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Peter Nicholls Articles

Written by: Peter Nicholls

Five Keys to Promoting Positive Human Behaviour - Click To Read Article
When could human behaviour be more positive than when a person is totally absorbed - “in the zone” some might say - in a passionate interest pursued for no other reason than the intrinsic enjoyment of creating the experience. An experience they have freely chosen, over which they have total control, that creatively expresses their natural talents and develops their unique mix of skills and life experiences. That's the true measure of a leisure/recreation/sporting experience. For over 30 years I have worked in the field of recreation development, observing, supporting, encouraging and helping develop positive human behaviour in men and women of all ages and from all walks of life. From this I have gleaned the presence of five basic features of positive human behaviour.

People Poaching - The Problem or the Solution? - Click To Read Article
Attracting and keeping good staff is a major issue today. It's common to poach them and equally common to have them poached. The right workplace culture is vital for both and the answers require going beyond what happens only when people are at work.

Keeping Your Work Life Engine Purring - Click To Read Article
Life in today\'s stressful world is like driving a car. The harder you drive your car, the greater its fuel consumption and the more often it needs to be refueled. It also needs regular care and attention to avoid unexpected breakdowns along the way. You are driving yourself harder and harder each day. This article suggests how to ensure you keep your energy supplies topped up, stay resilient and avoid burnout.

Why Do You Work? (apart from the money) - Click To Read Article
Your reasons for working tell you much about what drives you as a person. These reasons go much deeper than the need to make money to pay the bills. They don’t just drive your work, they drive your life. They get you out of bed each morning with the feeling you have a purpose in life and a contribution to make, irrespective of any payment you might receive. The article includes a short exercise to help you find your own answers. These answers are vital for sustaining your daily energy, resilience and enthusiasm to ensure you keep enjoying living life to the last drop!.

Maturity is About Being True to Yourself - Click To Read Article
From age 50 to 60 has become perhaps the most crucial time for reviewing your life. Nature seems to say we have matured to a point whereby its time to again think about our life’s big picture. It’s time to re-connect with your essence - the person you really are, the product of your seed, your genes, your natural selection process. The person you ‘just are’ – a mixture of your natural talents, skills and passionate interests. It’s not about what you’ve done in life to date. Rather, its about allowing your essence to rekindle its natural desire to pursue ‘the magnificence of uncertainty’. Do it while you still have the health and strength to do so.

Enjoy Beating Burnout - Click To Read Article
Ever wondered how some people seem to be always relaxed and confident at work, no matter how much pressure, stress and change is imposed on them? We're not talking here of sporadic bursts of high pressure that take more than the usual effort. This is all the time - over weeks and months, even years. The answers don't just rest in the way they approach their work. It's more about what they do when they are away from work. This article unlocks some answers that are, and always have been, available to everyone.

Employers of Choice - Why They Attract Employee Loyalty - Click To Read Article
Far from business determining the future of the workforce, the workforce now determines the future of business. While earning money at work is still vital, commitment to one employer is not. People want more than money - they want employment that enables them to achieve their personal goals.

Get a Life You Work Better and Live Longer - Click To Read Article
Workaholism is rife in the business world. To many it is a badge of honour, worn with pride. Yet of the people on the 9/11 hijacked flights who had access to a mobile phone, none of them called the office. This article is for employers and employees alike. The best employees want more than money in deciding where they want to work. The employer needs to consider employees' needs in terms of the whole person, not just the work person. This article is also for people who regard the office as home and home as where you carry on working when you aren’t at the office.

Work + Leisure = Wealth - Click To Read Article
What sort of response would you get from the boss if, on a working day, you said you were off to play golf? The answer could be an enthusiastic yes if the boss is serious about getting and keeping the best staff to do their best work. The power of leisure lies in its ripple effect. This article will interest those who think the title should read work minus leisure equals wealth.

How Passion Unlocks Potential - Click To Read Article
You're at the office, working on a project you feel was made for you. You've become absorbed in your thoughts and the sheer enjoyment of the experience. You pour your natural talents, skills and abilities into a product that only you could create. It's a feeling sometimes described as a ‘state of flow'. It doesn't just happen at work. It can be triggered by any enjoyable experience, be it physical, passive, intellectual, social, manual, environmental, or spiritual. When you lose yourself in something you love, you find yourself.

Work Life Harmony, Rather Than Work Life Balance - Click To Read Article
Work life balance suggests people are living two lives, one at work and one away from work. But people don't 'work' for five days or more and 'live' for two days or less. Work is just one of many roles that people perform in their week. No matter where they are or what they are doing, day or night, people are carrying personal baggage, problems, responsibilities, personal goals and work goals. Separation of work and personal life roles has become a blur and, to many of us, almost a seamless link. Family friendly policies are now only one aspect of the work life balance issue. Work life balance has become a key factor in attracting and retaining good staff, male and female in a buyers market generated by a shortage of quality skilled staff.

How to Create a Great Team out of Unique Individuals - Click To Read Article
Each person is unique in the course of human history, past, present and future. We are each born with a unique set of skills, abilities and talents. We have unique life experiences. Creating an effective, cohesive business team from such diversity can seem well nigh impossible. Every problem is actually an opportunity waiting to be discovered. In this case the answer lies in capitalising on the diversity and uniqueness of the various individuals comprising the team. It's time to view your team as a mosaic rather than a melting pot.

Just Be Yourself - Click To Read Article
You find yourself playing different roles according to what you are doing or who you're with. You try to be one type of person at work, another type of person with friends, another person at home, when you're driving a car,or perhaps when you stand up in public to speak. All these hats we wear every day. The big question is when are you really you? What would happen if you allowed the real you to stand up in every situation you faced? There is a person you were born with all the abilities, talents and skills you need to be that person. This article suggests some ways in which you can learn to enjoy just being yourself.

Who's Writing The Script for Your Life? - Click To Read Article
Most of us have our life script written by others - it began with our parents and teachers. In our adult years the job was taken over by our bosses, clients, partner, other dependants, the economy, world events and so on. We try to be the person we think others expect us to be rather than be the person within that we have always been. It's time to take control and write the script we want.

No Pressure - Any Time in the Next Half Hour Will Do - Click To Read Article
Managing people at work used to be relatively simple - you only worried about what they did during working hours. Private matters were left at home where there was somebody able to look after them while the breadwinner focused on earning the money. And people didn't lead such complicated lives. Boy! Are things different today!

What Makes An Employer of Choice? - Click To Read Article
Far from business determining the future of the workforce, the workforce now determines the future of business. The dollars that come from work continue to be of major importance but not so the commitment to any one employer. The workers want more than money - they want employment that enables them to achieve their personal dreams and goals. Employers of Choice understand that every employee, or potential employee : – is on their own personal journey through life, only some of which is spent in the workplace – has a unique set of life aims and objectives – chooses workplace cultures that best help them achieve those goals, and – sees work not as an end in itself but as a means to other ends.

I Wanna Be a Kid Again! - It's More Fun Than Retiring - Click To Read Article
I loved being a kid and I learned so much while I was playing. But life became serious. I started taking courses I didn't want to do and try to be someone I didn't want to be. Fun became a waste of time that could be better used on making money. Before you know it, life is slipping by fast. At 60, bosses tell you "you're too old to work anymore...go book into God's waiting room and pass the time until you die". That's when I exploded.

Enjoying Good Health for Work and Life - Click To Read Article
Good health is so basic to enjoying success at work and in personal life. It's even more so, now we are likely to live to a ripe old age. While society might be ageing, we want to always feel young and healthy right to the end. How can we enjoy long life and happiness? This article will give you a powerful new perspective on the links between enjoyment and staying healthy for life.

A Cost You Cannot Afford to Cut - Click To Read Article
With fuel costs causing another rapid increase in our daily living costs, its odd that one of the first cuts we make is the cost of maintaining good health - physical and emotional.

How to Make Your Business the Best in the Business - Click To Read Article
Many organisations have got it right - people working together in harmony, passionate, committed, energized, a great culture, strong emotional energies, fantastic popular products. Look at any top orchestra, choir, or rock group. There is much that business managers can learn from them.

How to Sustain Your Inner Strength in Business - Click To Read Article
A tree's strength is found mostly in its roots system, constantly searching for the energy to grow and mature. What you see is the tip of the iceberg. Your strength to survive, thrive and drive your business comes from within you. Here's some tips on tapping into your natural personal energy supply

The Wellbeing of Staff Wellbeing - Click To Read Article
Staff wellbeing is presently clearly unwell. And the jury is out on the extent to which business sees value in doing much about it.

Creating a Megatrend of Human Sustainability - Click To Read Article
Sustainability is said to be the new global megatrend. But the greatest global energy crisis gets little mention in this context - human energy. We are burning human energy at a rate far in excess of our ability to generate new energy. The signs are clear in every workplace and in the community - stress-generated illness, road rage, crime and violence, depression, divorce and suicide. There is a natural, unlimited answer.

From Boomer to Bloomer - A New Life Phase for Baby Boomers - Click To Read Article
Baby boomers are starting to reach what we used to call the age of retirement. Now they are looking to create a new life-cycle with its own stages of birth, growth and maturity.It's time to rename their generation baby bloomers.

7 Steps Towards Turning Work/Life Pain into Pleasure - Click To Read Article
Its hard to enjoy life when you are stressed to the eyeballs by a poor work/life mix. Here are seven practical steps you can taking to start turning things around and enjoy getting back in control of your life, beginning from today.

Leisure Is As Important As Work - Click To Read Article
Leisure is no longer a dirty word in business. In fact its part of a new human resource trend to improve business productivity. Leisure has been out of favour since the Industrial Age work ethic killed it off generations ago as "a waste of productive time”. There's at least five good reasons why it's back in vogue.

Why Employees' Leisure Interests are Good for Business - Click To Read Article
We all possess unique skills and talents, many of which come to the fore only when pursuing passionately-enjoyed leisure interests. Yet most businesses still only focus on the skills and abilities stated on job specifications. Skills audits rarely ask “what skills and abilities do you enjoy using in your personal life?” Passion promotes potential. To ignore skills used in passionate leisure interests is a major loss to the workplace.

What Are You Like at Growing People? - Click To Read Article
Too many managers are still using 20th century traditions for 21st century staff development. The result? Rapid staff turnover, excessive absenteeism and staff conflicts. We need new ways to look at old problems. People are a part of nature, so what can we learn from growing plants?

Your Money or Your Life? - A Financial Crisis Comment - Click To Read Article
Which do you value most - your money or your life? Terrorism, climate change, and wars are being pushed aside in the rush to beg for mercy at the stock exchange shrine. But after we're gone we'll be remembered for what we did in life, not what we spent. The financial crisis is causing increasing numbers to take a more philosophical approach to what 'quality of life' really means.

HOW YOU CAN FORGE YOUR NEW LIFE OUT OF THE FINANCIAL MELTDOWN - Click To Read Article
You can let the financial meltdown run your life, or you can run your own life. The shortage of money – actual or feared – is causing people to look for a new direction in life. You have some powerful natural weapons at your disposal to help you forge the direction you always wanted to go. Your authentic inner self knows what I am talking about.

How to Manage Work/Life Stress - Click To Read Article
Work life balance is a high priority for everyone but it has become a jargon term that doesn't express what people really want. Now the huge job losses following the financial crisis have meant the idea of work life balance is even less meaningful. People are working even longer hours and prolonged excessive stress. There is, however, a better way.

How to Keep a Healthy Bottom Line - Click To Read Article
Her day is non-stop from 7.10 am to 7.10 am next morning. How much would her boss care? Probably very little. But the boss isn't necessarily the ogre. Every working person carries their work and personal problems 24/7. A healthy bottom line depends on regarding all people at work as humans, not resources.

How to Create the Best Life for You - Click To Read Article
It’s likely your current work pressures are forcing you to work longer hours and pushing personal interests aside. But passionate non-work interests are as important to your life as work. You have an array of talents, triggered by passionate interests to develop natural potential. If you strive for personal growth only through your work, you are living a narrow life. But it’s never too late to change.





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