About four years ago, I purchased my first smartphone. My old flip phone was found dead one morning in a puddle of water. My wife had set a spray bottle next to my phone and the bottle leaked.
My flip phone had a good long life. I had it since 2005.
But it was time to get with the 21st century and buy a phone with more capabilities to help with my business.
In that first week that I played with my phone, I was downloading apps left and right. I even downloaded a silly app that allows you to have your own lightsaber. You move your phone like you are swinging a lightsaber, and it makes all the cool sounds.
Welcome to my life as a Star Wars geek.
But there were other useful apps as well. I stumbled across a couple that give you wisdom or success quotes daily. I remembered one of the quotes that came across the app was from George S. Patton:
“Success is measured by how high you bounce when you hit bottom.”
When I read this quote, it was one of those moments when I knew the universe was working in my favor.
In late 2010 (about the same time that I bought the smartphone), in a span of just over six weeks, I lost ten personal training clients permanently.
Now I could say that this never fazed me, and I got back on the horse immediately.
But that would be wrong.
The initial shock of all the hits made me go running for the budget; worrying about what I was going to do.
Then this quote popped up on my phone. And it made me think.
“Success is measured by how high you bounce when you hit bottom.”
What would you do if you all of a sudden lost all that business in just over six weeks? Would you panic? Would you start looking for a new job?
How do you react when you realize that you are the heaviest you have ever been in your life and all your weight loss goals have never been achieved?
How do you react when you can’t keep up with your kids anymore because you are so out of shape? Will you drop with a thud when you hit bottom? Or will you tuck yourself into a ball and BOUNCE as high as you possibly can!
After the initial shock for me, I got angry.
I became proactive immediately after the shock and the self-pity party I was having. I sat down and wrote out everything that needed to be done with the business. I realized that the way the business was running wasn’t allowing it to grow. I revamped my entire business. I built a new website, I changed the way I trained my clients and I joined a networking group among other things.
I wasn’t going to let this momentary setback keep me on the ground. I was going to throw a proverbial trampoline beneath me and…
BOUNCE AS HIGH AS I POSSIBLY CAN!
And bounce I did. Over the last four years, business has been fantastic. I am about to have the best year I have ever had. In the last six weeks alone, I have signed up eight new clients with more to come. I even hired another trainer to take over the demand because my schedule is FULL!
If I would have sat in that proverbial hole four years ago and not bounced back up, you wouldn’t be reading this right now.
Look at your setbacks, look at your roadblocks, look at your health and fitness goals that you haven’t achieved yet and then look below you. Do you really think you are going to stay at the bottom? Or are you going to come play with me on my trampoline and bounce back higher than ever?
The decision is all yours.
Onward!