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”.

At the French (conversational) meet-up last night, one participant stood out from the crowd (even outshone me if that was possible at all).   He was very enthusiastic and tried to make the language as interesting as possible for memorization.  For example, the word for “spokesperson” in French is “porte-parole”. “Porter” means to carry and “parole” means speech. He said “A spokesperson is someone who carries a speech!”
This echoes “Make the subject as interesting as possible” section (p.39-40) of my book. It does make a world of difference in learning if you find the subject interesting.

My weekend experience in Frankfurt reminded me of my 2 nieces’ favorite TV series called Once Upon A Time.
The basic plot is the characters in children’s story books came alive in reality. I had a bit of that feeling during my weekend trip (Yes, I am still talking about it). I have heard my German friend talk about his close German friends for over 10 years and some of them I met briefly 10 years ago in New York. This weekend I saw ALL of them at my friend’s party. Some of their children are in their teens now and my last recollection of them was more than 10 years ago. Of course, the children did not remember me, but I felt a special connection with them that I can’t explain. I felt a special kind of joy seeing that they all had grown into healthy and well-mannered “almost “ adults!
Before my departure, I said goodbye and gave them my warmest blessings individually. Not sure when or if I will see them again, but it does not matter.
My blessings are with them always :>

 

Last weekend I visited a good friend and his family in Frankfurt whom I have known for 15 years since my “golden” days in New York (“golden” not in terms of age but personal development). Despite our different views in the area of personal development, he has supported my book though outright promotion is out of the question which I understand and respect.
He and his wife bought the very first copy of my book via Amazon Germany when my book came out in Oct-2014. In addition, at the party at his house to celebrate the first holy communion of his son, he told me that he could not find my book in his book shelf and asked me to locate it. As a result, I sold the only copy that I carried with me to another guest at the party. All forms of support have not gone unnoticed :>

During my weekend trip to Frankfurt, I only brought one copy of my book with me for a couple of reasons. One reason is that most of the guests at the party are of an intellectual group armed with doctoral degree in Mathematics. I was not sure they would be interested in my book. However, to my surprise, I sold the only copy in my luggage and ran out of promotional postcards at the end of the trip (to be fair, it only happened at the last 15 minutes when I realized that either book sales NOW or never).

This weekend I am going to Frankfurt to attend the first holy communion celebration of the son of two good friends of mine.
As it is a weekend trip and 99% of the people are German speakers, I am not sure if I should carry some copies of my book there for potentials buyers.
My friends bought the very first copy of my book from Germany. I would not expect them to buy an extra copy.
Anyway, I am going to take one copy of the book and a few promotional postcards with me just in case.
I need to be ready at all times :>

I have been telling people that I am going through a “metamorphosis” to build up a more corporate image in public.
As part of this effort, I am in the process of clipping my wings of “eccentricity” which includes no off-the-chart outrageous jokes and comments. It is not to change myself into a completely different person, but to moderate some of more “extreme” behaviors so new people (people that don’t know me well) won’t be scared away :>