Yes I know it's been quite a long time since I posted, however I feel that during this time I have started to really work out what is important and what is not (for me!) In the past twelve months I have been going through the ups and downs of commencing a business. The anxiety of not have a regular income, convincing people of what I truly believe in, whilst still trying to be a good wife and mum and all that entails.
Business wise - Sana Vita Pty Ltd. My business partner (Simone) and I launched this business after working in the Health Sector and seeing on a daily basis what is contributing to increased levels of stress and as a result extremely poor health outcomes for so many individuals. When we really analysed what is going on everything kept pointing back to extremes and ever increasing lack of resilience as the tipping point for downward spiralling in all areas of individuals lives. Simone has a background and qualifications in nutrition and physical activity whilst I hold qualifications in training and change/knowledge management.
So, with great enthusiasm and confidence we have spent inordinate amounts of hours designing training for both individuals and organisations to regain resilience, ensuring we covered all aspects required (nutrition, mental health, physical activity as well as dealing effectively and personally with change). You see, we know, having been in the health industry that there was nothing out there effectively giving people the tools to take control of their own resilience and therefore claim back their own health and mental health balance. We also know, through actual experience, and what we have observed, that the way forward for the world is to teach these skills to the youth of today to ensure we can slow the ever increasing mental health issues coming to the fore as well as assisting in prevention of chronic diseases for the future.
Turns out that the agonising, constant rewriting of content, consulting with professionals and testing of materials was the easy part!!! As with anyone in this day and age, we actually have to be earning some income, to continue on this path we both totally believe in. So with absolute confidence in our products and knowledge we hit the market in a variety of ways (email, phone, face to face meetings etc). Additionally, knowing our absolute passion was to help youth and highly disadvantaged individuals, we also started trawling through tenders and grant applications that aligned with achieving what we believe we can through this type of education/training. We have written a number of tender and grant applications (quite long and involved with extremely strict time frames for submission) and are currently waiting on outcomes of our applications. Interestingly whilst there are very strict criteria and time frames you must abide by to apply, it appears once submitted you are totally at the mercy of the (in most cases) Government Departments and their extremely slow processes.
So where am I at now? Whilst just about every person I have spoken to agree's that it is critical for people to start looking after or reclaiming their resilience, turns out that most people are not willing to invest in themselves internally or businesses seem to be investing in patching their 'broken' human assets rather than working on the core of the issues they are experiencing. Many businesses are identifying increased absenteeism, increased workcover claims and a significant lowering of staff morale however aren't yet at the point of realising that until they address the 'core' of their issues they will continuously only 'patch' the problems. Similarly with individuals, they are happy to invest in external products (clothing, creams, shoes etc etc) in order to make them feel better but fail to realise that feeling is only fleeting unless the internal is addressed. Yes we have delivered some training and worked with some marginalised individuals all with fantastic outcomes however we are still waiting on funding decisions of the government and for businesses and individuals to realise that investing in this will be the best decision they can make for themselves and their futures. As for our incomes, that is at best extremely unreliable and fairly sparse.
Now don't get me wrong, we are definitely not giving up!!! We have both had to go back to our own training to ensure our resilience remains strong, yes we are extremely frustrated, yes we would both like some assurity financially however our belief in this is so resolute that neither one of us can even contemplate not remaining on this path. Yes we may need to look at alternate employment for short periods of time in order to take some of the financial burden off our families supporting us, but we will continue on this very necessary and we believe needed path!
Personally, during the past 12 months, I have had to adjust to working from home, and whilst that sounds wonderful for most people, what I found was that I had a tendency to work longer hours, there was no separation of business vs personal time (no office off site) and yes flexibility has been and is fantastic, I have been able to schedule my time to make sure I was present for all of the important things in my son's life. But, I started thinking about the quality of my down or 'family' time and found that I wasn't mentally 'present' a lot of the time, constantly having my mind on our start up business and what I need to do. Additionally I have recognised I have spent less and less time with friends, almost living in a hermit state unless I am doing something with my family. Time seems to pass at a extremely rapid pace and I need to start gaining some more balance in my life in this area in particular.
So 2017, here is what I am aiming to achieve! To continue pushing forward with our business and train and educate individuals in how to either regain their resilience or how to remain resilient. Look for opportunities to do some either part time or contract work to help ease the burden financially on my husband (I'm quite excited about this as I would love to brush up my skills and keep them current in many areas). I will also try and make a conscious decision to reconnect better and more consistently with my friends whilst also working on being 'present' not only physically but also mentally when with my family and friends!!!
Life is hard sometimes, it really is true that when you work hard for something you really appreciate it more when you achieve something. My mantra is to believe in myself and never give up but to do it whilst never loosing sight of 'finding the beauty in every day'! Hope you have a wonderful 2017!
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