Tag Archives: #Life Coach

A Lesson Of Life for each of us

“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.”   ― Aldous Huxley, Collected Essays.  

Lesson of Life

Massive Bulldozer lifting power. Image from hulcher.com

Or: The Lesson of Life I learned from a bulldozer and a bucket of oil!

Think back to 1984, if you can.

This was the time of the war over the Falklands Islands, between England and Argentina. It was the year Indira Ghandi was assassinated. Reagan made his famous joke: “My fellow Americans, I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” He supposedly didn’t know the microphone was on. It was the year of the summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and the Soviet Union boycotted it. Wonder why. 1984 is the name of George Orwell’s famous novel, although he wrote it in 1949. It was the year the first “megabit” chip was ever made in Bells Laboratories – the event that heralded and made possible the super computers. 1984 was the year the “Bill Cosby Show” had its first TV premiere.

1984 was the year my old bulldozer gave me the most amazing lesson of life.

In that former life, I had a farm and an earth moving business, doing land clearing, soil and water conservation dams and channels, noxious weed management, tree removal and levelling building blocks, regular bulldozer type work.

I need to give you some idea of the scale of the machinery used, to put this into perspective.

Lesson of Life

Ironbark Tree – image from nationalregisterofbigtrees.com.au

Imagine a tree, 100 feet tall, around 30 metres. That’s half as long again as a cricket pitch. This tree is an ironbark tree, half a metre through at the trunk. It has branches and leaves on top, roots around 2 metres deep in the earth, and with a big clump of soil around them. It had to be moved. My bulldozer was actually a track loader with a clam bucket on the front (similar to the photo above), useful for picking up objects in the big jaws. The tree was gently pushed over and laid on the ground, roots and all. My bulldozer came alongside, clamped the jaws over the trunk of the tree, picked it up and carried it across the field to a large log pile, lifted it 15 feet (4 metres) into the air and laid it on top of the pile, for pole harvesting later. That was easy. And it shows the power of the hydraulic system of this particular bulldozer.

Earth moving equipment needs to be maintained for it to work properly, and there are many moving parts, using lots of oil.

Onto the lesson of life. We, my assistant David and I, were doing a regular oil change. The hydraulic oil was very special – read ‘expensive’. In 1984 dollars, when a 5 gallon can of regular oil was $20, this was $200! Every drop precious. We drained the old oil, and replaced the filters and the oil plug. Because the machine was so big, we were working on opposite sides of it. David was 18 years old and as fit, flexible and athletic as any farm kid in those days. I called out to him:

“David, I’ve replaced the plug and tightened it. I’m ready to put the new oil in. Have you tightened the filters?”

“Yep. They are tight.”

In went the new oil, glistening gold as it poured down the funnel. I wiped my hands on an oil rag, then climbed up to start the engine. As it started, a spray mist of fine gold particles created a perfect rainbow arc beside me. The precious oil was gone in seconds. David hadn’t tightened the filters enough after all! The incredibly powerful hydraulic pump that could lift a 100 foot tall iron bark tree up in the air, roots and all, pumped all that expensive oil out into a magical golden rainbow.

I shut the engine down and sat for a few seconds in silence. David stood there, out of range, but prepared to sprint for the cover of the bushes behind him. Much went through my mind. First was the thought of the cost. Then there was the thought of how much spare oil we had, because the job had to go on. Then there was David, almost rooted to the spot in fear, very apprehensive about what I might do. He looked ready to bolt into the bush and make his way home across country. A virtual whirlwind of thoughts. However, although I felt like a good butt-kicking would release some pressure from the head of steam I had developed, I didn’t feel it would achieve much else. There had to be a better way.

I looked at David, with a purposely blank expression. “I should have checked those filters, shouldn’t I?”

He just looked back in surprise – not expecting that. He was expecting spanners or other loose objects to be hurled at him I think. He mumbled something in reply but I don’t think his lips had reconnected to his thoughts at that time.

“Could you get the other drum of oil please David? I’ll clean this up and tighten the filters again.”

We put the new oil in and it tested perfectly; back to work we went.

Lesson of Life

That’s about right!           Image from bestsayingsquotes.com

What was our lesson of life?

In the years since 1984, I have found so many lessons that came from that incident. I’ll list a few:

1. Getting angry didn’t serve anyone. Dealing with the problem did.
2. Blaming didn’t serve anyone. Taking responsibility did. On that point – was David to blame? He did say he tightened the filters. But David was an 18 year old staring goggle eyed at a huge machine, the likes of which were out of his imagination before he came to work for me. He was under my instruction, and it was my responsibility to make sure he understood and did what was necessary. No, I should have checked!
3. Monitor what you delegate. That came home with a $200 price tag, in 1984 – I have since had whole weekend seminars that taught me less than those few seconds and cost more too! Powerful lesson.
4. Teaching and imparting lessons rather than blaming for mistakes gains respect and trust.

I’ll spend a moment on this point. David was only 18 and this could have sent him packing, back to a cranky father with a drinking and gambling problem. Instead, it was a turning point in his life, as I later came to find out. From that moment on, he stepped up and took responsibility for maintenance. Never again did anything go unchecked; nothing was ever allowed to leak oil, rattle, or other than behave like brand new. It became his mission, to look after my machinery and be the best operator possible. He became a zealot!

We worked together for another couple of years when the business expanded and we took delivery of a massive earth moving scraper. When the dealer left after unloading and setting it up, I threw him the keys and said “Look after this, would you?”

The look on his face was priceless. However, the pride he felt was evident and he applied himself to caring for that new machine also, as though it was his very own.

David did not need a reprimand on that pivotal day. A lesson of life comes in many forms and opportunities are often disguised as disasters. That day was perhaps my greatest lesson of life and as I reflect on it from time to time, still more comes through.

5. Nurture your people, to allow them to become what is possible. Understanding of their situation and circumstances means that sometimes, you’ll make allowances. When you do, they have the opportunity to see that you are treating them as an individual, not a number. David realised I cared how he felt, and although he expected to be given the blame, he already felt bad enough – no one needed to hammer it home any more. His growth from this incident was phenomenal, but only because he was nurtured through it.
6. Education is critical. I didn’t expect David to know everything. I worked from where he was in life and built on his knowledge from that point. When he left my employ, he could stand tall with anyone in the industry.
7. The lessons you teach are taught to others. Did David tell anyone about this incident? Yes. His younger brother was the first one who came to talk to me about it. Their relationship changed at that time, as David became his mentor, rather than his tormentor – which many older brothers are. They taught others how to deal with crises when it happened to them. And so it went, down the line. Who knows how far the benefits of that lesson of life on that day have gone.
8. If David’s lesson from the day was to react in anger, instead of how it happened, do you think that lesson would have been perpetuated? Of course. However, it broke a cycle of blame and anger that had been his family’s way for generations. One incident can change a life, depending on how you deal with it.

In the 30 years since this event, much has happened. When I sold the machinery, David went his own way and I entered the corporate world. I attended seminars and heard the greats speak of their lesson of life and the amazing incidents they recounted. However, I often wondered about how these much embroidered tales of their wisdom and mastery actually began. Did they have an oil can moment too?

With my current programs and coaching clients, I am most conscious of how important the simplest lesson of life can be. The opportunity to impart them is vital, as we never know where they will end up and who they will empower.

“The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.” ― Tom Bodett

Life Change Coaching?

We still have a couple of coaching places available for anyone wishing to experience and benefit from our life change coaching first hand.

At your free initial session;
• We will look at what you want and gain clarity on the cause or need for your desire for coaching and change.
• We will give you an objective perspective of your situation and the opportunities, as well as the obstructions to your progress.
• Finally, we can help you establish a plan to progress your desires and goals to where you really want them to be.

If this is you, take a look at our Coaching Page, answer the simple questions at the bottom and send the answers through to us, to schedule your free session. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Til next time, fair winds and full sails.

Ray Jamieson

PPS: If you wish to read my book “Lessons of Life”, check it out here!

Related Posts:

Help From My Friends

“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” ― Helen Keller

Help from my friends – Life change coaching

 “You have everything you need inside of you to create anything in your life that you desire.”
― Mike Basevic, No Limits, Mastering the Mental Edge

Evolution and Change

A lot has changed in the last few million years. A creature emerged from amongst the primitive life forms on this planet, learned to use tools, to walk upright, communicate, harness fire and began to exert an influence over its environment. That creature was the predecessor of what evolved to become what we now know as mankind!  It became us!

Believe it or not, most of the changes occurred, at an ever increasing rate, in only the last 10,000 years. Change in the 21st century is occurring at the fastest rate ever, with knowledge doubling in an estimated time of every few months – depending on who you ask!  Whilst it is the fastest rate ever, it is also increasing exponentially!

To put this in perspective, 1,500 years ago we were generally, globally in an agrarian age, where man lived off the land, either hunting and gathering or cultivating crops to live on. OK, there were a few plunderers too – a lot of us have some Viking blood in our ancestry! In those days, change was generational – in other words, parents would teach their children what their parents had taught to them, and significant inventions and innovations were decades apart. The wheel, steel and bronze tools replacing stone tools, feathered flights on arrows, and so on. Significant advances in their time, but decades or even centuries apart.

Leading up to the 20th century, we saw a rush of inventions including wireless radio wave transmissions, the motor car which followed the invention of the internal combustion engine, the electric light bulb and the subsequent development of power generating stations and electricity transmission lines and so on. These followed and were often inspired by developments in the Renaissance Period where brilliant minds like Leonardo Da Vinci put forward some crazy (at the time!) ideas for things like flight, numerous inventions of which many are now in common use.  Of course, the printing press came out of this period, enabling the distribution of these new ideas and innovations to the wider audiences.

Life Change Coaching

                                   Man learns to fly!   The Wright Brothers at Kittyhawk 1911.           Image from kittyhawk.bu.edu

Manned flight soon followed and travel around the globe began in earnest early in the 20th century. Rather than months of travel to cross an ocean, it became possible in hours. Knowledge and innovation jumped from brilliant minds on one continent to brilliant minds on another, and innovation and invention spread like wildfire.

So began a rapid process of ever faster change in the lives of ordinary people, like you and I.

In the early 20th century, a tradesman printer knew he would have a job for life working at his printing press. So did the person working in the woollen mills. They were in stable environments, creating products for a stable, local market. Those jobs virtually vanished within the next 50 years! Whilst there are still printers now in the 21st century, most of them work through computer programs with digital images – nothing to do with the printing presses of the early 20th century.

Woollen mills now are massive automated machines that require few people to operate them and are no longer local. Australia once produced more wool than any other country on the planet, from a flock of 170 million sheep. It had woollen mills and processing plants dotted around the country, in many regional towns and all the capital cities. There are now none! All wool from the flock of only 50 million sheep is now exported and processed in a relatively few countries overseas from us. That industry and those careers no longer exist in Australia, and the same can be said of many industries and careers in different countries around the world.

What we no longer have:
• Vinyl record manufacturing plants – it’s all CD or DVD now, stamped out by the billions in almost unmanned factories.
• carburetor manufacturers – engines are now electronically fuel injected – totally different technology and factories.
• Photographic development labs – everything is now digital.
• Steam engine powered manufacturing plants – everything is gas, oil or electricity powered.
• Steam trains – either diesel or electric powered.
• Incandescent light bulbs – converting to energy saving fluorescent light tubes.

The list goes on.

More importantly, the lives of the people who used to create and manufacture these items changed with the products vanishing. Careers and industries changed and so did the lives of the people in them. This rate of change is ongoing and increasing, and the lives of every person on the planet are affected.

How do you manage the change process?

Sometimes the change is thrust upon you, as it was for many people when those industries vanished. Sometimes, it’s a health challenge that forces change on your life. Relationships are a challenge, moving from thinking for one to thinking of your new family. When children move out, the “empty nest” syndrome kicks in. Once again, it’s the parents learning to live with and share with just each other again. Financial challenges – increasing costs and the need to replace items around the house, or even the house – these are all stressful challenges and require change.  Sometimes, it is an internal desire to grow, evolve and change, for more personal reasons and ambitions. How do you manage it?  Life Change Coaching is one very powerful option!

It’s really a three step process. These are the basic steps:
1. Knowing and understanding what you want and need. Clarity of your vision, something specific to aim for.
2. A realistic perspective on what it is you want, the challenges you face, your opportunities and resources. Sometimes, it can be impossible to see this from where you are in life, because life overwhelms you with the urgency and the need for change.
3. A plan or program to make the changes happen, the way you want!

Change WILL happen, whether we like it or not. If someone else directs it and controls it, the change happens according to THEIR AGENDA and for THEIR BENEFIT! If it happens too fast, the change process can have traumatic effects on the person who bears the brunt.

What is the alternative?

Take charge of the change process with personal life change coaching. When you realise that you need to make changes, identify them and then seek help with the process. If you wanted to change and improve your golf game, you’d get golf coaching. When it’s your life that has to change, why not work with #life change coaching?

Life Change Coaching is what happens when you ask a suitably qualified and experienced person to assist you with perspective, objectivity, experience and resources to manage change in your life, whatever those changes might be.

Life Change Coaching is a valuable and viable alternative to being subject to the winds of change on your own. Whilst we may have been great at what we were doing, that doesn’t mean we are either qualified or prepared for what is coming next!

Life Change Coaching

               With a little help from my friends…                      Image from ncea.org.uk

Why have life change coaching?

There are a few powerful reasons to work with someone outside your areas of challenge and change. These include:
1. An unburdened perspective on your circumstances and situation, free of the pressures you face.
2. An objective appraisal of your challenges and obstacles.
3. A realistic look at your opportunities and the resources you already have.
4. Their objectivity can help you gain clarity that otherwise may evade you, on exactly what you need and where to aim for in your life.
5. Tools, resources and experiences you may not have access to from within your own life experiences and circumstances.

Learn more about Life Change Coaching.

Life Change Coaching is not like regular life coaching.  Click here to go into the website and learn more about Life Change Coaching, the specialty of Life Change 90.

Would you like a free Life Change Coaching session?

For those who wish to or need to make changes in their lives, a limited number of 35 minute life change coaching initial sessions are available free. All you need to do is request the free session and answer these questions to get your free session underway.

1. What do you want to change?
2. How urgent and critical is this change?
3. Whose change is it – yours or required by an external influence?
4. What time frame do you have?
5. What other areas of your life would you like to improve or change?
6. Full name
7. Email address
8. Skype name and contact details
9. Time zone and location

To take advantage of this offer, please complete the contact form at this link, and answer the questions above.  If places are available, we will schedule your session.

If you know anyone else who could benefit from a Life Change Coaching program, please forward this to them. It may change their life too!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

“Some strive to make themselves great. Others help others see and find their own greatness. It’s the latter who really enrich the world we live in” ― Rasheed Ogunlaru

Life Change Coaching

Fine tuning techniques – image from chicagoceocoaching.com

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