot of time studying this topic when preparing for the big move from the United States to Ireland.
In fact, the Irish Times News Paper featured me in an article back in April 2012 entitled the DIY Mind Doctors. In it they documented the entire story of how my wife and I used the simple principles in a well-known self-help book to identify our purpose and relocate our family to Ireland.
Once I had my system completed, it was time to test it. I wish I could say I had it perfect the first time around; however, this was not the case.
It took time and some trial and error, but I eventually got there. I adjusted, tested, adjusted, and tested some more. After months of testing my system on myself and monitoring the results, I was convinced I had it.
I dropped over 40 lbs and my energy levels exploded. I completely rearranged and restructured my business and earned more money by becoming more productive in less time. I improved my relationships with my wife, children, friends, family, and my creator.
Every aspect of my life changed, and I owe it all to the system. The best part is I have kept the weight off, my relationships strong, grown in virtually every aspect of my life, and my finances have never been better all these years later.
Keep in mind I’m not asking you to take my word for it. I’m asking you to find out for yourself by learning this powerful yet simple personal development system yourself.
The following pages will outline a step-by-step guide that you can follow to design your very own system of personal development.
I believe it is easy to follow and simple to implement. When complete you will have a powerful system designed specifically for you.
Think of it as a blueprint for success. A blueprint to assist you in improving your relationships, increasing your health and fitness level, and creating more security and freedom in your life.
I strongly encourage you to make a committed decision right now that you are going to learn and implement this system into your life for the next 30 days.
Use it to design the life you deserve and don’t make the same mistakes I made of waiting until you almost lose it all before deciding to act.
Start today by committing to this program for the next 30 days. If you do, I’m beyond confident you will amaze yourself with the results. You will improve your relationships, health and fitness level, personal growth, and finances.
You will learn to create the habit of controlling and directing your focus to the most important areas of your life each and every day.
You will learn how to achieve and maintain balance in your life so you will no longer be living in a state of reaction and can begin the process of proactively living the life you deserve.
Finally, you will learn how not only to identify your life’s purpose but how to live that purpose each and every day.
With this in mind, I would like to share with you what I consider to be my purpose. At this stage in my life, my purpose is to share this amazing system of personal development with as many individuals as possible, including you.
I have a vision in my mind that before it’s time for me to leave this earth, there will be literally tens of thousands of individuals using this system each and every day. Using it to create lasting changes and living the life they deserve.
I would love for you to be one of them.
Patrick J. Cahillane
Creator of the One Source Personal Development System