Have you ever been smashed in the guts so hard by life that you thought the path you are on just isn't worth the effort?

2007 I was there.

Everything I had worked for over the previous 5 years was ripped away from me.

Half because Something I thought was stable turn out to be built on quick sand. I was so angry with the builder...

But looking back I saw that help is one of the hardest things to ask for and most of the time, we have no idea what someone else is going through.

The other half, an incredibly bitter woman scammed me out of a contract and then went on to defraud the company that owned the contract she worked on.

If you had spoken to me at the time I was in a flat out panic and would have likely said much less kind things.

But now I know that the people that lash out, are unusually the ones who feel most threatened and vulnerable.

Looking back you always iron things out though. Your current position always look inevitable.

The pain goes, the lessons remain.

Like a completed dot to dot, it's hard to see it was once a complete mess.

Anyway, it took two years to battle back from there. 2010, an amazing Christmas where my wife Christina and I celebrated.

Not just our grit in recovering, not just our soon to arrive first daughter but a much stronger relationship.

We returned from France early January to be told the business I had built, 13 hours per day for two years. Was closing in 2 months.

I knew I could take a punch in the stomach this time. I learned the hard way again that stability is an illusions and that people will always look after themselves first- and that is what they are supposed to do. There is always a perspective that shows you they had no choice. Find it and you'll move on quicker and have much less resentment in your life.

I've seen many people skip the life of doing what they love in order to have the stability of employment.

That stability, I promise you, is 100% illusion. The building, the infrastructure, your position. They are all on a knife edge.

Please don't waste your life based on the myth of stability.

So I opened up absolute health in 2011, less stability than ever, less security, less financial freedom, more stress - happier than ever.

The captain of my ship.

From there the mistakes came in think and fast:

I carpeted a railway arch to make it look commercial. Which in hindsight was insane.

I raced to the bottom on prices and filled the gym with people who just didn't care and paid a fortune in kit repairs.

I changed the prices over night and lost half my members. The scariest and dumbest thing I've ever done, and I've done some dumb stuff.

I tried to help people who were rude, didn't pay on time, were ungrateful for the help and constantly complained.

But at the same time, I've had the help of some amazing people.

I've met some amazing people.

I've had the chance to influence or support thousands of people with my books and talking at Tedx, and through personal training or just conversations about the things I'm passionate about.

Every mistake and set back provides a lesson that had I learned later would have cost me so much more.

and I've learned,

that one of the easiest things to do while you're pressing forward, is forget to look back and see how far you've come.

I've learned that life will punch you in the stomach over and over, more are coming I know it.

So if you've just been punched and things are feeling dark as you're led on the canvass. Know that soon this will be dots on a beautiful picture that you'll look back on without the aching pain.

If you discard all of the above and take nothing from it, take this.

When you look back, don't forget, that when you were knocked down and winded. It wasn't just mental strength that picked you up.

There we people there too, people who have your back.

And the chances are, that some of them are being punched in the stomach too. So while you're charging forwards. As well as looking back to gain some perspective.

Take a moment to appreciate where you are and support and enjoy the people that helped to get you there.

I won't tag people but if you've been there in the last 10 years, you've helped.

Thank you, I appreciate you.

Ed Ley

Ps this was the end of my Uk chapter and the beginning of seeking a new adventure in Denmark. It was amazing to look back on this story so I though I would share it here.