If we are surrounded by upbeat positive people, it tends to rub off on us too and if we are happy we tend to lift the mood of everyone we meet. Like the Pig of Happiness if you are happy then your mood will impact on your friends. Continue reading “Happiness”
Author: CarlB
Career Values
We are driven by our values, they are the factors which motivate us, they dictate where we spend our time and we unconsciously seek to fulfil them. By helping team members fulfil their values we can facilitate them in becoming more motivated and fulfilled because the work they are doing will give them meaning and purpose. Continue reading “Career Values”
Optimism
The doctor and therapist Owen O’Kane, who described himself growing up in Northern Ireland as ‘Billy Elliot without the dance moves’, suggested that 60%-70% of our thoughts can be negative and that back in Neanderthal times it was helpful to have fearful thoughts which we now know as ‘negativity bias,’ for our safety. It is important to recognise that our brain magnifies the negative information we filter in.
A survey Matthew Syed wrote about in the Sunday Times on 13th December 2020 asked the following question:
“Over the past 20 years, has the proportion of the World that lives
in extreme poverty,
a) Increased by 50%
b) Increased by 25%
c) Stayed the same
d) Decreased by 25%
e) Decreased by 50%”
*See answer below
Scientists have vanquished the naysayers who argued that it takes twenty years to test and approve a new vaccine by producing three in ten months! The next time you feel threatened or overwhelmed by ‘bad’ news remember your brain is amplifying it and you will see it in more perspective. The press loves a good negative metaphor, such as ‘crash out,’ and they use exaggerated terms to describe events. These all impact on our unconscious and effect our mood.
We all have an in-built resilience passed down from generations who have survived and evolved. We are much more resourceful than we think. The problem is our over active scanner is on full power mode constantly trying to detect threats.
Optimistic people are likely to achieve better results because we get more of what we focus on. Come and join us on a free Introduction to NLP evening to find out how. The next one is on January 14th.
*Only one person in a hundred answered the survey correctly, the other 99% were too pessimistic. (The correct answer is decreased by 50%)
The Ripple Effect
It really fascinates me how some people are so unaware of the impact they have on the people around them. I’m very lucky in that I spend most of my working life working with extraordinarily positive and happy people as a Leadership and NLP Trainer. Both my colleagues at qualityculture and the vast majority of our course delegates have an uplifting impact in their interactions with others and that’s a great environment to work in!
But…and there’s a big but, how aware are we of how our mood, attitude and language has on other people? Steve, Wendy and I (I hope!) are all very aware of this because of the training we’ve had and the job that we all do but when we ask delegates if they are aware of the impact they have on people this generally causes considerable self reflection. We are all aware of the impact others have on us, especially when that impact is negative but when was this last time you really thought about the impact that YOU have?
- A smile on your face and a positive attitude means that everyone you come into direct contact with experiences an emotional uplift of 15%
- Then those 15% happier people pass on their happiness to everyone they meet raising their mood by 10%
- And those 10% pass on their mood to everyone raising their mood by 6%
So this week, my challenge to you is to be aware of your impact and see how many people you can have a more positive effect on, both in work and in your personal life. Mood hoovers need not apply!!
If you want to get more tips on how to have a more positive impact on your teams and others around you, we are running two 1 day workshops next month, on Microsoft Teams, which will be of interest to you: “Inside Out Thinking – Get A Stress Free Life“; and “How to be a Better Coach”, further details below.
Have a great week all
Kali
Innate Resilience
There are many workshops and articles that ‘teach’ you how to build resilience and many work at a ‘surface’ level by applying tools and techniques. BUT what if you discovered that you didn’t need to apply anything, that you are already resilient? What if you were born with an innate capacity for resilience and mental health?
Our bodies are able to self-heal when we have a cut, or other physical conditions, we vomit if we are ill to rid our bodies of impurities and toxins or we get a fever to heat up our body to kill a virus.
We all have an innate resilience. We have evolved from thousands of generations who have adapted to living on this planet. Your ancestors survived famine, drought, war and according to Darwin only the strongest survived which means you have evolved from a strong gene pool.
We were born perfect and can self-regulate like a snow globe or a muddy puddle that will eventually clear. You know how one day something can really bother you but the next day after a good night’s sleep you have more clarity and it feels less of a concern? Well that is our in-built mental self-regulation. You see it in young children – one moment they can be really upset and the next they can be laughing.
Once we understand that our feelings can only come from THOUGHT, not from events outside of us, we can allow our mind to settle like the snow globe. We will have a feeling of peace as our mind resets to its natural default position. You can say to yourself, ‘It is just thought.’
If you would like to have a deeper understanding and coach others to reach a state of wellbeing and resilience, you can enrol on our 3 Day 3 Principles Coaching Programme.
Cheers!
Steve Kay
Fear of heights?
I just wanted to share something a delegate sent to us today from our latest live online Certified NLP Practitioner course. Kath had a real fear of heights that was stopping her doing lots of things she wanted to do.
Her phobia of heights meant that even climbing a small step ladder would start her heart beating faster as that fear response kicked in. As part of the Certification we train delegates in how to safely and effectively help their clients get rid of their phobia’s and Kath jumped at the chance to get rid of hers.
The other delegates got to work with her and, 30 minutes and lots of fun and laughter later, she said she had had a real shift and that it felt really different for her. The fear was gone! We were delighted that we’d been able to facilitate such a big personal shift for her but more importantly, for us, it means that both Kath and the other delegates on the course now have the skills and knowledge to go out and help their clients too.
This is just a small part of what we train on the 7 day NLP Coach Practitioner course so if you’d like some personal shifts and to learn how to work with clients to move their lives forward give us a call and we can tell you more.
Just in case you’re wondering just how well this worked, when Kath finished the training day, she thought she would go and test it. This is her in her garden on her kids climbing frame that evening!
What fear of heights? Congratulations Kath!
Cheers!
Kali Fraser
COVID-19 and all that!
I was enjoying a walk on the Bath Grounds in Ashby this morning with Smudge, our Cocker Spaniel, when I met a retired chap I know called John. John is a big Leicester City fan and they are doing very well at the moment.
“Can you believe what’s happening?”, he said. I replied, “What, Leicester being in the top four?” That brought a smile to his face. “Yes, that as well.”
A woman joined us, “How are you?” grinned John. “Not bad. Surviving. I should have been in Tenerife this week”, she replied gloomily. “Anyway, I’m Derby County fan”, she said. “You should be used to bad news then”, laughed John.
Now normally John and I discuss the weekend footie. He said he’d actually started having conversations with his wife now, with no matches being played. “I just found out she has been made redundant by Woolworths!”, he joked. “I’m not missing all the betting adverts either”, I said.
And that brings me round to telling you what we are up to. We have shifted to delivering Leadership training to a Government department through live video links, using Microsoft teams, which is working well thanks to Matt and Kali. And we are also developing an on-line platform to deliver the NLP Coach Practitioner, which enables home study combined with webinars and we will then invite delegates in for two days of face to face demonstrations of techniques to get fully certified. More on this to come shortly.
Speak soon.
Cheers!
Steve Kay
Positive Leadership
On the Tuesday evening just before the official lockdown in the UK, I was sat at my friend’s kitchen table trying to comprehend what was happening in the world.
It goes without saying that the surreal world in which we find ourselves will leave its mark on the landscape and the impact it will have on small businesses could be devastating.
Ken owns the Shudokan black belt academy, a martial arts school and as such they were due to be closing to the public on that coming Friday. We were talking about the consequences this would have on his business and it goes without saying that our conversation wasn’t the most upbeat.
What happened next was a beautiful example of what qualityculture calls Positive Leadership. Two of his employees, one who wasn’t even working, called Ken with ideas as to how they could adapt what they do to perform online/virtual classes to help both adults and children maintain health in their home. Much the same as what we are doing here at qualityculture – making the shift to deliver training using Microsoft Teams and launching our Certified NLP Practitioner online.
It’s easy, at times like these, to fall into the negativity vortex and therefore it’s so important to look for any positive actions you can take, no matter how small or big and to help one another during this challenging time.
Cheers!
Wendy Lukacs
Taking action
Today is the best day of the year to set professional and personal goals. Continue reading “Taking action”