So this week saw a few key things happen (other than Pistorius, Valentines day, horse burgers and the meteorite storm in Russia) A burst of activity in business efforts began to bear fruit!

My website is now running (www.phcoaching.co.uk) and I have created new brochures and these are being worked on by the “marketing department” i.e my partner! and should be ready to print this week. Progress!

Also, as a result of spending some time thinking about who I could partner with in order to grow my business, I had a couple of really positive meetings with people. As it turns out they were all incredibly receptive to what it was I was proposing and will probably be the frame work of everything I am going to do moving forward.

This is great news, but bear in mind I am also juggling a full time job. It makes it very difficult to keep your energy levels up when you come home in the evening to start all over again on your own business. But, I MUST keep going as it is the only way there is any hope that my business can sustain itself once I finish my full time commitments.

I want to offer you a few key phrases that I keep in my head every day that help me to keep going:

“Although you are on the right track, you still have to keep moving”

Once you have worked hard to discover what it is you want to do, you cant just sit there! You still have to move your along the track and sure enough, like a steam train, you will slip and skid at first, but then you will gain traction and begin to move forward - slowly at first but progress none the less, after a while you are up to full steam, chugging along the right track to your goals and dreams. Even if you wanted to stop it you couldn't because of the momentum you have gained and the weight behind your engine and commitment!

“Do what you love and you will never work another day in your life”

I had an interesting conversation with a friend of a friend the other day who drives lorries for a living. Essentially he doesn't like it and was talking about retirement and the fact that he has to stay where he is because the pension is good. I asked what he was going to do when he retired and the answer came “I don’t really know, not much...” so not only was he working in a job he didn't like to get to retirement, once he was there he didn't know what he wanted to do! As a life coach I wanted to challenge him on this, but relented. (your friends soon get frustrated with you if you try and coach them all the time, its best sometimes to just enjoy your pint!) He asked me what I will do when I retire, I replied “I am never going to, I am going to create a life out of what I love and I am going to do it forever.” Cue an awkward silence... our vision for our own lives could not have been further apart!

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”

Previously when I thought about starting a business, the whole idea scared me, I thought I needed an office , a flashy website, all the furniture and printers and networks etc. this terrified me so much the business never really took off. This time, I do everything from home, on my laptop, I make meetings with people I know and keep my eyes open for opportunities, I get things like marketing, websites and business cards done knowing that although they are not perfect, it is progress and I can worry about perfect later. Thats the thing about perfection - its better done, than perfect. At this stage in my business, perfect takes too long and costs too much, do what you can with what you have.

Don't get me wrong my clients still get the great service that I provide, but it means that I opt for the cheapest business cards and built my website myself instead of getting a company to do it for me, I work from home instead of paying out for an office. All this will come but for now I keep on going.

If you want further inspiration, I highly recommend the book “Screw work... Lets play” - How to do what you love and get paid for it - by John Williams. It has been really useful to me and might be to you.

In summary, I guess what I am trying to say is, it is never too late to start and once you do, use what you have around you and whatever you do, JUST KEEP GOING!