Ah I find myself without a job what am I going to do.......

Hi all - It has been a while since I wrote a blog.  I have been very much tied up with a product tour in the UK and US and then I became unemployed.

So what's been going on?

Well essentially, I have left Toby Churchill Ltd to pursue a career in training and coaching.  For me to do this I needed to give myself the space to think this through and start planning.  So here I am two weeks into my non employed life and I thought that it would be a great time to put a stick in the sand and blog about my experiences as things develop.

In the two weeks off I have done the following;

1) I have spent more time with my family!  My family are so important to me.  For the past three years I have been jetting all over the world with my last job and they have always been there for me but increasingly I have taken them for granted.  This is great down time for me to be able to reinvest back into my family.  Diane, Jess and Beth I love you loads!

2) Worked out what it was that I love to do professionally.  Over the past 11 years I have moved between roles that work with clients and I have been thrilled at helping them to overcome challenges through something that I can do or supply.  For me it was always about this and not what the financial rewards were.  What has become harder for me was the transition to management which took me away from working directly with clients.  So I worked out a new track for me to follow.....  I will set up as a freelance training and coaching consultant.  I will work with people, companies and charities to deliver training and coaching that will enable them to achieve great success either personally or corporately.  For more information you might want to follow @spectaclescoach on Twitter which will be my 'corporate' twitter account or check out the Spectacles blog on http://spectaclestrainingandcoaching.blogspot.com/ .I chose the name ' Spectacles Training and Coaching' because people use spectacles to see things with more clarity.  This is the bottom line for me doing this work.  If I can help people view their challenges with more clarity, then I can help them to find answers that will empower them to overcome those challenges.  Often this requires 'time out' to do this and through sessions with me hopefully clients will have the space to take advantage of that time and go for amazing positive change in their lives.  I am 40 this year, I have loads of personal and business experience that I can use to help people to discover the next step for them be it personally, in their careers or in their companies.

3)  Visited a prison!  Not because I have done anything wrong, but I had an opportunity to visit some friends that work in Peterborough prison and I got a chance to just find out more and gain a new perspective.  If you would like to know more about that then go to my Spectacles blog.

4) Working with Amos Trust - Some of you will know about my interest in South Africa and in particular the Street Children who live there.  I found out all about this through the charity , Amos Trust (www.amostrust.org).  A charity that seeks to act as a platform for human rights, hope and justice through the physical support of key worldwide projects such as Umthombo Street Child ( www.umthombo.org ).
So I am spending time with them helping them with their marketing messages as they go through a period of significant change.  It is a fascinating opportunity for me to donate my time to them.

5) Working with Romsey Mill Youth and Community Centre - There is so much I can say about this charity that is good.  For me personally, I met my wife there when I worked as a full time volunteer in 1992.  They do amazing work across Cambridge with young people, young families and schools.  I am currently looking at their young fathers work and hoping to develop work in that area perhaps through social enterprise.

I can't stress how much I am enjoying myself doing things that mean the world to me.  I feel lucky to have this opportunity and I would recommend it to anyone!

My advice to you?  This day is the first day of the rest of your life, so make it count!

Thanks for listening!

John