Say no to holidays and yes to the coaching lifestyle

I'm currently in California on a bit of a working holiday and other than to answer some urgent requests I've just sat down to my laptop for the first time in about 4 days. I've been feeling off balance and anxious most of that time. At first I thought it was just the stress of travel or jet lag, but as soon as I sat down and opened the lid of my laptop I felt it all wash away. You can see how happy I look in the photo (like my partner Nicky says, I wear my smiles on the inside most of the time). These days with all of the hype around "work life balance" you might attribute my imbalance to the stresses of modern life and working too hard and not being able to relax while on holiday.

I think that is total rubbish though, and this just reminds me of the fact that people were built to work and to toil and to struggle on a daily basis. A holiday should not be a break from your "life" as you know it. If you need to take a holiday from your life then you've got the "life" part wrong. For the last few days I've gotten the "holiday" part wrong. Looking back now I should have scheduled in more time for the "work" which I love.

Not everyone will agree I'm sure, but this is where I am now having just turned 40 last week. Turning 40 isn't something that really bothers me much at all and I don't feel different than I did at 30, actually to be honest I'm physically and emotionally fitter than I've ever been. In saying that, since I turned 40 a lot of people have asked me how I felt about it. Those questions have made me reflect on my life so far in terms of achievement, success, failure and enjoyment. 

I just saw the title of a new Youtube video from one of our coaching clients Rich Wygand of RW Coaching titled "Say no to diet and yes to lifestyle" and it reasonated a lot with the way I'm currently thinking about holidays. 

"Say no to holidays and yes to lifestyle" 

Don't treat a holiday like a diet where you completely change the way you behave temporarily for some sort of escape to gain your health back from a generally unhealthy lifestyle. The end result of that is always the same, when the holiday is over you go back to work and to the lifestyle you were escaping from. Then you spend the next 6-12 months tolerating your work life until the next holiday comes around. Just to be clear I'm not literally saying don't take a holiday, as holidays are awesome!

Most people don't love their work, they "tolerate" it and then talk about achieving this myth known as "work life balance". Like I've said before, there is no value in making a distinction between work and life. There is no such thing as work life balance, there is only "life" and you only get one shot at it.

My friends over at Support Crew who I've been helping with their new project, shared a post with me recently that I laughed at because it's so true.

"Entreprenuers are the only people who will work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week for someone else"

Although I've never really thought of myself as an entreprenuer, that pretty much sums things up for me. I love to work but when it's the work that I choose to do it's so much more rewarding and motivating. These days I choose my own hours, my own location and who I work with. 

A lot of our clients here at Training Tilt are full time coaches and have put in the work to create the lifestyle they love. Some of our coaches are part time well on their way to their ideal lifestyle and others are just getting started.

Coaching is a great way to build a lifestyle business without needing a lot of capital upfront to get started. You can start out solo and then grow your team at your own pace or you can stay solo and scale out your services using technology like Training Tilt by selling memberships to your own coaching platform or template fitness and training plans.

If you are thinking about starting your own coaching business but aren't sure how to get started signup to our free course below.