Smart Thinking
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X E-mail: info@www.thesmartschool.co.uk Info: Nick Bolton is founder of the Smart School and now heads up the unique Rapid Results Business Coaching programme.Posts by the author (17)

The belief at the very heart of the Smart School

Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in the day to day activity of what you do.  And that’s as true for me as for anyone.

So I like to step back and remind myself of the reasons behind what I do.

You see, if you think about it, training coaches and NLP therapists is an odd kind of profession.  It didn’t exist 30 years ago and it might not exist in 30 years time!  I have no idea!

But what will still exist though is the reason behind what I do.  That’s because there is a value behind things which is much greater than than the tasks you do to achieve it.  In my case, there is a value that training coaches and therapists allows me to achieve.

I was thinking about this today and spoke to my trainers and some friends to ask what they thought it was all about.  After all, sometimes it’s hard to see the wood for the trees and outside eyes can add perspective.  I asked, “what is the purpose that drives our activity.  It’s not training coaches – that’s the thing we do.  The question is why?”

Now at this point, it’s easy to get caught up in fine words and high-sounding principles.  But to me, it’s important to get to what’s really true.  It’s time to get rid of the aspirational language and know what you believe in your very core.

So I stripped away the language that didn’t resonate with me – living with passion, being the very best etc -  I don’t think these are at the root of what we do.  I think it’s perfectly OK to live non-passionately so long as you’re happy.  Who ever said we had to wake up every day with passion pounding in our heart.  Is it even realistic?  And who said we have to be our very best!  To me that sounds like hard work.  Your very best! Blimey, that’s hard going!

I realised that for me, the value at the heart of it all was a belief.

A belief that we all have the ability to choose the life we want to lead.

That life doesn’t have to be defined by particular qualities like excellence, spirituality, passion, success or being the best.  It’s defined by you.  It’s your life.  But it is a choice.

This isn’t some utopian doctrine that we can all easily be happy or even that we deserve to be.  We don’t!  There is no deserve.  There’s just the results of the choices we make (or don’t make.)

I believe we can all choose the life we want to create and we all have it within us to face the challenges along the way.  Whether we get it or not depends on how we take responsibility for making it happen.  And perhaps there’s even a dollop of luck involved – who knows!

So what’s that got to do with coaches then?

Well, although my belief is that we all have the ability to choose our future, I see all around me people not making those choices.  They grumble, make excuses, blame the government, their ex or their boss.  They don’t act now, they didn’t act then and they probably won’t act when.  Some people look to themselves as not good enough, others look to their environment as not good enough and others look to bad luck.  Some just grow careless about their lives – learned helplessness.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the 18th century philosopher said “Man is born free, yet he is everywhere in chains.”  Although he was referring to political chains, his words are equally relevant now except the chains today are largely made in the mind.

In short, I see people stuck in patterns of behaviour, thoughts and beliefs that leave them feeling disempowered.  But notice that word though.  They feel disempowered but they’re not actually disempowered.

At any time, anyone can make new choices and new decisions.  They can act differently and get different outcomes in their life.  And I believe that this the most important realisation anyone can have.  You are not a slave of your past, present or future.  You always have the key to the perceived chains.

So training coaches and NLP therapists is my contribution to changing this in some small way.  The guys we train go out and make a difference in people’s lives by showing them that they have choices and helping them step into them.

And as we train our coaches and therapists, not only do we give them the space to change their lives but we help them change the lives of many more through the work they do with their clients.

For me it is so clear that almost everything we have in our lives is the result of choice.  And, yes, sometimes that belief can be uncomfortable and challenging.  But it’s a far more empowering belief.  And in all we do here at the Smart School we’re ultimately aiming to help people to take back their choice of the life they want to live.

That belief in our power to choose existed long before me and it’ll exist long after me.  I merely carry the torch for it in my own way right now.

That’s why we do what we do.

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