Today’s blog is a little different – a little more personal and with a different perspective to the usual information on training courses which, let’s face it, can be somewhat dry. Recently, I was privileged enough to be invited to attend a personal mastery and EQ training course at our training company in Randburg.
I was fairly excited but a little nervous, if I’m honest. I’d be taking this course with other clients, mostly senior managers, and I’m just a lowly writer who spends far more time interacting with my computer and my dogs rather than other actual people. Going into the course, my view was that it would be interesting but not actually particularly helpful to my own work/life experience. I was wrong.
I walked into that course one person – with my own perspectives and opinions feeling like a solid foundation under my feet. I walked out a changed person – still me, but a version of myself that had had doors opened up inside me that I didn’t even realise were there. It was a powerful transformative experience that I didn’t expect, and I loved every moment. Here are just a few things that I learned.
This is Not Your Ordinary Personal Mastery and EQ Training Course
I considered myself pretty up-to-date on what personal mastery and EQ was all about, what company training courses are like and what kind of impact they’re likely to have on your skills. This was not one of those courses. For starters, you’re in a small group of people dealing one-on-one with the trainer, who is happy for you to ask questions at any time. This is not some impersonal e-learning course you have to force your way through because your boss said you have to.
Secondly, you get some incredible course material that you keep to back up your training. It’s a SETA-accredited course too, which means you earn a high-quality qualification. Thirdly, your trainer really (and I mean really) knows her stuff. She was happy to spend as much time as we needed on difficult concepts, spend one-on-one time with you and never lost patience. I’m a sucker for a great teacher who can bring you out of your shell, create a safe learning space and who really works to find a way to help you out – and she was, in a word, fantastic.
There is No One Who Won’t Benefit from This Course
We were a fairly mixed bunch and, as I said, I was the oddest one out, but it didn’t matter. This course was more like work relationship group therapy with a balance of practical, applicable strategies for the workplace and personal relationships. With everyone in the group engaged and sharing their experiences, you could actually see people’s eyes opening as things clicked into place – that “ah ha” moment where confusion and frustration are replaced with clarity and curiosity.
Everyone took away something different from the course, something that was meaningful to them in particular. For some people, it was managing conflict in the workplace more effectively – especially in high-stakes situations. For others, it was learning to understand the values and motivations of others or understanding how their work and personal relationships affected one another. For me, it was getting to know myself better – where I trip myself up, how I handle frustration and negativity, and how to take responsibility for my own reactions and turn it into something positive, calming and productive rather than letting it blow up my whole day.
You Feel Engaged, Uplifted and Even Pampered
I’ve gone to plenty of training courses before and it’s always reminded me a bit of when I sat in lectures in a crowd while some guy droned on and I struggled to keep my eyes open. This was nothing like that. In this course, you feel drawn to the content. You sit there and think “Oh my goodness, this is ME! I know this situation, I have this reaction – and I never realised that I could do it differently”. You feel empowered in a very real sense to build better relationships, whether it’s with family, with your partner or with co-workers.
And, for the record, the food at the conference centre is incredible, making you feel truly pampered – mind, body and soul. One thing I certainly need to work on through my own personal mastery journey is learning to exercise my willpower and self-improvement when it comes to pastries.
