What can life coaching do for you?

Are you feeling stuck in a situation that's going nowhere?

Do you want a fresh sense of purpose?

Could you use a bit more motivation in your life?

Would it help you to have a clearer perspective?

Do you need to sort out what's important from what isn't?

If you've answered 'yes' or 'probably' to any of these, you'd benefit from life coaching.

It's not easy - it involves a lot of work and commitment. But the benefits are life-changing.

Qryztal offers face-to-face coaching, as well as coaching by phone and online. We work with people of all ages and backgrounds.

To find out more, email us - info@qryztal.com

or call, text or WhatsApp on 07398 200318

We're on Twitter and also on Facebook.

On our reading list - Fierce Conversations

We've just started reading 'Fierce Conversations' by Susan Scott (or, rather, Andrew has started reading it.

Here's the publisher's synopsis:

Fierce Conversations is a way of conducting business. An attitude. A way of life. Communications expert Susan Scott maintains that a single conversation can change the trajectory of a career, marriage or life. Whether these are conversations with yourself, partner, colleagues, customers, family or friends, Fierce Conversations shows you how to have conversations that count. Scott reveals how to:
*Overcome the barriers to meaningful conversations
*Express who you are and what you believe
*Confront tough issues with courage, confidence and sensitivity
*Overcome fear to get to the heart of the problem
*Inspire followers, attract believers and build visions that become reality
*Bring about real change through talking
*Encourage others to reveal their true opinions
Packed with exercises and questionnaires to help you have the best conversations possible, Fierce Conversations will revolutionise the way you communicate.

You can buy the book from Amazon here: 'Buy 'Fierce Conversations'

(Please use this link to buy the book: we earn a small amount of commission on every sale - thank you.)

Should human adults be drinking milk?

Lactose intolerance is often given as a reason why human adults in general shouldn't drink milk. This sounds plausible, but we went in search of some other views - and, ideally, some facts.

The most usual starting point for an argument against drinking milk is "adult animals are intolerant to lactose, so surely humans are too?". However...

Northern Europeans have evolved lactose tolerance - which means most of us who are ancestrally native to the UK or elsewhere in northern Europe should be able to digest milk and dairy products.

Dairy products contain:

• protein
• fats
• sugar (lactose!)
• calcium
• vitamin D

So, unless you have lactose intolerance or a milk allergy, go ahead and drink milk and consume dairy products. Except of course if you have a non-medical reason for not doing so.

For information on lactose intolerance, see the NHS Choices website.

5 a day - myth or truth?

The 'rule' about eating five portions of fruit and vegetables per day was invented in 1991 by the American National Cancer Institute and a group of Californian fruit and vegetable growers. It was adopted by the UK Department of Health in 2003. Because we at Qryztal are wary of convenient numbers, we decided to look into it a bit further.

Five portions of fruit and vegetables will give you the water soluble vitamins. If you base your five portions solely on fruit, you'll also be eating (or drinking) quite a lot of sugar (up to 74 grams) - because fruits are rich in fructose. Note that this is just the water soluble vitamins, not the fat soluble vitamins. You could, for example, gorge yourself on fruit and yet be walking around with a vitamin D deficiency - because vitamin D is fat soluble.

There is an argument that we should instead be thinking of superfoods instead of fruit and vegetables. For instance, liver contains a higher level of vitamins and minerals than anything else we came across in our research for this blog post. If instead of five fruit and veg you think of five superfoods, the list we came across is as follows:

• Liver
• Oily fish
• Eggs or dairy produce
• Sunflower seeds (for vitamin E)
• A leafy green vegetable

If you want seven a day, you could add these:

• Steak (for zinc)
• Cocoa powder (or dark chocolate) for minerals

It's starting to sound like the typical British diet in World War 2:

• Offal
• Sardines
• Eggs
• Cheese
• Green vegetables (plus potatoes)
• Red meat (in small quantities)
• Chocolate (when available - on the sweet ration)

...which would explain why, anecdotally, people were healthier during the period of food rationing than they have been since.

But... should you take vitamin and mineral supplements as a safety net? That's another subject, for another time.

Five facts about immunisation

1. There is no mercury in UK vaccines.
2. There is no proof that the MMR vaccine causes autism (or that any other vaccine causes autism).
3. Immunisation programmes rely on herd immunity for their effectiveness.
4. Flu vaccine won't give you flu - although you might already have a 'flu-like illness' at the time of being immunised.
5. Some viruses (such as flu [influenza]) mutate too quickly to be eradicated by a single immunisation campaign.

When coaching isn't the answer

Life coaching can be a very powerful means of bringing about change. But sometimes it isn't the right thing for the situation:

1. When the person isn't ready to talk, no amount of coaching questions will elicit a response. Save your breath.
2. Tread very warily in family or relationship issues - often these won't be able to be resolved unilaterally by your client (or potential client). Counselling and/or mediation may be the way ahead here.
3. If you're in a friendship or relationship with the person, don't be tempted to switch out of friend mode or partner mode. Hang in there; give them as much time and space as they need, and let them know that you're there for them. Don't attach any preconditions. (You may both want to consider being coached by a third party, either separately or together.)

If you're feeling stuck and you'd like a bit of help working things out - we'd love to hear from you. We can coach you face-to-face, or by phone or Skype.

You can reach Qryztal Consulting on 07398 200318 - or email us: consulting@qryztal.com

How long should a blog post be?

There are people who say you should write blog posts with between 1,000 and 3,000 words.

Other people pack their blog posts with keywords and hashtags.

Both strategies claim to boost your blog post up the search engine rankings. This sounds suspiciously like trying to game SEO (search engine optimisation). But why would you want to do this? What's the point of being at the top of someone's Google or Bing search if they're looking for something different from what you're offering?

Maybe that's not the best thing to do.

Have you noticed that your attention span is shorter when you're reading things on your smartphone? And that your tolerance for boredom, repetition and padding is so much lower? Think about that for a moment.

People reading your blog on their smartphones will soon get fed up of scrolling down. Long paragraphs are so tiring to read. As are long sentences that wrap from one line to the next to the next to the next without any punctuation to break them up.

We've got a few suggestions for you.

How about writing what you need to about your subject, and then stop. Be concise: leave your readers sated (satisfied) but wanting to treat themselves to another helping from your blog.

And break your text up. Like this. Vary your sentence length; write grammatically, but try to keep your writing style fairly close to your speaking style.

When you're finished, stop - like we're doing now.

Just how many steps every day is enough?

15 years ago, pedometers were starting to become fashionable. You could get them in all colours, made by all manner of brands, and with varying accuracy. So, people started counting their steps. But just how many steps was enough?

"5,000 for health; 10,000 to lose weight" was one opinion. Others said 8,000 - and some said 20,000.

But now, 5,000 paces (steps) seems to be very much on the low side.  However, isn't 10,000 paces a suspiciously round number? So we decided to investigate.

The NHS says 10,000 paces works out at about 5 miles. And they also say it's a way of making sure you get your 150 minutes of exercise per week (5 days x 30 minutes, if you were wondering where 150 minutes comes from). Suddenly the numbers start to make sense, or at least the reasoning behind them is a bit clearer. Or is it?

We found a Huffington Post article that blows this out of the water. It seems that 10,000 was a marketing ploy from the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. And it's been a convenient number to trot out ever since.

So it looks like "experts" start off with 10,000 steps (or 10,000 paces - call them what you like) and then find all sorts of ways of justifying this.

Back to our question: just how many steps every day is enough?

The answer is: "it depends". It depends on how many steps you're already doing. To get from a fairly sedentary 2,500 steps per day up to 5,000 is an amazing 100% increase (a doubling of the amount of exercise). And it seems the biggest impact on health is to go from a sedentary lifestyle to getting a moderate amount of exercise. After that, the increase in health benefits diminishes as you increase the number of steps. And don't forget the feel-good effect of the endorphins that are produced as you exercise.

(Ever wondered why some people who take a lot of exercise behave almost as if they're on a high? That's because they are. They could well be hooked on their own endorphins.)

So, the short answer is: "probably a few more than you're doing at the moment". Should you set yourself a step target? Yes, if it will motivate you. No, if it will make you feel bad about yourself. Just try to walk a bit more than you're already doing - and use a pedometer, a smartphone app and/or a fitness band if it'll help you do that.


Sources:

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/loseweight/Pages/10000stepschallenge.aspx

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/science-of-us/10000-steps-walk-day_b_7604514.html

Why aren't you using Qryztal Consulting?

What are your reasons for not using Qryztal Consulting?

"I don't know anything about you"

• Take a look at our Facebook page - and follow us on Twitter

"What can you offer that other people don't?"

• We're flexible, responsive, innovative and disruptive
• We're free to respond to your needs in the most appropriate way
• We don't have any of the encumbrances of traditional consultancy

"What do you actually do?"

• We offer everything from person-centred coaching to business consultancy

 "What experience do you have?"

• We've developed a visual management system for a management team
• We've written and delivered bespoke Windows 10 training for a new enterprise
• We're providing ongoing support to a startup
• We're helping a business set up a charity
• And how about 15 years experience in personal advocacy?!

The problem of presenteeism

When people show up for work, that's good, isn't it?

It's fantastic when fit, healthy, enthusiastic people show up for work.

But it's terrible when unwell, sick, tired, bored, scared people turn up at the office day after day.  Here's what they achieve:

• They pass on their germs and illnesses
• They make their colleagues fearful about going off sick with what they've got
• By turning up for work when they're unwell, they make everyone else think they should do the same

Why on earth do they do this?  Why would anyone ever think they should come to work when they're unwell instead of staying at home?  Maybe it's because of:

• Draconian HR policies that put people in fear of dismissal if they take too many sick days off
• Tracking 'average working days lost' rather than caring about the people concerned
• Overwork, and fear of a backlog building up
• Inability to ask for help
• Workplace culture

As you can see, one thing feeds off another.  Plant one seed of fear in someone's mind, and you can watch it take over not just their way of thinking but potentially your entire workforce.

How to stop it?  You need to break the cycle somewhere.  Value health, value wellness, value wellbeing - but above all, value your people.

For help with employee engagement and breaking the presenteeism cycle, get in touch with Andrew at Qryztal Consulting.

Phone/WhatsApp: 07398 200318

Email: info@qryztal.com

Why is work/life balance important?

Why should we bother about how many hours we work? Why does it matter?

There are 168 hours in the week.  Assuming an eight-hour sleep period each night, we spend 56 hours asleep.  So that leaves us with 112 waking hours.

The Working Time Regulations (in the UK) set a limit upon working time of 48 hours per week.  This is time spent at work, excluding travel from home to work.  One simple way of understanding it is that it limits you to 6 working days of 8 hours each.

Suppose you have one job in which you work 36 hours per week, and you take on another job.  You are limited to a maximum of 12 hours per week in the second job.

After doing this, you are left with 64 hours per week.  But before you get too excited about all this time, think about all the other things you need to do: get up, wash or shower and get dressed, eat something, travel to work, have your meal break at work (meal breaks aren't included in the 48 hours), travel home again, prepare and eat a meal - and finally get ready for bed.

For someone with a long-ish commute, the working day could look like this:

Morning routine - 1 hour
Travel to work - 1 hour
Morning at work - 4 hours
Lunch break - 30 minutes
Afternoon at work - 4 hours
Travel home from work - 1 hour
Evening meal etc - 1 hour
Evening routine - 30 minutes

This totals 13 hours.  Add in 8 hours sleep, and you get 21 hours.  In theory you have 3 hours free time per day, for 6 days of the week - and the remaining day is free for you to use however you wish.

However, if you have commitments outside of work, or if you are working on building up a business in your spare time, you can expect to have conflicting demands on your time.  And as one of our directors discovered, you need to manage your free time assertively, otherwise it will be stolen from you.

Hence work/life balance, and the importance of blocking out time for yourself and your family and friends.

But... what can you do with your free time?  Here are some suggestions:

• Something that sparks your imagination
• Something creative
• Some sort of exercise
• Something social

We've deliberately avoided recommending specific activities.  However, if you don't currently read much, a tip from our senior consultant is: read something (anything - preferably a book) most days.  The more good writing you consume, the better your own writing will be.

If you have any tips of your own, we'd love you to share them with us in the comments.

Our first anniversary

It's now a year since Qryztal was incorporated - our first anniversary was yesterday (27th January 2017). Yes, we're still here, and we have plans for the year ahead. We'll tell you more about this in another blog post.