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Series: The "Who Are You" Podcast

I intend to share new thought-provoking questions and insights here every fortnight, to fulfill a desire to serve more people. As a coach, I have many conversations with the many people I am fortunate to meet and to serve. As I continue to learn that as individuals, our circumstances, challenges, strengths, limitations and solutions are more similar than different, I realise however that our best self lies in our uniqueness. I realise that we all need a simple but powerful compass to guide us through decisions, learning and actions. That compass is knowing ourselves – personal values, personal vision, strengths, weaknesses. My ease with meaningful conversations and my inherent curiosity led me to explore recording my learning, insights and thoughts. This has resulted in the “Who are you” series of podcasts aimed at people, irrespective of occupation and background, who wonder how good they can be, in and outside work.

Over the coming weeks, I will explore different challenges through the lens of knowing ourselves. Each podcast will suggest questions that require you to explore and reflect, culminating in a call for action. Stay with me and with me see how this develops over the coming months and years.

The Who Are You Podcast #10 – Procrastination

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The "Who Are You" Podcast
The Who Are You Podcast #10 - Procrastination
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The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity. – Leonard Ravenhill.
Procrastination is an opportunity’s assassin. – Victor Kiam

When does “sensible consideration before action”, “waiting for the right moment”, or even “busy doing something urgent” become Procrastination – the art of not getting on with what we ought to? What is your style? Don’t be fooled – our minds can come up with great justifications that feel good and sound better, to maintain our inner peace. However, as Christopher Parker points out, “Procrastination is like a credit card: it’s a lot of fun, until you get the bill.”
Has it become a habit which no longer requires your permission to protect you? What is it protecting you from? Is it really working for you or would you like to tackle it? If you do, here’s the clue: once you spot it, you have a choice: To continue or get on with the task at hand.

Listen and share your comment.

The Who Are You Podcast #9 – Inspiration

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The Who Are You Podcast #9 - Inspiration
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Inspiration is all around us. What inspires you to act? How do you inspire others?
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light” – Aristotle Onassis.
The power of lift in those words gives life to my interest in the subject of Inspiration. You are about to listen to my thoughts on it. On how it begins within us. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Thomas Jefferson had another angle on it, “Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.”

So, what does it mean to be inspired? Can we choose it or does it choose us? Could we miss it even if it chooses us? We can certainly be prepared and open to be inspired. Even go looking for it.

We can also expect to inspire others when we are being our best.

The Who Are You Podcast #8 – Focus & attention

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The Who Are You Podcast #8 - Focus & attention
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In our increasingly noisy world, it’s easy to accept being distracted and that a short attention span is the norm. Successful individuals would however have learnt to focus and pay attention to what is most important.

Focus is both a choice and an action. It is ‘directed attention’ which takes place even in the presence of distractions. This is typified when we are asked to “pay attention”. Then, either one or several our five senses must be brought to bear on our chosen target. They’re unlikely to stay there for long without habit or an act of will. We can therefore learn to keep focus or pay attention.

So, does multi-tasking really work for you? Better than choosing to focus on one task at a time, before moving to the next? Are you still able to give adequate attention to each of the tasks? Perhaps you’ve not explored which suits you best. Listen, tell us your views or experiment with it, then share your views.

The Who Are You Podcast #7 – Impostor Syndrome

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The Who Are You Podcast #7 - Impostor Syndrome
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“She explained that many people, but especially women, feel fraudulent when they are praised for their accomplishments. Instead of feeling worthy of recognition, they feel undeserving and guilty, as if a mistake has been made. Despite being high achievers, even experts in their fields, women can’t seem to shake the sense that it is only a matter of time until they are found out for who they really are- impostors with limited skills or abilities.” ― Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

“The exaggerated esteem in which my lifework is held, makes me very ill at ease. I feel compelled to think of myself as an involuntary swindler.” ― Albert Einstein

I have written eleven books, but each time I think, ‘Uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody and they’re going to find me out.” ― Maya Angelou

You think, “Why would anyone want to see me again in a movie? And I don’t know how to act anyway, so why am I doing this?” ― Meryl Streep

‘In a lot of ways, I’m quite proud that I’m still getting jobs. Because of falling into a job, you always feel like you’re a fraud, that you’re going to be thrown out at any second.’ ― Robert Pattinson

Many accomplished people admit doubting their talent, even in the face of evidence. For more people than speak openly about it, for many of us and in small ways, this thing that goes on in the mind, the Impostor Syndrome, is real.

Are you willing to let it rob you of joy in your achievements or do you want to find your way to handle it? Really knowing who you are is the bedrock from which you could shape responses to that little voice which seeks to convince you that you’re a fraud in your achievements.

The Who Are You Podcast #6 – Personal visioning to ground and energise yourself

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The Who Are You Podcast #6 - Personal visioning to ground and energise yourself
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A clear way that the uniquely human spirit shows itself is in the creation of a vision of the future and its realisation. Most of our major achievements exist first in our minds as a picture or desire, a vision. These visions can be realised without concerted conscious effort but through making them explicit, then continuing to take actions that arise and take advantage of opportunities that present. Some people make these visions of the future concrete with the additional step of recording them in written or pictorial form. I used a collage for mine.

Whether recorded or not, when the vision is clear, and in alignment with our core personal values, magic happens! We become energised, decisions flow, focus improves and opportunities tend to open up, enabling the vision to be realised. If it is in line with your core personal values, your vision is realisable.

So, create a personal vision, a vision of the future you want. Where will you start? Do you find it easier to capture a feeling than a picture? Big, exciting and bold! Go on, do it and share your insights with us.

The Who Are You Podcast #5: Personal Values

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The Who Are You Podcast #5: Personal Values
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Personal values are principles, ideals, beliefs of what is most important to us. They are not just words or aspirations but actually show up in our lives when we are being our best. It would also be difficult to be our best without them. Rationality, purpose, spirituality, prosperity, love, fidelity, family, justice, power, adventure, tolerance, stability, flexibility …

When we make decisions and live in alignment with our top personal values, it is possible to experience peace and effortless flow when we achieve, as well as in difficulty and challenge. It’s therefore well worth investing resources to identify this personal gauge and to then keep in touch with it, in work and in play.

Please share your conscious experience of referring to personal values? How clear are you on your personal values?

The Who Are You Podcast #4: Movement

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The Who Are You Podcast #4: Movement
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Movement of our bodies is much more than exercise, just as health is much more than fitness. It is a crucial part of well-being, that concept of wholeness that is increasingly recognised as worthy of our attention in a fast-paced world.

This episode explores how physical movement can be a metaphor for mental movement and can facilitate them. For example, the conversation in a meeting requires mental movements which are most effective when the contributor knows themselves, times and blends their input to suit their purpose. It is striking how much more effective many conversations are when people are moving – walking, running, cycling or playing. This episode, explores playing with balance, flow and timing of movement.

Click to listen on for some practical insights to take away for your success.

Do share your own insights. How do you integrate movement into your life, in spite of any challenges you face?

The Who Are You Podcast #3: Comparison thinking

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The Who Are You Podcast #3: Comparison thinking
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We compare ourselves to other people, despite knowing our uniqueness and that of others that we compare ourselves to. It is all too easy to forget how unique we are. We compare our insides to other people’s outsides! What we are thinking, feeling and doing to what we can see of them. The confident-looking performer, unknown to the audience may actually be battling nerves.

This comparison between apples and pears could hold us back or trip us up, when we lose focus on what really matters. If such comparison builds us up to be the best we can be, then it serves us. Comparison can also deflate or keep us static.

In the next few minutes, we will explore facets of this phenomenon with the intention of helping you work through and not give in to it’s negative influence. Click to listen and then give us your comments.

What was helpful in this episode and what could you use? Does comparing yourself with others help, hold you back or don’t you notice any impact?

The Who Are You Podcast #2: Networking

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We all benefit from having networks, but only some of us value these networks and relatively few of us nurture these networks as resources to help us achieve our goals.

Despite experience which shows that more business and jobs are secured through one’s own network than through any other means, why then don’t we all build, value, nurture and use our network? Many of us say they dislike and feel uncomfortable whilst ‘networking’ and either avoid it or are desperate to learn how to do it. Perhaps there is a misconception that there is one correct way for ‘network’. Your network is the group of people who know you well enough to trust be a resource for you as you are for them.
We are usually our best selves when we are in ‘flow’, are we not? Suppose you could discover how to be in the flow whilst connecting with people, naturally, to build a network? Click to Listen if you are interested in networking.

Tell us, what helps you to network effortlessly? Has it always been so or did you learn?

The Who Are You Podcast #1: Public Speaking

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Public speaking, for many people, tops a scale of fears in both professional and social environments – public speaking. Many people enjoy it and come alive at the chance to connect with a group of people. Many others will do it because they have to and many dread and will avoid it. Some are good with small groups but not with large, good with business audiences but not so with standing up to speak at a wedding.
We don’t all have to be excellent at it, so where it’s necessary, it may just suffice to be good enough. Clarity of intention for the presentation, its starting point, delivery voice, movement during delivery are few key aspects to explore and nail down for yourself before a presentation. Who knows, you could find your groove and enjoy it. How could this be possible? Think of what Benjamin Disreali once said “Talk to a man about himself and he’ll listen for hours.”
Listen and join the conversation.

Have you overcome a fear of public speaking or become good at it, despite trepidation? Share what works for you..