John's Blog

  I do what I do because I want you to have three things in your life: 1. I want you to have a sense of being alive, 2. I want you to have a sense of who you really are, 3. When you combine the first 2, you will have a sense of meaning for your life. I want you to fulfil that call. These are probably not the things that you want for yourself, maybe you've never even given a thought to these things. But... I do. Every day. Every day, I research, plan and prepare potential connective paths of discovery that you could take to ... well, to meet you, to live you, to be fully you. No, I don't care if you remember my name or recognize my face on the street, because it's not about me and my development. It is, however, about your growth. At best, all I can offer you is a single piece to the puzzle you call your life. That's the best anyone can do - offer you pieces, the rest is up to you. Your only thought should be that you did it, that you sculpted your potential and that you...

My mantra for 2020: focus, momentum and mastery! Don't be misled - there is no such thing as multi-tasking, especially when it comes to pursuing your dreams. Multi-tasking dilutes your energy and resources making you less efficient and less effective.  Your dreams deserve laser-like focus, which translates into drama-ignoring commitment and relentless dedication to achieving what's needed today! The law of inertia tells us that a moving object needs less energy to keep it moving. Starting the process is tough! Suck it up buttercup ... create the momentum, get that goal rolling now and the rest will be easier!  Neither focus nor momentum has any value if you do a half-ass job! It's not good enough to "do your best!" Your dreams need ... no .... demand excellence! Become the best at what you have to offer and the best will be returned to you as an offering!!!  Package focus, momentum and mastery as part of your motivational drive this year and you...

As part of accredited training, each person on course gets one-on-one feedback. In this feedback, I usually ask people at the start if they think they are competent in the skills learned. Normally, the response falls in one of two categories. Some people are confidant of their ability and say yes. Some people are hesitant, and squeeze a yes or a maybe out.  

Personal Development Skill: Team Work There is no doubt that the single most important skill to define a leader; to will make or break his or her reputation is their ability to work with a team. This important skill quickly separates true leaders from the “wannabe” that wants to gloat in their own self importance. You may fool fans, but you will never fool the team.

Personal Development Skill: Effective Communication We communicate, all the time. Using various mediums, messages travel back and forward between people at an incredible rate. Communication generates an incredible amount of data daily. Why then is effective communication so illusive?

Personal & Leadership Skill: Ability to Identify and Solve Problems No other skill will keep you relevant and in demand like the ability to solve problems. The best problem solvers in the work place are often the highest paid in the company. This is a skill that everyone should have but has become rare and extremely valuable.

Personal & Leadership Skill: Cultural Awareness Sadly, polarisation seems to be the current trend in the world at the moment. This is a dangerous attitude to own in the “global village” of our modern world. Our workplaces, neighbourhoods and public areas are filled with people from various culture groups and backgrounds. We are exposed to all sorts of age groups, religious persuasions and life attitudes each and every minute. This cosmopolitan environment requires each of us to be able to demonstrate some awareness and sensitivity to other culture groups.   

Personal & Leadership Skill: Collect, Organise, Analyse and Critically Evaluate Information Regardless of the position we hold at work, we all deal with information daily. A massive amount of information is passed back and forward on a moment by moment basis. Information and its assimilation is big business. If you are in business, if you work or even as a student, you will constantly deal with this skill. Efficiently collecting, organising, analysing and critically evaluating information can mean the difference of starting a new trend in your industry or being a tail-end trend follower.

Personal & Leadership Skill: Use of Science and Technology Developing ourselves requires conscious planning and focus in specific areas. We should not allow our personal and career development to be haphazard or ad hoc. Having a careless attitude towards our career or personal skills could result in us unwittingly becoming redundant and without purpose in the work place.

What is “Life Average?” Each of us has a list of responsibilities and roles that we perform every day. The number of roles will vary from person to person depending on age, ambition and personality traits. For example: you could be a child, a parent, an employee or an employer. Maybe you are sporty and hold some activity roles too. Perhaps you are a spouse, or maybe you are single. All these roles work together to form our own identity, who we are, and will shape our personalities.

Business is a cold hard world of facts, calculations and evaluations with little tolerance for esoteric philosophies. Life Coaching and leadership, on the other hand, fundamentally believe in the unseen. Potential, beliefs and attitude are un-measurable forces that drive the existence of Life Coaching and leadership. As a Life Coach, we owe it to the business community to make the process and principles less ‘up in the air’, and a little more ‘concrete’. Dealing with Potential is just such one area that needs to be reviewed in Life Coaching. The Business World believes that Track Record is what determines someone’s worth, and not their latent Potential. This article serves not to evaluate the ‘truth’ within the statement, but rather to pose a question: If that was true, how would a Life Coach deal with this ‘reality’?

9 Key Questions to gudie change << Part 1    5. Control: Can you start and maintain the outcome?

“If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly at first.” Many teams use this quote as a mantra, launching their efforts in a bid to get momentum for their cause. It is true that it is easier to steer a car while it is moving. A stationary vehicle is both impossible to turn and difficult to get rolling. There are a lot of advantages for the team or organisation to get the ball rolling as soon as possible, as changing direction later is common, possible and if managed correctly – powerful.