Sometimes all we need is a little help
How can I help you achieve YOUR personal and business/career objectives?
Everyone has issues that can get in the way of real achievement - you might like to talk them over - perhaps I can help you too. I am currently developing my coaching practice through practical application and ongoing training and have capacity for only a handful of clients at any time. I am quite prepared to offer a no obligation initial consultation to help you work out whether I'm the kind of person with the kind of experience and insights you could benefit from and as they say, you can't make an informed decision without the information. Get in touch and let's explore the potential for a productive relationship.
Life changing events usually only happen when you are either out of control (external events that happen TO you) or when you consciously engage in a process to lead you to and through the change(s) (internal impulse). It is clear that having a 'co-pilot' to help steer you through the process, providing both support and challenge, can help motivate you and help manage the process so that you stick to your objectives and achieve your goals.
And me? I have been a designer since 1978 specialising initially in off the page advertising and corporate identity before developing a full service design agency covering every aspect of visual communications - you name it... but specialising in typographic work for 2D and 3D applications. This includes print and display, online and offline, above- and below the line. Variety has always been the spice of life. For me if it needed SEEING, I mean REALLY seeing, by my client's customers I relished the challenge of achieving better and better results based on response levels.
I was one of the first designers in Britiain to use the ubiquitous Apple Mac - in 1985 it had a 64kb external Hard Drive!! - it revolutionised the design and publishing industries and when I wrote about the impact it would have, the industry laughed. I was actively designing websites as early as 1996 - I told people then that the world was about to change - most avoided it as long as they could - another limiting human trait!
Some people DID listen and many of my clients began to call upon me to provide business advice alongside the creative services I offered. I'd be called in to give my opinion on staff with whom I'd been working, to help the client evaluate the pros and cons of a particlular marketing strategy and to offer advice on things as important as moving premises and as mundane as the colour of cups and saucers - when it comes to how people perceive a business every little detail matters!'
Following a project with an NLP practitioner I developed a keen interest in how the mind works, what makes people tick and how habitual thinking and our core beliefs can limit the potential of each one of us. This is when I realised I had more to offer than the visual skills I had been using and so I started developing my skills, first as a mentor and more recently as a coach, mainly to assist business people but increasingly to address personal development issues of both business clients and individuals. This has been both fascinating and highly rewarding for all concerned.
Thoughts and Musings
MAKE THE MOST OF THE RECESSION
It's been a tough year or so for many companies and individuals but the old adage ''Every cloud has a silver lining' is as true as ever. Many companies have had to cut back and many individuals have lost their jobs but for many this has been a blessing in disguise. Many companies were running with a layer of fat that they coped with when they could have been trimming that fat much earlier and finding more efficient ways to run their businesses - and be more profitable. Some people found that the job they had relied on was actually holding them back from other potential avenues of success and self-fulfilment. But it takes a major upheaval like a recession to force us into positive action when everything looks rosy.
Not everyone is able to turn a negative to their advantage. Not many are able to see through the depression of their situation - that's where a coach can help for both the businessman and the redundant employee. There ARE possibilities all around us if we can only see things 'with the eyes of a child' - to look with excited possibility and then to formulate a plan of action, put a programme into operation and follow it through to completion. It is far more life-affirming to be proactive and productive rather than reactive and destructive - it's good for the soul too!
October 20, 2009 Posted: by Chris G Day
MY 57 MINUTES ON THE FOURTH PLINTH on October 6th 2009
It all went by so quickly and it's all over now. I threw out a few sweets from Teddy Grays in Dudley and recited the Black Country Alphabet as well as talking (too much?) about some of the work I'm involved in - mainly my work with SEN students - and had a thoroughly spiffing time. It was so liberating - you really should try it if such an opportunity comes along again. I now feel more than capable of addressing a crowd of people in almost any situation. What IS there to worry about? Only our own self-limiting thoughts that are really the anxieties of the ego which can all too easily dominate our attitude to life...
If you have nothing better to do and want to watch a middle-aged Black Country bloke rattle on about all and sundry take a peek at the oneandother website, specifically HERE (opens in a separate window)
September 3, 2009 Posted by Chris G Day
I know, I can't believe it myself but I have been drawn out of the hat to take a place on Antony Gormley's 'Fourth Plinth' in Trafalgar Square. I'll be up there infront of the WORLD (eeek!!) on Tuesday 6th October at 9.00am for an hour.
Click to visit the Oneandother website to see what's happening there right now (Live coverage on the web until 14th October 2009).
I've spent many sleepless nights going over the kinds of things I'd like to do in my hour - my mind seems to come alive at four in the morning when I grab the notepad and scribble things down that next day seem ridiculous. But usually they have the makings of a good idea - to be developed.
My plans, which initially revolved around presenting some kind of a visual statement, have since evolved and will now involve talking about the things that make me who I am. I'll talk about my work as a tutor in a special needs college and the philosophy behind the practical educational curriculum that helps young adults with learning difficulties achieve far more through hands-on craft-based education than they have ever achieved in prior learning. I'll talk about where I'm from; The Black Country, and try to highlight the humourous aspects of being from an area of Britain that has a dialect closest to that of Chaucer's Olde English, Anglo Saxon than any other and that it is now defined as a region in it's own right on Ordnance Survey maps - For the record, it's just to the West of Birmingham, between Wolverhampton, walsall, West Bromwich, and Stourbridge.'m planning to tell some Black Country jokes - Aynuk and Ayli style, recite the Black Country alphabet and read a selection of poems that have influenced me, whilst also doing an homage to the writings of Spike Milligan (my hero) and reading some of my own poems, some of which I have written just for the occasion.
Poems For The Plinth
Here are a couple of the poems I've written for the Fourth Plinth event:
Who is 'The Other'?
It could be any one of us if we threw our hats into the ring
It just so happens that it's me - that itself is the funniest thing
I wasn't really trying to get on the plinth in the square
Just wanted to support Gormley's dream - and now I dare...
to concoct some meaningful project or resist the pressure to perform
And come as I am, an ordinary man with thoughts that may not conform
to the expectations of thousands following it all on the net
My only performance is this poem and others that you haven't heard yet...
There's nothing to cheer or to praise here, I'm not going to sing or to dance
So as the others pass by, I'll hopefully try, to lighten your day with my chance.
Man On Plinth
A man on a plinth once did stand
With words galore in his hand
But the height made him dizzy
He was caught in a tizzy
And quickly forgot what he'd planned