Life guru Ali Campbell tackles the stress of success

Scottish life guru Ali Campbell has built a reputation as a motivator and adviser to leaders in the fields of sport, business and politics. He says far too many people stake their happiness on external factors, such as cars, suits, yachts and houses. And with the boom bubble firmly popped, he believes it is time that people reassess the way they measure their self-worth.

He said: "A lot of people in the corporate world say to themselves, 'When I'm successful, I'll be happy'. A better way is to say, 'I'll be happy and successful'.

"I know a lot of miserable millionaires. Throw a stone around here and you'll find a lot of wealthy people that are very stressed and thinking about throwing themselves off one of these buildings.

"Is that success?"

Ali draws on hypnotherapy, neuro linguistic programming and sports therapy to help unravel stressed people around the globe. He assists in personal development seminars with figures such as Paul McKenna, and his weight loss programme The Slim Girl's Box of Secrets has aided people such as singer Mica Paris.

He claims the key is to avoid being controlled by external factors, and instead to focus on "being alright" while we are working towards our goals, not after we achieve them.
He said: "You need to stop putting yourself in a place where you're seeking self-worth or trying to avoid losing it.

"When you stop engaging in that dialogue in your head, you've got more energy to achieve those targets. For most people, that's a big shift."

Ali is fully aware of how self-worth can be dominated by outside forces. He was once an 800 metre runner in his country's squad for the Commonwealth Games, but had to give up competing aged 22 after a series of operations.

He said: "It was absolutely the source of my self-worth.

"I remember standing in the middle of a rock concert, thinking 'I'm the fastest person in this room'.

"It was only many years later that I realised what I was doing. I eventually realised that my self-worth had nothing to do with my personal best or my last lap time.

"If I'm not being pulled this and that way by my thoughts, my default setting is feeling alright. It's not the stuff on the outside doesn't exist. It about realising that if you disconnect it from your well-being you're much more able to cope with it."

Some Wharfers are now at a similar crossroads, facing problems with job security, cutbacks on luxuries and longer hours for less reward.

Ali said: "Nowadays, I'm seeing more of the avoidance of pain rather than the pursuit of pleasure. In good times it was all about 'Which Ferrari should I get?' whereas now it's 'Which Ferrari do I want to keep?'.

"The lack of control is a huge factor for a lot of people. You can now lose your job through absolutely no fault of your own because of a decision made by people thousands of miles away who you've never met.

"It's a huge challenge for people that have worked so hard and made so many sacrifices to get to this position."

His approach lies in not discouraging people from seeking material possessions, but in helping them understand the real reason they're doing it.

He said: "What I like to do is to help people find the really powerful hidden goal that the physical thing they want represents. Then it's a much more powerful driver.

"On a map, a hospital is represented by a big blue "H", but that doesn't mean that hospitals look like that.

"If you want a Ferrari, go for it. But why do you want it, and what does that mean?"

While some drive themselves mad piling up pounds, others go crazy trying to lose them. Ali set up the Slim Girl's Box of Secrets to help people achieve a better figure in a less damaging way, providing a support network of peers and experts online and providing CD and DVD tuition on techniques.

He said: "I have always said that your ideal weight is the weight at which you're happy and healthy and have the body to do the things you want to do. There is no number.

"The equation that says, 'When I'm a size zero then I'll be happy' is completely the wrong way round. People eat because of emotion, so it makes more sense to deal with the emotion rather than the food.

"If you create an internal conflict between willpower and cheesecake, cheesecake will always win because it's got emotion on its side.

"It's not about winning the battle. It's about realising there's no battle to be fought."

Ali is now "tuning up" clients from around the world, in locations such as the USA, the Middle East and the UK. He says he only selects clients that are "a good fit", but that he is willing to work with anyone who "wants to make a difference".

He said: "I help them to deal with things. I don't have a magic wand.

"I can't change the global economic climate but I can help them to be okay while they get through it."

Go to alicampbell.com