Claire Higgins joined me over the summer for a discussion on coaching and consulting, and looking at her work on positive psychology as well as martial arts. At time of recording, she was studying for a Masters in Exercise and Sport Psychology. She was raised in the UAE and worked across the Middle East in the humanitarian sector for 12 years, focusing on the protection of people affected by armed conflict.   Influenced by Jean Claude Van Damme, watching his videos as a 12-year old in the 80's, she took up karate and twenty five years later, started teaching self-defence. Concerning for her and me is that there is an increased interest in how to defend oneself from knife attacks.    Claire’s definition about success is about being able to build a life that brings her closer to her family and being healthy; she believes that the rat race of going up and up and up a career ladder, will eventually lead to burnout if it lacks meaning, and things might suddenly change; we discuss her view on the classic career and how subjective the view on success really is.   Leading from positive change, we discuss hedonic well being and the pursuit of a meaningful life as we are getting older; and, as life gets more complex, we aren’t able to control our environment, which means we are forced to look inwards to re-arrange the pieces. What’s driving us on?    I enjoyed the conversation with Claire, and her take on life and success. Claire developed Inner Athletics as a research lab and consultancy for performance, stress and recovery. This evolved from her executive coaching practice in Dubai which she ran for 4 years, focusing on performance, communications, leadership, conflict resolution and resilience.    Before registering it in the UK, she studied for a diploma in Positive Organisational Psychology and began researching strengths, motivation, leadership, teamwork and positive emotions. From there, she began building bridges between Positive Psychology and coaching through her Inner Strength program.   We move on to discuss difference of coaching vs. consulting, and how the relationship changes pending on client expectations; the better you know the client, one could fall into the trap to help them with some shortcuts. It is all about destiny and faith, as well as being at the right time, environment and having the right motivation.   She recommends to read Martin Seligman’s book Flourish and her mantra is “If you can’t fully recover, you cannot fully adapt”; if you would like to reach out to her, please contact her via LinkedIn.   Your host, Volker Ballueder, is a trusted advisor to businesses, boards as well as an executive coach, and works with leadership teams in order to evaluate strategies, improve performance and get the most out of their people. Delivering happiness, ROI and winning strategies for your business and life.   For more information please visit Ballueder Partners' website, or contact him on Linkedin. He hosts a podcast about success and published a best selling book  Principles for Success. Volker is a qualified meditation and mindfulness trainer.

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