6 Aliens

photo credit: C-Ali

Today’s post is by Marc Winitz. Marc is a VP of large information technology company I the US, a Personal Development blogger and a black belt in Karate who can be found at Black Belt Guide. You can connect with Marc on Twitter @marcwinitz or if you liked this article then why not subscribe to his RSS Feed?

Do you know what your worth is? I don’t mean this in financial terms. I mean on a very personal and human level. You cannot have richness in life unless you first understand what your own self worth is. Do you know what you mean to yourself? What defines you as a person and why? What are the values and principles that drive you? I think very few people really do know this or spend time thinking about it.

As a long time student of martial arts and a teacher in traditional Japanese karate, I have had a unique view on what the term “personal development” means. Most of this art form is about fighting. Not with others mind you, although that is a common view. It’s about the fighting that occurs inside of you.

I have met and trained with many people over decades who all ultimately have wanted the same thing ; to have confidence. They view training in a martial art as a way to build confidence. It achieves that, but gaining confidence is just a coded way of saying that they want to understand themselves or to be happy with who they are. And to help find meaning in their lives.

photo credit: ImNotQuiteJack

I was reminded of the importance of stepping up in an emergency recently when my friend Jen from Reach Our Dreams was involved in a road traffic accident and ended up with her car in a field. Thankfully she was absolutely fine, apart from being a little shaken up, but the people that stopped to help her made all the difference to the situation.

When faced with an emergency that has nothing to do with us, it’s often very easy to just pass on by. Why get involved? It has nothing to do with us. We can’t really help anyway. Someone else will be along in a minute. If you’ve ever thought that, you’re not alone. Many of us do it all the time without even a second thought.

But I want to challenge you to help. I want to challenge you to stop and make a difference not because you think you should but because it’s the right thing to do.

Many of us are fearful in emergency situations, not because they are scary places to be, but because we’re worried about making something worse or not knowing what to do.

For today’s post I thought I’d change pace a bit and give you a little bit of something different. Today I want to offer you a video post I put together recently.

It seems a lot of people are moving to video posts on their blogs or are talking about public speaking of some variety, so I thought, as it is essentially my day job, that I would offer some advice and tips to help.

As this is my first video post, I’d love you to let me know what you think in the comments after it’s finished.

So without futher ado, today’s featured presentation: 7 tips for better presentations.

Note: It’s in 2 parts by the way. Enjoy!

So what did you think? What presentation experiences do you have?

photo credit: p22earl

Today’s post is by Paul Worswick. Paul, is a professional coach working with individuals to support them in their decisions, about where they are going and how they are planning to get there.  He is also the blog writer of diary4life.com and has a great passion for helping people.  Diary 4 Life is a personal growth blog providing tricks and tips for your personal development diary.  Paul has previously worked in Further Education (FE) colleges and training organisations, helping adults, including young people achieve their goals.  His work with Adults and Young People allowed him to experience working with both adult and young offenders. If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, please consider subscribing for regular updates in your favourite reader or by email.

Happiness is something many of us seem to insist be part of our life’s mission; making it our sole purpose! The rather unusual thing is we’ve search for it and claimed to have found it in a number of different places. In our search for happiness it always seems to entail us looking in the most extraordinary places. Fame and fortune maybe! There are so many different sources of happiness presented to us, from the many ‘metaphorical salespeople’, each day and all very tangible opportunities. Salespeople who, themselves are seeking the happiness of a sale! Happiness is a much sought after item; you would think that with so many people searching for it that its true source would have been found by now!

It’s similar to when the police are searching for clues, the more officers they employ in the search, the more chance they have of finding the clues. Eventually they find what they are looking for. So why is that not the case with happiness? With so many people searching for it, why has it not been found? Or has it and we are just not taking any notice. The answer is, yes it has been found and it’s been with you all the time.

What is it that encourages people to seek happiness from fame and fortune; the Hollywood dream or simply winning the X-Factor? Or maybe it’s something more achievable by them; like making their fortune, owning a big house, their dream partner or their favourite car. What are they really searching for? Even more important what happens if they don’t achieve their ‘happiness item’?

I have recently been thinking about my direction in life. I know that I want to help people, as I already do with young people, so I’ve been thinking about ways that I can do that on a personal level. Reading around the blogs that I make time to read on a weekly basis I’ve come across the idea of Life Coaching. This is an idea that has really excited me and has left me wanting more information. So I thought I’d ask a Life Coach that I knew, Christine Livingston from A Different Kind of Work who was amazingly helpful, along with Jen from Reach Our Dreams. I recently ask Christine if she would mind answering some questions for me on what being a Life Coach involves and how it impacts on people’s lives so that I could share  their answers on 6aliens.com. What you read below are her insightful answers to my questions.

If you haven’t come across Christine before this interview, it will be a real eye opener into what she does and how she approaches life. Also check her out at A Different Kind of Work.

Can you describe, Christine, what role a life coach plays in someone’s life?

Good question, Ben! A coach’s role is to help another person – or indeed, a couple, or a team – to achieve something they really want to achieve, or to change something they really want to change.