27/06/2011 by Christophe.

As Wimbledon fortnight gets into full swing, everyone has an opinion about who their favourites are.
I was watching Serena Williams play France’s Aravane Rezai in the staff room with some colleagues when one of them said “I don’t like [Serena Williams], or her sister, really. I think they’re really arrogant and up themselves”.
“No she’s not”, another replied, “And anyway, she’s bloody good at what she does – surely she’s allowed to be a little bit cocky?”
It got me thinking about the fine line between confidence and arrogance.
Personally, I think the Williams sisters are brilliant at what they do. They train hard to be the best players they can be. And, when they go out on to a tennis court, they have to believe that they’re going to win the match, otherwise, what’s the point in them being there?
That, I think, is where their true talent lies. The belief they have in themselves and their abilities. Maybe some of the other players could do with taking a leaf out of the Williams’ book and believing in themselves a bit more.
In fact, I think we all could. If you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect other people to believe in you?
Think about the people that you admire – the people who you aspire to be like. It’s unlikely that they have got to where they are without believing in themselves.

Do you know when you are stepping over the confidence line and landing into the arrogance world?

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14/06/2011 by Christophe.

‘Dealing with difficult people’

Do we sometimes find it difficult to understand others?
Do we often take personally when people are not behaving in the manner we are expecting?
How much does it affect our life?

We can easily think of a number of situations where we were (or are) involved with people that we find difficult to understand or simply to be with. And how often when we are in these situations, we find ourselves affected by the experience.

For example, you are working with a person whom you found difficult to interact with. One day, you decide to make an effort and ask: ‘Nice outfit, is it new?’. The person responds: ‘No.’. You persist: ‘Is it for a special occasion?’ and again: ‘No.’ You keep wondering what you have done to merit this treatment and how much you can cope with such attitude for much longer.

So what can we do?

There are a number of ways to deal with situations where we are faced with a person that thinks differently to us and may be one of the most easy to use and the most efficient to apply is to consider these:

-    First we can easily accept that everyone is different and might have different opinion, different way of thinking and behaving.
-    Then we can ask ourselves to imagine one of many good reasons why they are behaving that way.
-    And finally we can simply choose to step away from being the victim and choose to regain the control of our own emotions.

As you begin to think about these few points, you will start being more interesting by why people are behaving in the manner they do and what their world could be like. And over the next weeks and months, you will realise how much you are more in control and how less you get affected by the behaviours around you.

Enjoy!

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10/06/2011 by Christophe.

I have just read that a stationmaster with 27 years experience has been sacked because he decided to remove a supermarket trolley from the tracks.  He took all the necessary steps to protect himself and was still fired for a ‘serious breach of health and safety’.

How many examples do we hear, when we can or can’t do something based on the health and safety grounds? It seems that we have reached an age where we apparently need to be protected from all the dangers of life.  We can also wonder how much the often described ‘age of compensation’ is playing a role in the ever increasing health and safety regulations popping up left, right and centre in our every day life.

So, we can easily argue that all these regulations are here to keep us safe but I am more interested by the impact this could have on our life, and maybe more on the life of our children, or even the children of our children.

What would life be if our actions are directed by a large number of signs warning us of all the possible dangers, hazards or threat? How would this affect the way we live our lives, the way we seek opportunities, or even the way we challenge ourselves? How are we making decisions?

What if the more we are told what to do or NOT to do, the less we need our common sense?

What if the more signs are appearing, the less we believe we can take any initiative?

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