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In this Episode, I talk with Grattan Donnelly. Grattan does a number of different things in his portfolio but mainly working with people using Coaching and Mindfulness. He works as part of a Danish company called Potential Project. Grattan also does training and facilitation. I met Grattan through the IMI Diploma in Executive Coaching. He delivers an 8-week course on developing mindfulness as well which is really highly fulfilling for him. Grattan has always been fascinated by human behaviour and has always had a sense of adventure. Graduating from a B.Comm, Grattan was now free to follow his sense of adventure. He went to Australia for year and came back 12 years later. Grattan said it took him 53 years of his life to figure out what he wanted to do so that message is clear that it’s never too late to find this. We talk about values and one that is most prominent for Grattan is freedom and this matches well in his work. We talk about his journey during these 12 years travelling and many learnings along the way. Travel broadens the mind and the culture shock of coming home was memorable. In 1998, he bought a training franchise for 30k and this made him face one of the big fears that Grattan had from a very young age, which was a fear of public speaking. Something so many of us can relate to. He talks how he worked around confronting this fear for a number of years. We dig into the idea of the opponent in his own head dictated how he operated. This was a real struggle but he keep at it. Looking back now, after learning how the mind works with Mindfulness, he has a different perspective. He’s comfortable with the anxiety now and can deal with it. Then in 2006, when Grattan started the coaching qualification program. From here, he started to realize that he ‘loved learning’ and hated being taught and the cliché of Coaching changing your life became a reality. In 2010, Grattan hit a wall and had burn out. This was a blessing in disguise as it got him on the path of Mindfulness. This part of the journey starts here and we deep dive into how the mind works, the number of thoughts we have every day, what we worry about, and the benefits of mindfulness. We touch on a number of techniques that you can use that can help you slow down and be more present. Other topics touched on are challenges with our current systems, opening up with mindfulness, one-to-one coaching, being in the moment, self-awareness, triggers for mindful moments (like Crows), living on autopilot, dealing with ups and downs, accepting things for what they are, not being able to control everything. I hope you enjoy the story that is packed with good messages Grattan shares from his journey. His clear message is to ‘just enjoy the journey’ and to ‘relax’ as nothing is under control and to get out there and start your mindfulness practice via a proper course. And hopefully you can apply a mindfulness technique when meeting new people. Books Recommendations:

1. Think to Think, Nancy Kline
2. Presence based coaching Doug Silsbee

Get in touch with Grattan here with Mindfulness and Coaching – potentialproject.com Or directly with Grattan here for one to one executive coaching - https://www.linkedin.com/in/grattan-donnelly-b6ab3713/?ppe=1