Connect To Your Potential The Path to Emotionally Intelligent Relationships

Author: Andrew

Published: 27 articles and projects

The Best You

Andrew

Do you want to become The Best You?

  • Do you want to achieve permanent, positive change?
  • Are you still searching to find the real you?
  • Are loving relationships and lasting happiness passing you by?
  • Do you lack purpose and direction?

Perhaps you’ve read the self-help books, watched the videos and attended the events, but you still can’t find your path to self-fulfilment and happiness?

The Best You ExpoWe’ve found the solution you’ve been searching for, and we want to share it with you.

We are husband and wife team Andrew and Diane Nicholson from Connect To Your Potential. We’d like to invite you to come and meet us, plus here our two talks at the UK’s biggest personal development event – The Best You Expo, which takes place on Sat-Sun 4-5th March 2017 at ExCel London. We are on Stand 26b.

Here’s the link to our speaker biography page, plus some of our credentials: Read More →

Confidence and Courage is launched!

Andrew

I am so pleased that our all new Confidence and Courage six week online programme has been launched. I want to share some of the key reasons why I am so passionate about this course.

Several existing clients have already bought the programme as it is a great reminder to reinforce and build upon previous workshops or Breakthrough Experiences that they have completed with us.

For other’s who we haven’t worked with before, it is a fantastic, affordable and accessible springboard and launch-point for living up to your potential.

Confidence and Courage

A major reason came Read More →

The Myth of Normal

Andrew

‘Society generates (mental) pathology’ – i.e. much of it is avoidable. I have a lot of time for this point of view. Here’s (in my view) a great video on the subject:

I am no clinician, but have studied wellbeing from many different angles. As such I am more than sceptical about much of the medical ‘industry’ when it comes to diagnosis of mental health conditions and the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).

Dr. Gabor Maté talks about many conditions that are diagnosed as abnormal (such as anxiety, depression, addiction…), as being on a continuum much of which could/should be considered normal.

Normal is worse than over-rated as a  concept – it is dangerous.

Having worked with many hundreds of clients on their Read More →

Resolutions and Goals vs. Direction & Purpose

Andrew

Happy New Year everyone.

If you are intent on setting goals and resolutions for this year, then read on – if not, then have a great one.

My advice would be:

1) Goal setting and SMART goals can help to achieve something specific, and rarely have a lasting or profound outcome. I.e. once the goal is achieved, it is done and life probably hasn’t changed all that much; your problems haven’t been resolved and potential fully embraced.

The word ‘resolution’ has many meanings. One is “the act or process of resolving or separating something into constituent or elementary parts”.

2) A great resolution is to get more resolution and insight into yourself – your constituent or elementary parts.

By understanding your personality, ego, motivations, values and the limiting beliefs that come between you and your potential, you can set a meaningful direction and purpose. This helps you to make much better decisions, in alignment with your inner truth and potential.

If you would like to master this, we have a well-developed process to allow you to.  More details here:

Have you stopped growing up?

Andrew
growing up

I’ve just started watching a fascinating programme on Channel 4 about the developmental psychology of 4, 5 and 6 year olds.

Here’s the thing. I watched it after watching an episode of the Apprentice on BBC iPlayer. The patterns of behaviour were remarkably similar! Defensiveness, entitlement, boys vs. girls, bravado….

It begs the question – how grown up are you? When did we stop growing up? How much more growing up is possible/desirable?

Adolescent Minds

It is my contention that most of us are adolescent minds and souls – struggling in an adult body and world Read More →

A reflection on Coaching vs Mentoring + Awareness

Andrew
coach vs mentor

Having always had an interest in ‘what makes us tick’, over the past 30 years I have formally and informally studied many aspects of human behaviour and performance. As I write this, I have just turned 50 years young. Upon reaching the age of 39, I came to the realisation that life wasn’t going how I wanted it to, not that I had much of a plan. I experienced a year of intense frustration – post-divorce, post-redundancy, and at a time when it became apparent that I needed to change what I was doing in order to get different results – certainly from a relationship and a career perspective. I didn’t know what I wanted to do – just that I don’t want more of the same…

During this time, I re-connected with an old friend – I shall call him Ali. He had been through similarly challenging times. After listening to my tale of woe, he suggested getting into personal development, in order to develop some new perspectives on life. I went along to monthly personal development groups in Birmingham and listened to a different speaker reach month on a wide variety of subjects including: health, wealth, positive thinking and relationships. This gradually helped me to reflect on my state of ‘woe’ and upon my potential for much greater things.

reflection ~

  • The throwing back by a body or surface of light, heat, or sound without absorbing it.
  • Serious thought or consideration.

These ‘PD’ meetings gave me the lift and the kick I needed. They opened up my thinking, got me focused on new possibilities and motivated to change. Read More →

Awakening Your Emotional Intelligence

Andrew
Happiness & Wellbeing Light house

Much has been written about Emotional Intelligence, otherwise known as EQ. It is said to be the most important aspect of Leadership and a critical success factor in life. We agree and fundamentally believe that EQ is the bedrock of happiness and wellness.

Despite its importance, EQ is generally misunderstood and overlooked, with its cousin IQ taking centre stage and being over-used to assess and promote learning and ability. Emotional intelligence is not one thing and not so easy to assess; rather it is a rich combination of attributes such as self-awareness, openness, empathy and presence – a very different kind of wisdom…

Emotional intelligence has been defined as:

  • Knowing and managing your emotions
  • Motivating yourself
  • Recognising and understanding other people’s emotions
  • Managing relationships

Now consider these wise quotes Read More →

When positive thinking is simply papering over the cracks…

Andrew
Shadow Side

By Diane Nicholson (originally posted on Di’s Blog December 2013)

A few years ago I discovered that I am an Enneagram type Two. The Enneagram is an ancient wisdom which teaches about the 9 ways of ‘being’ and perceiving life. It was created mainly for the egoic traits that arise through each type. Each of the 9 types are different, but have pretty much default and predictable behavioural patterns, and between them they make up humanity. When you understand this, you tend to understand why so many people feel so easily offended or can be judgemental in today’s society… it’s because we are all so different whilst telling each other ‘Be like me, be like me!’ rather than ‘Be like you, be like you!’

These days, the Enneagram has become so sugar-coated to make it socially acceptable so that it doesn’t offend the fragile egos of those who would have to face the truth about how they show up at times, the patterns they play on themselves and others, and how they hold themselves back. With this sugar-coating, the wisdom and potential the Enneagram contains becomes hugely diluted. You see, you cannot hold back from seeing the complete truth about how your ego shows up, then also expect to recognise and break through the patterns of that same ego. Because you cannot break through what you cannot see.

One of the things I discovered about being a Two… Read More →

Taking Responsibility for your Feelings

Andrew
Feelings and your emotional remote control

Imagine you are like a TV set. Everything that appears on your screen is set by your remote control – your channel, volume, brightness, contrast… everything. This remote belongs to you – it was made specifically for your set and works with no other TV.

Everything that displays on your screen is the frequency you choose for yourself, which then projects your programme, sound, energy and waves into the world.

Now imagine readily handing over your remote control to another, so that they can decide this for you, and instead of you…

You simply wouldn’t do that, would you?

Good! Ok, now that we’ve established that, you’re saying that no one else decides how you feel at any given time, right?

‘No?’ So others do have the power affect your feelings – to bring you down, raise you up, make you feel bad, make you angry, sad?

Thing is…  Read More →

Why Men Don’t Step Up for Women

Andrew
feminine vulnerability

By Diane Nicholson

Ladies, you know how it feels when you’re around a man who is so healthily in his masculine that it makes you go weak at the knees? It’s incredibly sexy, and creates a very powerful polarity between the two energies. Most women feel swept off their feet when they experience this.

Some women will be lucky enough to have a partner who is like this, and others may experience it very briefly in their daily interactions with men. What if luck actually had very little to do with it? What if every woman could experience this in a deeply intimate relationship?

Because I truly believe they can.

I’m going to let you in to a little secret. Well, it’s not so little and it’s not a secret, it’s just that so many incredible women seem to have chosen to forget something very powerful. Read More →