A Better Question

On the subject of better communication, heavy weight in the coaching world Sir John Whitmore suggests in his book Coaching for Performance (p.47) that the WHY question should be discouraged as it may imply criticism and evokes defensiveness. He recommends replacing it with “What were the reasons..?”

A new look for the 2015

Today I had a coffee with my friend Thomas who is the owner of an optical store in France. I spotted a lovely pair of glasses on the table and it actually belongs to him (no surprise there as I usually carry a copy of my book with me for a similar reason:>). He was […]

Always the right moment

Yesterday morning I went to my weekly Pilates class and spotted a classmate who did not come to the class for a long time. I caught up with him after class and mentioned to him about my book. He said he needed to leave the gym soon and I urged him to wait for me […]

When someone forgets,

A few suggestons to politely remind someone who has forgotten to do something for you without coming across as a pain in the neck. 1) “As a gentle reminder, ..” or “As a kind reminder, ..” 2) “As a quick follow-up, …” 3) “As a positive confirmation, …”

Projecting a POSITIVE light

In order to transform negative energy into a positive one, we must practise speaking in a positive tone. To start, we can avoid using the word NOT. For example:- 1) Replace “It is not my job” with “My job is actually…” 2) Replace “It is not my problem” with “Perhaps someone else can help you […]

How to survive in January?

A few people told me that they felt that January was the toughest month of the year. There are numerous reasons why one would think that way, but let us focus on some simple ways to counter that. 1) Light at the end of the tunnel: Based on the time line, we are actually at […]

When my arm was twisted…

Earlier this week, I went to see my physiotherapist due to the pain from my right arm. While she was twisting my arm to loosen the muscle, she asked me what the cause was.  I replied it was because I was carrying too many books to Canada during Christmas and “naturally” told her a little bit […]

Had the Moment and Move on

One hard lesson that I learned in the recent years as part of maturing process is to accept that “I HAD the moment and move on”.   In other words, accept your moment of doing certain things has passed and moved onto the next stage of life. Lingering on will only cause disappointment and frustration.   There […]

Hit and Miss — Part 5

Hit: So far, the feedback in particular the actions that some of the readers had taken were really encouraging such as taking classes that they always wanted to. As I mentioned before, I think it is the best feedback a self-help writer can ever get :> Miss: Getting readers to write Amazon reviews was more […]

Hit and Miss — Part 4

Hit: Restaurant, café and hair saloon managers were very supportive allowing me to put my promotional posters and postcards there. Miss: Promotional posters were too costly and not very effective on generating sales of my book as the audience were too diverse and might not be interested in the subject of my book.