Time to think

I was working with a fairly new client earlier this week, when suddenly he said: "I think I've just solved my own problem!" And he had. He was grappling with a common issue - work-life balance, and how to find time for himself, his interests and friends, alongside the time needed for work and family. He realised he needed to prioritise how he wanted to spend his 'own' time, identify the time available to him, and then commit to using that time effectively through discussion with his partner and planning ahead.

It's a very rewarding thing to witness the dawning that a client is finding the solutions to his or her current situation. Life coaching is all about that - empowering people to draw on their own resources to make positive changes.

And what a resourceful lot we humans are! Working with a good Life Coach can give just the motivation, space and encouragement, to discover how to overcome our challenges and achieve our goals.

Sometimes I find clients need ideas from me for possible ways forward. Often, though, all we need is to develop the confidence that we can find our own solutions, time to simply think them through, and someone to really listen and respond. I know many of my clients find sessions ideal opportunities to devote time to thinking about themselves and coming up with answers to their problems.

A great book that explains the need for time and space to think, and the fantastic solutions that can result, is Nancy Kline's 'Time to Think'. It's an ideal resource for anyone who's interested in personal development. It's also a great guide for organisations to help them get the most out of their people.

OK - I need to give myself some time to think now.....about my website and ideas for new programmes.

Teleseminars, R & R and birthdays...

What a lot's happened in the last week.....

I led another successful teleseminar with a group of great people, this time focusing on building self confidence. As well as covering lots of tips about how to have greater self-esteem and self-belief, we had some fascinating discussion, with some participants realising things about themselves that had perhaps been unknown to them before. Such as the man who discovered that he had suffered from a lack of praise throughout his childhood leaving him with a negative view of himself which he still struggles with in his mid forties. The great thing is, he now knows he can change this if he chooses and has some strategies to help him on his way. Some of the participants had attended several of my previous teleseminars. We even had some lovely praise from one person to another on the call noting the positive change she'd recognised in him since the first teleseminar they took part in.

What a lovely, and fascinating group of people I have the privilege to work with!

Then at the weekend, I went away for a couple of days of 'R &R' with my husband to recharge our batteries. Yes, we left our delightful, but wearing children behind and enjoyed long sleeps, good food (cooked by someone else - even better), and explored the beautiful countryside around us. Very refreshing.....and still lovely to come back to our children feeling more energised. It's great to take some time out to look after ourselves. Contrary to the opinion of some of us, it isn't being selfish - simply attending to our own needs so we are better able to attend again to our responsibilities and the needs of others.

And this week it was my birthday, which I celebrated with home-made cards from the children, and a meal arranged by my husband. Lovely!

Birthdays are interesting, aren't they? We can look forward to them in eager anticipation of nice post, perhaps presents or treats, and maybe a day of feeling a bit special. Equally, as adults we can dread them because they mark our ageing - another year notched up, along with perhaps more wrinkles or more grey hair, or whatever. And I share these concerns. But my sister and I were discussing these negative aspects of birthdays and I mentioned the 'flip side' to all this. Along with age, we can enjoy greater wisdom, more experiences to enjoy, often more people in our lives to appreciate, and we can celebrate all the things we've achieved along the way.

For me, I can't help feeling that the run up to a birthday can be difficult - especially if approaching a significant birthday, with all the emotions and expectations attached to it. Yet once a birthday is there we can just get on with enjoying life again, and perhaps realising that being that age can feel pretty good. In fact many of us often feel far younger than our actual age - how fabulous is that?

So I'm off to take another look at the lovely flowers I received for my birthday and inhale their delightful scent. And I'm going to count my blessings that I am a year older and look forward to all the great things that I can still achieve in my life.

Do you have any comments on this post? If you do, please let me know by clicking on the link below - it would be great to hear them!

Moving chairs

I gave a workshop on Life Coaching yesterday and ended up being a bit of a furniture mover as well as speaker! So many people turned up for the talk that I had to bring in some extra chairs to accommodate everyone.

It's fascinating to witness the current interest in life coaching. More and more people want to find out what it is and how it could benefit them. I'm sure this is to do with us all having such busy and stressful lives, without the support systems we used to have - mum or gran just down the road or in the same town. We desperately want our lives to be happier and more fulfilling, yet we feel to have neither the time to make changes for the better, nor the ready support that would help us choose an appropriate course of action.

Life coaching gives the opportunity to take a step back and really think about our lives and where we're going. It offers time and space to assess how close our life is to the one we really want to live. A good life coach gives support, practical ideas and encouragement to help us find the best way ahead and commit to action.

Some of those at yesterday's talk were motivated to take their first steps to improve their work-life balance, others to improve their financial position, and some to get on top of their stress and confidence. The buzz during and after the workshop was fantastic - many realising, for the first time in a long time, how they could now really change their life for the better.

I received some great feedback from those present from "inspirational" to "excellent speaker" to "invigorating" . One person even asked "Please can you come and live with me?" (I presume she meant in terms of helping her sort out her life, rather than as a proposition!)

I know I'm biased (in fact, dreadfully so) but I do believe that the more people who know about life coaching and what it can do to help get out of our 'stuckness' or sense of overwhelm about the things we want to change, the better.

After all, as Thomas Edison once said: "If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves."

OK - I'm off now to build my arm muscles in preparation for some more chair-moving for my next talk!

What an amazing world!

Did you see the recent eclipse of the moon?

I was driving back from a workshop I'd been leading and noticed the strange partial covering of the moon. Focusing on driving became difficult as I kept wanting to sneak a look at the way the moon was ever so gradually becoming concealed by the shadow of the earth. On returning home I spent the next half hour or so watching with fascination as the light of the moon was obliterated and the world became momentarily dark.

Our world offers endless delights for our senses.

Yet I wonder how many of us stop to enjoy them? We hear the first cries of a newly-hatched bird, see the sunlight sparkling on ruffled water, taste the sweet crispness of a freshly-picked apple, touch the velvet smoothness of a rose in full bloom. Do we really experience them in all their beauty?

Sometimes it takes the clarity and enthusiasm of a child to help us really enjoy what's before our very eyes. My six year old summed up his day, following time spent playing, chatting, and delighting in his new-found skill of cycling without stabilisers, by saying: "It has been a good day!"

Yes it had, though I'm not sure I had fully appreciated that fact until he drew it to my attention.

You know, we can let the pressures of the world weigh us down. Or we can choose to look for all that's good about our life and the world - the classic 'glass half full' approach. It's your choice!

As Carlos Castaneda once said: "We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."