Small Changes

I felt this week that, in our 14th year in business it might be worth sharing why we chose the name Minds Aligned for our company name and what guided our choice of logo because it may help you understand our overall philosophy for our company and also for life in general.?And we haven’t shared it widely before.

For those who may not be aware, the decision to cut loose from ‘traditional’ employment, the 9-5 type, to being self-employed is, by no means easy and it certainly wasn’t for us.?It came from a place of discomfort, change and self-reflection.?Nick describes it as being a matter of integrity for him; in a role where he was delivering sessions and coaching in Leadership all around the region and getting paid well, with a company car, laptop, phone etc, he started to feel as though it was one thing to talk about it and another to actually do it.?He felt he needed to prove self-leadership and branch out on his own.

2007, when all of this happened was definitely a challenging year for Nick and me; Nick was on 12 months of chemo and I ended up spending many months in England for family reasons, but such was (and still is) his drive and determination to do something once his mind is set, things were set in motion.?I, on the other hand, could be described as a ‘late adopter’, taking time to come to grips with things like this and it felt rather as though I was jumping off a cliff without a parachute.

We played around with names for the company, and both agreed on Minds Aligned for certain reasons.?We wanted to be able to work with other, like-minded people on certain projects when needed.?We wanted to encourage people to consider all of life from the perspective of their conscious, unconscious and higher conscious minds.?And, we wanted to support organisations, groups and teams wanting to achieve their best results to have everyone and their many minds, aligned to and inspired by a clear purpose, vision and set of values.

So what about the logo??

For those who are aren’t familiar, the letter d in Minds is the lowercase version of the Greek letter Delta (δ}.?The uppercase version is represented by a triangle, and often represents change or difference, therefore the lower case, for us, means small change.?

The combination of the company name and logo therefore represents what Nick and I stand for in general, that significant improvements and benefits in life can, and often do, come from making the smallest changes.?Your habits and routines, your internal and external environment, your work, your relationship, your thinking, your conversations, your look, your outlook, your mindset and more, there are plenty of examples of how this can be true.

A few examples to get you contemplating.

You could go a different way to work or go to a different cafe, meet someone new or someone you haven’t seen for a while, and they share something that helps you.?You may change something in your home or work environment, the placement of your desk, a chair, tidy your cupboard or clean out the fridge; something shifts and perhaps improves efficiency.?You may re-frame your thinking about a situation, event or person which helps you gain a new perspective and allows you see it or them differently in a new light and move on.?You may feel the need to call someone and find out they’ve been through a tough time and your call made their day a little lighter.

So, a small change in us can create a significant change not only for us, the ripple effect I have written and spoken about before, but also for others and as with all things, that has the potential to be ‘negative’ or ‘positive’.?

Whatever you take from this article, change is constant so start small where you have control and choose small changes wisely; the benefits will come.

Rowena Hardy - Facilitator, Coach and Co-Founder, Minds Aligned