Tom Jones is in Nice this week as part of the Jazz Festival and it was great to see and hear the great singer blast out his songs at the age of 83. It got me thinking about something that happened recently while driving down to visit my hometown in Southwest Scotland. The song, Somewhere in My Heart by Aztec Camera came up on my playlist. I turned the volume up LOUD. I was taken right back to being 18 again. A wave of happiness came upon me like it was yesterday! Thirty years later I still felt the joy, excitement, and the confidence of that moment.
This was a time of change in my life back then. My mother and I left the family home to escape my alcoholic father, I was the first in my family to be going to university in autumn of 1989 and more importantly I passed my driving test! Life was great and I was ready for anything. That summer was a turning point in my life and the music playing reminded me of my resilience and ability to deal with all the challenges I had faced growing up.
Confidence, resilience, and self-belief are at the heart of personal success but as we all know there are times in life when we don’t feel that way. Those are the times in our lives where we must pull upon our strengths to face adversity or make a change. We often forget this when dealing with new challenges, the unexpected or when events aren’t turning out the way we had hoped. Music is a really good way to start conversations about positive times in our lives. It might be the tune or it might be the lyrics… it’s always the tune for me!
Change is dependent on your mindset, your strengths and resilience. This is where I start when working with new clients. It’s so important to reflect on and explore the strengths we they have pulled upon during our lived experience. Your experiences can be at the foundation of your future success. The power of my coaching technique is that it is builds on the best of my clients, their strengths, their experiences and ultimately their actions. Music comes into my work frequently and I find it a great way to start a conversation, evoke memories and as I said, remember times of strength, happiness, and success. These feelings are real, tangible, and helpful.
One of my current client’s (an award-winning and successful journalist) favourite and motivational song is ‘Gonna Fly Now’, the theme tune from the Rocky film series. This tune was significant for my client as it was a time when she was learning her craft as a young journalist and very much in a ‘learning zone’ as she began her career. She didn’t know it all, she wasn’t always confident but she made it to the top of her profession by using her skills and strengths. These lyrics are particularly relevant to her because for the last few months she has been working on overcoming her fear of public speaking. We revisited these strengths as part of my bespoke coaching programme. She has the words, she has the subject knowledge, she has attention to detail, but what she has done is work with me to identify the fears about speaking, understand and reframe them whilst building on all her strengths to become a confident speaker and presenter.
As her motivation music blasts out ‘trying hard now, getting strong now, gonna fly now, flying high now’ it reflects on what she has done in taking positive steps to improve. Just as it was in the past, this music now reminds her of her current success in making significant improvements as part our coaching work. I have suggested that she blasts this tune out on her arrival on stage when she speaks publicly but she’s not quite up for that!
If this resonates and you would like to know more about my bespoke coaching programme to help your reach your goals and conquer your fears please get in touch. We can discuss music too, have a coffee and discover the potential for you or your organisation to make long lasting and successful change.
Go play your favourite tune and see what comes to mind.
Calum Maxwell
Leadership Consultant & Executive Coach
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