Hi everyone, its Pat here, and happy August. Can you believe it? It is August 1st already, today, and if you’re anything like me, you may be sitting back thinking where does the time go? Where does summer go? Where has it gone? Well, all is not lost because it is only August 1st.

I wanted to talk to you today about challenges, disappointments, setbacks, feeling like perhaps you’re in a rut. I know that here, in Canada, for most of us, the month of July is all about vacation time. We have long, hard winters, and the anticipation for July is through the roof. Well that was yesterday. Today is August, and again, in conversation with many entrepreneurs and small business owners over the past little while, I have heard many people saying that they feel like they’re in a rut.

One of the expressions has been, and I shared this last week, is – is that all there is? I also know, as you look at any kind of commercial, flier, newspaper, the ads are everywhere for going back to school, and so it’s planning time. We start to think about beyond August and what lies ahead, so I want to share a personal story with you first, and it is about disappointment, and again, in the conversations I’ve had with many people, many are going through personal challenges, as we all do at different times in life, and as an entrepreneur and small business owner, that can set us back. That can almost have us feeling like we’re in a rut. It’s like what to do, who to talk to, where to go.

So for me, if you’ve been following me at all, you know that I have been on a health and wellness journey this year, in particular, because last August I turned 66 and so I dubbed it #route66 to health and wellness. I have 15 more days to go before that number changes, and so again, if you’ve been following me, I’ve been working with a trainer and a nutritional guide, and this is someone who works and represents and knows the products that I use personally for my health and wellness, which are the Isagenix products. So Jeff has been my go-to.

Now, in the last four months, in particular, I have been so dedicated. I have taken my measurements, we’ve weighed me, taken my photos, and so on. Only once a month. That’s all I need, and Jeff tweaks the nutrition program for me. He tweaks the exercise program, and I’ve been out there and I’ve been doing my thing quite dedicated.

Now, I’m like anybody else. When I go see Jeff once a month, I expect results from all my hard work, and I have been getting results. I call them non-scale victories because, quite honestly, the scale is not my friend, and seriously, sometimes you just want to beat that piece of equipment. So anyway, I went to see him about a week and a bit ago when my friend Linda was here visiting, got on that scale, and sure enough, I was disappointed again.

I reached out to Jeff this morning, actually, and I said, “What, liposuction? That’s what’s going to get that belly fat off of me?” But here’s the thing. We all get disappointed, and I wanted to share this with you because often, people look at me and go, “Oh, it’s easy for you. It’s easy for you to exercise. It’s easy for you to get on a stage and speak professionally. It’s easy for you to make good money.” Listen, I’m no different than you are. I have my share of disappointments too, and on this health and wellness journey, in particular, I have been frustrated. However, I do focus on the non-scale victories, and that’s a message in itself for all of you, whether it’s a personal goal you’re after or a professional or business goal. There are other things to measure.

Non-scale victories for me include improved blood pressure, improved sleep, high energy, clear skin, my nails are stronger, my resting heart rate is amazing, so there are so many non-scale victories, and when I document them and I write those down in my gratitude journal, that action alone pulls me out of a mindset of disappointment.

However, we can easily get into a rut, so I wanted to talk to you and share with you some of the steps that I take for moving out of it, because for you, either looking at your health and wellness starting in September, because I know for many people, psychologically, emotionally, they take the summer off from their health. Well, good health doesn’t take a vacation, my friends, and so when I shared the non-scale victories with you, I also want to talk to you about those three steps that I take to keep me in the game, to keep me energized, to keep me inspired, whether it’s my personal journey or whether it’s business. Because many of you, I know now, your thoughts are already turning to September, and as I say to my clients all the time, what you did in June or didn’t do is going to reflect in your sales funnel and in your cash flow in September, and for many of you, that’s going to hurt.

So here are three tips that I use that can help you too. The first one, when it comes to feeling disappointed and feeling like you’re in a rut and is that all there is, the first step is to acknowledge it. That was a big lesson for me, to learn to acknowledge my feelings. It’s like what? What am I feeling? What am I going through? What is this causing for me? And so I am a journaler. I write things down and it’s really helpful to do that.

So step number one is acknowledge it, because it happens. Now, for many of you, it happens because you’re in the comparison game. Whether it comes to health and wellness, whether it comes to business, whether it comes to clients, revenue, what-have-you, many of you compare yourselves. You’ve got to stop comparing yourself and become the best version of you that you can become. So tip number one, acknowledge what you’re going through. Recognize we all go through that. Many people don’t talk about it, but I’m talking about it today because I want to help you through the month of August.

Tip number two. I wrote these down because I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything here, but tip number two is to talk about it. I was blessed in having my good friend Linda Claire Puig visit last week, and I tell you, the time with her is so precious because we are so in sync and it was so easy for me to sit back. In fact, she came to see Jeff, the trainer, with me because she and I are on the same health and wellness journey, and so when we came away from there, yeah, I was discouraged.

Now, I lost inches. Don’t get me wrong, I got I lost inches, and when I look back on some videos that I’ve done over the past six months, eight months, I can see the difference. I’ve lost a chin, my cheekbones are coming back, my eyes are focused and clear. I can see the difference. I just wanted that scale to move, and so it was good to have a good friend here who “gets it.” So I talked about it. Now, a lot of you keep things in. You keep them stifled because you “believe” that, for whatever reason, you can’t talk about it.

Now, you want to talk to a trusted confidant, of course, but talk about it. And the other point, as I mentioned earlier, I messaged Jeff this morning and I said, “Honestly, I’m feeling discouraged because I’m not at a high all the time. I have my mornings where I think why am I getting on that treadmill? My body is not responding in the way I want it to. Divine timing. It will happen, and so trust the process. Jeff was very encouraging. Wrote back, shared a few more tips with me, gave me a high five, and the good news is I’m heading off to a conference in Nashville on Friday. I’m going to be surrounded by 16,000 high energy, enthusiastic, healthy, happy, high-achieving business people. Now, if that doesn’t get me out of a rut I don’t know what would. So you want to talk about it is tip number two.

And tip number three is, as I mentioned, I’m going to Nashville for this conference. I’m excited. I’m a continuous learner, whether that’s on a personal journey or a professional journey. Tip number three is you’ve got to get out of your situation. You’ve got to get out of your environment because nothing will change when you stay there. You want to change the energy, you want to change perspective, you want to get perspective and learn, because we don’t know what we don’t know, and so I’m going to Nashville because, again, this is my health and wellness journey.

Without your health, you’ve got nothing, people, nothing, and so I am focused on my health because I intend to be around a long time. I’ve got a lot of living to do. So I’m going to this conference, which is a little outside the norm for my speaking and coaching business; however, it is about the business of health and wealth, and I know there are people there who are going to lift me up, who are going to inspire me and encourage me, and I’m going to come back stronger than ever when it comes to emotional, intellectual, psychological approach to any goal that I set.

So what’s in that for you? For those of you who are feeling disappointed right now and you’re finding it hard to get excited about September, you’re finding it difficult to get excited about your clients or prospecting, or sales calls, any part of that, you too need to get out of your environment and get to a similar business type event.

Now, you’re probably asking yourself, where do I find one of those? Well, it just so happens I’m hosting one right here in London, Ontario on August 22nd, all day, and August 23rd in the morning. It’s a very intense, intimate, immersed time with me, behind closed doors. I limit this to 10 people. There’s six spots left right now and it’s for high achieving entrepreneurs. This is not for start-ups. This is for people who have been at it and at it, and are feeling perhaps disappointed in the lack of goal accomplishment or want to really just give your a head shake, get new energy, get new perspective, get in a room with some different people from different industries and me, and spend a day and a half together, and just catapult into September. That’s what it’s all about.

I’m going to post the link here. It’s https://hirepat.com/coi, (Circle of Influence).

I’ll put the link here. You can go there, you can see the information, you can read the testimonials of the people who have been to the last two of these. I have never publicly promoted these, but this time I want to help you get out of a rut. I want to help you get past the disappointment and get excited about your life and about business, because I’m covering both of those in this retreat. It’s a really intimate mastermind and it will be an amazing experience, and I’ll share what I bring back from Nashville, too, because there’s always leading-edge information there.

So there you go. My three tips; acknowledge the disappointment, number two, talk about the disappointment to a trusted confidant, and number three, then you’ve got to take action and get yourself into an environment that will set you up for success, and that’s why I’m inviting you to come and spend time with me in London. You’ll be happy you did. Go to the link and read the testimonials. All right, that’s it. I’ll see you again next time and I’ll be doing a Facebook Live from Nashville. It’s going to be an amazing experience. Have a great day everyone.