I’ve just been helping post the mail-out of a catalogue for the Art Gallery in my village - go look at the website www.artsway.org.uk to be surprised at what can turn up in the middle of the New Forest. I do it voluntarily, and the only tangible thing I get back is a cup of tea, yet I get enormous pleasure from being involved in keeping such an endeavour up and running.
What is it about volunteering that can do that? I guess for me it fulfils that need to be generous with my time and skill (although working a franking machine doesn’t take much skill I sit on committees where my skill usage is more evident). I like having a part of my life that is not driven by the commercial need to put a value on activities through which I make my income.
I know the Royal Yachting Association has been looking at ‘volunteering’ for a few years now, given the socio-economic changes in club member’s life-styles allied to the ever-restricting legal requirements. They’ve got some great Good Practice stuff on their website www.rya.org.uk/WorkingWithUs/volunteers/ and a key part is recognition for what effort, and I guess that’s why I enjoy the odd hour I give ArtSway – I feel appreciated by being given that cup of tea and the friendly welcome.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Monday, June 19, 2006
Contacting me
If you want to contact me, send me an e-mail on cathy@cathyfoster.co.uk. Otherwise phone me on 07771 784441 or +44 7771 784441 if calling from outside the UK.
Fitness, weight loss and life
I’ve had cause to think really hard about my fitness grounding from my sports background in recent weeks. I’ve been working with a couple of people on weight loss and trimming body shape. Neither have the sports training I’ve had, so what parallels could I draw that would be of use to them?
Alongside this, I have been reflecting on my own personal reluctance to follow the exercise programmes given to me by physiotherapists over this winter to help me recover from a broken leg. The programmes have made perfect sense, I have wanted to get back to full fitness and mobility as quickly as possible, and yet………I do them for a few days and then something gets in the way, and then I realise I’ve given up.
I have so wished for someone to coach me through this - to keep me on track and motivated!
I’ve concluded that
1. There are some issues that I cannot coach myself on, and fitness is one of them. Sounds crazy when I’ve been ultra fit for lots of my life, but my metabolism has changed now I spend more time at the computer. In addition the body requires regular routines to settle into if improvement is to be continuous – and I like bucking routine!
2. My failure to do the programmes is NOT lack of will.
3. The issue is not so much fitness as fitting it in with life. Everyone always says ‘it’ll only take…..(5, 15, 30 minutes to do). But every day! That’s a lot of adjustment to make to my life.
So much of sports coaching in this arena is based on monitering and results and seems to be confrontational, ‘succeed or fail’, judgemental. Yet what I really want is someone on my side – to converse with me regularly, to help me talk out the frustrations, to help me find solutions to the myriad of things that get in the way, to help me from feeling overwhelmed by guilt.
Now I find that joining people for a while as a friend in their journey to a different body shape seems to work. I never thought I would be grateful to my broken leg for something, but as so often happens, every cloud has a silver lining.
Alongside this, I have been reflecting on my own personal reluctance to follow the exercise programmes given to me by physiotherapists over this winter to help me recover from a broken leg. The programmes have made perfect sense, I have wanted to get back to full fitness and mobility as quickly as possible, and yet………I do them for a few days and then something gets in the way, and then I realise I’ve given up.
I have so wished for someone to coach me through this - to keep me on track and motivated!
I’ve concluded that
1. There are some issues that I cannot coach myself on, and fitness is one of them. Sounds crazy when I’ve been ultra fit for lots of my life, but my metabolism has changed now I spend more time at the computer. In addition the body requires regular routines to settle into if improvement is to be continuous – and I like bucking routine!
2. My failure to do the programmes is NOT lack of will.
3. The issue is not so much fitness as fitting it in with life. Everyone always says ‘it’ll only take…..(5, 15, 30 minutes to do). But every day! That’s a lot of adjustment to make to my life.
So much of sports coaching in this arena is based on monitering and results and seems to be confrontational, ‘succeed or fail’, judgemental. Yet what I really want is someone on my side – to converse with me regularly, to help me talk out the frustrations, to help me find solutions to the myriad of things that get in the way, to help me from feeling overwhelmed by guilt.
Now I find that joining people for a while as a friend in their journey to a different body shape seems to work. I never thought I would be grateful to my broken leg for something, but as so often happens, every cloud has a silver lining.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Rapport by telephone
It never ceases to astonish me what can be done on the telephone in Life Coaching. I’ve been having conversations with several clients recently which have been full of imagery and movement, and I really feel like I am there with them, yet in fact I’m miles away with all the mysteries of transmitting voices via physics in between.
However I’m not at all sure I’m looking forward to the day of telephone calls which include visuals. Sometimes the anonymity of voice alone is a good thing. If/when vision comes, I’m going to invest in a mask that I can hide behind, since one of the good things about working from home is that you don’t have to dress up for work every day - just like Wilma Flintstone (for those who go back that far!) Dabba dabba dooooooo……!
However I’m not at all sure I’m looking forward to the day of telephone calls which include visuals. Sometimes the anonymity of voice alone is a good thing. If/when vision comes, I’m going to invest in a mask that I can hide behind, since one of the good things about working from home is that you don’t have to dress up for work every day - just like Wilma Flintstone (for those who go back that far!) Dabba dabba dooooooo……!
Monday, May 15, 2006
Competitive Behaviour
A couple of nights ago some things I had been mulling over for some time all came together. A group of people who have done their NLP training with Pegasus NLP Trainings www.nlp-now.co.uk now meet in Bournemouth every month to share ideas, progress and to practice what we have learnt. This time we explored the use of the TOTE technique, a tool for eliciting the strategies that people use in their lives. We focussed this time on ‘What do you do well in your life?’ and I did ‘competition’.
I know a lot about competition. I have played sports all my life, and won two World Championships, 15 European and National Championships as well as finishing 7th at the Olympics in 1984. I’ve also lost a lot – one of the truths about sailing is that it teaches you to cope with losing as well as winning. I know that the rewards of competing aren’t always finishing first – doing the best you can is often (but not always) as good. I ‘do’ competition well – I’m an expert at it.
In sport we often start work with an athlete by identifying strengths and weaknesses, and one of the patterns I have identified is that huge strengths in some situations are often massive weaknesses in others. This holds true for me about competition. Sometimes I end up competing against people in wholly inappropriate situations.
I have now gained a real insight into the issue. I understand far more about why I and others use competitive behaviour outside the forum of competitive events, and how, if selectively applied, it can be put to good use, but also not-so-good use. Now I recognise what triggers this response so that from here on, I can create that little bit of space in both myself and others I work with to judge whether the situation requires a competitive reaction or not.
I do enjoy these insights into the why’s, wherefore’s and when’s of life!
I know a lot about competition. I have played sports all my life, and won two World Championships, 15 European and National Championships as well as finishing 7th at the Olympics in 1984. I’ve also lost a lot – one of the truths about sailing is that it teaches you to cope with losing as well as winning. I know that the rewards of competing aren’t always finishing first – doing the best you can is often (but not always) as good. I ‘do’ competition well – I’m an expert at it.
In sport we often start work with an athlete by identifying strengths and weaknesses, and one of the patterns I have identified is that huge strengths in some situations are often massive weaknesses in others. This holds true for me about competition. Sometimes I end up competing against people in wholly inappropriate situations.
I have now gained a real insight into the issue. I understand far more about why I and others use competitive behaviour outside the forum of competitive events, and how, if selectively applied, it can be put to good use, but also not-so-good use. Now I recognise what triggers this response so that from here on, I can create that little bit of space in both myself and others I work with to judge whether the situation requires a competitive reaction or not.
I do enjoy these insights into the why’s, wherefore’s and when’s of life!
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Race-training in a positive way
I was coaching on board a racing yacht at the weekend – a Mumm 30 for those that know about these things. My client – an owner-driver in this very competitive class – had identified that he could start well is there was a gap to go into, but if there were lots of boats around, then he tended to shy away . So the aim of the time spent afloat was to focus in-depth on the boat-positioning skills needed for the start of a race. I was the on-board-the yacht coach, and my old friend Jim Saltonstall was the coach-in-a-RIB (motorboat) videoing it all from off the boat.
Everyone enjoyed having the two coaches with contrasting but complementary styles there. My client made huge strides, ably assisted by his very willing crew, who worked hard when it would have been all too easy to switch off attention. So often in sports coaching its about taking people to the extremes they fear in the safe environment of a training session in order to develop confidence and flexibility in their reactions for the more normal operations of the sport. My client discovered he had less to worry about than he thought, he developed some techniques to help him to retain control of the boat and that he could trust his crew to help him get out of trouble.
I have been working hard to discipline my coaching style to work off the positives for some time now – and I find time and time again it just works. It never fails to impress me how people seem to be able to shift long-standing less helpful behaviours by keeping the atmosphere up-beat when working on some hard-edged and tricky stuff. This is not a soft, comfortable approach – quite the contrary. I’m finding an atmosphere of respect is generated in which solid work can be done, and consequently, people make greater progress than before.
Everyone enjoyed having the two coaches with contrasting but complementary styles there. My client made huge strides, ably assisted by his very willing crew, who worked hard when it would have been all too easy to switch off attention. So often in sports coaching its about taking people to the extremes they fear in the safe environment of a training session in order to develop confidence and flexibility in their reactions for the more normal operations of the sport. My client discovered he had less to worry about than he thought, he developed some techniques to help him to retain control of the boat and that he could trust his crew to help him get out of trouble.
I have been working hard to discipline my coaching style to work off the positives for some time now – and I find time and time again it just works. It never fails to impress me how people seem to be able to shift long-standing less helpful behaviours by keeping the atmosphere up-beat when working on some hard-edged and tricky stuff. This is not a soft, comfortable approach – quite the contrary. I’m finding an atmosphere of respect is generated in which solid work can be done, and consequently, people make greater progress than before.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Clean Language Teleclass
Blog 8May06
I’ve just done the Clean Language tele-class with Wendy Sullivan. Fascinating experience. I really enjoyed it. We got to practice a number of clean language questions on each other, which was fun. But just as good were the experiences of being questioned and observing the way it worked for others. It gave me the chance to develop a note-taking structure that I will go on to use when recording key words and phrases in conversations during life- and executive-coaching sessions.
It became very clear that it helps to use Clean Language in a way that addresses the outcomes that the person (client) is working towards, rather than the problems. Otherwise you and the client lead each other into less productive arenas. But the wonder of it all is how powerful peoples’ metaphors are – what a constant surprise to work with! That really appeals to me.
There’s a conference with David Groves in the UK later in the year – I wasn’t going to go but I may now.
I’ve just done the Clean Language tele-class with Wendy Sullivan. Fascinating experience. I really enjoyed it. We got to practice a number of clean language questions on each other, which was fun. But just as good were the experiences of being questioned and observing the way it worked for others. It gave me the chance to develop a note-taking structure that I will go on to use when recording key words and phrases in conversations during life- and executive-coaching sessions.
It became very clear that it helps to use Clean Language in a way that addresses the outcomes that the person (client) is working towards, rather than the problems. Otherwise you and the client lead each other into less productive arenas. But the wonder of it all is how powerful peoples’ metaphors are – what a constant surprise to work with! That really appeals to me.
There’s a conference with David Groves in the UK later in the year – I wasn’t going to go but I may now.
Saturday, April 29, 2006
News about past clients
It’s just great hearing good things about people I have been very involved with in the past. Vered Bouskila from Israel, who I coached throughout 2005, has just finished 1st as part of a new team at one of the Grade 1 international sailing regattas – Hyeres, South of France. The results are at http://sof.ffvoile.net/results/470w.htm
I am so delighted for her. She has had a tough time recently and it is just great to see her talent having a chance to develop in a new partnership.
At the same regatta, Annie Lush who sailed with me in our Olympic Campaign 2002-3 in the Yngling class, http://www.cathyfoster.co.uk, was sailing with Nancy Haberland and they finished 4th. Again great news for both. Annie is now an incredibly accomplished international crew, and a World Champion in her own right, while I coached Nancy as part of Carol Cronin's Yngling crew during 2004 after our own campaign finished early. Well done them.
I am so delighted for her. She has had a tough time recently and it is just great to see her talent having a chance to develop in a new partnership.
At the same regatta, Annie Lush who sailed with me in our Olympic Campaign 2002-3 in the Yngling class, http://www.cathyfoster.co.uk, was sailing with Nancy Haberland and they finished 4th. Again great news for both. Annie is now an incredibly accomplished international crew, and a World Champion in her own right, while I coached Nancy as part of Carol Cronin's Yngling crew during 2004 after our own campaign finished early. Well done them.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Beaulieu Boat Jumble
I'm just recovering from a very busy weekend. I've been to the sailing equivalent of a car boot sale in an attempt to reduce 30 years worth of chandlery items. A very interesting experience. It is the first time I've been to Beaulieu Boat Jumble, and its huge! However there were lots of 'shamateur' stalls in amongst the boating enthusiasts looking to re-cycle their old sailing stuff.
I didn't sell much, and some of the more juicy items got stolen so I'm feeling a little bruised by the experience. The preparation and general organisation I put into it went very well, but I'm not an experienced retail salesperson and it showed. The whole thing has reminded me of a very strong lesson I've learnt in the course of my life - focus on what you are good at. In this case being super-organised was no substitute for a poor selling effort.
Hey ho - plans to go to a car boot sale for the next clear out of old worldly goods have been banned from my mind for ever, and eBay, here I come!
I didn't sell much, and some of the more juicy items got stolen so I'm feeling a little bruised by the experience. The preparation and general organisation I put into it went very well, but I'm not an experienced retail salesperson and it showed. The whole thing has reminded me of a very strong lesson I've learnt in the course of my life - focus on what you are good at. In this case being super-organised was no substitute for a poor selling effort.
Hey ho - plans to go to a car boot sale for the next clear out of old worldly goods have been banned from my mind for ever, and eBay, here I come!
Monday, April 17, 2006
Clean Language
A fascinating week for me. I am exploring how NLP can be integrated into my sailing life and work as well as my Life Coaching. I went to an NLP conference last Saturday that while a butterfly experience was none the less rich for that. One of the ‘how to market yourself’ presentations encouraged us to try blogging as a way of establishing an internet presence, so here I am.
I picked up a number of NLP books on subjects that I find particularly intriguing – coaching, NLP and sports coaching and ‘Clean Language’ – and am now steadily working through them.
Clean Language is appealing to me since the many years of coaching sailing at elite level has taught me the power of asking the appropriate question at the right time and in the right way. I want to expand the skills I have already acquired to further effect.
Clean Language is a technique developed by David Groves in which he uses metaphor to ‘heal the child within’. The book describing what he does is ‘Metaphors in the Mind – James Lawley and Penny Thompkins. I may never use the technique itself – it was developed for psychotherapy use – but then again, I may. Wendy Sullivan www.smallchangecompany.com is the main proponent in the UK, and her website describes other uses of clean language in areas I’m interested in – Life and Executive Coaching - so I’ve signed up to one her free teleclasses to try it out. I’ll report back later!
I picked up a number of NLP books on subjects that I find particularly intriguing – coaching, NLP and sports coaching and ‘Clean Language’ – and am now steadily working through them.
Clean Language is appealing to me since the many years of coaching sailing at elite level has taught me the power of asking the appropriate question at the right time and in the right way. I want to expand the skills I have already acquired to further effect.
Clean Language is a technique developed by David Groves in which he uses metaphor to ‘heal the child within’. The book describing what he does is ‘Metaphors in the Mind – James Lawley and Penny Thompkins. I may never use the technique itself – it was developed for psychotherapy use – but then again, I may. Wendy Sullivan www.smallchangecompany.com is the main proponent in the UK, and her website describes other uses of clean language in areas I’m interested in – Life and Executive Coaching - so I’ve signed up to one her free teleclasses to try it out. I’ll report back later!
Monday, April 10, 2006
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