How the hell did I get here?

I’ve always had a great interest in the workings of our mind and how we can harness the energy it holds to help us achieve the things in our lives that we desire. Recently I’ve been reflecting as to where this interest may have started and I believe it goes all the way back to my childhood. I have always been ‘lucky’ or ‘blessed’ or as my eldest sister would often say ‘you could fall in shite and come up smelling of roses’ and do you know what, I believe her. I still believe I am ‘lucky’ and ‘blessed’ and could fall in…well, you get the picture.

I would often put others needs before my own

I was never a reckless child, maybe adventurous but never reckless and I always had a heightened awareness of how other people felt. This awareness was an amazing skill however I feel that sometimes it had lead me to placing other people’s’ needs and wants before my own which can be a dangerous thing, for me at least as I could then resent the fact that this other persons needs were before mine, even though I’d put them there!

A couple of early childhood memories

I can remember some early childhood memories from as far back as 4 and 5 years old. Some of them where normal childhood experiences – I can remember my very first friends Mandy and Jackie. I can remember one Halloween night coming across the back field with Mandy and seeing, clearly a witch on a broom. A classic cartoon witch with the pointy hat, black cape and long green and black socks. She ‘flew’ just by my head, looked me in the eye before I took off holding Mandy’s hand as fast as I could go.

I also remember getting a new TV for Christmas. I watched 2 hours of it on Christmas morning before telling my parents excitedly that I had received a new colour TV from Santa! My father asked was I sure it was colour? Maybe I should check again. When I did I realised it wasn’t colour after all but black and white!

Finally and probably most vividly I remember going with my mother to our local primary school, St Lukes in Twinbrook, Belfast, to register for primary one. After some discussion the head mistress said in a very polite voice ‘Now young man, can I take your name?’ So I, replied ‘Yes, it’s Kevin Young’. When we left the school I burst into tears, distraught. My mother asking ‘whats wrong?’ ‘Why are you so upset?’….’That lady took my name!’, ‘She took my name!’

And I’m telling you this because?

Well, I’m telling you this because now that I’m reflecting I can see what a powerful force my mind and the words I used and heard were. I have always been a coach. I was always the mediator, the supporter. I always had the ability to use my own words and perspective help others get the result they were after or see things from a whole new angle. The first self-development book I read was Mind Store by Jack Black. I read this in my late teens and it opened up a whole new understanding for me. I then carried this interest in personal development into my first ‘real’ job with Vodafone and used the tools and techniques to establish myself, quite early, as a leader of the 80 or so retail staff.

Leap and the net will appear

I stayed with Vodafone for almost 10 years. I loved the job and the people loved me. I would still feel happy to ask my then regional manager for a character reference. I had a desire to be my own boss though. I wanted to serve people in my local area and decided that the best way to do this was to open a cafe/bistro/music venue in the small provincial town where I lived. Now, let’s just say that quite a few of my peers and friends thought I was mad. I was leaving a well paid job where I was respected, had a great career path mapped out for me with a giant multinational telecoms company who where going from strength to strength, but that wasn’t enough, I had a burning desire to do my own thing. A card I received from one particular friend said ‘Leap and the net will appear’ and that’s exactly what I did, leap.

The power of a child’s’ mind

One more storey from around this time..I can remember teaching my eldest child, who was about 6 or 7 at the time that we can attract the things in to our lives that we think about. I was doing this using very simple language i.e when we are nice, people are nice to us and if we want something in our lives we have to see that image in our minds and think about it. I kind of meant if we want to have a nice day at school we have to go to school thinking about having a nice day. In childlike fashion my daughter asked ‘so if I think about finding some money I’ll find some? Boom! There it was. The universe can test us and send us messages in many different forms..What could I say? Would I retreat and say to my daughter that I didn’t really believe what I was saying to her? Should I faff around the topic and say well, it doesn’t really work like that? Would I heck! I believed in what I was saying, bloody hell I lived my life by it! So I said yes, if you think about finding some money you will! I tucked her into bed and left the room thinking, holy shit, It’s a miracle I need now..

2 days later..

Yes, you guessed it. This is as true a story as I can tell, those who know me will know I’m telling the truth. Two days later after a shopping trip out with her grandmother Rosa returned home excitedly with not one but two crispy £5 notes. ‘Guess where I got these Dad?’ She went on to tell me she had found them on the floor of M&S in Forestside. That she had told her Granny that she wanted to hand them in to Customer Service but that she waited for 10 minutes and no one came to work at the desk and so her Granny had said that she should probably just hang on to the money!! The Universe, God, luck, energy, coincidence..call it what you will, I thanked ‘it’ that day..can you believe that, 2 bloody days later!

Time to move again

I’d been in Saints Cafe for just shy of 8 years. I’d loved every minute of it and had learned a whole lot about the ups and downs, ins and outs of real self employment. It was over though. I knew it was. My kids were older now and I knew I was ready to move on. I knew I wanted to help people. To serve people. I got a buzz out of helping people and I was good at it. Really good at it. I now had the business acumen to add to my own talents. I was now old enough to be able to accept the compliments of others and had heard many, many times that the help I had provided at a certain time was ‘amazing’ ‘genuine’ ‘the best thing that ever happened to me’. These are real, albeit, short testimonials. So I set about taking another leap and again hoped, wished, OK totally freaked out in anticipation of the net appearing!

Enter stage right..Team SteveyJ

After selling my cafe, I wanted to take a few days to myself, to recharge the batteries. I had looked at a yoga retreat and a cooking holiday amongst other things. They were good but not right as Roy Walker would say. Then I chanced upon an add for a retreat in Wexford with a guy called Stevey McGeown. I hadn’t a clue who he was but I was immediately interested. An application and a phone call later and I was signed up for the retreat. I loved it. A magical retreat in a beautiful setting and a real feeling of clarity that this is the path I wanted to travel and  where I wanted to be.

After the retreat I went to meet Stevey and informed him that I thought we had some work to do together – I’ve never asked him but I’m sure he thought I was off my rocker! I wanted to work with him because his values were congruent with my own. Honesty, integrity, people focused, success focused, genuine, fun loving and committed. I supposed I kind of shoe-horned myself in to his business. He’s smart enough though, if he didn’t want me there, I wouldn’t be there. If any of you are familiar with the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill it’s not lost on me the similarities between my own story and that of Barnes and Edison, in this situation anyway.

Another two characters..

Soon after spending a bit of time with Stevey another two lads appeared. James McGrath and Vinty Firth. Both guys with a multitude of experience in the coaching industry. Vinty had been coaching in the social enterprise sector for almost 20 years, he was very skilled at it and James had a following of 30,000 people on his social media platforms – he chatted regularly about mental and emotional well-being to them all via live videos and audios.

These guys seemed to get it to. We were all coming from the same place and with the same desire to help people. We all wanted to be successful and to help anyone who came to us to be successful too – successful businesses, careers, relationships and lives!

Once again, the net had appeared..

So, that’s us nearing the end of my introduction to me and how the hell I ended up being supported by the net that is Team SteveyJ. I suppose if I’ve learned anything from writing this piece is that through the toughest times in my life, when making the biggest decisions, I’ve just had to trust myself. To leap. I’ve yet to be let down by a net that didn’t appear and yet again it has, this time in the form of 3 great lads with big hearts and big ideas. Stevey McGeown, Vinty Firth and James McGrath. Team SteveyJ.

Here to serve.

With YOU Inmynd 

Kevin Young

Live Your EPIC Adventure

“The Power is within me”

My name is James.

I am the founder of a wellness page called “Passing Through“.

Through the power of video, I want to raise awareness about the challenges people face such as suicidal thoughts, peer pressure and emotional well being. The first video I posted has been viewed half a million times reaching people all across this beautiful world and I have received testimonies from 54 people stating that the page has prevented them from taking their own life. With all of this my dream was to speak in schools to inspire the youth of today.

However behind the posts I was not living the life that I was encouraging others to do.  I was working 7 hours a week earning on average £300 a month.  The working environment wasn’t helping my own well-being, I was told not to be my happy self, my breaks were timed and I felt restricted.

I was telling people how to be the best versions of themselves online, yet I was living the complete opposite.

On August 31st 2017 I was sitting on my timed 15 minute break, scrolling down my Facebook news feed when Stevey J life coach page popped up. I sat in the canteen with my earphones in listening to an Armagh man say

“Start living your EPIC adventure……. SAY YES TO LIFE”

I had been listening to life coaches for many, many years – Tony Robbins, Bob Proctor and Zig Ziggler filled my heart and mind.  I never knew that there were people like this living so close to me.  When I dug deep into what Stevey was all about, I saw that he had been Bob Proctors top consultant, shared the stage with Tony Robbins, put on his own events and lived only 30 minutes away from me! I near wet myself with excitement – I added Stevey on Facebook even though I had never met the man in my life. He accepted my friend request.

I was that excited that I wrote to him privately!

After this conversation I met up with Stevey in his office in Armagh. He wanted to know my situation in life, so I told him. Straight away he offered me a position in his office. This was the moment where I had to choose between

FAITH OR FEAR 

I returned to work and spent my 15 minutes break to write out my notice. I handed it in. This was the moment I made a key decision that brought my purpose to life. I clocked out to clock in on life!

From this decision I have been given the opportunity to be part of TEAM SteveyJ. I have supported and helped out at the Ignite Your Ultimate Power event in Armagh City Hotel and have attended LIVE Your EPIC Adventure Retreat

Through these events I feel like a completely NEW man.

NOW I am more EXCITED about life.

NOW I realise LIFE is wonderful, happiness lies within and no man or woman can ever take that away.

NOW I am living my epic adventure, it is unfolding NATURALLY and EFFORTLESSLY as I say YES to my journey and step out of FEAR and into Faith. I realise there is always more to learn, more to give and more to grow. That is why I am going back to in January to another retreat.

Book April 2018 Retreat

Since the retreat I am NOW living my dream. Passing Through schools with The Super You programme.

PreviousNext

On 1st January 2018 I also had the opportunity to travel on a humanitarian mission to Belarus. I wanted to raise as much as possible for the orphaned children so I organised Jiving nights, set up a crowdfunding page ,helped out with SteveyJ’s “Busk for Belarus” in Armagh and stood on stage delivering a motivational talk to a sell out crowd at “Trust Your Crazy Idea” in Belfast.

As a team we raised £42,000!

PreviousNext