Being aware of possible challenges before us

 

Being aware of possible challenges before us need not, in any case, stop us from proceeding with our efforts to be the best we can be.

Carrying an element of attention along with us can ensure our endeavours are undertaken with sufficient caution in terms of us being aware of possible challenges before us. We may decide to avoid certain difficulties and tackle others. Our decision will be based on a number of factors including how confident we feel in ourselves and our abilities to overcome this or that.

As with most things in life, we need to distinguish between what is within our capabilities to be dealt with successfully and what, based on our knowledge, common sense, or intuition, is beyond us. Being aware of possible challenges before us is perhaps the first step but not the last.

The path we choose to walk as we attempt to live our potential is personal, as is the responsibility for decisions made along the way. Right now, I wonder to what extent we are being aware of possible challenges before us?

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM MCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of Milan, Italy, Brian taught a postgraduate course, using four characters taken from dramatic texts as coaching clients, to examine various work-related performance matters.

Brian’s goal is to support through coaching, training and writing all who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.

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Focusing effort on specific areas of development

We may wish to grow ‘generally speaking’, yet focusing effort on specific areas of development offers us a greater probability of success.

The idea of focusing effort on specific areas of development is perhaps linked to the way we would approach a garden, vegetable patch or allotment – the modern day British equivalent of the victory garden.

Taking the space before us as one large plot could mean we over tend certain parts whilst giving insufficient attention to others. Life is pretty much the same. Knowing when to step in and when to stand aside is a key skill to apply in the fields (pun intended) of personal and professional development.

Focusing effort on specific areas of development can act as a catalyst for such noted benefits across the whole spectrum. The work we give to receiving technical knowledge might be paid back when we need to apply the newly acquired know-how in other areas. Learning for one specific area, therefore, helps us in subsequent endeavours.

The mental discipline of focusing effort on specific areas of development rather than scattering time and energy as a ‘hit and miss’ basis is itself a talent worthy of enhancement. Being able to direct our input with pinpoint precision gives us the chance to use our resume for the best effect.

Thanks for reading this post today. If you’d like to share your input on the issue of focusing effort on specific areas of development, please leave a comment below.

Kindest regards.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM MCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of Milan, Italy, Brian taught a postgraduate course, using four characters taken from dramatic texts as coaching clients, to examine various work-related performance matters.

Brian’s goal is to support through coaching, training and writing all who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.

How comfortable are we in the comfort zone?

Yes, I do like asking questions and, by the fact you are here, I guess you like being asked them. So, let’s explore one in the shape of “How comfortable are we in the comfort zone?”

To begin, we might react by arguing we are not in the comfort zone. On many levels, this may be true but there is usually an area of life in which we prefer to ‘play small’, allow things to drift, accept the status quo and so forth.

It is conceivable we are pushing ourselves in other parts of our life at the same time. Even so, that other area keeps us attached to the comfort zone.

Recently a client was pondering the potential benefits of a new position at work. The salary increase was significant. Nonetheless, he was reluctant to commit to the promotion for fear of upsetting his family routine.

Once he began looking at the situation from various perspectives, he realized the habits he was so concerned to maintain were actually holding all the family back. His growing children were fed up with ‘the same old family weekend activities’ and both he and his wife longed for time away together for a change.

The image of the family routine had taken over from the reality. With that issue in the open, he was better able to understand the promotion would offer all the family far more opportunities than problems, plus the change could be the catalyst to giving his children more freedom as per their wishes.

So, how comfortable are we in the comfort zone? To discuss this question in the form of a complimentary coaching conversation, via Skype or Google+ hangout, please get in touch.

Kindest regards.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM MCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of Milan, Italy, Brian taught a postgraduate course, using four characters taken from dramatic texts as coaching clients, to examine various work-related performance matters.

Brian’s goal is to support through coaching, training and writing all who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.

Remembering yesterday for the benefit of today

Without wallowing in the past or getting caught up in the revival scene, it can be valid on occasions to go about remembering yesterday for the benefit of today.

By ‘yesterday’ we may wish to look back beyond the last twenty-four hours to a period of time worthy of investigation and remembrance.

Our ‘Golden Age’ could be one in which we were engaged in challenging activities yet felt tremendously alive.

Then again there may be valuable input from recalling a moment in our personal history in which things were not so good. Remembering yesterday for the benefit of today would include taking insight and learning also from such negative moments in our personal history.

Making comparisons between ‘where we were’ and ‘where we are’ can open our eyes to our actual situation. Appreciating what we have nowadays, be it loved ones around us, possessions, career opportunities or whatever, may well be the result of a focused instance of remembering yesterday for the benefit of today.

Regardless of how you feel towards the issue of remembering yesterday for the benefit of today, thanks for taking a few moments to read this post.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM MCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of Milan, Italy, Brian taught a postgraduate course, using four characters taken from dramatic texts as coaching clients, to examine various work-related performance matters.

Brian’s goal is to support through coaching, training and writing all who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.

Is the ladder we are climbing really that of success?

Once the initial enthusiasm of a new venture has lost its shine and things no longer feel fun, it is worth asking ourselves a key question: Is the ladder we are climbing really that of success?

It is a question ideally pondered sooner rather than later but that may not always be possible. Knowing what we mean by ‘success’ helps greatly in understanding our position in addition to the direction we are moving in, also as we enquire ‘Is the ladder we are climbing really that of success?’

From the perspective of work, the explanation requires the input of various factors. We might wish to consider the validity of alternative activities, financial concerns and ongoing professional commitments. After all, we are not always in a position to be able to change ladders with immediate effect.

With the details available from our investigations, however, options and previously unseen choices may become evident to us. ‘Is the ladder we are climbing really that of success?’ in such instances becomes irrelevant as we begin to comprehend we will reach success no matter which ladder we use to get there.

The proverbial ladder is merely an instrument to assist us and should not be confused with success itself. Or not.

To join the conversation here and share your thoughts on the enquiry ‘Is the ladder we are climbing really that of success?’ please leave a comment below.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM MCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of Milan, Italy, Brian taught a postgraduate course, using four characters taken from dramatic texts as coaching clients, to examine various work-related performance matters.

Brian’s goal is to support through coaching, training and writing all who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.

Appreciating the spectacle nature offers us

Appreciating the spectacle nature offers us is a free activity providing an incredible return. There are few sights more inspiring than the sky splashed with colour or the waves breaking against the shore.

Giving ourselves the time to engage in appreciating the spectacle nature offers us is also a gift we all surely deserve on occasions. And regular indulgence will, unlike other treats, be endlessly advantageous to us too.

Heightened imagination, creativity and a sense of being part of this wonderful world are just a few of the benefits we receive as we go about appreciating the spectacle nature offers us.

On the other hand, certain actions – polluting the sea with plastic, fracking and unregulated building, for example – are ways we destroy the chances for future generations of appreciating the spectacle nature offers us. Awareness of our actions would be a good first step to changing our ‘less charming’ habits.

But then you already know such things and so I will stop now so we can continue going about appreciating the spectacle nature offers us.

Kindest regards and thanks for being here today.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM MCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of Milan, Italy, Brian taught a postgraduate course, using four characters taken from dramatic texts as coaching clients, to examine various work-related performance matters.

Brian’s goal is to support through coaching, training and writing all who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.

What is stopping us from letting go of unnecessary baggage?

Coaching clients often appreciate tough questions and, hopefully, you too will find benefit from pondering this one: What is stopping us from letting go of unnecessary baggage?

We might be carrying around with us any or all of the following items:

• Out-dated beliefs about ourselves;
• Negative input from people no longer part of our life;
• Unfair comparisons regarding ourselves and others;
• No longer valid opinions about religion, politics and so on;
• Habits out of sync with our life today;
• Acquaintances who represent our past instead of our present.

What is stopping us from letting go of this unnecessary baggage? Perhaps our answer can be found among the list here:

• Fear of fully embracing who we are today;
• Concerns about offending folk even if they are no longer part of our life;
• Our identity is linked to the baggage, causing doubts about our ability to survive without it;
• Uncertainty as to whether they are truly items of unnecessary baggage.

Attempting to release everything immediately is a strategy. We could also implement a step-by-step approach and give up each item/thought/idea one at a time, starting with the most obviously redundant piece of baggage.

It takes time, however, to adjust to life without such things but by starting today we give ourselves the chance to make the adjustment sooner rather than later. So, what is stopping us from letting go of unnecessary baggage?

Thanks for being here and please don’t hesitate to share your input on the matter of ‘What is stopping us from letting go of unnecessary baggage?’ by leaving a comment below.

Kindest regards.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM MCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of Milan, Italy, Brian taught a postgraduate course, using four characters taken from dramatic texts as coaching clients, to examine various work-related performance matters.

Brian’s goal is to support through coaching, training and writing all who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.