Are You Pot Bound?
I’m not talking illegal substances here! I’m talking about room to grow and ultimately blossom.
I re-potted a plant at the week end. I bought the plant ages ago in a supermarket sale which is not always a good place to buy plants but I felt sorry for it (honestly! Who knew supermarket shopping could be so emotional). I just knew I could revive it so I took the poor wee thing home.
I left it for a while on my office window sill and every day I looked at it and thought:
“I’m going to do something about you soon” But other things kept getting in the way and because it was in my office I wasn’t reminded of it at week ends when I was getting down and dirty in the garden.
Bloom Room
However, this week end I actually did remember to do something about it. I took it from it’s old pot, with difficulty, to find the roots had been trying to escape and were coiled tightly all around the sides. I gave it a good soaking, some feed, and a brand new pot and popped it back on my windowsill, thinking “you’ll look good in a week or two“.
Miracle Cure
I came onto my office this morning and was amazed! My plant is looking wonderful. It’s as if it’s had a huge great stretch and become beautiful and confident ( I read a lot into my plants and naturally I was coaching it during the stressful re-potting business…). It has come into its own and is clearly benefitting from the move to a bigger pot, a bit of TLC, and some food.
Do You Need to Move?
So, my question to you is: is it time for you to make a move?
- Do you have room in your current pot to grow and develop?
- Have you been thinking about doing something for a while but got pot bound without realising it?
- Are you a bit stuck with roots all over the place so that uprooting seems a formidable task?
- Do you need a bit of support to make changes? Some food, new soil? To let some light into your life?
It’s amazing what a move can do for you and you may see the results sooner than you think! Go on, be bold! Allow yourself to grow to your full potential!
If this is appeals to you, take a look at Are You Happy at Work for more advice and inspiration!
3 Life Coaching Lessons from Cats!
I have two cats; I am, in fact, a mad cat lady in training. That soubriquet was given to me in fun by Jim Connolly a few years ago when I first acquired my two rescue kittens.
I like the title (heaven knows, I’ve had much worse!) Cats have a lot to teach us; my cats may be a tad atypical as they were rescued at a very young age and were not brought up by a cat, but by me! But this is what I have learned from cats and these could be good lessons for you to follow this week end:
3 Life Coaching Lessons from Cats
- Eat and sleep when you need to, not when others think you should.
- If you need a hug ask for one (although not necessarily by rolling on the ground exposing your furry stomach. You know what I mean!). Let people give you a stroke now and again. And offer the odd snuggle back as you’ll find it results in more hugs!
- To your own self be true. If doing something doesn’t feel right to you, it’s probably not right for you. Trust your instincts and care more about what you think of yourself than what others think of you. Be an individual cool cat!
What life lessons has pet owning taught you? Please share!
Photo Credit: Pepiotana
Self Help is Indulgent ClapTrap?
If a sign of a good radio programme is that it provokes you to action, then BBC’s Radio 4 Women’s Hour is very good as it has provoked this post!
The programme had a short debate recently between a life coach and an author. The discussion was around whether self help actually makes anyone any happier, given that the majority of self help book buyers are female, and yet the numbers of women with mental health problems are going up.
I found myself (to my own irritation) sat between the two. The coach made many valid points about the value of coaching in helping people to stop seeing themselves as victims, but weakened her authority (in my opinion) by over-advertising her own courses.
The nub of the argument from the author was that coaching is too self centred, too individualised and encourages people to think they can control anything, regardless of external factors. Her view was that this stopped them doing something to challenge the status quo, stopped them becoming active agents for change for the greater good (I am paraphrasing here). She likened it to reality TV which, she believed, encouraged everyone to think they could become a ‘star’ with very little work.
I am sympathetic to the idea that working on issues of one’s own can make us less aware of what is happening in the wilder world leaving us stuck into a ‘I deserve better‘ mentality. Very occasionally, when working in larger organisations, I see this attitude from staff. They are angry about what is happening but don’t always make the connections between what is happening in the world today and what is happening to them. Equally, I KNOW working one to one can be highly effective in helping make positive changes, and also that many of the people I have worked with have made very positive contributions to society as a whole. Coaching done well is not merely self interested new age clap trap!
The author also criticised self help for being a recent phenomenon and symptomatic of our ‘me-me’ times. Well, there she is definitely wrong! You only need to look back at some of the world’s philosophies to see that the idea of choosing how you view what is happening in the world (making the best of it) has a long and venerable pedigree. My personal self help model comes from a Stoic philosopher, Epictetus. He said:
“We are not touched so much by life events themselves but by the view we choose to take of them”
That surely is the founding statement behind all self help philosophies and he made that in AD55!
What do you think? Is self help, or coaching, or personal development indulgent nonsense which helps no one, or does it have a credible role to play in helping people change and achieve to their full potential? I think you can guess my view!
If you’d like to discuss further with me how our working one to one might enrich your life, do give me a call! My confidential number is 01761 438749 or you can use the contact page and I’ll call at a time convenient to you!
Write a Letter
How long since you last wrote a letter?
On my renewyou course participants write a letter to themselves! It’s a very potent way of helping you keep to your resolutions.
Try this exercise now when you can find a quiet space over next few days.
Take a sheet of paper (and remember that doing this with coloured crayons can actually enhance your creative thinking).
Imagine now that you are writing a summary of your life over last 2 years to an imaginary friend who only has your well being at heart.
Think about the following headings and add some of your own:
Career
Love
Relationships
Home
Hobbies
Friends
Jot down what you love about these areas of your life, and what you would like to bring into these areas of your life.
Coaching Questions
Which area is most important to you right now?
What one thing could you do to improve your quality of life in this area?
Who or what do you need to make this happen?
When does it need to happen by?
Why aren’t you doing it……..?
