Before you ask, no that's not me enjoying the Kent snow, but the scenery does look very famliar to what I've been used to for the last week or so.
For New Year's Eve this year, just like I did last year, I put together a music quiz, as part of the post dinner entertainment.
However, last year I enjoyed finding and putting in some tricky questions that I thought would really test people. The result was that several questions remained unanswered by all the players, and quite a few more were only answered by players who had a really good knowledge of music.
So, this year I decided to make the questions as easy as possible, hoping that most people would be able to answer nearly all of the questions.
As I expected, nearly all of the players did manage to answer most of the questions. However, what I also discovered, which I hadn't predicted, is that the energy levels of all the players was way higher than it was last year (same players as the previous year) and everyone enjoyed the quiz so much more.
I guess it makes sense that people enjoy being given the opportunity to do well and succeed. Last year what I managed to do was to show off how clever I was. I succeeded by demonstrating that my knowledge was better than everyone else's.
This year my enjoyment increased as well, but it didn't happen because I felt clever, it happened because I was able to facilitate all the participants being engaged throughout the quiz and also feeling successful.
It's a bit like the reason I started coaching in the first place, and continue to do it now. For me, there is nothing more fulfilling and inspiring than helping others to reach and express more of their potential than they are currently using. When this happens I experience a double helping of success, one for me and one for the others I have helped to succeed.
So my tip this month is to look at where you are concentrating on achieving your own success, and where you could change your concentration a little in order to make it easier for others to succeed.
This is particularly relevant to any of you who manage others as part of your role at work, but also just as relevant to parents, and in fact anyone who works or even interacts with other people.
Maybe you could get someone else to join you on your run tomorrow, but remember to jog at their speed so that they can feel successful and inspired.
See you soon.
"The Art of Possibility" by Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander. If you have never watched Benjamin Zander's TED video on music and passion, do yourself a favour and watch it now: