Feeling stuck and overwhelmed is a common struggle, one that can make the way forward seem impossible. Recently, a coaching client reached out to me, expressing their frustration and inability to see a clear path ahead. Their experience is familiar to many of us and highlights a significant challenge: the choice between living on purpose and living in fear. Living …
Effective Decision-Making
We make thousands of decisions every day of our lives. Most of these decisions don’t even enter our consciousness, but the relatively few that do can cause consternation, angst, and stress. This is the first of two (maybe three!) blogs which explores the art of effective decision-making. Decision-making is a problem-solving process through which we identify alternative solutions and choose …
Reflections from an NQT*
I’ve had the privilege of working with a growing number of NQTs (*newly qualified teacher) recently – some of this work is by way of very informal conversations and some is through a more formal coaching arrangement. Either way, I enjoy helping these early career teachers as they search for their place in the world and I’m humbled at the …
The Secret by Mavis Karn
For this post, I unashamedly share someone else’s words. Mavis Karn worked with young offenders in the United States and on leaving her job wanted to give those she worked with a gift. She recalls not wanting to give socks or some other trivia, so instead she wrote this letter and gave each individual a copy. The secret that Mavis …
Unleashing Potential
YouTube is fast becoming my first choice of viewing, ahead of television. And in particular, I enjoy the TED talks (Talks in Education), which first aired in 1984 under the slogan of ‘ideas worth spreading’. One of my all-time favourite TED talks is ‘Are schools killing creativity?’ by Ken Robinson. I’m not alone – this particular TED talk, from 2007, …
Dare to Dream
One of the aspects I enjoy most about my work as a coach, is creating projects which allow me to serve my community. Dare to Dream is such a project. I describe Dare to Dream as a place to dream, to explore and to discover. It’s an opportunity to speak your ideas into the world; to receive feedback and encouragement; …
The Secret of Success
Coaching modalities are often based around goal-setting. Those goals are usually tangible targets such as a new car or a dream holiday. Or they might be about getting a promotion, or earning more money. How about losing weight or building a toned physique? My coaching philosophy isn’t about tangible targets, although that’s usually the starting point for the client. Let …
The view from the top of the hill
Someone asked me the other day what sort of coach I was. I think they were expecting me to say I had a particular specialism – careers or relationships perhaps. However, I don’t consider myself as having a niche as such, so the question got me thinking. How should I describe what I do? Well, to start with, I work …
Dream – Explore – Discover
The eagle-eyed visitors to this website may have noticed the Liz Taplin Coaching strap line (on the blue banner along the bottom of each page): Dream – Explore – Discover. And I’m confident there will be one or two readers who will immediately want to say ‘Liz got it wrong – it should be Explore. Dream. Discover’! Well, they would …