Christmas is coming........

With Christmas coming up, it’s been an incredibly busy time – not just for me but everyone I know. And yet it’s also a time of memories and rituals. I’ve just been sent an article on ‘Why we party at this time of year’.

Did you know?
Winter Solstice has been celebrated in cultures the world over for thousands of years. This start of the solar year is a celebration of Light and the rebirth of the Sun. In old Europe, it was known as Yule, from the Norse, Jul, meaning wheel. Today, many people in Western-based cultures refer to this holiday as "Christmas." Yet a look into its origins of Christmas reveals its Pagan roots. Emperor Aurelian established December 25 as the birthday of the "Invincible Sun" in the third century as part of the Roman Winter Solstice celebrations. Shortly thereafter, in 273, the Christian church selected this day to represent the birthday of Jesus, and by 336, this Roman solar feast day was Christianized. January 6, celebrated as Epiphany in Christendom and linked with the visit of the Magi, was originally an Egyptian date for the Winter Solstice.

Most of the customs, lore, symbols, and rituals associated with "Christmas" actually are linked to Winter Solstice celebrations of ancient Pagan cultures.

Season’s Greetings everyone!

Here’s one turkey that got away – maybe!

Hard- and software hassle!

There’s only one thing I regret about being self-employed, and that is the need to source and sort out my own hard- and software – cars, computers, phones etc. I’m upgrading and re-organising various bits of essential office equipment right now, and am undergoing the frustrations of things just not working first time, or unexpected glitches turning up.

The one supplier service I never bemoan having is access to people who fix my computer. The guys at Soluxion www.soluxion.com look after me and my hassles - with a will and a laugh which always helps to defuse the accumulated tension. Computers are central to my life now so it’s essential keep everything working in synch.

Funnily enough, one of the outstanding improvements to work life when I went freelance in 1990 was getting my own computor for the first time, and no longer being dependant on the whims of typists to get my reports finished. Thank goodness computers have got more reliable and faster since those days.

Coaching Articles

I write articles on coaching for Dinghy magazine http://www.dinghysailingmagazine.co.uk/ .
I enjoy doing it since sometimes the simple subjects are the most stretching. The issue about to come out has my article on ‘What makes a good coach?’ and it took a bit of thought to get to the real core of what I believe is quality coaching.

I used three excellent sources for background material – Alan Olive the Coach Educator at the RYA http://www.rya.org.uk/, Ben Cowley, researcher at sportscoach UK http://www.sportscoachuk.org/ and the book ‘Coaching with NLP’ by Joseph O’Connor and Andrea Lages, ISBN: 0007151225.

I also thought long and hard about how coaches inspire people to do better. I thought about my old mate Jim Saltonstall, who is renowned for his ability to get his sailors to sail really well when it matters, and what shone though my thinking was the sheer force of his character that he uses to such good effect at critical moments to inspire belief. When being coached by Jim you get the feeling that he has faith in you, and because you trust him, if follows that you then have trust in yourself.

I had cause to look at this article again (I wrote it a month ago now) while preparing some work for the business consultancy I belong to, Berkshire Consultancy http://www.berkshire.co.uk/ . Reading it again with my consultancy hat on, a lot of what I have written rings true for coaching in business too – a proof to me that coaching really is a universal skill.