Coming in as a new recruit to the ever-expanding Chemistry team I was super excited yet also horrifically worried!  I am a prolific, chronic worrier and I did what I knew best, I worried.  Of course I needn’t have wasted my energy, Chemistry is one of the best companies to work for (on the planet if not the entire universe)!  Everyone here is super-awesome, their work is brilliant and there is a constant supply of ridiculously healthy food – I am one happy bunny.

Yet…I can’t stop this worrying! It has become a habit! However, I have acknowledged this and I have taken a stand against it! I have decided to mind my own business, that is – the busy-ness of the thoughts, feelings and emotions constantly running through my head causing me to worry!

During my masters I came across a fantastic concept called ‘Mindfulness’. Although the Buddhists have known about this for thousands of years, it kicked off in the western world in the 70’s and it is now (massively!) rising in popularity.  While it originated from Buddhist tradition, it isn’t inherently related to religion. It is based on the psychological quality of bringing one’s complete attention to the present and then accepting each thought, feeling or sensation that is experienced in a non-judgmental fashion. E.g. When I freak out about whether this blog (my 1st, no pressure) will be good enough, I stop, and take a deep breath.  I acknowledge the emotions that I am feeling, the anxiety and tension in my body and the fact that I’m a little bit peckish (and the critical thought that I have been a little too peckish all week…) Then, I just accept these feelings. I acknowledge that they exist but instead of worrying about it, I carry on with what I am doing, not letting them affect my hilarious and witty writings. BOOM. Mindfulness in action!

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Your people got your business to where it is today. If they remain at their present level of capability, will they enable your vision to be realised?  Can they carry the baton of your culture into the future?

“Love is the selfless promotion of the growth of the other” – Milton Mayoff”On Caring”

Yes and that development of the other has a hard commercial benefit too. Whether you’re part of a corporate enterprise or you own and SME, the building block that is the foundation of your company’s share price or its valuation is your talent.

Skilled valuers of companies are prepared to pay a premium for your business provided they believe you have the best talent in your sector.

If you hold an ambition to increase the equity value, your strategies need to include one to develop your talent. The uplift can be expected to be a 10-20% premium above your sector benchmark. Considerable ROI. As my American colleagues would say – do the maths.

Yesterday we saw over 37,500 elite runners, amateurs, and celebrities taking part in the 32^nd London Marathon. Yesterday, I also asked myself the same question I ask myself every year – could I run the London Marathon?

The answer is simple. Yes. Yes I could run the London Marathon. Not only that, I believe that if you put your mind to something you can pretty much achieve anything you want to.

There is a fundamental ingredient to allowing this statement fulfil it’s potential, and that is that you simply have to decide you can and will do it.

As Confucius once said:

“He who says he can, and he who says he can’t are both usually right.”

This makes it very simple. If you decide that failure is not an option, and you are passionate about what you want to do, then the Universe will get out your way. Will Smith is a big advocate of this notion and says “There’s no reason to have a plan B ‘cause it distracts from Plan A.” Equally, Steve Jobs was known for his ‘reality distortion field,’ in that he warped the perception of what was impossible to possible. 

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So in the Chemistry Year Book I was described as the “most likely to be late”. This is probably the reason why I was caught speeding last October…resulting in my attendance on a Speed Awareness Course last week (btw the booking website is great, I know, I had to re-arrange it 3 times and get a special exemption from plod as I missed the deadline to do it, “most likely to be late” ).

Anyway, I turned up at the grimmest place on earth, to the grimmest building on earth to do my course, ushered in to the grimmest waiting room full of a diverse cross-section of our wonderful population who were in the middle of a raucous and fun filled session…trying to determine who got caught doing the highest speed!  This is when it occurred to me that the AA and plod are properly up against it when attempting to change driver behavior around speeding and so I spent the next 4 hours trying to work out how you’d do it.

I am not quite there yet but what I do know is the current Speed Awareness Course is not it; it actually misses by a mile!

So our leader was an amiable chap, complete petrol head, loves his motorbikes and was at pains to point out how we were all just unlucky and it’s not really our fault we were caught…sorry mate but it was, I don’t expect to get the book thrown at me but I do expect to be accountable for my actions.  An AA leader doesn’t tell the alcoholic that “it’s OK that you fell off the wagon it’s actually the off license’s fault for selling alcohol”.  This was a strange place to start, i.e. appeasement, the reaction was at least 6/7 of the people in the room vehemently agreeing and trying to tell their story of injustice. None of which mattered, they were caught speeding or they wouldn’t have been there, denial was a bit late.  So first mistake, telling the children in the room it’s not really their fault.

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