I can barely believe that yet another month has disappeared. What has been keeping you busy? I thought I’d reflect on how July has been for me.

Work

Corporate life

As you may be aware, the majority of my working life is as a Global Process Owner for a large biopharmaceutical company. We are going through an exciting phase right now as we pursue a number of projects that take us towards my vision ‘To seamlessly deliver trusted financial reporting through scaleable and sustainable R2R process excellence.’

To do this we are deploying standard processes across the globe and deploying technology to enable a step change to people who work within my process area. It’s a pretty exciting time as I believe we really are on the brink of making a real and sustainable difference to both the company and those who work within finance.

Whilst this may be about finance processes within a FTSE 10 organisation, it’s exactly the same approach that I used in just about every walk of life:

• Have a vision of what you want to achieve

• Create a plan to get you there

• Have accountability with others to keep you honest

• Break down what you do into the process steps and create the best possible process - one that is standard, repeatable and sustainable.

  
  
  

Performance Coach

Whether I am using hypnosis, using other coaching techniques such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming or training / coaching swimmers - the process mindset is the same. Through my emma2rance business I have supported several people training to swim the channel, people hoping to shed a few pounds, people who have tried all sorts to resolve other issues such as seasickness or chronic pain.

Through the work I do running Dover Channel Training, I get to support people chasing amazing dreams such as English Channel team or solo swims. This is an absolute privilege and in the last month we have seen members of the group achieve:

• 11 x English Channel solos

• 7 x English Channel relays

• 3 x Lake Annecy solos

• 1 x Arch to Arc solo

• 1 x Round Jersey solo

• 1 x Arch to Arc relay

• 1 x Loch Lomond relay

• 1 x The Wash solo

What an incredible month!

Each week for Dover training we have ‘themes’. It’s a little bit of fun that has many positive benefits. We’ve had fun with these themes this month:

• Pride week

• Military bootcamp

• Hawaii week

• Love & friendship

I’ve also been supporting another project which will become clear in the coming weeks.

What about what I’ve been up to?

As you can imagine, with a corporate role, a small business and running Dover Channel Training, that does take up all 7 days of the week, including every evening and I love it! I do also have my own aspirations.

This year my chosen targets are three English Channel Relays:

• A 4 person relay which was due to take place at the end of June

• A 6 person relay which was due to take place last week

• A 3 person relay due to take place in September

As you can see, the first two relays haven’t gone to plan - the English weather has decided that we need to be a little bit more patient. Luckily, I’ve been around this sport long enough now that I am pretty relaxed about these things. I know that it will all work out in the end. So watch this space.

Following on from my DNAfit test, I have started to make some changes. The first of which is some land based training supported by a good friend who is a personal trainer. It’s early days yet, but so far so good.

I’m also continuing with my own coaching - it’s helping really define what I want out of life and helping me define who I am and see things from a slightly less critical viewpoint (I really am my own worst critic).

Slightly more challenging, has been a few medical blips including a spout of gout - ouch! I have a few other bits and pieces under investigation and have had a pretty thorough ‘MOT’ over the last month, hopefully the challenges are no more than little blips.

Here’s to an amazing August - one of successes and new learnings!

Emma x