Hey Folks, I’ve been teasing a status update for a while in my social media posts and the time has finally come to share what I’ve been up to and where I’m going with this crazy adventure. I want to focus on the positives for me and potentially YOU, but in the spirit of balance I want to be open and honest about my challenges also, as I believe there’s a great opportunity for us both to learn from that as well. Opening up on this level still presents a massive challenge to me and my ego, but this provides a great chance to practice what I preach.. so thank you for the opportunity!
FOLLOWING THE HEART
Today I find myself living alone for the first time in my 30 years, yet in some ways I’ve never felt more connected, having the support and love from both an amazing local community and friends so close that they feel like family from all over the world. The tremendous amount of good will I’ve found and feel, I believe is the result of really living from the heart these past years and following my intuition and intention to help and serve others and grow myself.
Being heart-centred is something that’s always greatly lauded by eastern mystics and western self-help gurus, and that’s all well and good, but I think a greater emphasis could be put on what comes before that (or perhaps, after). And the info is there, whether you look at a Western psychological theory like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, or an Eastern concept like the Chakras, they do build up from a bottom of security and safety, to a place of self actualisation and spirituality.
Image © SequenceWiz.com
A CIRCULAR PATH?
Perhaps there’s an issue in the linear nature of the concepts I mentioned, as paths or understandings about life. As if a person could ever reach the summit and just be ‘done’. Maybe that’s true enlightenment.. but for most of us it could be more useful to look at it in a cyclical way - once you get to the top of feeling connection and getting the bigger picture, you come back to the beginning to address new challenges at the base of the pyramid / root with the new knowledge you just gained from the journey ascending.
This perspective of cycles of growth and development fits nicely with another big influence of mine, Joseph Campbell’s ‘hero’s journey’ or ‘monomyth’. This is something a lot of your favourite childhood stories are based on in some form or another - Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of The Rings, all different masks/masques of the same Hero’s Journey. The initially reluctant hero takes on and defeats ‘the unknown’, gains knowledge or power, then returns to share that with others, becoming stronger for his next journey and repeat.
As I mentioned, I’ve been going through a really challenging time in life, which has caused me to really go within to try and uncover an understanding of what’s going on. Seeing where I’m at as just another cycle of development has really given me something to hold onto. Having brought my focus to places of actualising myself, living in my most authentic manner possible, I now come back full circle to the most basic and fundamental areas of life. Improving my baseline health and wellbeing and creating some financial security - and I’ll outline how I mean to do that.
THE NEXT STEPS
I’ve followed my dreams in the faith that if one follows their heart with good intention, the rest will fall into place. And while many things have, faith alone isn’t making the practical elements of life do the same. That’s going to take work, and this is where I’m at. Having last week begun physical training with more intensity than I have in a long time at Wildfoot, and an appointment set to optimise my nutritional balance with April Alexandra I aim to level-up my body and mind, and use the good momentum from that carry on into Causeway Living.
The new energy and focus I’ll generate from a more optimised lifestyle, I intend on putting into my business, Causeway Living. I’m one of the wealthiest people I know in some ways; receiving a lot of love, having a healthy body and incredible life experiences, fulfilling my intentions to make a big difference to the lives of others. In other ways I can count myself amongst the least wealthy.. after having invested heavily in professional qualifications and my personal development the past few years. In order to sustain what I’m doing, I need to expand my business to survive financially.
Causeway Living has been officially running since September 2016 but has gone through several evolutions and shifts of focus already - the latest being almost exactly 1 year ago, May 2017. This was the beginning of new trainings and travels in California, the Netherlands and Poland, plus offering my own outdoor events, retreats and workshops focusing on three pillars of strength: The Cold, The Wild, The Others. I’m now going to broaden that to include those offerings to the business world as well - corporate team building, wellness in the workplace and more, but you’ll still have the same Causeway Living you know and love too, albeit with minor changes.
COOL NEW STUFF
So what about those minor changes? Let’s start with a great one coming up later this year - there’s going to be a totally FREE version of my Six Week Shift online course! I’ve taken it offline at the moment while I work on my own routine and make some tweaks, changes and re-record the videos. I’ll be offering one-to-one coaching through the course content as a paid service, and for those who get all they need, it’s going to be possible to donate towards the work I’m doing and offering for free on Patreon. What is Patreon? It’s an online platform where content creators (like musicians or vloggers) can get paid for things they’re already doing for free.
As I’ll be giving a version of Six Week Shift away for free, and continuing as ever to offer Dash & Splash (my weekly community event on Sundays in Bangor, N.Ireland) for free, Patreon is the perfect platform to give those a chance who want to contribute as much or as little as they like to the time and effort it takes to do this, whilst also leaving totally free for those either can’t afford or don’t want to donate. I’m also going to add some perks to the Patreon page, so that people donating a certain amount will get extra bonuses as patrons of Causeway Living. Maybe a monthly ice-bath session or online group chat - I may do a poll to see what you’d value most!
This is far from all of the new developments and offerings I have in mind - I plan to announce full-day Wim Hof Method workshops in the Mourne Mountains and a WHM Fundamentals Workshop in Galway this July. I still have some work to put into arranging and organising both of these and hope to be able to announce dates by end of next week or two. I’ll be doing my first WHM Workshop in Swords, north Dublin June 10th which I also hope to repeat on a semi-regular basis, and I’ll be working on some cool collaborations with the incredible Wildfoot gym for the near future as well.
FINDING BALANCE
With increased time going into a more practical, business-oriented focus to balance out the free events and offerings, one sacrifice I’ll have to make is my social media output. I really enjoy sharing my journey in so much detail, but I think only those in a similar industry that I’ve talked to seem to appreciate the amount of time and dedication that goes into documenting, writing from the heart, sharing value, video editing and posting something most days each and every week. Of course I’ll still put out original videos from Dash & Splash each week and any events like Wim Hof Method Workshops and keep the rest spontaneous and less time intensive.
If you really enjoy and get a lot out of the social media content, I’m going to put some goals on my Patreon account to help collectively assure I commit to a certain amount of writing or if we hit a big enough goal, even a regular vlog. I would LOVE to do more like this and truly hope in time I can shift focus back towards more content creation. If workshops and corporate events pick up in the coming months with my focused effort in that area, I would be very happy to shift back towards more video content and writing and sharing the adventures that got me this far in the first place.
Whilst posting sea swims, outdoor training videos and motivational writing was excellent to get from point B to point C in my journey, to simply continue doing so won’t get me to the point D of a good business foundation and finding more security. Once I can pick my head up and look on from metaphorical ‘point D’, perhaps going back to releasing a lot of great online content as a priority (but even bigger and better with cool things like drone footage in the mountains) will be the perfect vehicle to arrive at point E.. but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it (or jump off it into ice cold water with a GoPro strapped to my head for Instagram).
HOW YOU CAN HELP
If you’ve read this far, my sincere gratitude goes out to you and I’ll be bold enough to assume that you really care about me, about Causeway Living and what I’m trying to do with this company. If you want to be part of this rising tide to lift all ships, there are a number of ways you can do so, be if from near or afar. The best of which definitely is to support the workshops I put on, with Dublin and Belfast dates already available the intention set for Galway too. This way you not only get to back my endeavours, but you get to take away what I’ve seen with my own eyes can be life-changing skills and experiences, and share that positivity with those closest to you.
Another massive help could be something as simple as name-dropping Causeway Living to your employer, especially if they have budget for staff wellbeing or team-building events. If you own a business and want to get your staff bonding and better able to regulate stress and as a result become more efficient and effective; get in touch and I will make that happen. Own a gym or studio and think you could help drum up interest in your local area for a workshop? Let’s do it! Other than that, every little helps over on www.Patreon.com/CausewayLiving and if you’d love to donate but don’t have the funds, just ‘liking’ or sharing my online content on social media really helps too.
A huge thank you and lots of love your way if you’ve read this far. I hope you know how much I appreciate your support. It’s this human kindness and connection that’s taken me this far, and an equally huge thanks in advance for your continued support and understanding as I really aim to level-up Causeway Living and prove to the world that you can live your passion if you just set a good intention from the heart, put the effort in and offer people a lot of value.
Join me and let’s save the world together, one person at a time!