You helped keep me in business Thank you so much

Wow!!!! What a response to my plea to get me out of trouble. I have to admit the emotions got the better of me yesterday after I paid the baliffs and a tear or two did fall from my eyes. So a massive thank you to all the people who helped. Because of you I am still in business doing what I love doing. I will be having a little party to celebrate soon in my bar when I open it at the gym and hopefully you can all come and see the gym you have helped save. The future of Spit n Sawdust looks a lot better than it did. I have so many plans. I want Spit n Sawdust gyms all over the country. I am going to work soooo hard to make sure it happens but first I will make sure this one stays afloat.

I have said over and over again in my blog and to anyone who wants to hear "I love my job and would never want to change it" So why was I up this morning at 5am stressing about it again asking myself why? I am fortunate enough to have a job where I can help people on a daily basis, not just children, adults too. There are so many people who moan about their jobs and hate their jobs and can't wait til Friday weekends are too short and weeks are too long, the boss is a w**ker etc etc... But I have no boss Other than the tax-man and I love going to work. For this I am grateful.

Much of my job, away from the fitness training is convincing people children and adults, they can be everything they want to be. I try to get people to live for the now whilst planning for the future. I believe we are what we believe we are.

If we think we are useless under achievers, nobody likes us, we will never have a decent job, have a nice house, fall in love THEN WE WON'T! If we think we are too fat or too skinny, if we think we are ugly and no-one will ever love us THEN IT'S TRUE. I firmly believe that we aare a product of our thoughts and we convince ourselves that everything is against us so therefore it must be.

But the reverse is also true. If we learn to love ourselves (not in a conceted way) and tell ourselves we important and can achieve anything we want to achieve, can have any job we want as long as we work hard for it then WE WILL. If we decide we are going to be fit and if we are a little overweight or underweight it doesn't matter because it can be fixed and if we love ourselves people are more likely to love us then these things will be true.

This is the reason I am up at 5am on a Wednesday morning. I was up because although:

• I have my own business with only 2 GCSE's and an O'level in art





• I seem to have the respect of the community in Banbury. Hey I was even elected by Banbury people as a Town Councillor





• I have my very own boxing club





• I have a lovely supportive family





• My gym is busier than it has ever been and the boxing club is growing in numbers

I felt let down by one individual who shall remain nameless because it was me I was letting down by over-reacting

There are lots more reasons for me to be happy about but I woke up thinking the world was against me and the gym would eventually fail and all the people who helped me will now hate me. Sometimes at work I will feel let down and totally deflated, and that happened in a class last night. But it shouldn't have. My mind over reacted and it made me wake up at 5am this morning questioning why I do what I do. But the answer is easy....... I love my job.

I spend much of my time talking to kids and sometimes their parents and have some fantastic results. To some of you, convincing a father to take his 15 year old son out and buying him a coke might not mean much, but to me it was like Moses parting the Red Sea. You see normally this man buys his lad a shandy. Hardly a crime and I am sure most dads do and most 15 year olds go out and get drunk. But when I found out I was so upset I had to talk to the father and do my best to convince him that he shouldn't buy his lad a drink because he is a boxer now and if he is a drinker and his opponents are not then it will slow his reactions and he could seriously injured.

You see I don't believe habits that have been passed down the family are always a good thing. The slave trade passed through many generations but I am sure my ancestors weren't happy about it. My mother had a drink problem that has passed through one side of my family and I know thats not a good thing. This is probably why I have a bigger problem with drink than most people and think children should wait a bit longer before hitting the alcohol. They are in the morning of their lives and they have still to live their day.

I am a bit of an idealist at times and expect the impossible. But I am wise enough to understand we are all individuals and I am not always right, that is what makes the world such a wonderful place to live in. But I do believe I can help and know I have helped some people and it's what I live to do now.

I can see that what I have written can be seen as not moving with the times. Maybe I should accept that kids are drinking younger experimenting with drugs younger and having sex younger but I can't. I have seen too many lives wrecked through drinking and drugs and too many teenage pregnancies to turn a blind eye.

I would like to be seen as a builder of dreams for youngsters, not someone known for stopping children having fun.