I finished my 6-month physiotherapy treatment 2 weeks ago. At the last session, the principal therapist told me that there was a dispute among the therapists at the clinic over my case. She explained to me that she did not believe I had a case of a frozen shoulder suggested by her colleague and required to check my date of birth in my record. She did not believe a person of my “age” would have a frozen shoulder before checking my record. I quickly changed the topic and told her that I am confident that I am on the right path of a full recovery.

Yesterday morning I returned to my weekly Pilates class for the first time after going through physiotherapy for the past few months. I was a bit anxious as I felt quite rusty. However, with the help of muscle memory (“Consistency and maintenance”, p.30-31 of my book), I actually managed to keep up. All the hard work in the past 8 years to build up the muscle memory did pay off.

This morning, when I dropped off my shirts at the dry-cleaner, the staff told me that the price is higher in the summer. Out of curiosity, I asked her why. She said it appeared that the volume always goes up every summer for some unknown reason and thus they can charge more. With some pondering, I suggest the following possible reasons:
1) Perhaps people can’t hide their “dirty” shirts under the sweaters/jumpers in the summer.
2) For personal hygienic reason (sweat and such), there is more of a need to change your shirt more often.
3) It is vacation time in the summer. People tend to have less time to take care of their own shirt cleaning.

Another point from the presentation of Dr. Gail Davies which I agreed 100%. It is to easier to start a new difficult task with a small and realistic step. She gave an example that people training for marathon usually start slowly with a much shorter distance than 26.2 miles and build it up gradually. One main reason is to avoid frustration and giving up immediately if we don’t build it up. I think it is logical and sensible as mentioned in my book (Section “Invest the time to work on the basics” p.34-35).

According to Dr. Gail Davies, she said there is no real multi-tasking meaning doing more than one task simultaneously with 100% attention allocated to each of them.  She said it is actually Multi-switching, i.e., switching between different tasks quickly with the exception of some daily habits such as eating and talking as well as walking and talking.  She also suggested that when doing multiple tasks in the same period of time is a necessity, we should be aware and mindful of the task-switching that is going on instead of thinking that it is automatic.

Today I attended to a mindfulness presentation given by Dr. Gail Davies, the founder of MindLab.  She pointed out that mindfulness is more than the ability to focus and concentrate.  It also helps us cope with emotional strains and/or avoid being judgemental.  In addition, it enhances the chance of getting into flow.

As some of you may have known already, I am close to finishing my qualification as a life coach. A frequent question posed to me is “Why are you interested in coaching?”
First of all, it is a natural extension of my passion in personal development. Second, I think everyone can use a coach who can be a sounding board and provide objective feedback. In particular, a coach can help raise awareness of blind spots that the client has.

Ed Miliband, the ex-leader of the Labour party in the U.K. (His party was defeated last Thursday and he resigned subsequently) reportedly employed coaches to have a total make-over to improve his chance of winning voters. According to the article at the Economist (Issue 02-May-2015) titled “The meaning of Mr. Miliband”, it says “The Labour leader has reportedly used the services of 10,000-a-day GBP ($15,400) debate coach.”
Even though he did not win the UK election, his public image was improved drastically after the coaching. Coaching is not magic nor miracle, but it can certainly make a real difference to the recipient.

According to FT Masterclass Personal Training article by Barney Thompson in the FT Weekend Magazine this weekend, the top personal trainer in London Matt Roberts trained clients including David Cameron, Naomi Campbell and Tom Ford, to name a few. Matt adopts a tone (his voice but his body) of 95% encouragement and 5% uncompromising steel. “Robert’s tone is 95 per cent encouragement, 5 per cent uncompromising steel. It’s the 5 per cent that has my attention. I can see why he is good at pushing people who are used to giving orders rather than taking them.”
Indeed, there is always a balance between encouragement and discipline in learning and achieving your goals. The composition and mix will depend on the individual, but missing neither of the two elements will not work.

This has been a strong week for my book sales. I sold 4 copies and there are only 20 copies left to reach my target of 300 paid copies.
A large discount is being offered for the last 20 copies. I will not put it the exact discount here in writing to avoid the “wrath” of some of my supporters who bought it previously at the full price.   To that, I would say my book is still worth the full price and I would give discount priorities (while supplies last) to my “previous customers”.