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The Seed that grew into TIME

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February 05, 2022 Trevor Dias

This post includes many vulnerabilities, which is not easy for me. I have never shared this detail with my closest friends & family. However, one of the areas to continually develop and work on is my mental well-being - so here goes
DISCLAIMER

When writing this blog, I met with a good friend, Paul Taylor (who also happens to be my financial coach and advisor).

He talked about his theory of modern-day evolution, outlining three life stages:

Stage one: 0 - 18 years (survival, safety & connection)
Stage two: 18 - 40 years (individual identity, forging a path in life)
Stage three: 40+ (satisfying our souls, finding our purpose)

This theory resonated with me.

It helped me identify where I currently stood, where I subconsciously planted the idea of TIME and where I wanted to be in the future.

BY MY MID-'30S, I WAS TRULY ENGRAINED IN STAGE TWO

I built a successful career in the corporate world, providing me with unique experiences travelling the world, working with global organisations, and engaging with different cultures.

Naturally, what comes with managing multi-million-pound contracts and meeting deadlines is stress, pressure, anxiety and a feeling I can only describe as constant jet lag.

I was also building a family and in the blink of an eye (quite literally) I had a 4.2 family with a fantastic wife and two kids. However, building a family brings added financial, well-being, and moral responsibilities.

During this stage of my life, I was never worried or concerned.

Grateful for a fulfilling career and family, any financial concerns were non-existent.

But I remember feeling that I was running on a treadmill, set on an incline, and going at a pace that required some attention to keep up.

Unlike gym treadmills, mine had no big STOP button. If I dropped off the pace, it’s spitting me off the back and it’s going to hurt.

"THERE'S A CHANCE THIS ISN’T SUSTAINABLE AND MIGHT NOT END WELL."

Deep down, I think I knew that this was the case. But I was still in stage 2, forging my path in life, paying attention to my financial health and still believing life was a fairly smooth road with no major bumps or roadblocks I couldn’t navigate.

I was under a lot of pressure, but I felt okay.

Yet, life presented me with a roadblock that made me stop in my tracks (what I believe is the most impactful reason for TIME to be created).

My wife & I found out our eldest daughter, Alexa, had a disability that would have a profound impact on her life. My treadmill became faster as I felt a deeper level of stress, anxiety and worry.

My jet-lagged feeling worsened making it impossible to sleep. Realising that she wouldn’t have the same career opportunities as others, it became my duty that the quality of her life would never be limited by her disability.

Neither did I want to pass any financial responsibility onto anyone else when we were no longer around. It was time to face reality and figure out how we could achieve that. I looked at my financial health from a new perspective. I realised it wasn’t money itself that was important to me. It was what money could enable me to do.

UNCOVERING MY PURPOSE IN LIFE

I began brainstorming, researching, and planning to see how I could make it happen. I worked with Paul to build a property investment business which ultimately secured my family’s financial future.

Up until this point in my life, I had never read a book. A 38-year-old man who went through school, college, university and the rest of his life without reading a single book (except reading children's books with my kids). Pretty crazy, right?

I had no choice. I had to read to upskill myself and gain knowledge. This led me to pick up a book, which led me to audiobooks. This made me fall in love with books, and I consumed 76 books (and counting).

This kickstarted something within me. I started to pay close attention to improving my mental health and uncovering my purpose in life.

BEING HEALTHY BY MANAGING MY STRESS AND ANXIETY

Sport and exercise have always played a huge part in my life.

However, I'd yo-yo between health and fitness goals and events. I'd go from incredibly fit and healthy to unfit and not very healthy.

During my daughter's diagnosis, I realised how crucial being healthy was for managing stress and anxiety. It made me reflect on times when I felt in control, capable of handling anything life threw at me and performing at my best.

Some of these times are:

The most successful years of my career
The ability to build our property business in such a short time
The ability to handle the anxiety about my daughter's situation
The ability to be 100% present and attentive to my family

I realised that when my nutrition and training were on point, I’d handle stress, pressure and anxiety with relative ease. On the other hand, I could pinpoint the more challenging periods when I'd be at the opposite end of the health curve.

This was my lightbulb moment. I started my journey by learning how to be fit and healthy consistently. 100% of the time.

I invested in coaches and nutritionists, read books and listened to podcasts, but I couldn't find the silver bullet. So, I returned to education, gained my qualifications and built my philosophy and methodology.

I’ll be honest with you; I’m not going to say I’ve nailed it.

I know this is a lifelong journey of learning and refining my offering. Yet, at this moment in time, I’m consistently fit and healthy and have been for a VERY long time. Along the way, people began to notice a change in me (even though for most of my life, I was in a fit and healthy state anyway).

They started to ask for advice and guidance, and I began to coach and educate them through my philosophy and methodology. A knock-on effect occurred and people would notice them and they would signpost them to me.

And that is when TIME Nutrition & Fitness was born!

To finish, I'd like to show how hard it was to share. The night of the first draft (not publish, just draft)! Anxiety kindly paid a visit, as demonstrated by my overnight sleep scores:
DISCLAIMER