Monday, May 28, 2007

Monday Motivation - 28 May

JOY IN THE MORNING - by Steve Goodier

Does this sound familiar?

James was cleaning out the attic one day when he came across a ticket from a shoe repair shop. The date stamped on the ticket showed it was over eleven years old. He felt sure the shoes would not still be there, but decided to stop by anyway and check.

He handed the ticket to the man behind the counter, who didn't seem to be surprised at the date. "Just a minute," said the clerk. "I'll have to look for these." He disappeared into a back room.

After a few minutes, the clerk called out, "Here they are!"

"That's terrific!" said James, hardly believing his good fortune.

The man came back to the counter, empty-handed. "They'll be ready Thursday," he said.

We should all be masters of patience; after all, we've had plenty of practice. But waiting for shoes is one thing, waiting to heal from a hurt or waiting for a persistent problem to change can be far more difficult.

James Melvin Washington shared some wisdom about the importance of patience in those tough times of life. He said, "My grandmother used to tell me that every loss is temporary, that every rainy day is temporary, that every hardship is temporary. She used to tell me, 'Son, every goodbye ain't gone. Just hold on - there's joy coming in the morning.'"

Are you holding on? It may seem dark now, but morning is coming.

-- Steve Goodier

For further articles published by Steve Goodier, check out YOUR LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM, a free newsletter sharing life, love and laughter. http://www.lifesupportsystem.com

Monday, May 21, 2007

Monday Motivation - 21 May

"Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible." ~ West Point cadet maxim

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Clean langauge and the use of metaphors

Over the last few weeks I’ve been much more aware of the metaphors people use in everyday – and coaching - conversations. And I’ve been noticing the metaphors I use, too. (I like to grasp and grapple with things and to push forward on projects.)

My heightened awareness has come about as the result of attending an introductory course on Clean Language with Marian Way of Apricot Island. This is a methodology for working with the metaphors people use to describe their experiences. There’s a lot of useful information contained in these metaphors and by developing them, it’s possible to get to the heart of the matter really quickly - and to find out what needs to happen for you to get the results you want. I really enjoyed the course - it was excellent.

Marian is running the course again on June 9th and 10th – in a beautiful room within the cloisters of Chichester Cathedral – and if you want to gain a real insight into the way people think, take your listening and questioning skills to a whole new level, and find out how to motivate yourself and others, then I can think of no better way to spend a weekend.

A great mix of theory and practice, it is a very well-structured course, run at a good pace. I am now starting to use Clean Language and can’t wait to learn more (the next course is in October…).

Marian’s also running a personal development workshop called “Discover Your Creative Self”, using the ‘clean’ approach. This is happening in July – also in Chichester. So if you want to experience expert clean facilitation and would like to be more creative, I’m sure this will be a real treat too.

For more information, contact Marian on 0845 330 1577 (local call rate) or email her at marian@apricotisland.com. Or see the relevant pages on her website:
· Clean Language training
· Discover Your Creative Self workshop

Monday, May 07, 2007

Monday Motivation - 7 May

“Everything is okay in the end. If it's not okay, then it's not the end.” ~ Origin Unknown