Why is Your Name so Important?

I’ve had a fun week, coaching in London, a great meeting with a new client, catching up on a lot of admin, a meeting about some Mental Resilience workshops I’m putting on in April, May and June, and a really good coaching session with a jockey. Talk about a varied week but I love it! https://www.jdmindcoach.com/training/mental-resilience-training/

As I have said before if you are doing lots of things which are challenging and new, you are creating new electrical connections in your brain which actually improve memory. So I know as I juggle so many things in my world I am getting better and better in so many ways. One thing I repeat often is ‘Every Day in Every Way I am Getting Better and Better.’ I saw a video of someone who repeated this hundreds of times a day and his life threatening illness disappeared for him to live a normal healthy life – to the astonishment of the doctors.

I love it when it gets too busy because I know that not only am I growing in character and my comfort zone is stretching but my mind is also improving as well. So it’s a win win situation, because I win when I am really busy and I win when I have time to relax because that is when my mind and body are recovering and healing.

I’ve just returned from speaking at our church men’s breakfast meeting and it was great fun. We had bacon butties and tea with a few speakers during the morning. This was an interesting experience because I have never spoken to a church group and I would be without a projector and PowerPoint which is my comfort zone when presenting.

What I observed as I prepared for my talk was that I was very relaxed about it and I only spent a couple of hours putting some notes down and didn’t even practice or rehearse any of it. I trusted myself to stand up and deliver the 20 minute talk without practice. I noticed that as I wrote the notes I was visualising myself standing up in front of the men and speaking. So I was automatically doing what I coach my clients to do to gain confidence.

Considering my fear of public speaking in my early years it still fascinates me to watch what happens to me inside my head when the pressure builds up to these speaking events. I have learned techniques which I use to be able to stand up and speak without getting nervous. This was different however as I wasn’t speaking about Mental Resilience which is my main topic and something I am very comfortable with. It was something completely different and something I had just decided to speak on yesterday.

So it was interesting to observe my emotions as the three speakers spoke before me and they did really well. There was a comfort break before my slot so I got up and put my notes on the stand and sat down ready to be introduced. My heart rate was normal and I wasn’t aware of any nerves whatsoever.

This fascinated me and as I stood up and took hold of the microphone I was still calm. I don’t like hand held microphones so this was a challenge as I am used to head mikes or clip on mikes so I can use my hands to animate points. Regardless of this the talk went well and it was nice to sit down having spoken for 20 minutes without much reference to the notes.

The title of this blog is ‘Why is Your Name so Important’ and you are probably wondering by now what all of this has got to do with your name – well it hasn’t got anything to do with it but the next story does.

Yesterday at 5pm I met my client, who is an amateur jockey, for our coaching session on Mental Resilience and Confidence at the Hilton Hotel in Nottingham. He has great potential for the future and wants to improve his mindset.  I set up a tab with the barman Zahid and ordered a pot of tea. I was early so I worked for a while before my client arrived.

When he arrived I ordered more drinks for myself and my client and sat down to start the session. When Zahid arrived he said “here are your drinks Mr Dabrowski.” Not only did he use my name but he pronounced it correctly which isn’t easy. It blew me away that he took the trouble to note my name and check how I pronounced it.

It’s often these little things which have great impact, so when you are going about your business think what little things you can do to take people by surprise. They are often not very big things but make a big difference. Well done to Zahid I’m sure that the Hilton is happy with his ‘above and beyond’ service.

Stay positive and have a great week.

John