Aug 7, 2019
John has had a fascinating career, as a volunteer teaching in Tonga, 19 years training and working as a Catholic priest, psychodrama training and work in a drug and alcohol treatment hospital all of which lay the foundation for him to become a compassionate emotional intelligence expert once he hit 50. Getting married when nearly 40 added the icing to the cake of really learning about intimacy and relationships.
Not long after his 50th birthday John decided to rebrand his training business to focus on this one topic – managing emotions. He’d been looking for a niche business idea to give him focus and one day woke up to the fact that his topic had been right in front of his nose for years.
Thriving Under Fire (TUF) was launched as a face-to-face workshop; he wrote a book (2009) and developed an interactive online training version (2013). Having taught thousands of people in many parts of the world including Bangladesh, Malaysia, Tonga, Samoa and of course New Zealand he found he loved this work because it makes such a difference to people’s lives which he knows will lead to a greater world peace.
The best tip when dealing with an emotional person is to first calm yourself down, don’t get involved with the other persons emotions, breathe deeply; name your feelings (to yourself); ask yourself a complex question, such as, what else might be going on in this person life? Then genuinely acknowledge the other person’s feelings. This is very simple to do and during this podcast John provides examples of what he means and how to do that in a meaningful lasting way.
John offers a free weekly blog, short posts with tips on managing emotions, and for Mature Preneurs Talk listeners there’s a free eBook you can download: The Power Apology at www.tuf.co.nz/mature