Christmas

So, here we are. The end of the year is nearly upon us and at least we have these few days to experience some time for ourselves and our families.

My last official working day of 2025 is today but being self-employed, you never really stop working and switch off completely. I also find myself reflecting on the year as a whole. I look back with mixed emotions.  I feel that I have managed to sustain and build upon what I have established as a business and what I am looking to do as a training provider, whilst balancing home and personal lives.  There has been advancement in how I communicate to customers as well as the subject matter I have learnt and continue to build on – mental health first aid being a good example of this. Motivation is also something that I have found difficult from time to time. Accepting that I won’t be at it all of the time, day after day, does not come easy for me but I’m starting to understand that to stay motivated, I need to do things that interest me and interestingly, scare me. Not in a “oh my god, I’m going to lose my house if I do this” kind of way, but finding a subject or angle to personally develop that gets my out of my comfort zone that I think I have been in for too long.  Proof is in the pudding as they say, so I guess you’ll have to wait and see if a) I do it at all and b) what the hell that looks like. You’re doing fine A little while ago I posted a blog which criticised the lack of checks and IQA visits training providers were doing on their trainers.  My argument was that this was driving standards down and not building on development and improvement that should be aspired to within the industry. Well you never guess what happened? Yes, I was audited by an external quality assessor or EQA for short.  I am 99.9% convinced that this was purely coincidental but the timing of it was uncanny.  I was chosen by this awarding body to be audited by one of their quality assessors whilst delivering a course at a, not insignificant, government research facility. The day arrived, and I was nervous. Which was good. I think if you feel an emotion before you do something then it matters.

The time came to meet the auditor, and she was lovely. She made me realise that she was there to see if the processes that they put in place are working and to see if there are any major issues in how or what I deliver in relation to the practical and theory assessments.  She made it clear that what I was doing was what she was looking for.  She gave me some advice on how to make things a little easier and then that was it, all over. So it’s nice to know that you’re doing just fine in your job and thanks to that visit, it confirmed that I was on the right path and not going rogue. Next Year 2026 then.  One thing I won’t be doing is resolutions. Looking to improve something in your life is a good thing but it should have to take a particular set of numbers on a calendar for that to start happening. I will be looking to improve bit by bit.  Week to week, month to month and that will then put me in a better position for next Christmas. I like to wish all of you who have managed to suffer all the way to this stage in the blog, a very Merry Christmas, good health, and a happy new year. Dan