The Development Compass

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the worlds problems” Mahatma Ghandi

The attached podcast and mp3 file is taken from a speech made by Jean Hamilton-Fford recently to a Toastmasters group (to download the mp3 file, click here.). In the speech, Jean talks about our own knowledge and beliefs about our;

• Potential
• Purpose
• Expectations
• Action
• Possibilities

Jean goes on to say that your potential needs to be delivered via taking action. She then asks the following questions of her audience.

• When are you going to strike?
• When are you going to burn as bright as you can and light the world on fire?
• What is your potential?

So, what are you waiting for? Only you can prevent your potential from being discovered.

If you’d like to know more about how to explore your potential fully, contact Jean.

Do we know the answers to our client’s problems before they do? Yes! How can we make such a claim?

Most traditions in the world of personal or professional development hold the belief that the client holds the key to their own personal development, and often just has to remember this fact. This remembering then triggers change and the client grows stronger.

What if a new approach:

• Turns this idea on it’s head?
• Can know the client better than they know themselves?

What if the facilitator of this process can lead the client down an elegant process of change that does not rely on the client’s current level of self awareness?

This is both exciting and interesting.

We’ve seen many different approaches and are curious about where developments will lead. Further to our own experiences, we realise that suggesting a new approach that assumes to know more than the client has a great deal of potential and a heretical flavour. From our perspective, we are interested in learning and exploring new possibilities. We also appreciate the results that this approach achieves.

A central tenet of many fields of practice (psychotherapy, NLP, counselling, coaching etc.) is that the client knows the answers to their questions and the professional helper is there to tease the answers out into conscious awareness via the therapeutic bond, questions asked and distance travelled.

We are saying the exact opposite. Our process, The Foundation Course, lays out a framework to take the client from any starting point to the answers they’ve been seeking, irrespective of their awareness of what’s driving them.

More importantly, the facilitator of The Foundation Course knows the relevant questions to ask and the direction to travel in with the client from the very first minute of the very first session.

The Foundation Course and its results lead the client to what we can only describe as ‘the answer that has thus far eluded them’. Attaining this elusive prize via a consistent process, in a short period of time, at a profound level and learning a lifetime skill has generated profound results that have surpassed our own expectations.

Why do we think we can say this?

Having built The Foundation Course from scratch, the results and outcomes we’ve just described are driven by the knowledge that we:

• Have the answers to the client’s deepest questions
• Can work with the client to own them, no matter their point of self-awareness when the work began

Our work is built on a different theoretical base that is unique to The Development Compass and The Foundation Course. Its experiential base is drawn from 25 years of practice, fine tuned through disciplines as varied as Social Work, Mental Health, Counselling and Coaching.

In light of our experiences above, it is important to stress that The Foundation Course isn’t a silver bullet. We recognise the idea that no single approach is appropriate for everyone who encounters it.

We also know that The Foundation Course has wide appeal as it’s the vehicle that fits with you as you expand your personal effectiveness

We are a genuine, new and unique option. We’re happy to expand on everything we’ve talked about here.

What has held true for those that have chosen to deliver The Foundation Course? They find it much easier, more dynamic and less strenuous to deliver when compared to other approaches.

This principle holds true for clients themselves. Clients often tell us they are amazed they have navigated what they saw before as unacceptable aspects of themselves, with humour, lightness and acceptance.

We know that we are taking a different view of a sacred principle. We invite people to talk to us and help us build our evidence and experience of this. Equally, we are very open and receptive to those who believe we are missing something.

We welcome feedback. If you desire to create a learning conversation with us, please get in touch. If you are an existing practitioner and would like to talk to someone, please contact Christine at christine@thedevelopmentcompass.com. If you are an interested individual, please get in touch with Jean at jean@thedevelopmentcompass.com.

When was the last time you took a holiday that was exciting, full of adventure and wonderment, compelling, inspiring, refreshing, liberating… ? How much did you pay to take that holiday? How long did it take you to prepare to leave, to travel to your mode of transport, to be delivered to your destination, to find your way around a foreign location, to pack to return, to travel to your mode of transport, to be delivered to your home destination, to travel home? Whew… I don’t know about you, but I’m already exhausted.

If you put sorting out kids, pets, plants, someone to watch your home, putting a hold on your mail, making sure everything is settled at work before you go and then addressing everything waiting for you at work upon your return, into the mix - it is compelling to stay home and not even take a holiday!

If you’re wondering why I’m writing to you about holidays, it’s because I want to share with you the last amazing holiday I took. You may want to consider it for yourself.

I went on a holiday last fall that took six weeks - well, an hour a week for six weeks. I wanted adventure, excitement, discovery, inspiration, relaxation, liberation and all the fabulous things a good holiday can deliver. I got a lot more than I bargained for. Let me tell you how it happened…

I prepared for my holiday by putting together the things I would need: a backpack and baggage; survival tools like food, water and matches; a tent with tools; and, I almost forgot, a sense of curiosity and adventure. I was told I’d be provided with a compass but that I could choose how and when I reached my destination. Sounded good to me…

When I first started my holiday, I was asked to do some work. I know, you’re saying work on a holiday??? Yep, work. But, hey, no holiday is complete without a little work. I had to haul my backpack and my baggage everywhere I went - there were no porters provided. I had to manage my time, my food and my supplies. I had to decide which direction I would head in every time I decided it was time to move from one point to the next. I was never lost as I had a compass to keep me going north.

What I found over the six weeks was that, as long as I did the work required, my baggage diminished, my load became lighter and I discovered myself in my adventure. The tour guide I was with got to know me very well over the six weeks and I found the experience liberating, fulfilling and exciting. The real bonus to it… I didn’t have to leave the comfort of my own home.

Okay… I can hear you saying, how can that be as it sounds like you did a lot of traveling and went on a major camping trip? Let me explain… my backpack was the tool I used to hold implements I could access at a moment’s notice to be effective in my experience. The baggage was all the stuff I’d been carrying with me over the years, even from my childhood, that kept slowing me down and holding me back. The tent was a recognition of my time and self management as it symbolised the fact that I had to provide, occasionally, shelter from my work and rest for integrating what I was learning about myself. The food, water and matches were those things that enabled me to keep going: food to sustain me, water to refresh me and matches to remind myself to light the fire of motivation, inspiration, and creativity. My sense of curiosity and adventure… necessary for giving myself permission to explore and consider possibilities. The compass provided by my host… The Foundation Course that is part of The Development Compass.

“Men [and women] go abroad to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars — and they pass by themselves without wondering.” - St Augustine

Most people find themselves paying thousands of pounds for the privilege of taking a holiday that they have to return from to get some rest and relaxation. I paid just a few hundred pounds for the privilege of true freedom! I have never been so relaxed, so calm, so free of everything that used to weigh me down! It has been an amazing benefit to me, my family, my friends and my work. Beyond that, this has given me an alternative work as I am now training to be a facilitator for The Foundation Course. Maybe I’ll be your tour guide one day!

If you’re looking for a holiday that is full of adventure and wonderment, exciting, inspiring, refreshing, liberating… sign up for The Foundation Course. You’ll be glad you did! BTW: If you’re concerned with your carbon footprint, this is a great way to take a holiday from the comfort of your own home and still reap the benefits of a traditional holiday and much more!

If you’d like to speak with me a bit more about my adventure, I’d be happy to share it with you. Feel free to drop me an email at jean@thedevelopmentcompass.com and I’ll share with you why I think this is something to get excited about!

We are pleased to update you with information about a new member of the Development Compass team.

Jean is training to be a facilitator for the Foundation Course. She comes from a background of communication skills and has her own communication skills training company, Powered by Communication. She also holds an MSc in Psychology, is an NLP Practitioner and has a Diploma in Life Coaching from Oxford College.

She is creative, humorous and determined to make a difference utilising her skills. You can get a flavour of Jean by checking out her first post to our blog. You’ll be seeing quite a bit more from Jean in the future. To get you started, here are the first few paragraphs:

“When was the last time you took a holiday that was exciting, full of adventure and wonderment, compelling, inspiring, refreshing, liberating… ? How much did you pay to take that holiday? How long did it take you to prepare to leave, to travel to your mode of transport, to be delivered to your destination, to find your way around a foreign location, to pack to return, to travel to your mode of transport, to be delivered to your home destination, to travel home. Whew… I don’t know about you, but I’m already exhausted.

If you put sorting out kids, pets, plants, someone to watch your home, putting a hold on your mail, making sure everything is settled at work before you go and then addressing everything waiting for you at work upon your return, into the mix - it is compelling to stay home and not even take a holiday!

If you’re wondering why I’m writing to you about holidays, it’s because I want to share with you the last amazing holiday I took. You may want to consider it for yourself.”

If you’d like to read the rest of Jean’s first blog to our site, you can click on this link.

We appreciate your interest and look forward to hearing from you soon. We will keep you updated with further developments as they happen.

We’ve put together a joint event with Donna Bryson of Clearwater Brookes to create a joint seminar on Stress and Motivation. Donna was one of the first facilitators to be accredited by the Development Compass, so its a pleasure to have worked with her on this project too.

The programme focuses on delivering the following benefits:

• An individual stress profile for future reference
• A process to challenge your stressful thoughts
• The ability to delete sources of stress for yourself

Called the 3D Effect, the program is designed to give you the 3D effect - De-stress, Delete and Develop.

De-stress. Interested in living at peak performance? Interested in turning stress around so that it always works for you? Interested in finding out your unique profile that shows the links between self motivation and stress? Discover the answers for you.

Delete. Learn how to literally delete the sources of stress and its effects from your life. Only you can manage what you do. Master the steps to take control and create a new future which is what you truly desire.

Develop. Optimise your potential. Develop what is more true for you, that leads you to clarity, focus and stress free responses.

What is the deal for you?

• Enjoy using cutting edge personal developments to grow yourself to the place you want to be.
• Benefit from an individual stress profile for current use and future reference
• Access a downloadable manual showing how to use Emotional Freedom Techniques
• Discover a powerful self development support tool that enables you to find out what is true for you as you combat stressful thoughts
• Experience a learning environment surrounded by people keen to learn, and master stressful reactions. Use the spa resort hotel to continue this theme at the end of the day
• Morning and afternoon refreshments and three course lunch plus full use of the spa facilities

If you would like to find out more, please contact Donna Bryson on 0141-582-1474, or email her on donna@clearwaterbrookes.com

Alternatively, please download flyers at the links below.

Course Flyer
Course Outline

Courage is generally portrayed as being macho, steadfast and determined in the face of external adversities. However, a different type of courage, a courage that lets us question ourselves, be open and to face our true nature is perhaps ironically, a greater source of strength and energy.

Courage in the Media and Society

Courage in the media is often portrayed through external events and the actions that people take when disaster strikes. We have all seen or read about the courage of soldiers during war time and members of the public who come to the aid of others during flooding and other natural disasters.

All these acts of courage capture something of the human spirit at its best. Our ability to help others during times of crisis takes courage and strength. People who act on instinct often discover abilities they didn’t know they had and as a result, they find something new about themselves. Of course, it does no harm that the bravery of a police officer, soldier or member of the public helps sell more newspapers and attract more viewers!

Internal Courage

Whilst ‘external’ courage is usually celebrated publicly in the media, in print and at award ceremonies, there is another type of courage. Internal courage, or the courage to face ourselves is perhaps even harder and more challenging. Of course, it doesn’t help that internal courage receives far less column inches and airtime.

What do we mean when we talk about internal courage? Perhaps at its simplest, internal courage allows people to question and face themselves. It is the ability to talk directly to that little voice inside our heads. The voice that nags at us, the voice that suggests the easy option or the voice that reminds us what might go wrong if we do something we are unsure of. Put another way, internal courage lets us open up a conversation with ourselves and not be afraid of what that conversation sounds like, or where it might end up. (In our experience and that of our clients, once you have the courage to engage with this conversation, it is simple, straightforward and a whole lot of fun…)

What is the Point of Internal Courage?

Or put another way, why bother talking about internal courage in the first place? Surely it is something you are born with? While there is no doubting that we are all unique (and who knows exactly what we are all born with anyway?), here are some examples of internal courage.

• The person who successfully completes their diet
• The person who achieves a personal ambition
• The person who gives up smoking and kicks the habit
• The person who stops drinking and saves themselves from alcoholism
• The person who goes against cultural or family norms and expectations

We all know people who have achieved personal and significant goals. What they all have in common is the internal courage to change, face themselves and act on it. If you know someone who is talking to you about completing a goal or who wants to change something in their life but who just can’t started or who keeps getting stuck, it is likely that they need a booster of internal courage. Sure, there may be other reasons why certain things don’t get done, but often, the chance to boost your own internal courage works wonders in these situations.

The Courage to Change

Where does all of this leave us? Perhaps the single most important message is that in order to achieve what we want or what we choose, we will always need some internal courage to do this. Having the courage to change is often the missing piece in terms of realising our dreams and ambitions.

If you agree with our sentiments so far and you are thinking about working towards something specific in your life, perhaps you are asking yourself questions like;

• What is my own level of internal courage?
• Do I have enough internal courage to achieve my ambitions?
• How can I get more internal courage?
• I believe I have enough internal courage, but not the needed tools to take me where I desire to go

In terms of answering these questions, our own suggestion is to embark on a journey of self discovery and to look within yourself. We agree with the saying that those who don’t go within, go without! The journey you choose might take many different forms, it may take you to many different places within yourself but perhaps most importantly, you will find the answers that help you change and succeed.

To your change and transition

Just to let everyone know that we are running our first Development Compass Facilitators Accreditation in July.

This will enable you to use the Foundation Course in your own work, plus some specialist reports for individual or workshop settings.

Please get in touch if you’d like to know more.

All the best,

Christine:-)