And breathe…
Where is your breath right now? When I ask my coaching clients this, they’re often a bit perplexed. “My nose? My mouth? I’m not sure what you mean.”
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Have the courage of your convictions
Since they introduced clay courts at our tennis club, it’s much easier to make a line call. If you call the ball out and your opponent disagrees, you can actually go over to the spot where the ball landed and find the mark. Conversation closed.
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It’s ok to ask
Covid-19 has meant many of my clients’ hopes and expectations of career progression have been sabotaged, at least for now. Appraisals have been postponed, promotions have been delayed, people that were going to be moving on or taking a sabbatical aren’t going anywhere which has caused bottlenecks.
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Don’t take the monkey
May I introduce you to Alex. Alex is a finance manager in a tech company. She’s struggling to keep her head above water at the moment as she fields demands from all directions – her boss, her colleagues, her clients, not to mention her team. Alex has a large team and finds her time constantly hijacked by their queries and requests for help.
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Attention now
I find it really difficult to switch off from work. The fact I work from home alot doesn’t help because it’s not easy to remove myself from my work environment, but the main reason is that I think – and worry – about work when I’m not working.
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Mind your language
The other day, I was playing in a group tennis coaching session. There were 6 of us and, at one point, we were playing 3 against 3, the winning side being the first to get to 21 points. My side started off winning several points in a row but then had a losing streak at which point the coach, Brian, piped up saying we’d “regressed”.
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Feed the positive, starve the negative
I was recently introduced to the current affairs magazine, Positive News, which reports on the good things that are happening in the world rather than the bad. For example, the latest issue features rewilding in Sussex, a Canadian doctor prescribing money to low-income patients and people who are creating solutions for challenges facing UK society, such as racial and religious intolerance and young people in need.
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What’s your missing conversation?
When I’m working 1-1 with professionals, particularly professional women, I often discover a Missing Conversation. For example, there was the finance manager who wanted to know her prospects for promotion yet was afraid to have the conversation with her manager because they might think she was being “pushy”.
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Attention out
Sitting in a traffic jam in town the other day, I saw a friend walking past on the pavement close by. I called out to him several times, but he was lost in thought, walking along head down, seemingly unaware of the world around him.
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Why give meditation a second chance
I’ve been meditating almost daily for over 6 years. Now let me qualify that : I assume the position on the sofa first thing every morning then set InsightTimer for 20 minutes – it marks the start and end of my session and every 5 minutes inbetween with a rather lovely singing-bowl sound.
