Stop judging, start appreciating

As per the title ‘Stop judging, start appreciating’, off the top of your head, list ten items, things, people or experiences you appreciate as part of your life.

01. ____________________________________________________
02. ____________________________________________________
03. ____________________________________________________
04. ____________________________________________________
05. ____________________________________________________
06. ____________________________________________________
07. ____________________________________________________
08. ____________________________________________________
09. ____________________________________________________
10. ____________________________________________________

Now that you’ve created your list, how could you go about incorporating more gratitude and appreciation into your daily routine as opposed to judging everything as either ‘for you’ or ‘against you’?

Choosing to focus on the good things, however, does not mean we should ignore issues, challenges and problems. On the contrary, when we stop judging and start appreciating the good things we are able to use the positive feeling generated to tackle difficulties.

Wallowing in doom, gloom and despair can sap us of any inclination or desire to push forward with heartfelt projects. So, look at your list and begin to stop judging, start appreciating and enjoy the fact life consists of many things, all of which add something to our experience of it.

Or not. To offer your input on the notion of ‘Stop judging, start appreciating’, 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 Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches an International graduate course, using four characters taken from dramatic texts as coaching clients, to examine various work-related leadership and performance matters.

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

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

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Seeing things as they are

Choosing to see things as we wish them to be is an option but so is seeing things as they are. Each has consequences.

The first may involve viewing life through rose-tinted lenses. The world is ours and our input keeps the world spinning. ‘Seeing things as they are’ offers a more balanced outlook. Some things are good, others bad and the majority probably neutral. And we are a piece of the world, not its owner.

For now, let’s focus on what it means to go about seeing things as they are. In the first instance, we have the possibility to use past experiences as learning points for the present and future. The positive and negative from what has occurred before can be added to our current thinking to provide depth.

When seeing things as they are we have the chance to evaluate various perspectives without worrying about being biased toward any one viewpoint. When a decision eventually needs to be made, we are able to use our impartial judgement coupled with personal objectives aligned with our values.

Seeing things as they are may, at times, require us to accept the discomfort that comes from embracing ‘what is’ rather than ‘what we would like’. Even so, we can take heart from knowing we are not deluding or cheating ourselves as we move along the path of life.

To share your thoughts on the issue of ‘Seeing things as they are’, 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 Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches an International graduate course, using four characters taken from dramatic texts as coaching clients, to examine various work-related leadership and performance matters.

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

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

Seeing minor steps as part of our major leap

Moving on from the previous post here, Raising our game to match our goals, we can consider the idea of seeing minor steps as part of our major leap.

That we are moving forward according to a personal schedule, taking into account individual factors, goes without saying. Additionally, what some people view as ‘minor steps’ are likely to be ‘major leaps’ for others, and vice versa.

We never fully know what is behind the actions of others and, in a similar way, nobody can ever completely understand our own interests and intentions. Nevertheless, movement in the desired direction is worthy of praise and respect. Hence, seeing minor steps as part of our major leap to success.

Without stopping to rest on our laurels, a brief moment of ‘proverbial back-patting’ might be in order if we are seeing minor steps as part of our major leap, before resuming our progress.

To share your input on the notion of seeing minor steps as part of our major leap, 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 Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches an International graduate course, using four characters taken from dramatic texts as coaching clients, to examine various work-related leadership and performance matters.

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

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

Raising our game to match our goals

If we are honest with ourselves, we know we could be doing more in the way of raising our game to match our goals. There are always small steps to be completed as part of raising our game to match our goals.

That we set the goals suggests they are important to us, so it is fair to think we would do all we can to reach them. Raising our game to match our goals might involve making a focused effort as well as managing our habits to better use our time.

Whatever it is we identify in terms of raising our game to match our goals, the work needs to be done by us. Waiting or hoping for others to substitute our lack of input is hardly fair nor likely to take us forward.

Taking a step back to observe where we are with our goals is also a valid exercise in the context of raising our game to match our goals. To do this as part of a coaching conversation, please get in contact.

Before closing this ‘Raising our game to match our goals’ post, let me thank you for spending a few minutes here to read this.

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 Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches an International graduate course, using four characters taken from dramatic texts as coaching clients, to examine various work-related leadership and performance matters.

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

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

Preparing as best as we can

Preparing as best as we can is a motto we might choose to live by in all areas of life. Possibly it is a way of being so embedded in our mindset we don’t even realise we are engaging in it on a daily basis.

Without getting into the question of whether our best is ‘good enough’ – according to whose criteria we could ask – a couple of general points are worth considering.

1) Preparing as best as we can gives us the reassurance of knowing we have done all we are capable of doing to bring about success in the task before us. Appreciating this is surely better than holding onto the thought we should have, and could have, done more.

2) Preparing as best as we can does not guarantee success but it is more probable when we are in top condition. If something is important to us why, in any case, wouldn’t we want to give ourselves the maximum chance of obtaining the desired result?

So, having read this ‘Preparing as best as we can’ post, let me ask you this question: Are you preparing as best as you can for all that you wish to achieve?

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 Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches an International graduate course, using four characters taken from dramatic texts as coaching clients, to examine various work-related leadership and performance matters.

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

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

Losing track of time as we find ourselves

One of the simplest pleasures of life is losing track of time as we find ourselves. Think about those occasions you were in a training room, a learning environment or a wellness centre and felt fully alive.

Giving ourselves space away from the everyday routine to work on our growth is, for many people, a significant experience. And whereas we are normally tied to the clock as we push our way through scheduled tasks, losing track of time as we ‘find ourselves’ in a moment of ‘being’ instead of ‘doing’ is itself a break for us.

Of course, we need not go far to indulge in losing track of time as we find ourselves. A daily practice of meditation, yoga, tai chi or even a brief stroll outdoors is enough to tap into the benefits associated with losing track of time as we find ourselves.

There are many other ways to go about losing track of time as we find ourselves. To share your ideas, please leave a comment below. In the meantime, thanks for connecting and reading this ‘Losing track of time as we find ourselves’ post 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 Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches an International graduate course, using four characters taken from dramatic texts as coaching clients, to examine various work-related leadership and performance matters.

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

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

Letting values guide our actions

A client was talking recently about various opportunities on the horizon. It was evident he had worked hard to put himself into this advantageous position. The problem, now, was to choose a path forward. And the selection process was causing him anguish and frustration.

After exploring the pros and cons of each option, we stepped back from the rational discussion and, in silence, attempted to ‘hear’ what his intuition was telling him. As a family man, and with the wellbeing of his children uppermost in his mind, he quickly came up with what for him was the ‘best’ way ahead.

By letting values guide our actions we are tapping into an important resource, available to us when we give ourselves the time and mental space to use it.

It could have been quicker to go about ‘letting values guide our actions’ right from the start of the conversation. However, as a person accustomed to ‘logical thinking’, it is unlikely he would have accepted the suggestion without first undertaking his ‘usual’ steps in the decision-making process.

The important thing is he found his solution, albeit by ‘letting values guide our actions’.

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 Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches an International graduate course, using four characters taken from dramatic texts as coaching clients, to examine various work-related leadership and performance matters.

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

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