School was school. I have decided that, as therapeutic as this blog is, today I am not going to rant.
Instead, I will skip straight to the most interesting part of my day - my first meeting with my TF coach.
My coach is called Mark and he works as an Emerging Markets Trader at Lehman Brothers. He's worked there for 3 years and doesn't appear to trade just one thing - rather, he trades all kinds of products linked to emerging markets (predominantly Asian) and is quite senior in the company (i.e. they let him take quite a lot of risk in his work).
So the idea of a TF coach is that TF match you up with someone in business/education/coaching etc. who will help you realise goals by thinking through things in a new way. We met at a lovely Thai restaurant in Liverpool St and got off to a good start when he offered to pay for everthing. Excellent. Further bonus points came when he revealed that he was holding a half a million dollar position on some product or other, and that he was really rather worried about it, but decided to fulfill his TF commitments and meet with me rather than stay at work. Much props for that, although I am thinking perhaps in this instance we should have eaten in a place that had mobile phone reception (we got out of the restaurant and he had 7 voicemails, which I took to be a bad sign on the whole money/trading/wheeler dealing etc. He also mentioned that quite a few people had gone crazy at his work, oh dear. At least stress in school means something).
Anyway, I really enjoyed the meeting, mainly because I managed to actually be a little bit open with someone. Despite my copious sharing, of late, on the blog, I am quite secretive (heehee, understatement). But, my coach made it very easy to share ideas etc. and so I think our meeting was productive e.g. I told him about how my folks probably want me married in the next few years and how this might be screwing up future plans, which is something I've hardly told anyone.
I think the other thing about it, apart from the sharing and trust and mutual respect, was the fact that the whole meeting was about me. Now, this sounds grossly arrogant and self-centred and all that, but, in fact, I spend a small portion of my time dealing with things that are to do with me (again, the blog comes up as an example, but there probably should be a better example than that). Very self-indulgent to have a whole evening to talk about me and what I want, and at the start I spent most of the time trying to switch the convo back to him, but in the end he said the whole point was for him to get to know me, and so I better start talking, hahaha. This was followed by a wholestream of tough questions e.g. whose opinion matters the most to you, your family, your friends, or your work colleagues? How do you measure your success?
To cut a looong story short, the food was lovely, I didn't get hammered (bonus points for me!), and I am now inspired to evaluate myself more critically and think about what I really want and what I'm all about. Lots of tough questions, but I think I need to get on top of them. This coaching thing is a really good idea for people like me, who need some guidance and a wall to bounce things off, so I have some hopes here.
In final news, through Facebook I am back in touch with an ooooold friend from primary school. My fondest memories of him include crying my whole way through his swimming pool birthday party cos I banged my head on the side of the pool, his terrible twin brothers, and his general "gentle giant" demeanour. Needless to say, for someone who lists "Romford Fitness First" as an interest, well....ladies you can judge him for yourself, heehee (ps, make sure you look at the profile pictures album, but don't check it at work, it may look like you are visiting naughty websites!)
Here's a sample, although have blanked out his nice face so I don't get sued! Please message me/wall me if you approve!
Instead, I will skip straight to the most interesting part of my day - my first meeting with my TF coach.
My coach is called Mark and he works as an Emerging Markets Trader at Lehman Brothers. He's worked there for 3 years and doesn't appear to trade just one thing - rather, he trades all kinds of products linked to emerging markets (predominantly Asian) and is quite senior in the company (i.e. they let him take quite a lot of risk in his work).
So the idea of a TF coach is that TF match you up with someone in business/education/coaching etc. who will help you realise goals by thinking through things in a new way. We met at a lovely Thai restaurant in Liverpool St and got off to a good start when he offered to pay for everthing. Excellent. Further bonus points came when he revealed that he was holding a half a million dollar position on some product or other, and that he was really rather worried about it, but decided to fulfill his TF commitments and meet with me rather than stay at work. Much props for that, although I am thinking perhaps in this instance we should have eaten in a place that had mobile phone reception (we got out of the restaurant and he had 7 voicemails, which I took to be a bad sign on the whole money/trading/wheeler dealing etc. He also mentioned that quite a few people had gone crazy at his work, oh dear. At least stress in school means something).
Anyway, I really enjoyed the meeting, mainly because I managed to actually be a little bit open with someone. Despite my copious sharing, of late, on the blog, I am quite secretive (heehee, understatement). But, my coach made it very easy to share ideas etc. and so I think our meeting was productive e.g. I told him about how my folks probably want me married in the next few years and how this might be screwing up future plans, which is something I've hardly told anyone.
I think the other thing about it, apart from the sharing and trust and mutual respect, was the fact that the whole meeting was about me. Now, this sounds grossly arrogant and self-centred and all that, but, in fact, I spend a small portion of my time dealing with things that are to do with me (again, the blog comes up as an example, but there probably should be a better example than that). Very self-indulgent to have a whole evening to talk about me and what I want, and at the start I spent most of the time trying to switch the convo back to him, but in the end he said the whole point was for him to get to know me, and so I better start talking, hahaha. This was followed by a wholestream of tough questions e.g. whose opinion matters the most to you, your family, your friends, or your work colleagues? How do you measure your success?
To cut a looong story short, the food was lovely, I didn't get hammered (bonus points for me!), and I am now inspired to evaluate myself more critically and think about what I really want and what I'm all about. Lots of tough questions, but I think I need to get on top of them. This coaching thing is a really good idea for people like me, who need some guidance and a wall to bounce things off, so I have some hopes here.
In final news, through Facebook I am back in touch with an ooooold friend from primary school. My fondest memories of him include crying my whole way through his swimming pool birthday party cos I banged my head on the side of the pool, his terrible twin brothers, and his general "gentle giant" demeanour. Needless to say, for someone who lists "Romford Fitness First" as an interest, well....ladies you can judge him for yourself, heehee (ps, make sure you look at the profile pictures album, but don't check it at work, it may look like you are visiting naughty websites!)
Here's a sample, although have blanked out his nice face so I don't get sued! Please message me/wall me if you approve!
