From Spark to Fire

 

It can take only a spark, a carelessly dropped cigarette, to start a great forest fire. Yet how many of us have tried to start a fire in the garden or a fireplace, and struggled to get it going? The paper is damp, or the kindling won’t catch, or the wind is too strong – it can be very frustrating. In times gone by, before the days of lighters, safety matches and barbecue fluid, travellers would carry a few hot coals in a clay pot, along with some dry kindling, so that they could start a fire quickly wherever they stopped. They would add the coals to the kindling, which they would then blow on to get a quick flame which would spread to the wood they had collected.

Sometimes it can be hard to get a spark started in yourself. Have you ever had a great idea for a New Year’s resolution, only to find that the fire has gone out by the 3^rd January? Have you ever sat looking at a project which you know needs to be done, and you want the results, but you can’t seem to get started? I certainly have. That’s the time that we need to start a fire in ourselves, to blow on the coals and add dry kindling, so that we start to burn with enthusiasm and energy. Wouldn’t it be great if you could do that to order?

A coach’s job is to be able to start that fire in her clients, and to be able to do that she needs to do it in herself first. We can all be fired up at one time or another, but the coach needs to be able to get fired up to order, not when he feels like it. His client needs him to have fire, energy and enthusiasm on tap.

This week we will be holding another of our successful Coaching Taster Days in Plymouth. Come and join us to fan the flames. The theme will be the same as this blog post – From Spark to Fire – and throughout the day we will be referring to the need to be able to start your own fire so that you can ignite the fire in others. Coaches need to breathe energy, to breathe air onto the fire of enthusiasm of their clients.

If you’d like to learn more about this, call me on 01752 664429 or email alan@cspcoaching.com to reserve a place on the next free taster day on March 5^th.

Technorati Tags: CSP Coaching,Coaching Diploma,inspiration,coaching,enthusiasm

Making a Difference

Every year we make those New Year Resolutions, and you might be wondering why I am mentioning them – after all, most people gave up on them weeks ago.

We are creatures of habit, and we evolved in a dangerous world to be in survival mode. That often meant that we had to learn habits and methods, and keep things the same wherever we could. Five thousand years of civilisation has not made much of a dent in a million years of survival thinking, and we carry on keeping everything the same, and our resolutions to change usually come to nothing.

Last Saturday CSP Coaching - my partner Steve and I - held a Coaching Taster Day, and we hosted a group of ten people who were interested in Life Coaching and in our new Diploma. That’s where making a difference comes in. We spent time on the methods and approaches of coaching, and how theories of learning have influenced coaching, but the main thrust was to answer the hard question: How do you create lasting change? This is our biggest challenge, and unless we can make change last then it’s of little value.

I think that we cannot change unless we can have real belief in the possibility of change. I like to imagine how it was for those people who were first faced with the idea that the world was round, not flat. How hard it must have been to understand and believe in that! How terrifying it must have been to head off on a small ship, wondering if you’d got it wrong, and you’d sail off the edge of the world! In these days of air travel and photographs from space it’s fairly easy to see, but in the 15^th century this idea was a real challenge.

I hope that I was able to help the group to believe that lasting change is possible, and for it to happen we have to change our beliefs and transform the way we think and feel. I know that some of them were sufficiently convinced that they have committed to our course, and I think that they all had a good time and learnt something in the process. I hope overall, that the day made a difference to their lives and to how they see the world. If you’d like to find out about or attend the next Taster Day, email alan@cspcoaching.com, or call me on 01752 664429, or click here.

Technorati Tags: Life Coaching,Business Coaching,Diploma,Taster Day,CSP Coaching,change,personal development,limiting beliefs

Show Don’t Tell

A picture is worth a thousand words, and this goes for word pictures, so the advice to writers is show don’t tell. For example:

My friend Des is really kind and cares about others. - This tells you about him.

My friend Des works as a volunteer with the local Samaritans. He often looks in on the older members of his community who live alone and regularly supports local events. He takes trips at his own expense to work on a new school in a poor area of South Africa. - This shows you who he is. (And the photo shows you what his project looks like)

Car dealers know this. You might be impressed by facts and figures, but the nice ads in the Sunday papers show you how it might look. Many people buy a new car after they have taken a test drive. The car speaks for itself, it shows you if you’d like it. Those of us who want to be successful in life need to take this on board. If you want people to give you more responsibility at work, by all means tell them that you want it and that you think you can handle it, but you need to show them that you can do it. Take on an extra task that no-one else wants to do, tidy up the coffee area, organise a collection for someone who’s retiring, show that you can be responsible. Most managers know that the best indicator of future performance is past performance – if you can do it once, you can do it again. Show them!

There is a message here for those of us who are in business or self-employed. We depend on people to choose our services. Why should they? People buy from those who they know, like and trust. We can tell them how good we are, what good value our service might be, but how do we show ourselves to them?

People choose our service when they see who we are. Often people have chosen to come to me for counselling or coaching on the strength of a few minutes chat on the phone. I am able to show them who I am and I have become known to them in that conversation. Customers assess whether I can supply them with the service they need on the basis of being shown my interest, concern and passion for my work and my clients.

At present I am promoting a Coaching Diploma course. All the facts are available on the Internet, and I have spent money on advertising, and you might think that people will either sign up or not sign up. In fact, information and advertisements are only a small part of the story. I offer free coaching days to people so that they can come and find out about coaching, and I am able to be known and assessed as a person. If they they sign up to the course, it is because of my interest in my subject, my commitment to coaching, my belief that it helps people, and my passion to make this a brilliant and successful course whose graduates will become its greatest fans. I show what the course is worth, alongside telling them the facts. I show them myself, in the hope that they will know, like and trust me. Show don’t tell.

Technorati Tags: CSP Coaching,Coaching Diploma,Show don't tell,business coaching,writing