Coaching Chronicle by Gerard O’Donovan

Got up at 3 AM this morning in order to get a taxi to the airport and fly back to Luton.

Arrived back at the office at 12 noon. This has been my longest extended trip without a break for quite some time, (13 days) and it really is nice to be able to see everyone in the team again. ( even though I don’t suppose they really missed me)

Last night I attended the Coaching Support Group in Warsaw. I have to say it was the best run group I have yet seen. Adam, is doing a magnificent job. It was run like a military operation. In fact he had to turn people away, over 40 people wanted to come and there was only room for 35.

http://www.coaching-support.com/group.php?MemberId=596&Town=Warsaw&Country=Poland

He is demonstrating real organisational skills and great leadership.

I did a presentation on Shamanic Coaching and the power of energy when working closely with the client.

I also took the opportunity of letting everyone know that they can now have a free membership of Big Lif3e (www.biglife.ws)

And the fact that we will be launching Colour Coaching early in the New Year.that went down really well.

Well, here I am sitting in my hotel room in Warsaw slaving over a hot laptop dealing with my never ending stream of e-mails.

I went for a Thai massage last night in a place called the Thai house just around the corner from the MDM hotel ( where I am staying) it really was a great massage and very well priced 120 zlotys equal to about £25 

Today I had a really great experience, went out for a walk and a coffee this morning and found about five fantastic bookshops one after another. I couldn’t resist buying some more books. ( my wife will kill me) my suitcase is already verging on my airline limit !!

I will have to do some fast talking at the check-in J

 Looking forward to attending the Warsaw coaching support group meeting tonight.

I am going to do a presentation on Shamanic Coaching.

I am also going to give everyone a special gift. FREE membership of big life www.biglife.ws

I think that could really help them.

Then it’s up at 3 AM for a 6 AM flight ( deep joy!!)

Should be back in the office by 12 noon.

Interesting synchronous event happened today.

I left the office to go into town to do some administration. For some reason, and I don’t really know why, I started to think about my time in the Royal Marines and when we were in the Falklands.

On the way back from town to the office as I walked past a charity shop I had a very strong impulse to go when and check their books on sale.

The first book I saw was

” Forgotten Voices from the Falklands War” Which I immediately bought.

Isn’t that interesting.Is That the power of intention? Is it the Law of attraction?

Is it the power of universal consciousness working to create and manifest our thoughts into reality?

Something to ponder on

Gerard

The first coach a child has in life is his/her parent. If the parent/baby interaction is a pleasant and satisfying one, the child will be likely to follow the parental example willingly. While the parent eventually would like to inculcate her/his own set of values in the child there are occasions when the child’s difference of opinion should be allowed and respected. Just as you would be considerate of another adult having diametrically opposed religious or political beliefs, you want to show tolerance for your child in making a decision to wear a mismatched outfit to school for example.

You don’t have to agree with the child’s choice of a red skirt and orange blouse; but being empathetic about her making a choice is part of building a good relationship. Perhaps showing her the value of empathy will teach her not to make fun of how other children dress. Developing empathy towards those who are different will prevent her from becoming one of those school bullies that cause so much emotional pain to other kids. A parent is “coaching” a child to teach her/him the values that are hers/his. But there must be some “wiggle room” in what decisions the child is encouraged to make on his/her own.

Children learn what they live and parents are “coaching by example” whether they analyze it as such or not. When Dad is able to show his sensitive side, so will his son. When Mom takes the time to explain why Tommy has to use a wheelchair instead of stopping her child from talking about it, she is helping her/him to develop empathy towards another child.

Her child won’t grow up making fun of kids who can’t play sports as well as most. When he is old enough to recognize the sad state of a homeless man, he/she won’t focus on the fact that he is dirty and unkempt instead of feeling empathy for his hunger and inability to cope with ordinary life. The little boy or girl who learns empathy at an early age will not be the playground bully or the person who feels no sadness at running over a pet while driving. He/she will not be one of those whose bullying behaviour was the root cause of a Columbine tragedy. Empathy breeds kindness in the human soul.

There are many different beliefs in the world.  Religious beliefs that is often being practiced by different people with different religions. And so, what are these beliefs that are being observed around the world?

There are many different belief based religions. The most common throughout the world are Islam, Judaism, Buddism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Jainism. We will briefly discuss what these religions believe.

Islams bases its beliefs on the following: God Angels,Scriptures, Prophets, Resurrection, and Divine Creed. While Judaism is a monotheistic religion which believes that the world was created by a single, all-knowing divinity, and that all things within that world were designed to have meaning and purpose as part of a divine order. Buddism believe that realization of the Four Noble Truths is the first step on the path to cessation of dukkha.Christianity believes in one God, while the central figure in Christianity is Jesus (or Christ). The core of Hinduism is the belief in Brahman, the underlying universal life force that encompasses and embodies existence.Jainism preaches that the fundamental purpose of life is to free oneself from the soul’s existing karma (action) by obtaining extreme asceticism in one’s life. Jainism teaches the purity of thought, ideas, soul, and body. The only way to achieve this is by the rejection of the desires of the materialistic world. These are only a few of the many practicing beliefs in the world today. There are other practices such as scientolgy. So while it is common for every living individual to have beliefs it is expected that their different beliefs will vary widely from person to person. Some people are even atheist. While is means they don’t believe in a higher power not believing in something is still a belief in and of itself.

Listening skills are a very important part of the communication process making them essential for your job and education. If you can improve your listening skills by following some of the strategies outlined below you. You will be able to see a major improvement in your day to day life. For example: if you are a student you should see improved grades due to your being able to retain more information. If you are in work don’t be surprised if you get noticed for the improvement in your performance.

So here we go, these are just a few very effective strategies you should try. Focus on content, not the delivery. Have you ever counted the number of times a teacher or boss clears his/her throat in a twenty minute period? If so, then guess what, you weren’t focusing on content. You also need to use the gap between the rate of speech and your rate of thought. You are able to think faster than the lecturer can talk. That’s one reason your mind may tend to wonder off on to other things. Avoiding emotional involvement is also a major part of listening skills. When you are too emotionally involved in listening, you will tend to hear what you want to hear not what is actually being said. Try to remain objective and open minded and maintain eye contact with the person you are listening to. Of course if you are using your listening skills for school then you will need to look at your notes to write down the key points, but eye contact keeps you focused on the job at hand and keeps you involved with the instructors content. All the above strategies will help you keep your mind occupied and focused on what is being said. You can actually begin to anticipate what the person speaking is going to say as a way to keep your mind from straying. Your mind does have the capacity to listen, think, write and ponder at the same time, but it does take practice.

One major responsibility that parents and teachers have is that of instilling good values in children.

Children like copying from what society is showing to them. It is therefore said that the best way to instill good values in children is to put them in the environment where positive values are embraced.

If you raise children in a society where positive values are not emphasized, it will be highly unlikely that they will develop to become better in the society.

With that understanding of the importance of taking responsibility in inculcating good values in our children, it will, be prudent to teach the following lessons:

1. Teach the value of trust and honesty

One area where children miss a step is when they are not shown the importance of honesty and trust. How do you react when your child lies to you? Do you take time to reprimand? Do you explain the importance of telling the truth? Let your child know the value of trust at an early stage.

2 Teach about integrity

Integrity affects virtually all aspects of everyday life. Being a person of integrity means that people can believe your word. How well can it be when your children start knowing that from early age? Be person of integrity before your children as that will surely motivate them to become likewise.

3 Teach about how to relate

Your child should know that he or she has to live with people. They should learn the importance of maintaining friends. As a parent or teacher, you should let your kid know the value of being able to relate well with the others. They should be made aware that there are true friends and mere acquaintances, and learn the traits that are exhibited by them.

Teaching values will not demand a lot from you. It will be the simple things that you will be doing that will make a big difference.

As a teacher, motivational speaker or a counselor, it will be prudent to note that developing effective questioning skills is highly essential for you to be productive. In  a classroom situation, you will only be able to  test and determine the extent by which the students are  able to  grasp whatever you are teaching them if you make a point of asking effective questions which are geared towards achievement of that objective.

As a teacher, you will be able to contribute to developing high level thinking skills in your students if you are to utilize the skill of questioning effectively.

Questioning will also be very vital for emphasis. You can emphasize a point effectively and create that interest in getting it embedded in the students if you are to use the questioning skills effectively.

Nobody was born with the skills to question. The skills are basically learnt through experience and digested by people who have an interest in acquiring them

It is a necessary for every person wishing to be an effective motivational speaker to have the skills to use questions effectively. The good thing is that one can bridge the gap which is filled by experience though getting a good training on questioning.

The following are vital tips on how to use questioning skills effectively in a normal classroom situation:

Establish good rapport with the students

My experience in classroom teaching has taught me that you do not become effective in questioning without having good rapport with the students. You will need to ensure that you are able to sustain a good dialogue with your students in the first place before embarking on using the questioning tool for your benefit.

Let all answers be taken positively

You will motivate your student to answer to your question if they see that you have a way of encouraging their answers. A student should never have fear of answering or consider that they will be ridiculed when they answer.

A teacher has no option but to cultivate the questioning skills to make the teaching and learning process effective.