Guest Bloggers Wanted

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for guest bloggers to contribute to the Murray People blog.  If you are interested in writing an article on something positively inspiring, or on anything that will empower other people to make positive changes in their life, then please contact me. 

I am also interested in hearing from coaches, learning and development professionals and mentors who make a positive difference in the lives of others.  I would also like to welcome real life inspirational stories from everyday people, or if you are raising funds for charity and want to blog about it that would also be great. 

You can blog about anything that has a positive angle to it and will make a real connection with others.  It might even be about your own life and how you have turned it around for the better. 

I want to create a positive culture and vibe in our community and I think it starts with you and your stories.  Please assist if you can.

I look forward to hearing from you bloggers, e.mail me at claire@murraypeople.com

Claire :-)

School Reunion

We all remember our school days good or bad, love them or loathe them but the memories however fresh or vague are with us in some way or another. Now, I will be truly honest here, I did love my Primary School days but wasn’t that enamoured by my High School years. In High school, for me personally, there was far too much pressure and I didn’t know the answer to that all important life decision question, “What do you want to be when you’re older?” this I really struggled to answer, “I don’t know, I’m only 14, help!!” But no one could help me, because the job that I do now didn’t exist 23 years ago!! That’s me in the photo below, 11 years old, with my friends from Primary School.

Above (L-R):  Donna, Sharon, Claire (me) and Brenda

But let’s face it, life moves on, and we find our own path based on our own choices and decision-making. So as I connected with friends from my younger years on the well loved Facebook, I thought it was really lovely and fascinating to catch up and find out what everyone has been doing for the last 21 years.

So better still I decided, together with some friends of mine, to organise a School Reunion from two of the local high schools in my home town. To my amazement and delight this Reunion has created a fresh buzz and excitement for all, I think just what we’ve all been waiting for. So we are going to have a Reunion Ball, yes, a right proper posh do, with lovely ladies in glamorous dresses, and dashing gentlemen in top hats and bow ties. Woo hoo this will be fun, fun, fun.

If you went to Taylor or Brannock High in North Lanarkshire, please come to the School Reunion. It is being held in the Avonbridge Hotel, Hamilton on Saturday, 5 March 2011. For ticket information send me an e.mail: claire@murraypeople.com

OR if you didn't, why not come along anyway, meet new friends and have a laugh OR better still arrange your own School Reunion and bring people together in a fun way. 

Are you a Drain or a Radiator?

You may remember back in September last year Liggy Webb wrote an article in my Company Magazine the Opportunity News on her book ’How to Work Wonders’. In this book Liggy talks about negative people (drains) and positive people (radiators). I created this fun poem to emphasise the differences. I hope you are a radiator and if not what can you do today that will help you to be more of a positive influence on yourself and other people?

RACHEL THE RADIATOR

Rachel is a radiator she always wears a smile

She radiates a positive attitude and goes that ‘extra mile’

When people around her gossip, she always walks away

She doesn’t let their negativity spoil her wonderful way

Her mindset is pro-active she uses that skill so well

She ‘talks the talk’ and ‘walks the walk’ an easy one to tell

Her circle of influence gets stronger day by day

She focuses on what she can do and her concerns just melt away

So take a tip from Rachel as her energy bursts out

She values herself completely and works from the inside out

DONNY THE DRAIN

Donny is a drain he never wears a smile

He gives of negativity and won’t go that ‘extra mile’

When people are around him he gossips even more

He relishes in the ‘grapevine’ which has no open door

He ‘talks his talk’ then ‘watches the clock’ until he hears the bell

He really can’t be bothered, everyone can tell

His mindset is reactive a bad habit he has formed

He fills his circle of concern so he can underperform

So take no tips from Donny stay away when he’s about

There is no added value when you work from his inside out



(by Claire Murray)

London Marathon

Marathon Training

Well after pounding the streets of Lanarkshire and covering literally hundreds of miles throughout my marathon training.......the Big London Marathon Day is finally here. Yes, on Sunday, 25th April 2010 I run my final 26.2 miles around the City of London. At this moment in time I feel elated with excitement and I am raring to go. I have been tapering off for the last 2 weeks and packing in the carbs at every opportunity.....yummy pasta, pasta and well more pasta!! I can honestly say I am geared up to go and feel positive about completing the tough challenge ahead.


New York

I completed my first marathon in New York City in November 2007 and that wonderful memory will last me a lifetime.......I often draw on this amazing experience when I need to encourage and motivate myself to take inspired action. Quite funnily enough, I did say at the end of the New York Marathon that “I would never run a marathon again”.... and if I ever dared to say that, then that person had the permission to shoot me!! Not literally off course but just so it emphasised the sheer pain I felt on my way to achieving that goal...the last 4 miles are a real killer!!

But off course last year on 26th April 2009 I received a phone call from a friend telling me to watch the London Marathon on TV, I did and well it changed my life again!! I was completely inspired and it brought back all those “champion” feelings of achieving my first marathon. Yes, the road is extremely tough but only when you have felt the pain can you really appreciate the true glory.

So I was hooked again....taking action immediately and committing myself to this challenge. You can watch this in real time video from my video blogs recorded live on 26th and 27th April last year........I first committed then remained disciplined and determined to achieve this goal.

The Challenges

Well they are never far away when you are training for a marathon and putting your body through the extremes of the training. First there is the weather, well in Scotland the phrase “4 seasons in one day” was definitely made for us Scots!!

First there was the torrential rain, then the freezing ice, then the month or so of snow blizzards followed by hail stones but more like falling golf balls, not to mention the hurricane force winds and oh yes topped off with a little sunshine.

Secondly there was the time factor, training 6/7 days for about 6 months really eats into your daily schedule and not to mention my ‘social life’... it just ain’t worth it, running with a hangover!!

Thirdly there were the early mornings, oh how I struggled to get up at 5am to do some early running before the start of a busy day........and off course if I didn’t there was the late nights, running sometimes at 11pm at night!!

The Wins

This is by far the best part. I am well on my way to raising hundreds of pounds for Alzheimer Scotland; I am feeling great, focused, energetic and positive........my whole general wellbeing is excellent. I am working in alignment with my values and loving the journey. I have the most amazing support from my family and friends.........some who I have inspired to take up a similar challenge in the future.

So by someone else taking action and phoning me last year........it snowballed into all of this. You see just one small step like that phone call from my friend, turned into the most amazing of things........go and create the opportunities and make the positivity happen!!

If you wish to support my fundraising for Alzheimer Scotland you can do so by accessing the link below:

http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/ClaireMurray-GinaHagan

Thank you for your valued support.

Claire Murray

Dream Career

I absolutely LOVE my job but it wasn’t an easy job getting here—it took me 36 years of learning, being, doing, hoping, having, not having, feeling and experiencing the highs and lows of real life and work. It is only now that I feel wise enough and knowledgeable enough to share this experiential learning.

When I Grow UP I want to be.

From the age of 5—15 years I went through different phases of wanting to be a Mum, Air Steward, Dancer, Model, Nun, Song Writer (I had a real desire to write the winning Eurovision song), Primary School Teacher, Nursery Nurse and a Secretary. So where did my early career ideas come from, maybe.........

Mum: watching my mum lovingly support and care for our family; wanting to be just like my mum and also being the proud owner of various dolls such as (in its day) the famous ’Tiny Tears’.

Air Steward: wanting a ‘glamorous’ lifestyle and the opportunity to travel all over the world, maybe even marry a pilot!! I also think the popular TV advert for Caledonian Airlines had a big influence....I remember wanting to be a ‘Caledonian Girl’.

Dancer: I was a massive fan of the TV programme ’Fame’ and loved dancing from an early age.

Model: watching Miss World on TV and aspiring to be like one of these beautiful woman. I wanted to wear that crown!!!

Nun: there was a real religious influence here from my childhood days, in particular at Primary School and I went through a really ’holy’ stage—that was until I discovered my like for boys!!

Song Writer: I used to lock myself in my bedroom for hours and make up songs, I would practice and practice them all day long and never got bored of it—this was a perfect escapism for me at such a young age. To this very day I still remember the songs and so do my closet friends. We often burst into these songs after a few wines!!

Primary School Teacher: I used to babysit for my next door neighbour when I was in my early teens—I loved watching their 3 kids, probably because I could be a ‘big kid’ myself. This inspired me to want to teach young children to learn and develop—I then found out that I would need to study for a further 5 years after Secondary School and this sadly (at the time) put me off.

Nursery Nurse: again my love for children and helping them to learn and have fun. My Guidance Teacher at Secondary School totally put me off the idea “that’s not the career for you he said, that’s not a good job”. How easily influenced I was as a teenager.

Secretary: well I figured I would go with the safe bet and be a secretary, after all I was good at typing, passed all my Secretarial Studies exams with flying colours and oh yes my mum did that when she left school and she told me fabulous stories about her career in this field. That was it at the age of 15 I aspired to be a secretary. Well there was nothing else, was there......???

My Career Path

So I finally had come to the idea that I would be a Secretary. So I went to typing College to learn how to touch type—this proved to be a very worthwhile skill to have during all my future jobs. What where they? Well, my career experience consists of:

Shop assistant, sales representative, hotel waitress, 20 years of various office type jobs from receptionist through to human resource management. A couple of these jobs which I liked and some others I have quite closely hated.

An Independent Decision

Then at the age of 34 I decided to think very carefully about my future career and where it was heading. Why then? Well lots of reasons I believe, but I think coming out of some personal turmoil combined with some major achievements made me a much stronger person with a ‘can do’ attitude.

This included personal triumphs and goals such as Graduating from University in 2005, running the New York marathon in 2007 and Graduating again from University in 2008. It was in 2006/7 when I seriously reflected on my future and felt much more equipped to correctly answer the question

So what do I really want to do when I grow up?

To answer this I thought about my core values, what job activities I particularly enjoyed doing, what are my strengths, what was I truly passionate about doing, what excites me, where did I want to see myself 5-20 years from now, how was I going to get there?

I had a real belief and confidence in myself and I knew I wanted to have the freedom to explore new territories, learn new things and meet new people. I knew that I wanted to help other people achieve their dreams, goals and aspirations in life, I wanted to coach and mentor people to do just that, I got excited about the thought of it and felt strongly passionate about it. I was truly ready for this and felt fully motivated and inspired to do so.

What did I do?

I researched into Coaching, went to New York and met other coaches, left my full-time job, studied for a further year and achieved a Diploma in Coaching, started up my own business at the end of 2008 and that’s where I am at the moment. I have BIG plans for the business and I know that I will only achieve this through hard work and commitment. To be honest, at times it feels like starting all over again—to what it was like over 20 years ago.

What have been the best parts of my job so far?

Most definitely supporting and empowering other people to achieve their dreams, goals and aspirations in life. Almost 90% of my work to date has been career/organisational goals related and with my Human Resource background and coaching and mentoring experience—it works very well and benefits my clients greatly.

Also being my own boss and having the freedom to use my creativity and innovation to lead the business into great things that will inspire others to achieve great things for themselves.

Personal Learning

I have learned so much over the last 17 months of my business and I feel very proud to say that I have video blogged my real time journey all along the way. My vision is that one day it will be professionally edited and shared with you at home in the format of a short film/documentary.

But.........what about being a Songwriter?

Hey, I can still do that, my career ain’t over yet, it is just at the beginning—the true beginning.

Succeed as a Manager in your Organisation

Succeed as a Manager in your Organisation

Positive Future

I was looking after my 3 year old niece the other week whilst her parents went off to pick up their new puppy dog.

I love watching my little niece she is such a funny, cheery little girl full of character and excitement. She was happily looking out of the window into my back garden when she shouted “look Auntie Claire, they’re dancing”, I asked her what was dancing and she said “the trees are dancing” and she began to copy the swaying movements of the trees blowing in the wind outside. It was so cute to watch, I smiled and I thought to myself what a truly wonderful positive perception she has on Mother Nature.

Later on that day I kept thinking about my niece’s words and how she could have said something completely different using a more negative connotation, but she didn’t. I then thought about my younger sister, who is such an amazing “Mummy” and how positive and happy she is. I just know that my sister’s love for nature and optimistic outlook on life has made such a positive influence on my little niece’s young life.

It made me think about how important it is for us all to choose to have a positive mindset and positive take on the world. Like in those famous lyrics sung by Whitney Houston “I believe the children are our future” - I do hope the trees stay dancing.