It is this time of year again: the time to make good on your new year’s resolutions. Have you joined the gym to lose those extra pounds yet? Have you gone on the nicotine patch? Are you having trouble getting started and feeling discouraged already?
If so, a team of three graduates of Concordia's Personal and Professional Certified Coach Program (PPCC) from the West Island might have the solution. With over 50 combined years of experience in the industry, education, career development and coaching, they have concocted a four-session workshop called Advantage 4U on how to achieve your goals this year.
It’s a known fact that quite often and unfortunately, resolutions fail. Gym memberships, for example, are usually at an all-time high in January before taking a serious drop in following months.
Kirkland resident Wendy Keller and her colleagues Sandra MacDougall and Shelly Elsliger from Pointe Claire think people forget to look at the internal factors to their motivation, see change as something that’s too quantitative, too future-based instead of looking at it from an ongoing perspective. They also believe many people don’t have the proper support system to achieve their goals.
“We address wellness and health, networking and developing social presence, getting comfortable working with people, reaching out to people and connecting, understanding how all that relates to what’s important to you. We provide people with a time and a space to focus on themselves so that they can thrive within a changing environment and also help others,” said Keller.
Each week, participants will take on a new cornerstone in the building of a foundation to embrace change with confidence. Through reflective exercises, teachings, role-playing, scaffolding-building and self-discovery, the workshop’s facilitators hope the participants will walk out of the program with a new set of skills on how to manage change, achieve objectives and get rid of fears.
“The way to effectively thrive through any kind of change, whether you’ve triggered it yourself or it’s coming from the outside world is to have the belief that you have the skills. If you don’t think you have the skills, then what is it going to take for you to develop those skills, to develop a different way of thinking and to learn to let go of fears?,” said MacDougall.
“We’re providing an environment where an individual is given a chance to try and answer some questions; solve some problems, by themselves or within the group. The facilitator presents some questions and presents some additional information that will help that group go further into their own decision-making process. Nobody is giving you the answer but you’re being provided a time and place to discover your own answers. A lot of it is about self-discovery and making a place that’s safe and informative and providing the support and confidence,” Keller said.
The five-week seminar starts on Feb. 20 and will be given at John Abbott College. You can join for $295. To register, call 514-457-6610 ext. 5277 or visit www.johnabbott.qc/continuing-education.
