ask others what their number one energy-raising song of choice would be, and compile the lot into the ultimate spirit-lifting play list!

She’s only looking for one song which makes the task easier and more difficult at the same time… My first choice might well have been ‘Shine’ but that’s got Hilda’s vote so I had to think again.  There’s other music that fires my spirit – like the soundtrack to ‘Last of the Mohicans’ – but for music and lyrics I’m going to plump for M People’s ‘Search for the Hero’.

As you’ll see from the lyrics the song is a fantastic reminder of the power within.  Being a hero isn’t about success and achievement, about wealth and prosperity.  It’s about the way you choose to deal with the stuff that happens to you.  The choices we make, each and every day, to shape and define the narratives of our lives.  And the decision, whatever happens, to keep on looking up, to keep on aiming high.

In this life, long and hard though it may seem,
Live it as you’d live a dream.
Aim so high.
Just keep the flame of truth burning bright.
The missing treasure you must find
Because you and only you alone
Can build a bridge across the stream.

I can hear it in my head as I type these lyrics but if you want to hear it ‘out loud’ you’ll get a snippet by clicking the button below.

That’s mine – what’s yours?  I’m tagging three bloggers, Emma at How to Italy, Nick at Life 2.0 and Adam at Monk At Work but consider yourself invited if you want to add to the playlist.

The rules are simple,

1. Post about the one song that makes your heart sing, and uplifts your spirit every time you hear it.  If you can provide a link to lyrics and/or audio that would be fabulous.  But it’s not essential, so don’t worry about it if you can’t.

2.  Include a trackback to both this and Hilda’s original post

3.  Feel free to tag three others or invite contributions and ask them to include a trackback to your post and Hilda’s when they post.

1.We can make use of existing stories to gain insight into a situation.  This gives people a fresh perspective, opening up new possibilities for change.

2. As coaches we spend a lot of time listening to the stories that people are telling – telling other people, and telling themselves – and start to pick out what’s important to them in those narratives: their values and beliefs, what’s precious to them, what might be holding them back.

3. Stories are a metaphor for life.  You’ll hear people using this metaphor all the time: "he’s really lost the plot", "I can’t wait to move into the next chapter" and so on.  And coaching is all about breathing new life into that story. The story that you are inhabiting now, and the story you want to be living – and telling – in the future.

Maya Angelou once said:

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you"

For me that isn’t just about telling the story of what’s happened to you or what you’ve been doing up to now.  It’s about having the confidence to tell the story of who you are and who you want to be.  The person, the life, the story that is deep inside you: waiting to be told.