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I was supposed to be leading a workshop next month for the Centre for Confidence & Well-being. They had planned a conference in Glasgow on the theme of physical activity and positive mental health. As part of the conference there were to be a number of physical activities and I was leading two groups who would walk from the conference venue in Glasgow’s Merchant City to the People’s Palace Museum at Glasgow Green, probably about a fifteen minute walk. At the museum they would hear from a number of speakers about community physical activities, including gardening. Unfortunately, the full-day conference has been canceled because of lack of numbers. It will go ahead as an afternoon event, without workshops but still with the main speakers, Professor Ken Fox and Professor Nanette Mutrie.

I received an e-mail this morning from the Centre’s Chief Executive, Carol Craig, apologising for the cancellation and pointing out that this is the first time in the Centre’s five-year history that this has happened. As she explains, part of it may be down to the time of year. In Scotland we have just finished the holiday season and people may not have had time to plan to attend the event. It is a great shame.

As a runner, I am well aware of the psychological benefits of physical activity. I am training to run a 10K with my daughter at the start of next month, in fact just a four days before the conference. The weather in this part of Scotland has been cool and damp for the past few weeks and I have had to train sometimes on very wet days. Thirty years ago, when I ran marathons and had a full head of hair, I actually liked running in the rain. Recently, as I have lost most of my hair, I have found that rain can be painful on my scalp and I have been more reluctant to train in poor weather. Last week, knowing that the race is imminent, I felt obliged to set out on a wet, windy morning. Although the first mile was a bit of a trial, I was soon into my stride and forgot the horrible weather around me. When I arrived home, even before my shower, my wife remarked on the grin on my face and the glow around me. That lasted for the rest of the day and, in fact, until I had my next run on Saturday. And the glow from Saturday’s run (this is Monday) which took place in sunshine, is still there.

The speakers at the conference will be presenting research evidence which proves that, for most of us, physical activity is not only good for our bodies but for our minds. My running experience confirms that. And I know that it is not only running. My wife finds gardening incredibly therapeutic. If you can do it, try some physical exercise. You’ll be much better for it.

Just over a week ago I attended a conference on the above hosted by Scotland’s Futures Forum at the Scottish Parliament. I shall write more on the conference later but I just want to mention here what a great day it was. The first part of the morning was taken up with speakers giving their slant on what we in Scotland and what the UK as a whole has done about poverty and inequality. There were some discussions about whether there is any difference and, I think, a general view that the extremes of inequality in the UK create the poverty. Later we had a series of soapboxes where a variety of speakers had four minutes to speak on a specific topic followed by four minutes questions/discussion, then in the afternoon a cafe conversation discussing how we think Scotland can/will move over the next ten years.

There was plenty of plain speaking during the day and many great suggestions at the plenary session. Despite the current crisis, the mood of the day was generally optimistic and I left feeling fired up again. Particular praise must go the the Presiding Officer of the Parliament who hosted and chaired the day (with significant help from the journalist Keith Aitken). Some of the comments about politicians were less than complimentary but the Presiding Officer never flinched and thanked everyone for their contribution. I’m looking forward to the final report which should be available here. An audio of the day is available here.

A few weeks ago I attended a Masterclass organised by the Centre for Confidence & Well-being. It was led by John Seddon who talked about systems thinking in service organisations. John is highly critical of the approach, favoured by the present Government, of setting targets and micro-managing. He used an example of a telecoms provider and the approach when you call to report a fault. It exactly mirrored my experience which I wrote about three years ago, down to the person at the callcentre blaming me for their fault!

John is a marvelous speaker whose passion for his subject occasionally leads to him using what is euphemistically called “colourful language”. I took no offence nor did anyone around me. When we have experts like John and his team around and when they have often shown their findings and offered their help to government at local and national level, why does this country continue to act in ways which are useless and expensive? This is our money that is being wasted. These are our friends and relatives who are being killed by an obsession with meeting targets as opposed to helping people. How long will this go on before we rise together and clear the lot out?

Check out http://www.systemsthinking.co.uk/home.asp for more.

A month ago I met a very interesting woman, Karen Caldwell, who is a life coach. She also delivers Pacific Institute training in Drumchapel, one of Glasgow’s peripheral housing schemes. Karen and I had a chat and seemed to be of similar minds on a number of things. Because of that we agreed to meet again and see if there was any way we could work together.

Following that second meeting we have decided to run a half-day workshop together. It is being called Where the Mind Goes, the Behind Follows and will allow people to learn some tools and techniques to make their lives run better. The workshop will be a lot of fun because both of us like to enjoy life, but the results will be serious. For those who want to use the tools, their lives will be better. No question.

The workshop will be held in Lang’s Hotel, Glasgow on the morning of Saturday 3 June. We intend to start promptly at 9.28 (yes, you read correctly.) and finish around 12.30 Because we are convinced that we have a good product on offer, we are not setting a fee. Anyone who attends will be asked to pay us whatever they think the workshop was worth. Bookings to me on 07710 760 854 or via the website.

For the past seven years I have worked for an organisation in Castlemilk, Glasgow called CEDA (Castlemilk Economic Development Agency). I started there on a youth enterprise project; I had to encourage more young people to think of self-employment, to provide advice and training to young people aiming to start up in business and to provide aftercare support to those already in business.

Over the intervening years I have moved on to other roles with CEDA, many of them involving training, until my most recent project of providing motivation and confidence-building techniques to people to enable them to look at self-employment as an option. This morning I gave notice to CEDA that I had decided to move on to something new. This evening I attended a networking event for half an hour. In that time I was offered work helping with training young business people, which will replace my work with CEDA. What do they say about “when one door opens…”?

Last week I was involved with a colleague from Glasgow’s Business Gateway provider in delivering training in presentation skills and report writing to a group of about sixty Young Achievers, that is senior school pupils taking part in Young Enterprise. Anyone who spends any time with these young people cannot help but be inspired. They give me great hope for the future.