Being in contact

Being in contact could be summed up by the idea that we are all connected 24/7, attached to our phones or similar devices, glued to the screen displaying this and that.

As much as this definition might be true for some people, I imagine for the majority of us the reality in terms of ‘being in contact’ is somewhat different. In a similar fashion to any aspect of our life, we have the opportunity to choose our level of availability towards those who wish to reach out to us.

Being in contact does not automatically infer being in contact at any hour. If we decide to offer such accessibility, the chances are it is probably to an exclusive group of people, perhaps consisting of loved ones rather than clients or mere online acquaintances.

The benefits of being in contact on our terms are numerous, including in no particular order: a sense of balance, freedom to engage deeply as opposed to superficially, opportunities to operate aligned with priorities plus a feeling of empowerment concerning the management of technology.

To share your input on the issue of being in contact, please leave a comment, whenever you want, 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 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 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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Control actions, let go of outcomes

Wanting to micromanage everything is a trait many of us can recognise, either in ourselves or in those with whom we interact with on a regular basis. And the stress brought about by such behaviour is, in all probability, likewise familiar.

A while back someone suggested a different approach, summed up by the words ‘Control actions, let go of outcomes’. Knowing we are, in any case, unable to always control the outcomes of our actions, it is fair we focus on controlling actions as we let go of outcomes.

Yet what will happen if we do embrace the idea ‘control actions, let go of outcomes’? Personally, I guess I’d become fairly unsettled at first then, hopefully, pleasantly surprised with the resulting saving of time and energy.

What would happen to you? I have no idea but being curious, if you ‘control actions, let go of outcomes’ please share the result.

In the meantime, thanks for reading this ‘Control actions, let go of outcomes’, 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 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 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.

Do one thing

When we choose to do one thing only it can feel as if we are cheating the world. Multitasking seems to be almost a compulsory way of behaving nowadays. That said, we all know the possible dangers of attempting to do everything at once: increased stress, missed deadlines, insufficient attention to details and so forth.

So why don’t we just do one thing at a time, to its completion or natural end then move onto the next item? There will be many reasons for not doing this, some even valid. But perhaps we should ask ourselves to what extent we are happy being busy, especially when busy doesn’t equate to being productive.

Operating with a ‘Do one thing’ mindset could, in the first instance, create hostility in those people who are used to offloading everything to us. Stating and defending our priorities with a polite refusal when necessary won’t win us many friends in the short-term. But then, unless that is our goal, we shouldn’t worry.

To soften the perceived slight, we may offer a convenient moment to deal with their request or, better still, suggest a more suitable person who is in a position to help. Either way, if we let go of feeling guilty and focus on providing alternative solutions things probably won’t be so bad for all concerned.

Rather than getting bogged down with words, I’ll bring this ‘Do one thing’ post to an end. To share your thoughts on the ideas raised here, 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 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 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.

Offering value in addition to a saving

Whenever the ads appear for the Sales linked to various times of the year, it is likely some people wonder whether retailers are offering value in addition to a saving.

Obtaining more of this or that merely because it is cheaper today than yesterday is not always a wise action. Each person will, quite rightly, have his or her outlook on this matter of offering value in addition to a saving, but let’s just mention two generic points here.

1) Sometimes more doesn’t equate to greater satisfaction. With certain foods, the pleasure derives from ‘enjoying a treat’ rather than being able to ‘binge’ whenever the desire hits us. In the Northern Hemisphere, strawberries are for June rather than Christmas, no?

2) Cheap is not always the same as useful. If we buy something only because it is on sale yet we have no use for the item concerned, the manufacturer is hardly offering value in addition to a saving.

Regardless how we look at it, when nobody is offering value in addition to a saying, things are reduced to a question of price and the path to the bottom is, poetically speaking, littered with trash.

Thanks for connecting here today and taking the time to read this ‘Offering value in addition to a saving’ 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 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 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.

Collaborating our way to the top

Much is made of the idea of pooling resources to achieve positive outcomes both in and out of work yet realistically, to what extent are we collaborating our way to the top?

As the adage goes: “ A rising tide lifts all boats”. And, in theory, success for one of us should bring benefits to those who contributed to our efforts and success. Rarely are we operating in a bubble of exclusivity.

Yet collaborating our way to the top is not really concerned with winning at this or that. Possibly the common goals of wellbeing for all plus greater opportunities spread across a larger number of folk are the focus of our attention.

In such instances, it is natural to embrace collaboration as a means to the desired ends. However, imposing a strategy on anyone, in this case, would be going against the spirit of the endeavour and cause friction before success had a chance to be manifested.

But once we have tasted the delights of collaborating our way to the top, it is only natural we would wish to carry on with this practice.

Or maybe not. If you’d like to join the conversation here on the issue of collaborating our way to the top, please don’t hesitate to 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 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 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.

Embracing happiness through each success

There are many ways in which we are able to enjoy our daily routine but embracing happiness through each success is the focus of this post today.

Ideally, we achieve results aligned to heartfelt goals so in a sense embracing happiness through each success is a natural consequence of our actions. Nevertheless, taking a few minutes to consciously celebrate the positive nature of an outcome adds additional meaning to such moments.

Without proverbially patting ourselves on the back for having successfully completed this or that, we risk devaluing the work undertaken to reach such levels of achievements.

Embracing happiness through each success is a way to acknowledge, at least to ourselves, the planning, preparation and implementation of our work for the sake of moving ourselves along the path of life.

But should we, in a similar fashion, take time to reflect on the pain caused in the event of failure? Switching the question around, why shouldn’t we access this learning opportunity created by obtaining less than desired results?

Being open to constant improvements ensures no occasions are lost to us to better ourselves. In this manner, we are never without the possibility to go about embracing happiness through each success given that we are ‘winning’ or certainly ‘learning’ all the time.

To share your input on the issue of embracing happiness through each 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 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 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.

Shining a light on our core

We may decide ‘just enough’ is fine as an approach to life, after all average keeps us in the middle of the pack. And yes, this could indeed be fine for most of us, for most of the time.

But is it how we want to be engaged with and then, in years to come, remembered? Margherita pizza is an option but so is Four Cheeses and a Vegetarian. Without shining a light on our core, or at least understanding we are more than Jane or Joe Average, options available on the menu of life might disappear sooner than we’d like.

Giving ourselves the chance to live our potential, be our best in all we do takes nothing away from anyone else. If we believe the world couldn’t cope with our ‘magnificent self’ aren’t we doing a disservice to its other seven billion plus inhabitants?

So, let’s go about shining a light on our core, and as we do we give others, as it were, permission to shine brightly too.

This is not a coaching session so I won’t hold you accountable to yourself for your activities in connection with shining a light on our core. To explore the idea of being coached by me, feel free to get in contact.

Thanks for being here today and for reading this ‘Shining a light on our core’ post.

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 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 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.