They are excellent - Excellent Development

Many years ago when I hadn't been coaching for long, I took on a new client Simon Madrell who was in the midst of making a decision about career direction.

For Simon his next career move had to honour his values including the environment, being ethical and authentic and helping others.

We explored many avenues over a period of months and in the end up I remember saying "perhaps you need to set up your own charity" and that's just what he did.

Simon and Joshua who is based in Kenya and is the person who inspired Simon when he was a boyscout, have achieved amazing things and I'm so proud to be connected with them.

They won Charity Awards 2008 and today I heard that they've just won Third Sector Magazine 'Small Charity, Big Achiever' Winner 2009 which is one of their top 3 awards - the others going to an individual and a big charity.

They are a charity you need to check out - http://www.excellentdevelopment.com/

More Simple Abundance advice.

I've also had to catch up on my Simple Abundance reading and I came across this yesterday, all be it from the section for Sept 19th. It's not time limited, this advice relates to anytime.

Sarah Ban Breathnach writes

"Ambition is achievement's soul mate. Action is the matchmaker that brings these affinities together so that sparks can begin to fly and we can set the world on fire"

Wonderful, wonderful stuff.

What, no blog posts?

What have I been doing since September 11th?

A quick trip through my diary reminds me of :

• A very sociable weekend catching up with friends
• a hectic but wonderful couple of days coaching NHS staff in the Chelmsford area as part of a Leadership Course they are doing. They were all fantastic people and I get to see them twice again as part of this initiative.
• some one to one clients on career and life management issues and also stress management
• the discovery of a suspected Achilles problem and research to find out what I could do about that
• a cancelled EEG walk as a result of my discovery above
• networking
• webinar planning with MediaCoach
• paperwork

Yes, it has been busy and I believe that because of that the creativity was not there for me to write.
Sun is shining this morning and it's stunning. I'm holding off my return to walking until tomorrow for my Friday group and then we'll give it an air before the walking trip to France next week. More about that later.

A Psalm for Life

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote:

Let us, then, be up and doing
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to Labor and to wait.

I came across this as the quote for Sept 11th in my Simple Abundance book which, over the years has become rather a bible for me. What a great mantra to live life by.

I have a full day in the office today and I've been up and doing already - feels great.

Keeping on the move.

I've done my East End Girl walks through the summer and did some wonderful exploring of new walks too as well as some client 'walk and talk' sessions but I have to admit that my early morning walking has been rather hit and miss.

I do miss that energetic start to the day so come Sept 1st I started them up again and already 3 days in I feel so much better, so much more energised and therefore more able to tackle the work load that has now come back into my life. I've been making a real effort to power walk and arrive home really hot and sweaty and knowing that I've had a bit of a workout, it makes me feel really great.

If you are aware that you need to get moving more then don't worry too much about the 'hot and sweaty' at the start, just aim to get out there more. There's a wide choice of exercise available but if you're not a swimmer, not into the gym, not a team player and find it hard to attend a class then perhaps walking is for you.

According to research from the Centre of Inflammation and Metabolism in Copenhagen it's the small bouts of activity throughout the day that protect our body from disease. They found that even slight reductions in activity levels quickly added up the chances of age related disease such as heart disease and diabetes.

So what can you do? It's really quite simple:-

• take the stairs instead of the lift.
• walk instead of drive for short journeys
• get off transport a stop earlier and walk
• don't email colleagues in the same building, go and visit them
• take up dancing with friends and make an evening of it
• meet friends for a walk and then have a coffee
• dance around the house
• use your kids trampoline
• get on the kids wii
• put more effort into the housework
• join a walking group
• get a pedometer, it's a great motivational tool

I'm sure there are loads more ideas but these will get you started and don't forget small amounts, you don't have to commit to hours of activity at any one time. Have fun.