A Lifetime in Coaching
I am very happy to announce that I am celebrating 35 years since I took the plunge, left my “safe” job as a Course Director in Higher Education and established my own coaching business initially called “People First Ltd.” And, truthfully, I have never looked back since. There have been some very good times and some not so good times, but 35 years on I’m still learning and still loving my work, now as “Change Management International Ltd” (established in 1994).
My clients have been many and varied, both individually, in teams and with whole businesses ...
... Some who were already flying high and wanting to fly higher.
... Some who had yet to get off the ground.
... Some who were feeling the demands and challenges of life and finding it hard to cope.
... Some who were starting out in life and not sure of what direction to take. Included here have been a number of offspring of the clients with whom I worked.
... Some who wanted to find peace and happiness in a very demanding world.
... And, teams who wanted to work more effectively together to achieve success.
... And many more!
I’ve had the great good fortune to assist many blue chip companies, working with outstanding individuals and business teams across the UK and Ireland, Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Asia Pacific, and across many disciplines ... including hospitality, investment, legal, construction, consultancy, police, finance/banks, Post Office (Consignia), insurance, academia, major openings with Edinburgh International Conference Centre, Glasgow Garden Festival, and national organisations.
Over the years I have sought out and embraced a wide range of understandings related to assisting individuals, teams and organisations to become the best version of themselves and to help them understand that they are the architects of their own reality. To help them build on their unique attributes through their authenticity, integrity and with clarity and confidence.
This has included traditional forms of psychology whilst as a college student; becoming an NLP Master Practitioner (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and coach; touching on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Quality Management Systems. On the way my interest was piqued by Shamanism, through travelling to Peru twice to work with the Mountain Shamans and by meeting and working with the world-renowned African Shaman and author Malidoma Patrice Some. A range of forms of meditation have been very important on my journey, together with Chi Gung, which I have practiced daily for over 20 years. All this culminating in my discovery of The Three Principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought which form the basis of my work today.
The Three Principles help us to recognise that we all have the internal potential and power to invoke real change in our lives by understanding that we are 100% responsible for creating our own reality from the Inside-Out. That all our feelings come directly from our thoughts … that we have innate knowledge, wisdom, creativity, and serenity into which we can tap. It is our choice what we tap into. For example ... will it be be sadness, fear of failure, anger and lack of belief in your abilities, or will it be happiness, joy, serenity, confidence and belief in yourself? They all come from the same source, although it may not always appear so … but we all have free will to choose.
The Three Principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought, evoked a new paradigm shift in psychology, were uncovered by Sydney Banks around 40 years ago and has been hailed by a CEO of the Mayo Clinic (ranked number one in the USA 2016-2017 list of best hospitals in the USA) as the most significant discovery in human health and well-being EVER!
During my work I have, for many years, explained to my clients that they cannot change their behaviour by trying to change their behaviour. Behaviour is an outcome ... the source arises in our thoughts, which in turn affect our emotions (how we feel) and which ultimately feeds our behaviours.
Making a change in our lives is not an intellectual process ... as George Pransky (a colleague of Sydney Banks) says – “Ideas that we agree with on an intellectual level and never implement are more common than crabgrass. But, a moment of realisation, a moment of true understanding changes this. Once this moment occurs, you are already on the path to true change.”
My two published books ... “Guardian Angel” and “The Corporate Shaman,” both business related novels exploring individual and business change, were received well. I’m now contemplating another ... perhaps with a different theme!
A little cameo ... we hear a lot about success and what it means ...
Many years ago, when I was working with an iconic Edinburgh Institution, one of the managers who was in the senior team I was coaching asked me if I could help one of her colleagues who was going through a very difficult time in her life. I, of course, was delighted to agree to help her in whatever way possible.
We spent a number of sessions discussing how she could deal productively with the challenges she was facing in her relationship with a significant other and with her own relationship with herself. And, to access the wisdom within to deal with her challenges.
She ultimately overcame her difficulties through developing an understanding of her own wisdom and felt that she was in a much more peaceful and productive place in her life.
Several years on I was leaving a supermarket in Cameron Toll in Edinburgh when I noticed, firstly that a charity had set up a stall outside the shop, and secondly, that the woman I helped all these years ago was one of the people working with the charity. As I approached the table, she recognised me and came forward to give me a hug and to tell me that “If I hadn’t met you and worked with you all these years ago, I would have been dead by now.” Tears were shed and subsequently I reflected on one of my favourite quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
“To laugh often and love much, to win the
respect of intelligent persons and the affection
of children, to earn the approbation of honest
critics and to endure the betrayal of false
friends; to give one’s self; to leave the world
a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a
garden patch or a redeemed social condition.
to have played and laughed with enthusiasm
and sung with exultation; to know even one
life has breathed easier because you have lived,
this is to have succeeded.”
Charlie Jackson
November 2023