Author: admin

We rush. We work. We strive. We keep going.

So then, when do we pause and give ourselves a bit of credit for our labours? When do we take a moment to reflect on how great we are, how diligent, how successful?

Striving without reflection is a prison without bars. We become trapped on the upward hike and are unable to enjoy the beauty of life. We can lose our sense of perspective and trade happiness for a car with executive level cup holders. We sweat the small stuff!

A ‘stroke’ in Transactional Analysis terms is a unit of recognition and can be either positve or negative. What we stroke develops, so if we take a time out for ourselves then we develop in a healthy way.

In my experience many business people fail to stroke themselves enough, in a positve way. They only talk about the ‘tough stuff’ and don’t share their successes and bits of clever thinking.

When did you last give yourself an A* for being lovely? 

When did you write your ‘end of term’ report and garnish it with happy superlatives?

Excellent! Wonderful! Amazing! Talented! Valuable!

We are all of these things and more.

Our task this week is to choose a superlative for ourselves. What is one word that we can enjoy stroking our self with? Which one do you choose for you?

Feel free to email me and share your greatness!

Have fun!

Next week: Celebrate!

Norwich is a fine city. Full of history, great food, entertainment and culture. It’s also home to cutting edge technology businesses and has a thriving business networking scene.

If you’re wondering where the centre of the UK is then look no further. Norwich is it.

Every Monday there is an online Twitter event worth catching called #NorwichHour where tweeters share trending stories, promote their business and make friends with the rest of the centre of the country. We now have a brilliant new radio show at www.futureradio.co.uk that airs between 8.00 – 9.00pm with live guests, Twitter shout-outs and fab music. I’m part of the presenting team and it is a hectic hour to run the desk and keep the pace up, as we mash radio and tweeting together into a fun hour. The opportunities to push the wrong button at the wrong time are many and varied…

For example, last time I was hosting I set the playlist to 18.00 hours (which we all know is 8.00pm) and was surprised when the Drive Time ident played ….hmmm….clearly someone had programmed the wrong ident! When the 6.30pm What’s On guide played out I was convinced that someone had really made a big mistake with my show.

With five minutes to go before the 9.00pm news I set up the next programme for auto play and the penny dropped with the kind of clang that could be heard around Norfolk. I couldn’t tell the time. 

Luckily no harm done in the long run and a good lesson for me to practice my 24-hour clock. These things happen and the point of the story is this: Sometimes we expect to see something so much that we don’t actually see what is really there. We are blind to reality….18:00 was not 8.00pm however much I thought it was!

This week think about what you’re blind, or deaf, to? What message are you ignoring, or business trend are you refusing to acknowledge?

I played the wrong bits of radio and for that I should be promoted to late night BBC Radio 3 where I can do no damage in the sleepy zone. However, for you the business consequences might be more serious…

This week have fun seeing clearly. I’m off to sort out my time keeping!

Next week: Self Stroking