Would you like to know something more about coaching? Take a look at the Pixar movie "Cars"

When I tell someone that I am interested in coaching and coaching techniques, the question I immediately get  is: "What exactly does a coach do?".

A coach is a professional working with clients by using specific techniques and tools from different fields, depending on the client's needs.

A coachee is someone willing to improve or change some aspects in his/her life (business or comunication skills, career aspirations, health, marriage, family relationships, working atmosphere, sport performances). We can talk about a "client" referring to one singular coachee, two lovers, a family, managers and executives, leaders, athletes, a group of colleagues working in the same company, etc.

The coach and the coachee establish a relationship and they work together, in order to make it easier for the coachee to discover his/her goals and/or stay focused on them, to analyze his/her strenghts and weaknesses, to better understand which kind of changes he/she wants to (or not to) achieve and how to do so, etc.

Most people think that they don't know what a coach does even if they actually see coaches in action on a regular basis. In schools, fitness studios, universities, teams of professionals and athletes, foundations, administrative offices and... in movies too.

[The "perfect" coach-coachee relationship:

Lightning McQueen and Doc Hudson]

You can find a funny example of a coach-coachee relationship in the Pixar movie Cars (2006), by John Lasseter and Joe Ranft. At the beginning of the movie, the racing car Lightning McQueen is using visualization techniques to focus on the imminent race, to boost his performance and motivation, to improve his self-confidence. The wannabe champion is somehow his own coach and he keeps saying to himself:

Okay, here we go. Focus. Speed. I am speed. One winner, forty-two losers. I eat losers for breakfast.

Breakfast? Maybe I should have had breakfast? Brekkie could be good for me. 

No, no, no, focus. Speed. Faster than fast, quicker than quick. I am Lightning.

In the race he demonstrates two things: he is a rough diamond with a lot of talent for sure, but he is not able to cooperate with others. He can't use his great skills effectively. 

This is also the feedback that he gets from older racer Strip "The King" Weathers, who gives him some very good advice and who could be a precious coach for Lightning. But the young rookie is unaware of his weaknesses and he doesn't take the chance to learn from a big champion and to improve his skills. 

The situation is the same, as Lightning McQueen meets Doc Hudson for the first time and the movie shows in an interesting and touching way how Lightning and Doc can create a good coach-coachee relationship, that allows Lightning to become a better racer and a happier person (well, a happier car actually).

I didn't notice this aspect of the Pixar movie that much, when I saw it for the first time. Since I am into coaching now and I spent my last year by learning a lot about it, I really found it enlightening, when last week I was seeing the movie again.

What about you? Did you like the movie? Do you prefer another Pixar movie?

Do you want another example? What about Doc Hollywood?

Stay tuned: we will talk about it at some point!

Tags: Coaching, Coachee, Relationship, Cars, Pixar, Lightning McQueen, Doc Hudson

Collecting "Le petit Prince" - The books, dialects, and languages that are already part of my collection

If someone should ask you about "your" list, which kind of list it would be?
Places you have been to? Crazy adventures that are on your bucket list? Your favorite restaurants? The playlist that you could listen to for days and days in a row?

As I promised last week, here I am with "my" list.

Today I am sharing with you the list of books/languages that are already part of my collection of different editions of "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

[It's time to set out for an amazing journey...

While exploring the many languages and dialects 

available for "The Little Prince"]

Since the book has been published in over 200 languages and dialects and I've got 70+ different versions so far, there is still a lot of work to do!

In the coming weeks, I will publish the list of books/languages that are not part of my collection (yet).

Without any further ado, ladies and gents...

How to be the green light in the life of your loved ones, Feat. Albert Einstein's wisdom

They say that life is not what happens to you, but how you react to what happens to you.
Depending on your perspective, belief system and point of view, life can be so interesting, unexpected, surprising, beautiful, or challenging, frightening, stressful and exhausting.
You can't control what is happening and very often you can't influence the outcome either. But you can influence your feelings and your mindset about it.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. 
The important thing is not to stop questioning. 

Albert Einstein [1879-1955]

You can't influence people or events, but you can influence your feelings, your reactions and your expectations toward people and events. In short, you can influence yourself.

[Colorful and rainbow-y signal light in Berlin, 

January 2013]

Life is too short for not being healthy. Or do you consider "healthy" a bad word?

If someone would tell you that you are healthy, would you find it annoying?
What if someone would tell you that you are so healthy?
And what if everyone would tell you that you are just OMG so healthy?

Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live.

Jim Rohn [1930-2009]

I don't drink coffee or alcohol. Usually, I don't drink soft beverages and I don't eat chocolate or other sweets really often. If I do it, it means that I am in a very bad mood or extremely stressed and tired. 

I am vegan. I follow a gluten-free and yeast-free diet. A lot of vegetables. A lot of fruits. Rice, corn, potatoes. Nuts. And seed, and algae. Green tea and herbal teas. No ketchup. No sauces. No sugar in my tea.

[How about a tasty and healthy snack?]

Which it is indeed my cup of tea, but it doesn't have to be yours.
Still, over time I had to learn that most people feel somehow attacked and intimidated if you eat in a different way. They perceive you as a threat, even if you don't say anything and if you don't try to change their minds. 

Collecting "Le petit Prince" - Why collecting the book is like a big, wonderful game

As already said in this post, I collect different editions, languages, and versions of "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry since 2006. Even if it is my favorite book since I was 15 years old, it all has begun fortuitously, as a mere serendipitous accident, but over the years collecting the book has become really important to me.

The book, voted in 1999 among the first five most important books of the 20th century by "Le Monde", has been published in over 250 languages and dialects and it is also available as an audiobook, graphic novel, and in Braille.

[My collection of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: 

over 80 books in more than 30 languages]

It would be easy to check eBay etc. in order to find all the languages at once and to buy them in two or three "shopping rushes".
It is of course way more exciting to look for the book in shops and flea markets, to check in new places if I am on holiday somewhere, to ask friends and colleagues to bring back a copy of the book for me if they are planning to visit an exotic location, to find an old copy thanks to serendipity or to get a used one from someone I met.

Is being afraid the easiest thing to do? My cat and Jedi Master Yoda are not on the same page on this one...

"Do or do not; there is no try". This is what Jedi Master Yoda thinks and teaches.
The most successful people are the ones that, at some point in their life, consciously or unconsciously, decided to adopt Yoda's mantra as an important part of their everyday routine, by doing something and doing it over and over again, in order to become better through practice and/or to get what they want.

You control your thoughts, you control your choices, you control your actions, you control the results.

Judi Perkins

[Kim is blurry...
or how incredibly difficult taking a picture of her is]

My black cat Kim Novak doesn't agree at all with the Grand Master of the Jedi Order from Star Wars and I can see it regularly every week. For some reason that is absolutely inexplicable to me, she - unlike the famous Japanese cat Maru - is afraid of the vacuum cleaner.
As soon as she sees it - even before it is actually on - she just runs away as fast as she can. And she can be really fast, believe me.

Why? I have no clue. I can't remember any bad moment involving her and the vacuum cleaner, but no matter how hard I try to show her that there is no reason to be afraid, she is already gone as soon as the vacuum cleaner is in sight.

Are we so different from her?
Or are we used to let fear stop us from doing what we want, too? From achieving what we desire or from changing our lives? Is it, in fact, easier to be afraid and run away or does it only seem easier?

Tags: Kim Novak, Black cat, Fear, Angst, Yoda, Quotes, Being afraid with no reason

What to read next:
Quotes about cats for cat lovers Feat. Kim Novak - #1. Albert Schweitzer

Mae West, the art of love & the golden silence

Without Mae West, you would not have had Madonna, and Lady Gaga, and Amy Winehouse. And, bold singers aside, Catwoman and Electra and all other amazing bad girls of the movies, the comics, and the songs of the last eighty years.

Mae West and Josephine Baker, they were the original ones.

Miss West was famous for her sexual innuendo and her legendary sex jokes and she was very aware of it and brave enough to own it. She notoriously said, about being considered the queen of double entendre: "If I asked for a cup of coffee, someone would search for the double meaning".

How not to love her?!

[Mae West and a very young Cary Grant 

in I'm No Angel (1933)]

Still, one of my favorite quotes by Mae West is not about lust, but about love, and it's perfect for representing her cinematic persona and her unmistakable style.

Love isn't an emotion or an instinct - it's an art.

Mae West [born Mary Jane West, 1893-1980]

Is love really an art?

Can a poetic quote by Maya Angelou be the key that unlocks happiness?

Today, while going to work, I made a quick stop in a supermarket. The young cashier has been rude to me for no particular reason and I suddenly remembered how sad I have been, during my first year in Berlin, each time that someone has been rude or impolite or disrespectful to me because of my broken German.

I was thinking about it and a magnificent quote from Maya Angelou popped up in my mind:

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Maya Angelou [born Marguerite Ann Johnson, 1928-2014]

[Maya Angelou as a fun, charming and lively witch,

while playing with her youth and her positive energy]

Back in the days, every time that someone treated me poorly I felt... guilty. Maybe it was my fault if they were rude, because my German was not good enough? This is what I thought for a long time, and I was ashamed. Until the day I realized, at last, that this is not a good reason to be rude to someone. That my German was not the problem. That I was not the problem.

The good old motto "Show, don't tell" is hale and hearty. How can you show your skills?

Have you ever heard about Harvey Mackay?
Do you know exactly what a business columnist actually does?

I have to admit that I discover this sharp man and motivational writer, born in 1932, thanks to a very empowering quote that has a big impact on me lately, like it should be the case with very powerful ideas.

A mediocre person tells. A good person explains. A superior person demonstrates. A great person inspires others to see for themselves.

Harvey Mackay

To me, it seems to be a reloaded and even better version of the good old "Show, don't tell", that still happens to be very effective and true.
And how about this one?

["Time is free, but it's priceless" Oh yeah, Mr. MacKay.

Why I didn't discover you about ten years ago?

Oh well, today is the second best moment for it, I guess]