This is the month when love is in the air, thanks to Saint Valentine. But here is a thought for you. When did you last give yourself a Valentine?

That is not as strange as it may seem. As anyone who knows true love will tell you, the more love that you give, the more you receive. This starts an amazing circle of ever increasing love, which makes your eyes shine; your energy level rises and improves every aspect of your life.

The place to start this whole cycle going is with self-love.
This doesn’t mean selfishness and introspection. It means taking time out to truly appreciate all your great qualities, skills and talents.

Many clients benefit from this simple change to their approach to love. So many of us are brought up in a culture where it is considered bad form to put yourself first, we can severely limit the love that we have to give. It can also limit your capacity to receive love. If you don’t love yourself, you may feel that you are unlovable by someone else. At best, this can make you doubt any expressions of love that you receive. At worst, it can even make you repel those who want to love you and that can result in the collapse of a relationship.

Self love is not the same as selfishness. It is the ability to acknowledge all your good points instead of a continual focus on your faults. It means looking into the mirror and seeing a person of great potential. When you can do this you can look the world in the eye, you can give freely and you can project love outwards to others.

The reason why so many people never get to find the one true love that the Valentine’s cards talk about is because the whole idea of self love is alien to them. If they think about it as self-esteem then it becomes more acceptable. Every truly happy and successful person has high self-esteem. This is not the same as arrogance or conceit, it is about giving as much credibility to your positive qualities as you do to all the others.

Some of my clients have discovered that, once they have addressed the issue of self esteem, then everything else just falls into place. The process of increased awareness is simple, gradual and very effective. The biggest pay off is that when you have done it once; you have it for all time. Then you become truly aware that you can be, do or have whatever you want in life – and that includes love.

We are all born with a good awareness of ourselves. What subsequently happens is that we remember all the negative things that others tell us about ourselves and these can swamp our opinions about the good qualities that we have. Decide to
base your impressions of self on what you truly know to be true instead of the opinions of others and you are well on the way to building up that never-ending store of love that is your birthright.

We have all done it. We make New Year resolutions, maybe struggle to keep them for a few days, make ourselves miserable and then lapse back into our old habits.

Sure, we may keep a few of these resolutions during our life but, for most, it is a losing battle. Now I think it is time to reveal vital formula that can ensure that you can keep every resolution without fail.

The key lies in that word ‘resolution’. I suggest that when we make these promises to ourselves, we should drop the ‘re’ bit of the word and concentrate on the ‘solution’.

As a coach I see that many of my clients benefit from this simple change to their thinking. Consider why people make resolutions. It is usually because there is some aspect of their life that they want to change for the better. Then, instead of focusing on the great benefits that they will achieve, they focus on what they are giving up so, of course they fail.

In this life you attract whatever it is that you think about the most. If you
think about negative words like giving up, stopping, doing less or changing something that you have enjoyed for years, then it is inevitable that your subconscious will rebel to ensure that it does not happen.

Instead of thinking about resolutions, think about solutions. Think about how you will look, feel and sound when you have found the solution. Instead of thinking about what you may be giving up, think about what you will gain. Remember too that there is no success or failure; there is only a result. Don’t beat yourself up if the result is not what you planned, just change something and start again.

Can I also offer some pointers about why so many people get results that they see as failure. There are two main reasons. The first is that they try to change the habits of a lifetime overnight and the human mind and body doesn’t work like that. The other is that they attempt to do it alone. The help and support of a non-judgmental and uncritical third party is crucial to a good outcome.

Many coaching clients think that setting a resolution is all that it needs. I often spend the first few coaching sessions getting them to fully appreciate why they choose what they choose and to examine their commitment to the change. Then I get them to define strategies for creating the change with small action steps that will bring them gradually closer to their goals.

Achieving solutions begins with setting them correctly and then having support to make them happen in a timescale that the body and mind can and will accept.
I am always happy to discuss this or other aspects of my approach to coaching, absolutely free of any cost or obligation.

New Year solutions are great if they get you thinking about your life. Remember, you can start work on a new solution at any time. The power of personal change is just too good to be limited to the first few days of the year and it really is possible to keep every resolution without fail.

Contact me now to discuss how you can keep those resolutions!

No, I am not here to tell you any of the rights or wrongs of eating too much or too little of  the right foods or the wrong foods. I am sure you will have read it all before, some information you may believe, other you prefer to dismiss as impractical or downright wrong.

I’m not here to tell you all the health benefits of being at your “correct weight”, whether that means building yourself up or reducing yourself down. After all, it is only a matter of perspective. If you see a height to weight ratio chart and don’t like where your weight calculation puts you, then surely you should be a lot, lot taller ( or shorter if you are way down on “correct” figures) hee hee… get the point?.

The subject of weight can be very emotive and some people will become very defensive when it is mentioned. Some may joke about it, some may cry about it, many will moan about it.

As a Performance coach I regularly encounter people who are at the “end of their tether” on some subject or other. It is not for me to tell them what to do, rather better to coax out of them what THEY are going to do to resolve the situation.

So, back to the matter in hand.

Why would you ever tell yourself or others that you WANT to LOSE WEIGHT??

Stop and think VERY carefully about it.

During the whole of your life (whatever your age) you have tried NOT to lose things.

You would not want to lose your health, your partner, your kids, your wallet or purse, your keys, your handbag, your way in life, your mind, your house, your car, your looks or your way home.

Your subconscious mind has been repeatedly programmed from a very early age NOT to lose things. So, the minute you use the terminology “I want to lose weight”, your very powerful subconscious is smugly sitting in the background saying “ I don’t think so!!

The more you try to lose weight, the more your subconscious says “NO.”

Change your perspective. Begin with the end in mind. Using daily affirmations tell yourself  you weigh your desired weight. Actually use the words “I weight xx pounds or kilos” See yourself thinner. Do not say “ I want to be” or “I will be.” State it as though it already exists the way you want. Be positive, use “I am” statements.

Your subconscious mind does not know the difference between something real or imagined. With daily affirmations that something is as you desire it to be, then by the Law of Attraction it will manifest itself. Never allow a negative thought to enter your mind, you can only hold one thought at a time, make sure it is positive.

A bit like when a mountaineer reaches the top, he looks around and says “now what?” Life has a tendency to become a challenge, but through determination we push through and reach our goals. But what happens when you appear to have reached your goals? Life then seems empty with nothing to strive for, ,nothing to push you onwards. It has all to do with planning. You may have heard the saying “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

It is not as though we failed to plan, life just seemed to run out of road. It does not have to take a major upheaval in your life to change your thoughts, snap you out of your complacency. Yet, it is exactly because of these things, unemployment, redundancy, major illness or loss of a loved one that  the smack in the face wake up call comes along.

Take charge of your life now! By challenging your thoughts I can help you reveal just what your driving factors in life are, how you feel you can better manage and exactly how you define and set your goals for future happiness.

Without wanting to fill the site with a non stop stream of motivating quotes, those which have withstood the test of time have survived because they are quite clearly true. Henry Ford has been widely quoted as saying “If you think you can, or you think you can’t, then you are right!”

This directly refers to what you believe about your abilities in life, love, career or relationships. If you don’t believe you can do something, then no matter what anyone else tells you, your self talk will drag you down.

Even if you appear to be doing well, your subconscious will find a way to sabotage your plans. It does not know reality from imagination. If you feed your subconscious self defeating thoughts then it will run in the background to help you “achieve” those thoughts. Conversely, if you learn how to feed your subconscious positive self  appreciating thoughts, then you WILL achieve what you desire.

Life Coaching can help you to feel as happy ,confident and fulfilled as possible. By working closely with you I will help you improve in some or all of the following areas:

• Personal development
• Work-life balance
• Enhanced health well being
• Time management
• Relationships
• Career path

and many more…..

Debut author delivers a riveting crime novel, in which readers are given real-life insight into the daily workings of an operational police officer in England in the mid 1980’s.

As a devoted husband and family man, Police Constable Tom Springfield was more than happy to transfer from a busy industrial town bursting with crime and chaos to the rural market town of Denby on the Northwest coast of England.  For the first time in his life, he was going to be a familiar figure to the locals in town, rather than a faceless officer working on the beat. Upon his arrival in the police force of Denby, Tom quickly learns to adjust as his daily duties include dealing with the drunks, thieves, death and dragons. However, he soon realizes that while the scale of criminality is significantly lower in his rural hometown, his occupational responsibilities still threaten to conflict with his family life. Will Constable Springfield ever find a balance between working the beat and managing his family affairs?

As a former police officer, author Winston Manton affords readers the “fly on the wall view” of what really goes on within the British police force.  In fact, the stories contained in his fictional thriller Beat Route are all based on real life or death incidents that he experienced first-hand during his time on the beat in rural England. By giving readers a factual insight into the workings and mindset of an operational police officer, Winston Manton hopes to bring across the consideration that all police officers are in fact human beings, with feelings and prejudices that must be finely balanced in order to the complete the job satisfactorily.  Taking the reader through ceaseless twists and turns, Beat Route is an exciting crime novel that reveals the good, the bad, and the ugly of an officer’s life on the beat.

About the Author: Winston Manton served in a rural police force in Northern England in the mid 1980′s, eventually being a qualified Sergeant and Inspector but not attaining the substantive rank before an early retirement  due to ill health.  While Beat Route is Manton’s first novel, a further book is already being planned.

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We all have a mother and a father and, of course, most of us remember them especially on their special days. But now it could be time to go beyond cards and flowers.

We all owe a deep debt of gratitude to our parents for creating us in the first place, then forgiving us roots in a secure environment to progress from infancy to adolescence. The best parents of all then gave us wings so that we could explore the world and soar to the heights of our own vast potential. This is an ideal situation and, alas, one that a great many people feel they have lost out on.

Many of our attitudes to work, relationships and life in general are coloured by how close our childhood came to this ideal. Any couple can become parents without any training, lessons or experience. So it is not surprising that many fall short of the perfection that we might have felt was our due.

The key to overcoming any resentment or regret is forgiveness. After all, what has been done cannot be undone and you are what you are. You are also what you think, so Mothers’ day is a great time to eliminate any negative thinking about your parents. They did the very best that they could with the knowledge that was available to them at the time. Like you, they only discovered what they didn’t know when they needed to know it – so it is hardly surprising that they may have made a few mistakes along the way, they are (or were) only human after all.

Parents who wilfully mistreat their children are excluded from this general observation. These individuals will require a greater effort for forgiveness but it is an effort well worth making.

Some clients are held back in achieving the great things in life because there is simply no room to let them in. If you harbour a grudge or resentment it will fester and impact on everything else that you do and that is like trying to cycle uphill with the brakes on. The way to release the brakes is to just let go.

If it becomes apparent that a client is being held back by some imagined past injustice I ask them three simple questions. ‘Could you let that feeling go?’ ‘Would you let it go?’ ‘When?’

Their answers invariably lead to the client becoming aware of the way forward and going for it. This process also has a positive impact for clients who are parents themselves. In understanding their own parents, they find a greater understanding of their children. In the final analysis we all have a choice. We can carry negativity and bitterness with us to the grave or we can decide, right now, to let it go and replace it with happiness and love. Share that love with your parents before it is too late.

We have all done it. We make New Year resolutions, maybe struggle to keep them for a few days, make ourselves miserable and then lapse back into our old habits.

Sure, we may keep a few of these resolutions during our life but, for most, it is a losing battle. Now I think it is time to reveal vital formula that can ensure that you can keep every resolution without fail.

The key lies in that word ‘resolution’. I suggest that when we make these promises to ourselves, we should drop the ‘re’ bit of the word and concentrate on the ‘solution’.

As a coach I see that many of my clients benefit from this simple change to their thinking. Consider why people make resolutions. It is usually because there is some aspect of their life that they want to change for the better. Then, instead of focusing on the great benefits that they will achieve, they focus on what they are giving up so, of course they fail.

In this life you attract whatever it is that you think about the most. If you think about negative words like giving up, stopping, doing less or changing something that you have enjoyed for years, then it is inevitable that your subconscious will rebel to ensure that it does not happen.

Instead of thinking about resolutions, think about solutions. Think about how you will look, feel and sound when you have found the solution. Instead of thinking about what you may be giving up, think about what you will gain. Remember too that there is no success or failure; there is only a result. Don’t beat yourself up if the result is not what you planned, just change something and start again.

Can I also offer some pointers about why so many people get results that they see as failure. There are two main reasons. The first is that they try to change the habits of a lifetime overnight and the human mind and body doesn’t work like that. The other is that they attempt to do it alone. The help and support of a non-judgmental and uncritical third party is crucial to a good outcome.

Many coaching clients think that setting a resolution is all that it needs. I often spend the first few coaching sessions getting them to fully appreciate why they choose what they choose and to examine their commitment to the change. Then I get them to define strategies for creating the change with small action steps that will bring them gradually closer to their goals.

Achieving solutions begins with setting them correctly and then having support to make them happen in a timescale that the body and mind can and will accept.

I am always happy to discuss this or other aspects of my approach to coaching, absolutely free of any cost or obligation.

New Year solutions are great if they get you thinking about your life. Remember, you can start work on a new solution at any time. The power of personal change is just too good to be limited to the first few days of the year and it really is possible to keep every resolution without fail.

Contact me now to discuss how you can keep those resolutions!

In the process of researching this book I discovered that there were plenty of books and articles written by qualified medical personnel.

There were also some outrageous articles written by people who obviously have never suffered from depression and have tried to write an article or book about a subject of which they only had a third hand knowledge at best.

There is very little evidence and input from people with the actual experience of living with, and successfully overcoming, severe clinical depression.

Whilst this book is not intended as “poor me” memoirs, I have tried to write from the heart, from a place of deep personal pain and learning, and hopefully this will come through as a sharing empathic experience for you, the reader.

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