Getting to know the man behind the extreme challenges and successful business careers.
Nathan Farrugia is an entrepreneur, author, and a business coach with degrees in healthcare and business, an avid adventurer, philanthropist, husband, and father. We sat down with Nathan to talk to him about motivation, self-discovery and how someone can untap his/her potential.
Have you always been into training? How did the idea of joining the Iron Man challenge come about?
I grew up playing team sports, but time and age meant I had to shift to sports I can do on my own terms. Ironman is just a commercial brand like many others but has come to signify tough challenges. I’ve done a few but now much prefer smaller fewer commercial events to test my physical and mental limits. Being out in nature, like an XTERRA challenge, is a motivator to be consistent in my training, but actually I love to train as much as racing 🙂
You’re always looking for the next extreme challenge. Why do you do it?
I am curious to see how far out of my comfort zone I can go. It’s beyond that line that I discover more about myself, good and bad.
There’s a lot that goes on behind-the-scenes, mentally, with these challenges and training. How do you take care of your mental health?
By accepting the things, I cannot change, (like injuries, age, and time limitations) and then setting realistic expectations with those in mind. Quite simple, really. On the day, my focus is then on enjoyment and the experience rather than ‘how fast’ I can go.
Apart from your achievements as an athlete, you have also done and is still doing, a great deal in the business world. How does your experience with sports help you with your business goals?
I don’t really separate the two from a mindset perspective – the performance mindset works across all aspects of life. Having said that, I developed much of my leadership skill and style through leading sports teams, so sports played an important part of my early career in business. Knowing very clearly that you cannot win alone, is key to running any businesses. You also need to accept failure and learn from mistakes, like you would be leading a basketball team as well as a company.
How did Up Your Level come about? What is the main goal of UP?
Our goal is to raise the game of leaders and executives through tried and tested methodologies, creating powerful habits and understanding how to build trust, relationships and forming winning teams. That’s the spiel… but essentially, we are great at asking uncomfortable questions that executives need to be asked, for them to take the tough decisions and unlock their potential.
How can someone untap his/her potential?
Self-awareness is the starting point, followed by a journey of self-discovery hopefully ending in Mastery and self-actualization – to do that many need the help of an experienced coach to guide, mentor or act as a sounding board. The team at UP have done all of that ourselves and are on our own personal journey, so we know it works!
Why is it so important to get out of your comfort zone and how do you actually get out of it?
Overcoming self-limiting beliefs is the only way to get out of our comfort zone, as this is the main block to achieving our hopes and dreams. How is not simple to answer, and it comes through the journey I mentioned above.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone who is not feeling his/herself lately?
Get help – whether it’s mental health or coaching for your business, don’t go through it alone.
