Month: May 2006

I drove down to Bristol early Friday morning and caught the X62 into town from Downend. I picked up a new contract which has me working in Bristol over the next week.

The X62 dropped me off at the top of Park Street. From there I found my way up Whiteladies Road. It was a pleasant morning for a walk.

One thing that stuck out for me was the abundance of trendy places to eat with names like: Iguana, Siesta, Tequila Max, Chandos, Dragon Kiss, Henry Africas Hot House, Jumbuck’s, and the Blue Monkey.

I’ll have to try some of these out.

I arrived at the Holiday Inn in Stoke-on-Trent just off of the M6 at junction 15. The roadworks on the M6 were a bitch in a couple of places, but even crawling at 10 mile an hour for a period of time, I still made in the 1.5 hours C0Pilot had estimated. I was there to meet the team I would be working with on my next project.

Side note: My eyes fell out of my head when the lady told me the lousy cup of coffee she served me cost £2.64! Oh my word, It’s amazing how company jack the price up on things because they know they are serving a business clientel.

A quick scan of the Independent:

Dame Helen Mirren was voted the UK’s sexiest pensioner.

the revolution begins

rain is pouring down my cheek
searching for the sea
tomorrow like the rain
i’ll be back home again – alice cooper

yes, it is raining today. not a bad thing, except if you were wanting to lie around on the beach, which i am not, so it is good. i like walking in the rain. as long as the temperature is mild, i find a stroll in a heavy rain shower to be soul cleasing.

i was suppose to be climbing Snowdon with pete today, but his tooth fell apart and he needs t go to the dentist this morning to get it fixed. he has a big meeting tomorrow and wants to look his best, which, if he were going for some extreme sport client, a missing tooth might have been ideal…shows commitment to the sport.

but all things are happen for a reason…

i have a busy schedule coming up in the next two weeks, so in actuality, today is probably a good day for me to have to myself.

yesterday i did to much small mind thinking and started seeing the cracks in the wall, or rather the pettiness of being…well today it is back to big mind thinking…expanding my consciousness and all of that…

These last few weeks have been how I imagine my life to be – full of wonder and mystery, travel, and writing. This morning was a perfect example. I was up at 0530 and wrote for 2 hours. I went to the gym and worked out. And then afterwards went down to my local café and wrote so more. Now I am back at my home office and about to write some more!

My mind is racing with ideas. The cloud that was there earlier this year has lifted. I was lost in the wilderness for a few months and there were many dragons to slay. They are all gone now; and I’ve made it back alive and in one piece – a better man for it I hope.

Does every human being have a purpose?

4,161 / 150,000 (2.8%)

I’ve decided I really need to get hot on some publishable material that supports my philosophy on personal development. I’ve brushed the dust off of the outline I did a while ago. I have re-launched that project with a strict schedule. I am also working on a set of audio CD’s. The aim with both those projects is have something to sell at the end of my workshops and also on my websites, plus to help raise my profile from a PR point of view.

2,085 / 150,000 (1.4%)

Pete and I spent last week in Posnan, Poland at the Negotiation Days III Conference.

We were invited there to deliver workshops on Alpha Leadership, Effective Teambuilding, Influencing Skills, and Coaching. In total, some 80 students attended our workshops.

The Negotiation Days III Conference is a conference organised for students by students. About 3,000 students attended the conference. The theme, of course, was negotiations, but the workshops and lectures covered a variety of topics like coaching and how coaching relates to and can be used in negotiations.

I was impressed by the shear skill and efficiency of the organisers. To organise an international conference of this size is no easy task, but they made it look easy. We were looked after by ‘angels’ who made sure we had everything we needed to make our workshops a success. The angels looked after us the entire time, making sure we were fed and watered both during and after hours.

My observations of the Polish students were that they are bright, energetic, fun-loving, warm, and eager to learn. I asked Artur Banaszkiewickz, one of the angels, and a 4th year International Relations major, what he felt the young 20-something Poles wanted for themselves as a generation. “We want to be seen as a nation to be important. We want to be good at something and respected for how good we are.”

My other observation is that these young leaders of the future are great travellers. Many of them travel to the U.S., U.K., and Ireland to work, learn, and practice their English.

I had a great time. Some memorable moments: being made an honorary DJ at 2am at a student party, drinking homemade Hungarian vodka at same party, and stumbling home from the big end of conference party at 5am and ripping the flesh off of a whole chicken (cooked of course!) with Artur, Wojciech, Patryk, and Pete. Oh yes, and learning the true meaning of nie martw sie after we missed our flight home Friday evening!

To see photos of Pete and I in action click here.