The ‘Say hello to the real you’ workshop by Stephen Wells (President of JCI Reading and Owner of AIM to Succeed Ltd) was introduced as ‘a chance to be introduced to the real you, possibly for the first time’.

I was interested to see what I found out about ‘The Real Me’ and would it match what I had always assumed about myself, so I decided to go along.

Steve initially asked us to consider the things that we use to define ‘who’ we really are, this prompted a lot of discussion within the group, a theme that continued throughout the night and was actively encouraged by Steve. 
Things like our physical appearance, as well as our roles we assume in life and at work.  These thoughts continued to grow as we worked through and began to refine our definition of ourselves more and more as the workshop went on.

The discussions enabled us to reconsider how these points defined us and it was interesting to find that other members of the group had different views on ‘us’, which really highlighted the difference between how we see ourselves and how others perceive us on a day to day basis.

As the night progressed Steve reinforced to us that by learning about ourselves we gain a new insight into our lives and how we can make decisions. Enabling us to choose how to control and react to events around us.

At the end of the workshop we were given the opportunity to make a promise to ourselves, and write it down so that Steve could post it back to us at a later date (It should be arriving back with me any day now). We all agreed to personally commit to ourselves to work towards achieving these goals, or focusing on the new learning, to make the positive change in our lives, in doing so changing how we define ourselves.

It was really good to step back and look at how what I learned about myself on that night compared to what I had initially thought, thankfully for the good!

Steve was keen to encourage debate within the group and also with himself on some of the statements that he made in the process. I’m sure all of us learnt a lot more than we initially thought, and also got to know other members of the group better in the process.

Since that night I have been consciously referring back to that promise that I made to myself and it has made a big difference on how I think about myself and as a result how I present myself, which in turn has paid off at work and at home.

Thanks Steve!