This is a hard lesson to learn, right?Unless of course, you will learn from reading this blog, rather than your own painful experiences. If you are anything like me, you have been spending a lot of time repairing! The biggest, and probably the only downside of being a chronic spontaneous and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants action-taker, is lack of preparation and the reparation that sometimes needs to happen as a result. So, whilst I absolutely encourage spontaneity, some preparation before racing off like a headless chook, will save you from the potential repair required.

My classic repair story was the result of the spontaneous and totally ill-prepared decision to buy a café, back in the year 2000. Wow, it’s hard to believe that was twenty years ago!! I had been a personal trainer for about ten years until that point, and had just spent the previous couple of years learning and getting inspired about the power of good nutrition. So inspired was I that I wanted to share my new found knowledge and predictable system for optimal health, energy and weight loss. Now, keep in mind, my qualifications and experience in the café and the hospitality industry were limited to eating and drinking out socially. So, clearly, I knew nothing.

What would make me think that buying a café was a logical move to get my vision out to the world? Nothing, other than a driving passion and a spontaneous nature. I did no prior preparation into owning this type of business. I did not consider that already working 80 hours per week in my personal training business would be a barrier. My vision was large, my action was swift, my preparation was non-existent and so my results were no surprise. After two years of working more than 100 hours, seven days per week, I was in around $100,000 debt. The reparation had to begin, and, it took years to pay off the debt, and recover fiscally, physically, mentally and emotionally.

Even today, I’m still learning & repairing. After an eleven year marriage, I find myself single again. Why? There are many reasons, that I am not going to go into in this blog, but the number one cause; lack of preparation. By this I mean; lack of attention, lack of planning, lack of self-awareness and lack of understanding. So, again, I find myself in repair mode. I’m repairing myself to be a better partner for a future relationship. I wish I wasn’t here. I wish I had been more aware and more prepared, but, it is what it is. I now have to deal with the consequences of my lack of preparation.

Please don’t learn from your own bitter experience, although you probably have already in your life. Learn from my painful experiences. I teach people, who are writing a book, to spend time developing a great chapter outline and book plan to save time and stress in the writing stage. As I am always learning, and encourage you to do, spend the time in preparation and planning for all aspects of your life. Be spontaneous, but do it with a plan. There is no doubt, it is better to prepare than to repair.