Upgrade Your Life with Life Coach Paul Mort's New Book
South Shields' Paul Mort, twice-voted UK Mastercoach of the Year, shares the tools he used to save his own life with others who are struggling
A decade ago, Paul Mort’s life was completely different. After building a fitness business in Marbella, he struggled to cope with his success and turned to heavy partying, causing his mental health to decline. This only worsened after he moved back to the North East, and in December 2014, he found himself at the cliffs in South Shields with the intention of ending his life. ‘That was a big turning point; I got some help, I stopped drinking, I lost five stone and got off all bipolar and anxiety medication,’ he says.
Now a life coach and mentor, Paul helps clients across the world through his programmes. He’s also just released his much-awaited book, Upgrade: The No-Bullsh*t Guide to Levelling Up Your Life, a guide to creating healthier habits and quitting excuses. The book has been endorsed by big names such as Chris Ramsey and Russell Kane, who described it as ‘the sequenced DNA of happiness’.
‘The book is for the general public who are in a bit of a funk and a bit lost. They’re ambitious but motivation has got up and gone, and they don’t know what to do next,’ explains Paul. ‘It’s for anyone who’s willing to get stuck in really. I’ve written the book in a way that there’s an action, question or prompt at the end of every single chapter. It’s like “okay, you’ve learned this. Now what?” Reading the book probably won’t change anything but reading it and using the tools and strategies will change everything.’
Action is at the heart of all of Paul’s teachings. ‘Talking can be a good thing to get something off your chest but what you end up talking about a lot of the time is your past, which you can’t change,’ he says. ‘You can change the way you look at it, the frame you put it in and what you make it mean, but you can’t actually change the past, so start focusing on the future since it’s the only thing you can change.
‘I get a lot of messages from guys at rock bottom and they’ve all got one thing in common, which is that they don’t know what they want. They don’t have a vision of their future that compels them to do anything,’ he continues. ‘When we’re not feeling great, we focus on what we don’t want and how we don’t want to feel. Whatever you focus on, you get more of. That means creating some goals and outcomes you want to work towards, whether that’s in your career, business or personal life. If we have something we want and we create a plan to go after it, that’s what gives us momentum and a sense of purpose.’
Paul also has a podcast, on which he’s interviewed Tyson Fury, Ant Middleton and Vicky Pattison. His no-nonsense approach to discussing mental health has been both praised and criticised. ‘I realise that sometimes I say things that are a bit inflammatory, that people don’t agree with. I’m not saying these things to get reactions, I’m saying them because my overall goal is to get people to think differently. If you think differently, you can start to change the way you behave – but lots of people try and do it the other way around.
‘It is quite a serious thing but I’m able to use a bit of dark humour to talk about it. I think when men talk about their mental health, they get mollycoddled a bit. Being a Northern bloke, that didn’t work for me and I don’t think it works for a lot of people, so the way that I talk about it in such a frank, honest and upfront way, people up here tend to appreciate that.’
What feels best to Paul is when people tell him his free advice has helped them, from his daily emails and social media posts to his self-published downloadable books. ‘There’s a saying in business “people who don’t pay don’t pay attention”. When you buy something, you value it so you tend to do the work. With the free books, when people tell me they used something in it and it changed their life, that really has an impact on me.’
Despite such amazing achievements, Paul still can’t quite believe his success: ‘In 2021, I did a show at the Tyne Theatre and we sold it out. That was the moment where I thought “wow there’s 1,300 people here in Newcastle on a Friday night to hear me talk about mental health!”’
Shop the book at harpercollins.co.uk and find Paul’s programs and podcast at paulmort.uk.
