Your life

It is the beginning of Spring. All around me are the burgeoning buds of green as leaves erupt from dead-looking twigs and branches. Small animals look for food on the forest floor now they no longer need to hibernate. It is the time of emergence and new growth, the eternal life coach’s metaphor!

It’s true for many, that as the weather gets warmer and life restarts in nature, many of us feel motivated to begin new things. We begin new businesses, new relationships, new ways of seeing and being. Many of us feel we want to take action and seize the day.

If that’s you, then hunker down with your coach and get started.

What if I want to hibernate?

What if that isn’t you? What if you are the kind of person who just wants to hibernate a little longer? What if you are aware that you will need to wake up soon and start living again, but the world outside still seems grey and frosty.

After all, there is a lot going on in the world right now. It’s an uncertain time.

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When you set a goal, or plan a task or project, it is important to have a clear vision of the outcome. Visualisation, written goals, SMART outcomes and Well-formedness are all aspects of this same principal. Create the future in detail and then have a plan that takes you there.

Many of us who set out with a mission find that the reality is very different from the plans. Problems get in the way, costs spiral, a pandemic breaks out or even a war! It is no wonder that many people give up entirely on their goals because they go off course.

A core part of Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) aa set of are it’s ‘presuppositions’. These are a set of guidelines that practitioners use to help them be more effective in their lives. One of these presuppositions reads:

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On Valentines day, the world goes a little crazy. For this one day everything in the shops turns pink and gets covered in roses. The price of flowers explodes, restaurants rearrange their seeting to look like school examination halls with rows upon rows of tables for two.

Husbands panic. Wives sigh despairingly. Couples of every kind step things up a notch in the bedroom, the kitchen and sometimes all over the house!

There are so many ways that we can show our love and appreciation, and many of these are a million miles away from the traditional Valentines activities.

My advice to couples everywhere is to enjoy the best of it and in particular avoid these Valentine’s day no-nos:

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Many people see success as a goal that you strive for, and then achieve. You tick the success box and you’re made for life. Of course life is a journey. There are many successes along the way – some of them daily. And when you really hit the big time, you still can’t know that it will continue forever.

Many of the most ‘successful’ people in the world struggle with confidence and self-belief for this very reason.

In the third part of my interview with Hereward Kaye, composer and writer, he shares with us one of his most successful moments – the premier of his West End Musical, Moby Dick.

To have a musical that you have co-written performed at the West End and produced by Cameron Mackintosh is unquestionably a successful moment for which many hanker.

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Here’s part 1 of a great ‘Inpiring Success‘ interview with Hereward Kaye.

Hereward is a past member of the Flying Pickets. He wrote a West End Musical, called ‘Moby Dick’ and founded Rok Skool Sussex. In this clip we talk about preparing to perform and dealing with ‘big’ personalities.

Hereward is a charming man who has met and worked with some of the greatest names in music. Names such as Rick Wakeman, Tom Robinson and Cameron Mackintosh. He currently runs Rok Skool Sussex where he teaches bands and individuals to develop their skills and experience in performance.

In future excerpts Hereward will tackle the elusive nature of success. He will talk about upcoming projects and give a real flavour of what it is like to be launching a West End musical.

For further information on Hereward and his work, visit these sites.

www.herewardkaye.co.uk

www.rokskool.co.uk

If Hereward’s story has piqued your interest then why not get involved in his crowdfunding project to publish the full lockdown memoir – ‘The Ship Hits the Fans’, which gives the full inside story of the Moby Dick musical, along with stories of his time working with Rick Wakeman, the Flying Pickets and many others.

Hereward’s campaign, which offers incentives of first editions and invites to the book launch, can be accessed on his crowdfunding page.

Practical time management tips are all over the web and there are some powerful techniques out there. Many of them I have recommended to my clients over the years and still continue to do so. Below this article I will point you in the direction of some of my favourites, but first, here are 3 instant practical time management tips that may help you today!

I guess when someone is looking for help with managing their time, they are sometimes looking for a long-term strategy. But on the other hand they may be firefighting a situation that is occurring right now. If that’s the case you need to read a practical time management article that gives you some immediate insights. So here we go:

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When I first started as a NLP practitioner in 2012, I expected to have a whole range of clients. I thought there would be some amazing clients that I really liked working with. There would be some I found a bit ‘run of the mill’. I braced myself for the possibility that I would even find a few that were downright annoying!

It even seemed likely that I might occasionally have to have some very frank conversations and refer some people on to another practitioner.

To be fair, that has happened, once.

But what I actually found, was what I should have known from the start. Every single one of the people I have worked with over the years has been amazing.

Like the mother of three who runs a successful design business from home and wants to write a book.

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In this video in the Inspiring Success series, I talk to Neil Tomlinson. He is the founder of the drinking water business – Aquapax, rs. Aquapax is the first drinking water company to distribute its product in paper cartons, rather than the ubiquitous plastic bottle. Neil’s story is very much a personal one. Neil cares for environmental issues, and particularly due to his experience of seeing beaches that were once pristine, now covered in ugly plastic waste.

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When Sue Palmer attended a risque party in the 60s the seed of her mission to change children’s education in the United Kingdom was sown. Sue’s passion for learning, inspired by the writing of Sybil Marshall, has led her to be a successful author on education and childhood. Her commitment to a play-centred, Kindergarten style education for young children has become a full-blown campaign, particularly in Scotland.

In this ‘Inspiring Success’ interview we learn about her mission. We get a better understanding of the background of the educational tradition in this country. It’s quite an eye-opener.

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Gary Sutton, media analyst, screen-writer and journalist, writes about a defining moment in his education.

My Catholic primary school had a deserved reputation for success at the 11+ examination. What we did – and what other schools in the area failed to do – was hold mock 11+ exams in the weeks approaching the real thing, so on the day of the proper test, we were seasoned, and unsurprised. Passing the 11+ secured a place at the local grammar school and a path to a successful middle-class future. Failure led to the local secondary modern, skewing one’s opportunities towards a blue-collar job.

I was particularly adept at the kind of thinking required by IQ tests like the 11+. There was little doubt that I would pass. My best friend Pascal was a prodigiously gifted artist and seemed no less intelligent than me. But the nature of the 11+ meant that his chances of passing it were slim.

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