May 2007
 



Dear Anne

Welcome to another edition of Positive Energy from Milecastle Consultancy.  We’d like to say a BIG thank you to everyone who has forwarded the newsletter on to friends and colleagues.  Our circulation numbers are rapidly growing and we’ve received some very encouraging feedback!

This month’s newsletter is going to help you make the most of yourself.  Together we’re going to identify your values and goals, learn to let go of unhelpful habits and boost your self confidence.

If you’ve been forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive your own FREE copy each month, click here to subscribe.  If you have any feedback, then you can email me or call on 01697 747 821.

Best wishes,



 
 

The Positive Part – How Well Do You Know Yourself?

“Your chances of success in any undertaking can always be measured by your belief in yourself.”  Robert Collier

First let me ask you a few questions.  Why is it important to know yourself?  How much time do you actually spend getting to know yourself?  And more importantly how often do you step back and make sure your life is actually aligned to what you want and what makes you happy?  Probably not enough!

If you are self aware, then you will have a better understanding of where you are, what you want to achieve and how you are going to reach your goals.  You are more likely to:

  • Have confidence in your decisions and opinions

  • Have a healthy curiosity about life

  • Take risks and opportunities

  • Learn from failure

  • Enjoy drive, ambition and motivation to reach your goals.

Your approach to life is based on the set of beliefs that you have acquired over the course of your life so far.  If you know what you believe in and what you value, then you will have a clearer understanding of what you want and what you don’t want.


 

Positive Practice

Taking time to get to know yourself is essential if you want to be happy.  It is worth setting some time aside to complete the exercise below.  So pour yourself a cuppa, give yourself a treat, grab a pen and paper and let’s get started.

  • Step 1 – Compartmentalise your life.  Divide your life into different sections e.g. home, work, relationships, world/community, yourself.  You can have as many sections as you need.

  • Step 2 – Take each aspect of your life and think about what is important to you.  In an ideal world, what would that part of your life look like?  Take work for example - would you like to work flexi time, or work from home? Do you want more or less responsibility?  Do you want the opportunity to develop more skills?  Would you like to be more creative?  This will give you a clear picture of what you want and what will make you happy.

  • Step 3 – It’s now time to make some changes.  You now know what you want, so how are you going to get it?  Take each aspect of your life, look at what is important to you and set yourself some new goals.

With the knowledge that you’re working towards achieving the life you desire, then you’ll be fully motivated to reach your goals!  What’s more you’ll soon discover that you’re feeling a lot more energised, positive and confident.  What have you got to lose?


  

What Can We Do For You?

Sarah from Leicester re-evaluated her life.

Sarah attended a Springboard course and was asked to think about what was important to her.  It was the first time in her adult life that she had given it any thought.  She realised that over the last few years her activities outside of work had become more important to her.  She was no longer prepared to put up with the attitude that she was owned by her employer 24/7.  She decided to put more effort into her fledgling business offering alternative therapies.  She developed a long term plan and now after 3 years she has everything in place.  She now works part time and spends two days a week working from home as a therapist.  Her employer now has a much more positive and committed employee and at the same time she is loving helping her clients to feel better.

What Can You Read?

Visual Thinking by Nancy Margulies and Christine Valenza.  When you are deciding what is important to you, you may find it helpful to draw your ideas rather than write them down.  This book will help you along that path.

Get a Life by Nicholas Bate.  Getting where you want to be is a lot easier with a compass.  Get your life compass here to achieve success in areas from career to fun!

www.perfect-interview.com.  If one of the things on your list is a new job then Gavin’s site and downloadable e-books and leaflets will help you to achieve a perfect interview.

How to Get Rid of Unwanted Habits - a work sheet you can download free from my website, to help you do just that.

Want access to more regular hints and tips to help keep you positive and energised?  Then why not read my Blog.  I regularly update BlogPositive at http://suehewitt.typepad.com.

What’s Happening?

  • Successful Interview Skills

The last two months have been a blur.  We have been busy working with Gavin Preston from Perfect Interview and developing new courses for the UN.  The courses are largely based on NLP principles and have been a huge success with participants in the Middle East.  We can bring a 2 day Successful Interview Skills programme to help your staff get the jobs they are going for, increase their confidence and self esteem.  If you think that your employees are not getting into top jobs because they don’t interview well, then call us today.

  • Emotional Intelligence Assessments

Along your journey of getting to know yourself, you need to get to grips with your emotions.  Why do you react that way in certain situations?  Why do you find it easier to work with some people?  Why is it difficult to get motivated?

Emotional intelligence is about understanding how you feel, the effect your feelings and emotions have on others, and what to do about it. 

Undertaking an emotional intelligence assessment can help you learn more about how you manage yourself and interact with others.  The first stage is to complete an online survey.  This generates a comprehensive report that we then analyse and discuss over the phone for an hour.  We’ll talk about what's important to you and what you'd like to achieve.

The cost is usually £100 +VAT, but the first six people to apply, by clicking here, can take part for just £50 + VAT.  What are you waiting for?

Positive Praise

What did our participants say about our Successful Interview Skills Course?

“Dynamic, interesting, engaging, useful to life as a whole.”

“It gave me the chance to explore myself and increase my self awareness.”

“Helped us learn more about ourselves as well as interview skills.”

In next month’s issue of Positive Energy we’ll look at putting everything you’ve got going for you into action.  Together we’ll evaluate where you shine and how you can make the most of your assets!

 
 
Milecastle Consultancy Ltd
Tel: 01697 747 821  Email: sue.hewitt@milecastle.co.uk  Website: www.milecastle.co.uk
Milecastle Consultancy Ltd, 1 Rose Cottages, Gilsland, Brampton, Cumbria CA8 7AP		  

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