I am just putting the finishing touches to a new Training and Coaching programme that we will be incorperating into our Country Retreat during 2010.
Sant Blai is the ideal venue for Corporate escapes to combine Team Building and Strategy Development away from the confines and restrictions of daily routine. I will be applying an extensive portfolio of all my previous Training experience, together with other specialist courses provided by training profesionals and colleagues here in Mallorca.
Course details and rates will be published shortly: a combination of training mixed with discovery of the delights of Mallorca. Team building will be extended to gastronomic evenings; catas de bodegas of local wines; activity events including: wind surfing; kayaking; cycling; hiking and horse riding.
Sant Blai offers the ideal base to remove all work restrictions. Providing training and coaching in formal classroom style delivery or an open air freestyle team building environment.
From essential Training corner stones as: Interview skills; Appraisal skills; Train the Trainer to bespoke courses and workshops for specified team and company strategy development.
If you or your company require any information or consultation for course development, please get in touch via my contact page.
One of the main reasons you hear given for emigrating to Mallorca is the obvious difference in the summer months between the UK and Mallorca. Mallorca is reported to have over 300 days of sunshine every year – the UK has 300 minutes!! But sunshine is the least of the problems if you look at the weather comparisons now. We are complaining about wind and rain and temperatures of 16º – Look at this satellite picture of the UK today:
We are now officially renaming the UK : Skate Britain!! BBrrrrr
Might even go for a swim after seeing these photos!
The 1st of January traditionally prompts all our new year’s resolutions; spring cleaning;”clear out the old bring in the new” and so on… but really in life and business these actions should be an ongoing process to continually assess our achievements; address our shortcomings and fine tune our forward progress at regular intervals – evaluating once a year is just not enough.
This aside, a new year at least prompts us to assess where we are and where we want to be. A logical progression from this thinking will be to set (realistic) goals and objectives for the year. Make these decisions more concrete by writing them down. Now go a step further and break these goals into “bite size chunks” – put each objective into a “step by step” process and allocate sections of each objective a realistic time to achieve. Now you can insert these “deadlines” into your diary/Outlook calendar/iPhone/Blackberry to check if you have completed these partial goals as planned. Now our New Year’s Resolutions have turned into monthly reviews – just by writing them down!
One of my ongoing efforts to improve and grow my personal and business knowledge is to follow many successful “icons” in business and life coaching. One of my favourites is Ken McCarthy. One of the original pioneers of the internet and still running jam-packed “System Seminars” every year – he has highlighted two very specific actions that will undoubtedly make 2010 a better year for you:
The first is: READ – the world is an ever-changing arena and our success in this moving marketplace will be helped significantly by keeping informed and updated; building on existing skills and refreshing those skills we already have. Search out your “gurus” and take note of what they recommend to read. Make a list of the books you would like to read. Access to this information is so much easier today. If your budget is low or non existant, much of the literature you can find on the internet. Regardless of the advances of the Internet, Libraries are still going strong and can keep you stocked up with your chosen reading matter. Amazon.com has an excellent second-hand and nearly new market of books where you can obtain most titles for a fraction of the book shop prices.
We are currently reviewing our marketing efforts for Sant Blai and Grupo Mallorca Select and I can highly recommend a best seller from another of my “gurus” Mark Joyner – his book “The irresistible Offer” is rocket fuel for your business if you are selling a service or product.
Ken’s second area for action in 2010 is: FOCUS – through his network of thousands of subscribers to his newsletters and seminars he asked his students what was their main concern for 2010. He was initially surprised to find “Focus” as the main concern in his survey. But if we analyse just what has happened in 2009 with Social Networking alone we can see a maze of new information and new ways to communicate. Knowing which of these mediums to use and how, could occupy a lot of our time without harbouring any of the potential. I have one friend who is actually contributing to 150 different Social networks. Focus will of course become a concern in this environment.
My advice on keeping Focused for 2010 (achieved through hours, days and weeks of scouring the internet for my holy grail!)
- Keep it Simple:
i) Select just a few of the most respected experts in your field. Follow their Blogs, subscribe to their newsletters and if possible save them to a desktop programme such as Google Reader.
ii) Allocate Reading times to dedicate to catching up on this information and adapting what is useful for you. Don’t try to read each new article as it arrives in your inbox, as you will definitely be sidetracked from your core business focus (believe me I’ve been there!)
ii) If you find you’re chosen guru’s information is not delivering value for you – delete/unfollow/unsubscribe – keep your reading time for real targeted learning for you.
My office reorganisation for 2010 was completed on the 30th of December. My goals and objectives have been transferred to Excel checklists; Outlook calendars; Computer screen savers and new for 2010 – A diary (sometimes the old systems can still be better!). My office has also seen the addition of a Wall sized “brainstorming” white board.
And last but not least to maintain my Focus (away from excessive facebook; twitter;internet marketers and youtube) – my Procrastination Cube – no office is complete without it!!
Here’s to a Happy, Productive and Successful 2010 for you and yours..
For those of you who think Mallorca is always warm with no variation in the weather throughout the year – here’s some photographic evidence to the contrary. I am still amazed at the sights of tourists arriving at the airport in December in shorts and flip-flops ready to head to the beach. Generally the climate is warm and there are stats saying we have over 300 days of sunshine each year. But the sun shining and hot temperatures do not always go together.
Yesterday 20th December 2009 we had snow in the mountains and some areas in Soller and Valldemosa also. My morning walk with the dogs met beautiful bright sunshine, but 1º temperature and a crisp white frost covering everything. Roc, my husky was in his element rolling in the grass!! Our pool (which is not heated) has swirls of steam floating above the water – you can just make it out in these photos:
The anniversary of my father’s death has recently past and evoked many fond memories of this man who, ten years later I still reach for the phone to call.. At the same time myself as a father communicating with my own daughter through Facebook (the phone seems outdated today!!) brings even more memories of her and her sister as little girls particularly around Christmas time.
With all these thoughts so recently mixed it was a delight to find this wonderful short video that brought tears to my eyes. I want to dedicate this to fathers everywhere and encourage all fathers, sons and daughters to embrace each other this Christmas. Hey and give Mum a hug too – she also deserves it!
Here’s the original reason I sat down to enter something new in my blog. Today we were in Palma and it is really looking Christmasy now.
We visited all the Christmas markets, ate “churros” with hot chocolate as Mallorcan tradition demands; also consumed too many hot chestnuts that I can’t resist. Marta remembers the same guys selling her chestnuts from the same stand since 1980! The streets were overflowing today as it is a fiesta here until Wednesday – great atmosphere. The lights were great and most spectacular around the town hall in Plaza Cort. Here’s the proof:
We’ve just returned from Palma where we spent the day catching up with friends and Marta’s parents and taking in the Christmas markets and the newly illuminated christmas lights. I have taken several (not so good quality) photos with my mobile and when downloading to the computer to add to this post came across several fotos taken randomly this summer up to present day. So in this post I will attach a few with a dateline to help catch up a bit with what we have been doing..
All night DJ Revival Night party in the Campos school
The DJ revival night party is an event that the whole village attends in Campos. It is a continuos succession of djs young and old playing all the favourite songs from all the ages – so appeals to every age group – whole familes are all partying together – really great atmosphere.
Friends of ours own a house right next door to the venue so they have now started running their own all night party for all their friends as they cannot sleep this night anyway!! We had a great meal and drinks at Sebastian’s house before moving next door to boogy!!
This was one of those wonderful hot summer nights in August. We had escaped for the evening to one of our favourite local “chill out” restaurants can Senae. The camera in my mobile doesn’t like taking night shots!!
Fast forwarding to September, here you can find us again at Can Senae, this time for a jamming session with the great local band Big Yuyu and Miguel the owner’s first gig with his own band. The fotos are Big Yuyu top left, Marta very happy after several caipirinhas, Marta with a very serious looking Tomeu (probably cos we’re not in his restaurant Sa Canova!) and Andrea creator of the infamous caipirinhas!!
Here’s Gizmo helping harvest all the alcaroba beans from the many trees we have around Sant Blai. These beans make great winter feed for the donkeys and pony.
As a treat for Marta’s mum (Maggy) we went to a restaurant “on top of the world” – well pretty high up for Mallorca! Restaurant “Na” is on top of the hills overlooking Palma city near the village of Genova. Incredible views both day and night. Unfortunately the food wasn’t as good as the view!!
I had a brief stay in Manacor hospital for a routine op at the beginning of October. Here’s my bed control – helped pass the boredom of no computer or mobile for 48 hours!!
Marta had been nagging me all summer to put some curtains up in the communal breakfast area to create a better night ambiance for when we served evening meals. I hadn’t expected the effect to be so good (this is where Marta says” I told you so!”) Pity I actually got round to doing it just before we closed at the end of October – well it’s ready for 2010 now!
George & Gizmo enjoying a hot November day
Can you believe we were enjoying 28 degrees on the 26th of October. The cats were watching me melting after a few hours gardening. You can see they had been working hard too!!
Fast forwarding again to November 20th. Now we have had a cold snap and the cats suddenly remember how warm the human body is!! Trying to work on the computer with the two furballs fighting for territory..
