What are you investing in? We don’t just invest money, we invest our time and energy too. This week I look at 6 different aspects of life including physical and mental health, relationships, career, and future security, and ask how am I investing my time, energy, and resources. I focus on the idea of investing in our dreams and look at the challenges we have to navigate, especially the voice of the inner saboteur. I also recount a story about how I invested in my dream of running my own business and the unexpected dividends I reaped when I committed to taking action.

Your Time With James Sweetman

Episode 126 What are you investing in?

This week on my podcast I’m taking a moment to acknowledge and celebrate the 200th edition of my monthly community ezine Next Steps. Over the last 17 years, I’ve written and distributed my newsletter to my clients and contacts every month for 200 consecutive months. That’s over 600 articles and book reviews. It’s said consistency is key with any marketing initiative, so I certainly adhered to that! Expanding on the theme of recognising achievements, this week I delve into why it is important to celebrate successes and why we can be reluctant to do so. Also having taken time out to review old editions of my ezine I’ve noticed common themes have emerged. I’ll be sharing these too.  

Episode 125 Celebrating the 200th edition of my community ezine Next Steps

For those of us blessed with good hearing listening is a primary sense, it’s how we interpret the audible environment. There are times when we can be very bad listeners. Poor listening skills are the number one marker of poor leadership and poor communication skills. All conflict and complaints arise because someone doesn’t feel listened to or understood. Attentive listening shows that we care, it’s the simplest way to recognise and appreciate others. It’s what makes a good friend. This week, in addition to some practical listening tips, I explain why listening is not a passive exercise. I also take you through the 12 barriers to listening as well as recounting a workshop I attended a few years ago that transformed my listening skills.

Episode 124 Listening

Self-care is more than pampering or shopping, everything that is marketed under the banner of ‘I deserve it.’ In this week’s episode, I’ll be looking at the tough love side of self-love and how self-care is finding a way to be gentle with our precious heart in the midst of life’s challenges and messiness. It’s an area many of us can struggle with, myself included. Whilst cosseting and pampering is balm for the mind, body, and soul, it’s a small part of self-care and sometimes can distract from the real work of caring for the self.

Episode 123 Self-care is not just pampering

This week I’m joined by Bernie Rogers an experienced, coach, trainer, and facilitator. Bernie ran the NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) courses I attended in the past. We speak about how we personally benefited from NLP and how NLP tools and techniques underpin so much of our work with clients. I was fascinated when Bernie spoke about mBit (multiple brain integration techniques) and how to align the wisdom of the head, heart, and gut, something that is very new in the personal development world. For more about Bernie and the NLP and mBit courses she runs, check out www.nlptraininginstitute.com

Episode 122 In conversation with Bernie Rogers

We’ve all heard the adage about not wishing you spent more time in the office as you lie on your deathbed. With offices reopening this autumn, the sentiment is relevant for many people. For some, it’s Sunday night syndrome multiplied by ten, like that dread of the new school year we had as children. For others, it’s ‘JORTO’ the joy of returning to the office. In this week’s episode, I’ll be exploring some of the issues we are all grappling with as we navigate this uncharted territory. I also share triage self-care tips for those times when we feel overwhelmed.  

Episode 121 Fear of Returning to the Office (FORTO)

Over the years I’ve developed a morning routine that sets me up for the day ahead. In this week’s episode, (the last for two weeks as I take a summer holiday) I share the menu of options I use to allow me to go into the day as the best of myself.  In today’s busy, noisy, fearful world we all want to respond to events not react to them, to feel proactive, grounded, aligned, and in control of how we engage with the world. My morning routine is my handrail for doing this. I’m not rigid when it comes to this self-care practice, I like to mix it up, but I find the 30-60 minutes of investment in myself repays me tenfold throughout the day.   

Episode 120 ‘How I start my day’

The theme this week aligns with one of my key intentions with my podcast, which is to present you with an opportunity to pause, reflect and connect with your inner wisdom. This week’s episode is built around 6 questions. They are an invitation for your to take a trip down memory lane, to acknowledge how far you’ve come, and to reconnect with your sources of inspiration. From favorite journeys, gifts received and goals achieved there’s plenty of food for thought. I’ll be sharing my responses to the questions too. If you journal, this week’s episode will have to reaching for your notebook and pen.

Episode 119 A Summer Recharge

Most of us are fully paid up members of the tough on ourselves club, so this week I’m suggesting that you are probably doing better than you give yourself credit for. So often we run the pattern that there is something wrong with us that needs to be fixed, but remember we can be both perfectly ourselves and still be works in progress. This week’s episode is a reality check, a time to take stock and to acknowledge how far you’ve come. I share 15 signs that you are doing fairly ok. I close with a short reflection, powerful words that shift perspective and give us permission to be a little more gentle with ourselves.

Episode 118 Signs that you are doing ok

Did you know that on average we will attend 42 interviews over the course of our careers? This week I’m delving into a topic that is a core part of my business and that’s interview skills coaching. If you have an interview on the horizon this week’s episode will cover all the basics of quality preparation. The themes of communication and influencing skills and promoting what you do are relevant in many other situations too, from sales and presentations to running effective meetings. As I say to my clients, being offered the job, the contract, or the place on the course, is outside of your control so the focus is on controlling what you can control. I share tips for banishing common misconceptions about interviews, how to respond to probably questions, as well as key distinctions when it comes to giving examples to illustrate competencies.

Episode 117 Interview Skills – Essential Preparation

This week I’m joined by Roly Miller who is eLearning & Digital Media Manager with Jobcare. Established in 1994 Jobcare is a charity that provides training, resource services and transitional work programmes to equip unemployed people with the skills to secure and sustain work. What I particularly admire about Jobcare is their ethos that ‘Working Matters,’ that everyone has the right to a form of employment, ensuring people are not left behind. In addition to discussing the services Jobcare provide, Roly speaks about the unforeseen benefits people get from their free programmes. We chat about how they successfully pivoted their services online at the start of the Covid crisis. I also share my experiences of volunteering with them for many years. If you find yourself between jobs, or are interested in volunteering your services to such a worthy cause, be sure to tune in. www.jobcare.ie

Episode 116 In conversation with Roly Miller of Jobcare

This week I’m delighted to be joined by Des Canning, a counselor, and psychotherapist. I was a client of Des’s earlier this year and I’m a huge fan of his work. In an open and frank conversation, we chat about how men can still be reluctant to discuss mental health and to reach out for assistance. I share some of the ways receiving counseling has benefited me. Des speaks about his journey from working in telecoms to following his passion and establishing his own counseling practice. Other themes of our conversation include, how we can be our own worst enemies, acknowledging that we do our best, and seeing ourselves as others see us. Des also shares some beautiful and profound quotes that really spoke to me. An episode not to be missed. 

Episode 115 My conversation with Des Canning

Inspired by all the great sport on TV, and with the Olympics just around the corner, this week I’m exploring the topic of high performance. What does it mean, how do we recognise it and how do we attain it. I define high performance as achieving above and beyond expected results in a sustainable way over the long term. In this episode I’ll take you through what I refer to as the 7 disciples of high performance, including the mindset as well as the personal qualities that all high performers draw upon, irrespective of their field of endeavor.

Episode 114 The Disciplines of High Performance

Are you a corporate mystic? That’s the question I’m posing this week. The word mystic might conjure up a guru living in a cave, or even Yoda from Star Wars. For me, a corporate mystic is an enlightened leader, someone who is comfortable harnessing the wisdom of both head and heart and who inspires and is inspiring. Integrity is a value espoused in every organisation, but integrity is not just the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles, it’s also the state of being whole and undivided. So this week I’m exploring why companies need corporate mystics as well as the qualities of corporate mystics. Maybe you will recognise yourself in the description?

Episode 113 Are a you a corporate mystic?

I’m joined this week by Georgina Durcan an Intuitive Therapist who is affectionately known as the ‘Soul Whisperer.’ In her work, Georgina points the way for her clients to come home to who they truly are. I so enjoyed our conversation and I think you will too. Georgina shared her story, how a breakdown led to a breakthrough, and to her own soul calling. She also speaks about how she helps her clients connect with their internal guidance system, a practice that always leads to our highest good and greatest joy. She tells us about her own self-care practice and the importance of carving moments of joy. She lets us in on the story behind her new Soul Side Up Mantra Card deck, a fantastic resource that I’ve been using every day. It was such an uplifting conversation. Find out more about Georgina and her work by visiting www.georginadurcan.com 

Episode 112 My conversation with Georgina Durcan

Join me for an injection of positivity and inspiration as I share insights and practical strategies on a range of Personal Development and Well-Being topics. In today’s busy world it is all too easy to lose track of what’s truly important, so my intention with each weekly episode is to inspire you to live the fullest, truest expression of yourself.

hubhopper

Your Time With James Sweetman

hubhopper