Posts By: C4P
How do you stop men taking their own lives?
Posted & filed under Food For Thought.
What is Talk club and how does it work?
Posted & filed under Food For Thought.
Talk Club is Launched here in North Somerset
Posted & filed under Blog.
Men don’t talk enough. The North Somerset Council Male Stakeholder group want to bring men together to talk more, in order to help improve the mental fitness of men in the local area and ultimately reduce suicide.
In order to do this, we are proposing the introduction of a ‘Talk Club’. Talk club is a nationally growing Male Mental Fitness Movement. It’s a talking and listening club for men. It’s a support network for ways to keep mentally fit. It’s a community of men looking after each other. Talk Club is committed to the belief that we can change the way we look after our mental health and end suicide.
This video explains how Talk Club works.
Our first meeting takes place at the For All Healthy Living Centre Weston Super Mare BS23 3SJ on Thursday 10th September 2020 between 7 and 9pm.
If you would like to attend you can sign up via the North Somerset Talk Club Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/groups/3178461082272262
or contact me directly to book your place.
August 2020
Men’s Personal and Professional Development in 2019
Posted & filed under Blog.
Through my experiences as a Coach, Trainer and Facilitator I have become a strong believer in the power of self-direction. As a rule of thumb people will only make changes if they see the value in these changes and also have some ownership over this change. It’s very rare for people to be motivated about being ‘done to’.
With this philosophy in mind I have recently become increasingly fascinated by the theme of men’s health, including mental health as well as their personal and professional development.
Some of the statistics are startling and they begin to emerge from a very early age:
In School
- Girls outperform boys in all aspects of education from Primary School through to University
- 80% of pupils excluded for behaviour issues are boys
- Teenage boys are more than twice as likely to kill themselves as girls
In later life
- 95% of all prisoners are male
- Men are three times more likely than women to become dependent on drink or drugs
- 4 in 5 suicides are male
By recognising and addressing these issues we can start to make a positive difference to this worrying picture that will ultimately benefit everyone regardless of Gender.
Look out for updates in 2019
Corbyn vs May: Leadership styles in the spotlight
Posted & filed under Blog.
The snap 2017 general election is significant not only because the two main party leaders, Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn and the Conservatives’ Theresa May, offer wildly opposing views on many issues, but also because they present hugely contrasting styles of leadership.
May presents a more old-style, top-down leadership, typical of many political and military leaders, while Corbyn presents a style less often seen, whether in politics or organisations, that of the “servant leader”. What can we can learn about leadership that is useful to organisations?
The best leadership style?
It is not for us to judge the better style. The formal leadership style served a stable world well for centuries and not surprising that May, a self-professed “strong and stable” Oxbridge leader, should feel at ease with this style, speaking for example of ways in which strategy needs to change after the latest terrorist attack on the UK, this time at London Bridge.
Corbyn, by contrast, the product of a less elite institution, is at ease dancing on the stage of a rally in Sunderland and referring, after events at Manchester, to the need to put our arms around those affected.
May has a tendency to refer to the governed as “ordinary” people and as categories – she referred to having talked with steelworkers, fishermen and oil and gas people for example, all in the third person – while Corbyn will often use the first person plural pronoun “our people, our country”.
Leadership style in the balance
So, the 2017 general election is not just about policies but also leadership style. The lessons for people management are clear. An inclusive style of leadership will deliver a more motivated and productive workforce than command and control.
The two main candidates for the leadership election have shown us transactional and inclusive leadership in action. Organisations can pick up the baton and have a debate on leadership styles and, like the country, decide which way they would like to go.
For the full article go to:
The Plum – Anon
Posted & filed under Blog.
You should learn that you cannot be loved by all people. You can be the finest PLUM in the world, Ripe, Juicy, Succulent and you can offer yourself to all BUT you must remember there will be people who do not like plums.
You must understand that if you are the world’s finest plum and someone you like does not like plums you have the choice of becoming a banana. But be warned that if you choose to become a banana you will be a second rate banana but you can still be the best plum.
If you choose to be a second rate banana you must also remember that there will be people who do not like bananas. Furthermore you can spend your life trying to become the best banana (which is impossible if you are a plum) or you can seek again to be the best plum.
Could you just listen? Jessie Swick
Posted & filed under Blog.
When I ask you to listen to me and you start to give me advice, you have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I should not feel like that, you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen and you feel you have to do something to solve my problems, you have failed me, strange as that may seem.
Listen.
All I ask is that you listen.
Advice is cheap.
When you do something for me that I can and need to do for myself, you contribute to my fear and inadequacy: but when you accept as a simple fact that I do feel what I feel no matter how irrational, then I can stop trying to convince you and get down to the business of trying to understand it.
Irrational feelings make sense when we understand what is behind them and when that is clear the answers become obvious and I don’t need advice.
So please just listen. If you want to talk, wait a minute for your turn and I will listen to you.
Recommended Reading: Stop Thinking Start Living – By Richard Carlson
Posted & filed under Blog.
Recommended Reading: Stop Thinking Start Living – By Richard Carlson
Your past is only a figment of your imagination and so is your future. The only moment that actually exists, that is real, is now.
Your life is not responsible for your happiness or unhappiness – you are.
Happiness is not a result of what happens to us in our lives. It is a moment to moment choice that each of us makes.
Choice points
Healthy Functioning | Overthinking |
---|---|
Letting Go |
Hanging on |
Happiness rather than being right |
Being right is important |
Not dwelling on an issue |
Dwelling on an issue |
Choosing love and forgiveness |
Choosing anger and fear |
It’s OK |
It’s not OK |
Seeing the truth and moving on |
Trying to get to them bottom of things |
Little analysis or interpretation |
Over analysis |
Live in the present moment. If we spend our time waiting to be happy until a certain set of conditions are in place, when we are richer, when the children grow up, when we can retire then we give u our right to be happy in the present and that somebody may or may not come and even if does it is unlikely to create the feelings we hope! Don’t attach conditions to your contentment – I will be happy when XYZ!
Healthy Functioning | Overthinking |
---|---|
Living moment to moment |
Living in the past or future |
Focus on enjoyment |
Focus on improvement |
Mind is clear and free |
Mind is consumed with worry and concern |
Happy with what is |
Obsessed with what could be better |
Experiencing life |
Analysing life |
Learn from mistakes |
Dwell on mistakes |
What you can do |
What you can’t do |
Personal Growth – One to One Life Coaching
Posted & filed under Blog.
What is Life Coaching?
Life coaching is all about helping you to reflect on your personal and professional goals and ambitions and then supporting you in making your hopes for the future a reality over a series of one to one sessions.
The sessions tend to take place in a neutral venue, away from work and home. You will be asked to consider your hopes and ambitions for the future, to explore what it is you really want from your life and career.
The next step is about considering where you are in relation to these goals and ambitions, where are you in your life right now?
Following this you will start to explore possibilities about how you can improve and move ahead, coaching is about a journey of progress and looking ahead to a better future!
Finally you will make your own choices and decisions about what you will do next.
The role of the coach is to listen carefully to you and support you in exploring your own thoughts and feelings about what comes next. They are a sounding board, a person to talk to and who will value what you have to say.
Interested? Then do get in touch!