Inspire Someone Today
Inspire Someone Today
E142 | Break the Mould | Bijal Shah
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What if a single question could completely redirect your life's trajectory? For Bijal Shah, that question came on a park bench during the pandemic: "How many more summers have you got left, and how do you want to spend them?"
Despite achieving the traditional success her immigrant parents had dreamed of—a prestigious headteacher position with stability and status—Bijal realized she was burned out and unfulfilled. This awakening launched her journey from educational leadership into entrepreneurship, and she founded Think Link Lead, a company dedicated to coaching and developing the next generation of authentic leaders.
Bijal brings a fascinating dimension to leadership development by integrating the Human Design System—a framework combining ancient modalities like the Indian chakra system, Chinese I-Ching, and astrology with quantum physics to reveal individual strengths and optimal ways of functioning. As a "Projector" type, Bijal discovered why she naturally excelled at guiding others and identifying opportunities for improvement, perfectly aligning with her coaching practice.
The conversation explores how truly understanding your innate design transforms individual performance and team dynamics. Bijal shares compelling examples of how implementing Human Design principles in her leadership team revolutionized collaboration, with each person contributing through their natural strengths rather than forced roles.
Beyond her personal journey, Bijal offers thought-provoking perspectives on transforming education through innovative learning environments, student-directed exploration time, and integrating coaching for young people. Her well-being approach challenges conventional wisdom, emphasizing that routines must align with your unique energy type rather than following generic "success formulas."
Ready to discover how understanding your authentic design could transform your leadership, well-being, and life satisfaction? Listen now and find the alignment that might be missing in your own journey.
Have you purchased the copy of Inspire Someone Today, yet - Give it a go geni.us/istbook
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The Question That Changed Everything
Speaker 1But a friend of mine met me on a park bench and she said to me are you happy? I said I'm really happy. I mean, you know my immigrant parents. This is all they wanted for me a good salary, and you know, good pension and got a good job. What else will I do in life? But I did already train as a coach in 2012. So I used my coaching throughout my career and set up coaching cultures and different organizations and across different trusts and things like that. And she said to me right, you love the sun? Right? I said yes. She said I'm going to ask you a question. And this was the penny dropping moment. Okay, that changed my life. She said right, it's your 40th birthday. She said I'm going to ask you a question how many more summers have you got left and how do you want to spend them?
Speaker 2Welcome to Inspire Someone Today podcast, a show where we dive into the stories and insights that has the power to create ripples of inspiration in your life. I'm your host, shrikant, and I'm thrilled to be with you on this journey of inspiration. And I'm thrilled to be with you on this journey of inspiration. Month of March, world Over, is celebrated as International Women's Day, precisely March 8th this year. The theme for International Women's Day is Accelerate Action and we here on Inspire Someone someone today. For the last four years, we have been celebrating women's day, not for a day all through, for one full month. It's an absurd joy to have four different women inspirers joining us this month, the last of this series. This month, we have been joined by this wonderful, wonderful coach, podcaster, podcaster, head teacher, well-being expert. I don't know what else can I add to the list, but it's an absolute joy to have Bijal Shah joining us on this episode of Inspire Someone today. Welcome to the show, bijal.
Speaker 1Hello, thank you so much for having me. What a wonderful introduction, so lovely on this Sunday morning.
Speaker 2Lovely to have you on the show. Like I said, we have been running back to back four episodes this month. This is the last of the series of the four episodes and couldn't have been more thrilled to have you on the show, Bijar.
Speaker 1Well, you know what? Thank you very much, but also congratulations to you for the consistency. Four years and you're still going many podcasters don't and you're doing this special one in four episode, and I tell you what I feel so humbled that you asked me to come on here. So thank you so much. I can't wait to be part of your platform let's get started.
Celebrating Women's Inspiration
Speaker 2So you're not only former head teacher, a coach, you're also a recently added title to your name tag, that's as a podcaster. So congratulations on your podcast. We'll talk about it a little later, but before that first up, let's hear a bit about you, bijal. What's your backstory? How did you land at what you're doing today?
Bijal's Journey From Immigrant Roots
Speaker 1just walk me and walk my listeners through your backstory so my my parents are Indian, my mom's from India, my dad is from Africa, but they're both Indian and they are obviously immigrants. And they came to England when they were both very, very young and my mom was only 18 and my dad was about what 21, and my dad had this real aspiration for his children and he always said to us I will do whatever it takes for you to be successful and to be happy in this life. I want you to have everything that I didn't have. So that is what you know all immigrant parents want for is what you know all immigrant parents want for their children. But my dad, like other immigrant parents, he was really really obsessed with education. He saw that as the absolute way forward for anyone to succeed. Right, and he's a clever man. But he never really had any formal education. And my parents? They were just factory workers. Then they had their own sort of shop and everything and they literally remortgaged their entire house to send me to private school. And because I was quite academic, I was very good at studying, I was really good at school and I passed all the exams to get in. They literally would give me anything I need to make me successful. So that's a lot of pressure. But when I did go to this school it really was like the best of British, right as you see on TV, right as you see on TV, you know great teachers, massive grounds, really smart looking uniforms and really fantastic teachers. But the one thing about the school was that they really were aspirational for the values that they instilled in the girls that they had at the school. So we grew up with you can do it, you are aspirational, you. You are a leader and when you go out into the world, it is your duty to make a difference in the world. So that's what I did.
Speaker 1I worked in HR and I swapped to education uh, very swiftly afterwards, because I always had it in me to guide people, you know, even in my friendship groups. It was a natural way for me. I really wanted to make a difference and you know, so I swapped to education and the minute I swapped to education it must be universal alignment. I really progressed quickly. It really suited me. I loved the lesson planning, curriculum development. I loved making the difference to the children, to the pupils, you know, supporting their parents, and I very, very quickly started to progress in my career quickly and I started to get leadership roles and then I started to get school improvement roles. So I then sort of thought, ok, I'm doing quite well, I want a little bit of a new experience in life, and at that time education in the UAE was a big thing. So I went over to Abu Dhabi and I taught there for a while and again, my career just really took off there and I started doing school improvement.
Speaker 1When I came back to England a couple of years later, I then took on a headship of a school. So they asked me to take on a school that was requires improvement and they wanted me to take it as a school improvement project. So that's what I did. All the way through my career I've had a lot of leadership roles that involve developing, teaching and learning, training, coaching and mentoring, and I absolutely loved those parts of the role and I thought to myself imagine one day if I could just like coach or mentor or train all day long, and I just thought this is really what I love doing. I just really love supporting others to be the best that they can and just a guiding force to like really you know, like unleash their potential.
From Education to Coaching Career
Speaker 1Then during the headship, the pandemic happened and I'd worked really, really hard to get to where I was, and you know I did really love it. But I did dedicate the majority of my days and my life to work. That's how I got to where I was at such a young age. But I didn't know any different. And during the pandemic everybody started talking about well-being and mental health and I just started thinking to myself oh, I pride myself on never being sick, never, ever having a day off, work, always doing the best for everyone else. But I really was quite burnt out. I really was quite tired. I realised during the pandemic I don't have a life. I work all day long and I really don't go anywhere, I don't do anything, I just think about work all the time. And at the same time, during the pandemic, I turned 40. But you couldn't have a celebration because you couldn't have anyone in your house.
Speaker 1But a friend of mine met me on a park bench and she said to me are you happy? I said I'm really happy. I mean, you know my immigrant parents. This is all they wanted for me a good salary and, you know, good pension and got a good job. What else will I do in life? But I did already train as a coach in 2012.
Speaker 1So I used my coaching throughout my career and set up coaching cultures and different organizations and across different trusts and things like that. And she said to me right, you love the sun, right, I said yes. She said I'm going to ask you a question. And this was the penny dropping moment. Okay, that changed my life. She said right, it's your 40th birthday. She said I'm going to ask you a question how many more summers have you got left and how do you want to spend them? And I thought, oh, my goodness, I love my job. I thought, but yeah, I'm not like others. I've got years ahead of me, decades ahead of me. And I thought what could I do? And that question I couldn't get it out of my mind and I thought about it and I thought about it. But you know, instinctively that question just kind of like pierced me in a way that I just thought, oh no, now I'm not going to be able to start thinking about what I can do. So I did.
Speaker 1I knew at that stage I would leave my role at some point and that I would set up my own coaching, because during the pandemic, a lot of the other headteachers that I knew were going through quite a hard time and they wanted some coaching, and I was really enjoying guiding others through this difficult period. I then had Black Lives Matter happen at the same time in the pandemic. So because I was, I think, a very low percentage of women of colour in a leadership position under 40, all of a sudden my LinkedIn started to just go a little bit crazy. You know, do you want to do this show? What do you think about ethnic minorities in leadership? You know, but I didn't do any of the radio shows or articles.
Speaker 1What I did decide to do was coach leaders of color in senior leadership positions during the pandemic, and I just loved the coaching, coaching and also some of it was mentoring as well for some of the younger younger heads or the younger head teachers as well, and I just thought I wish I could do this for the rest of my life, like I love it. So then I started to think, okay, let me put a plan in place, right, because I'm very sort of. I'm not a spontaneous person Like I like to plan. So I started putting a plan together and I thought I'm never, ever going to leave this school until we get an inspection that says that we are now a good school. We got that inspection, it became a good school and I thought this is my time, it's just a natural way. And I had set things up business wise, client wise. I already had a client base, um.
Speaker 1I joined um high level business mentoring with Adam Stott at big business events. I started learning about funnels and sales and you know how to develop products and how to develop signature solutions and how to do that, and that was great. But I still have a very spiritual side to me. So I started learning about the human design system and I combined my business mentoring with the human design system and I just started to do what I really love doing. I started to do education, consultancy, coaching, training, mentoring.
Speaker 1But now I've moved on not only to do that, but I do leaders from all walks of life, from all different industries, and now my company, think Link Lead.
Speaker 1It has a team, so we have a team of people and soon we'll be having an academy as well that offers leadership qualifications. So it's been a bit of a planning process, but now I'm really doing what I really love. But I tell you what, shrika, this life is for you if you know how to network and you really prioritize your relationships and you've really got to have a very strong mind and resilience about you to be self-employed, because it's beautiful to have a job and a regular monthly salary, but to do what you really love, you do have to also make sacrifices. You know expensive gym membership and spa memberships they have to go temporarily. You know expensive gym membership and spa memberships they have to go temporarily, you know. But it will come back. So, yeah, now I spend my days coaching, mentoring, training, and actually the school that I used to go to they asked me to come back to be a mentor to mentor some of the young ladies there. So I'm really, really proud to to do that and I'm very happy as well.
Speaker 2Fantastic Bijal. I think that was a great, great start, a good summary of everything that you have done. I picked up quite a lot of things as you kind of unfold your journey from being a daughter of immigrant parents to you yourself going to a country as an immigrant and doing something that you love doing. So, along all of these things that you did, whom do you attribute as influences to what you have been doing? What was those early influences that you had on your life?
Speaker 2Okay, so one of my early influences when I look back, there was this show on the TV and it was a comedy show and it was called Goodness Gracious Me.
Finding Purpose Through Human Design
Speaker 1Have you heard of it? I've heard the name. Yeah, so one of the women on that show, mira Sayal. She's also an author, she's also does some theatre work, and I'd never seen anyone who was from my background on the TV, in the creative industries. I'd never seen anyone not being a doctor, dentist, lawyer, pharmacist. And I really felt so inspired by her books when I read them, when I saw her on the TV and the absolute creativity and I thought, wow, someone from my culture is doing something that I really admire. I really admired her and I thought I wonder if I could be like her, not so much in the creative industries, but break the mold of the cultural barriers that we have. And and I really just absolutely watched every episode, I read all about her, I read all her books and I just felt so inspired. She was one of my really early childhood inspirations.
Speaker 2Awesome. You did mention about breaking the mold and you did in a very beautiful way, from being a head teacher to doing coaching and now podcasting. If you were to highlight a couple of challenges or lessons learned along the way, what would that be?
Speaker 1So I would say, definitely, balancing the transition process right. So when you are an employed person and you have a monthly salary, you have an employee mindset okay, and there is a security that comes with that set okay, and there is a security that that comes with that. When you transition into being self employed and you're an entrepreneur, you've got to transition from having that employee mindset to entrepreneur mindset. So an entrepreneur mindset is one that does take risk, the one that has absolute faith and belief in what they are doing, and they've got to be able to navigate the good times and the bad times. You've got to be able to just have the energy and motivation to have a routine, because no one is holding you accountable when you are working for yourself.
Speaker 1You don't have to get out of bed for anyone. You've got to force yourself to have a routine. Get out of bed for anyone. You've got to force yourself to have a routine. Get out of bed. You've got to make sure that you get all your things done. You've got to have a routine in place and you've got to have, like, your plan for the week.
Speaker 1So you've got to be very I would say money savvy. You've got to have some money management about you. You've got to know that when money's there, how much can you put aside for when it might not be there, how much? What opportunities are there? But also, you have to be the face of your business. You have to make relationships, you have to um, prioritize relationships, you have to network. But you also have to understand that you might be working much more than you were before right weekends, evenings, but it will calm down. But the one thing I love about this lifestyle is the freedom and the flexibility, um, you know, to go on holidays or to have a bit of time out. It took me a long time to transition from that employee mindset to entrepreneur mindset.
Speaker 2I have to say it was quite a process and each of it has its own merits and demerits. Employee mindset is in no way a bad thing. It has its own set of advantages if one were to pursue that. Having said that, you have transitioned from being a head teacher to coaching coaching the headteachers. How was that transition like? Did you kind of see openness amongst headteachers to getting coached? Because headteachers are somebody who always pride themselves for teaching kids, coaching kids. Now they're being coached. How was that transition? How was the receptiveness to getting coached?
Speaker 1Not just headteachers, but any leader. They all tell me the same story and you would have heard this it's lonely at the top, right? You're there for everyone else, but for you to be your absolute best, for you to absolutely have someone to guide you in your leadership, because leadership is not something you leave at the door, it's not just a job, it's part of you. Whoever you are personally, that is also part of you as a leader. So they need someone to help and guide them, either through coaching or mentoring, right? So in coaching, coaching you would be a facilitator and you would you know it's very goal focused and you would, you know, work with them towards their goals and you've got the questions and the feedback, whereas mentoring role for that is more to do with, um, the mentor being very hands-on there's someone very experienced, they've walked your path before and they can show you the way it's like having a, you know, really hands-on experience.
Speaker 1But how do they take it? They approach me. So they're already in the buy-in mode, right? They approach me. They know that they need support emotionally. They know that they need support emotionally. They know that they need to have a sounding board to help them, guide them towards where they want to be. And now coaching and mentoring are massive parts of leadership development. For the first time ever we're seeing leadership development programs that now intertwine coaching or mentoring especially coaching into the programs.
Speaker 2So they're very open to it and it's also more the need of the day. You want to be a good leader, but you cannot do everything by yourself. That's where you need to have these kind of coaching sessions.
Speaker 1Have that access to mentors, have access to that network yes, and a coach will always give you very powerful questions and use tools to help you really uncover blocks, have mindset shifts and take you to the next bit of where you need to go. But also you really reduce the overwhelming coaching because a very good coach knows how to assess something called congruency. So are your goals aligned to who you are? Is what you're saying aligned with your actions? And a very skilled coach will also be able to take you through those mini steps, milestones, to get you to where you want to be.
Speaker 2That naturally takes me to the ThinkLink Lead. What is ThinkLink Lead?
Speaker 1takes me to the ThinkLink Lead. What is ThinkLink Lead? Yeah, so ThinkLink Lead is a human-centered company. We are a group of coaches, mentors and trainers, all working as collaborators, and what we do is we take collaborators who are already working in that leadership coaching, mentoring field, that some of them are linked in top voices, some of them are TEDx speakers. They're already on the ground working with leaders already, and we offer coaching, mentoring and we offer training all to do with leadership. So we've got a menu of leadership training from aspiring leaders, new leaders to c-suite executives. We've also got mentoring programs and specific coaching programs as well. So it's a real resource there. And then coming soon is also the academy which will be offering the leadership qualifications.
Speaker 2So how did you conceive this whole idea of Think Link Lead, what made you to kind of think about it and what was the genesis of the podcast?
Transition to Entrepreneurship
Speaker 1So I always saw myself as a leader and the way that I came up with Think Link, lead was through meditation. Okay. So I was sitting on the floor and this was even before I went to the UAE, so I was kind of midway through my career as a teacher. Went to the UAE, so I was kind of midway through my career as a teacher and I thought to myself I would really like to have my own business. But I was only sort of five or six years into my actual teaching career and I do some meditation and some quiet time work, and all of a sudden I just like heard this voice in my head go, go and get a yellow piece of paper. And I thought, yellow piece of paper, right, okay. So you know, I had a yellow piece of paper like a yellow post-it note and I thought, okay, and then write these words down think link, lead. And I thought, oh, they're really nice words, aren't they right? So I write the words down and then I put them on my mirror in my bathroom and I didn't really know what it was. Yeah, and then I just left it there and sometimes I would look at it and I looked at it for years. I just had the post-it note there for years.
Speaker 1Then, one day, when I came back from the UAE and I took on my headship role and one day I was getting ready, you know, putting on my lipstick, getting ready, and, um, I looked at it and I'd kept this post-it note for years and years and it was all like really stained and like by this time it was just really, you know, and I thought, oh, my god, that's it, that's, that's, that's the company, that's the company I should start. But I literally held onto it for years, right, and I didn't know what it was. And then I messed around with a few logos and a few concepts and if you look back at my LinkedIn, even when I decided to start ThinkLink Lead, it was something very different. It was a human sort of using my human design experience in coaching. Then they finally kind of tweet yeah, leadership, coaching, mentoring, training, stick to what you've got, okay. Then it became a podcast and now it's a full-blown company with an academy coming soon as well. So, yeah, literally came to me through meditation wow, how intriguing that is.
Speaker 2I was not ready for it you got the sickness but you're not ready for it, and when you're ready you took it on yeah, and absolutely going through that, that process of it as well.
Speaker 1So now I do, every single day, spend at least 10 minutes closing my eyes and just being quiet and just thinking, okay what just calm my nervous system. If any messages come to me or into intuitive hits, come to me about my business or my personal life, I take them on. And you know, at that time, when think link lead came to me, I had like all the incense sticks going and you know I'd kind of like had the sun coming in through the window and I had just decided that day I would just take a moment for myself and I'm really in a relaxed state and I'm not sure about the science behind it, but there must be something about that relaxed state that does actually open up something in your subconscious mind. I'm sure of it.
Speaker 2That was a magical moment, isn't it?
Speaker 1Yeah, and you. I said to my friend at the time, you know I was doing some meditation today and I said I had these three words and she said they're nice words. I said, yeah, I'm just going to keep this post-it note, though, and for years and years I just didn't know what to do with it.
Speaker 2Lovely Mijal. A couple of times you did mention the human design system. What is it and what is that one can do to kind of have a little more understanding about it?
Speaker 1So the human design system is a combination of modalities, okay, so. So it's got the Hindu chakra system in there, it's got the Chinese I Ching system in there, it's got the tree of life, it's got astrology as well, and it's based on quantum physics. All right, it's based on quantum physics. Now, how this works is it takes your birth information, so it takes your exact name, date of birth, time of birth and it takes, like, where you were born. So you know, we will be used to this in India as well when we go through this. You know the astrology system. So the human design system, it believes that when you are created okay, the stars, the energies of the planets, they are all in a particular place. So as you come through that energetic stream, you become imprinted in a specific way. So it takes your birth information and it gives you a human design blueprint and it shows you your strengths. It shows you you know your areas for development, your gifts. It shows you how you know your areas for development, your gifts. It shows you, um, how you function in life. It shows you your framework of your purpose. So if I get my phone and I show you a human design chart, it's really quite something unusual right again came to me in the pandemic. This is my human design chart. Okay, so what you can see, it's down the side. You've got the astrology. You've got the tree of life with the, the. You know the lines, all these numbers, they're the chinese I ching. And then all of these are funny shapes, geometric shapes. They are actually the chakra system, but it's a nine system, not seven system. Chakra system, right? So it's a combination of modalities. Now you have to learn how to read a human design chart. Right, you have to learn how to read it. Now, the core elements of human design are your type, your strategy and your authority. So your type is like the group you belong to. Your strategy is how you function and then your authority is your decision making.
Speaker 1So, according to my human design, I've got gate 18 in the sun. So in astrology, the sun is a very, very big part of who you are. So I've got gate 18 in the sun and I've got the full channel, and that is called correction. So my entire life. When I look back, I think, oh, my goodness, all I've ever had is my leaders, my superiors, saying to me can you create this department, can you improve this. Can you make this better? This is failing, it's not working. Not working, can you improve it?
Speaker 1Because in my sun gate I can see that I'm here for correction, right, but if you understand more about the gate and even the the school that I took, it's always been in my career correction, correction, improvement, improvement, right. So, but you have to understand that with the gate, it's a gate where it's not for the individual, it's the gate for the masses. So when you've got correction in your sun, because you have an energy of correction, you are always looking at things with how can that improve? That's not quite right. Right, but it's not for correction for the individual, it's for making things better so that it can flourish. So you've got to think with human design, with the gait, you can work towards the lowest vibration of the gait or the highest vibration. So at the lowest vibration you would be judgmental, you would be perfectionist, you would be critical, because you're always about correcting. If you use it to your highest vibration, you are putting in systems and processes for effectiveness, improvement, so things can flourish.
Speaker 1And I also learn in human design. My type is a projector. 20% of the population are projectors and these people are guides. You know, they're people who are good one to one and in small groups. They are people who are the guiding force in humanity and I thought no wonder I love coaching and mentoring and I'm always thinking about how can things improve. I don't even take on projects unless there's something to improve. So there's so much more in human design as well.
Power of 3: Education Transformation Ideas
Speaker 1I mean about now. I know my decision making authority right, so I know how to make decisions, how my body makes decisions. I am a splenic person, so I have made decisions in the moment in the now, like I just know. In the moment in the now, I get an intuitive hit straight away. I know something's for me or not, but if I leave it, I'm not designed to leave my decisions. I make decisions in the moment in the now, but some people they are designed to go through an emotional way sleep on it, take time right, but I'm very much in the moment in the now. So now I know that my human design is just almost like a guiding force to help me with my business, my marketing, my personal life. Am I showing up as my highest vibration, my lowest vibration? If something's not quite working, why isn't it working?
Speaker 1I often go to my human design chart. I don't use it as my everything, but I definitely use it as my guiding force and I actually used it with my senior leadership team because they were very open and they're quite a young team and they were, you know, really, really open to human design and we worked out what are people's strengths. You know, how is your energy? What are you good at? And we managed to say I'm the strategist as a projector. Right, this person is really good with research. That person has got a real people-orientated way about them and this person is really good at picking up some of the nuances in training.
Speaker 1So we put all of that together and we changed how we did things like staff meetings and how we kind of approach people and how we deal with complaints and even that little experiment on its own the team dynamic. It just made things flourish. People started to understand that, okay, yes, so, bijal, you are the strategist, this is what we want to do. You put it together. That's my strength. I'm not so much an on the ground person, I'm a person who creates systems and processes so others can flourish in their leadership. Right, I know another person on my team is incredibly research orientated, with the one in their profile. So we got them to always create training materials with lots of pedagogy and lots of research and theory. The other person to deliver it, the other person to be the support and the coach person. So when you use it in the workplace for team dynamics, it can be absolutely life changing in terms of your team productivity. Is the world ready for it? Don't know.
Speaker 2Okay, here we are with Bijal and we are continuing our conversation. We are here for the Power of 3 round, the first of the Power of 3 round, question Bijal, and we are continuing our conversation. We are here for the power of three round, the first of the power of three round. Question Bijal to you is what three transformative ideas that you see in the K-12 education space? You, being an educator yourself, what is see as three transformative ideas the world can see?
Speaker 1so the first thing is, I've been into schools now they're international schools that have really changed the environment of how people learn. So in the old-fashioned classrooms everyone would face the front, but now I'm seeing some very innovative schools who have got group tables, who've got bean bags, who have got individual workspaces within the exact same space so that actually people because they have different ways of working and they need different environments to help them flourish they've managed to do that. So that's been fantastic. One of the other things that I've seen and that I feel are really transformative are curriculums that actually allow the pupils to have time in the day to research online and YouTube what they're interested in beyond the actual normal curriculum. So they actually say here's a laptop, here's YouTube, here's Google, what are you interested in apart from the normal curriculum? Go and have time to research it. Right, because the university of youtube can teach you quite a lot. So some some people's they look at cooking. Some people they like to learn how to do a lot of diy. Some people they like to look at how to do trading. You know they like to just research certain books or like things about mindset and you know I've only seen it once right where they're dedicating the time. But let's talk about impact.
Speaker 1When I actually interviewed the pupils about this, they said it made them want to come to school right, that school was a purposeful place to be because they could learn what they needed to learn English, maths, you know all of that. But they had the opportunity to have their teachers as guides to help them with what they're interested in. So lots and lots of people were interested in and being an entrepreneur. You know understanding about trading, understanding mindset shifts, understanding new. You know neuroscience. Some people wanted to learn about forensic science. Some people wanted to learn about even simple things like oh, if I want to be a doctor, what kind of specialism could I go into? And there's so many people now who have the opportunity to do what they're passionate about.
Speaker 1I do think schools have, they have a obligation, they have a duty of care to support pupils to really unleash that potential by giving them that time to say right, what can I do? What is my purpose? You know the coaching part. So many young people don't know what their strengths are. How many people do you know that are young? And you ask them what do you want to do when you're older? Don't know, don't know. But that's a massive missed opportunity, right? So the third one is coaching and mentoring for young people. I think that's transformative. Imagine if you had that when you were younger.
Speaker 2Yep would be a game changer.
Speaker 1And this is where schools need to innovate Absolutely.
Speaker 2Great, Good start there. Bijal Three micro experiments that Bijal follows.
Well-being, Routines and Future Work
Speaker 1So I believe in doing a little bit every day, right, a little bit of something every day to help me get to where I want. Even if it's a little bit of cleaning every day, right? If I might clean a little bit of the shelves every day, or clean my desk, or whatever, by the end of the week I've cleaned the entire house house. So I believe in things like that. Also, walking every day. So you take a little bit of a walk every day, by the end of the week, you've done a lot more. Okay. Then also, if I'm creating a new project or a new training, I will do about an hour every day. So by the end of the week, it's so. This absolutely makes me feel less overwhelmed. It also aligns with my human design, right? Because I can only work for a certain amount of hours a day. So a little bit every day to what you want to do really just takes away that overwhelm.
Speaker 2That's a month out there. Little bit every day, but consistently. That's a mantra there A little bit every day, but consistently.
Speaker 1Consistently yeah.
Speaker 2Wonderful Three individuals you would like to have lunch or dinner with. They can be present, they can be from the past, but who are those three individuals and why?
Speaker 1Yeah, so I've got a little list here actually. So, because I'm an educator, malala Yousafzai is definitely somebody that I would like to have at the dinner table because what she sacrificed for girls in education is absolutely admirable. There's a new program that I've started watching on the tv here in England and it's a lady. Her background is Bangladeshi and she's called Nisha Kotona and she is a chef. She used to be a barrister, she used, I think she's worked in other jobs, but her absolute love of food, the way she communicates the food, the way she goes into the history, but also she lives with like animals, like horses and she's got some other animals there and you know very open grounds and the way that she behaves and the way that she is.
Speaker 1I look at human design and I think the whole point of human design is to make sure that you're living in alignment. And when I watch that program, I love it because it's a food program, but because I can see someone living in alignment with who they are. So that's really great. And the other person I absolutely have to have at the dinner table, just because this person is absolutely wonderful, is Oprah Winfrey. The things that Oprah Winfrey has achieved and achieved at the time where it might have been difficult to achieve right For a young black woman at the time. It might have been difficult to achieve right For a young black woman at the time. I think it's admirable. So Malala Yousafzai, nisha Katona and Oprah Winfrey.
Speaker 2What a wonderful list out there. Thanks for sharing that. Talking about podcasts, talking about books, I can't but ask you this question what are the book or podcast recommendations?
Speaker 1Yeah, so I'm a big believer of habits, right. I believe that habits are everything, um. Having positively serving habits are going to get you by in life. So I would definitely recommend atomic habits by james clear, and he really talks about habits in a very dynamic way.
Speaker 1A lady that I had on my podcast called Sarah Dawkins. She's got a podcast called heal yourself and she's got a book, and this book is filled with stories of people who have had life-threatening conditions okay, or terminal conditions or health conditions that are long-term, and they've healed themselves through food and lifestyle. And the amount of case studies that she's got in that book is amazing, because I work with leaders. You can't lead well unless you are also healthy, right, and it was just reading case study after case study of learning about lifestyle and food and what works and people healing themselves. So I like that book because it inspires me that your body can heal itself and it's such a such a intelligent machine, right. I would definitely read that book Heal Yourself because it will give you some insight.
Speaker 1I would also recommend Daniel Priestley's book A Key Person of Influence. All right, I think that's a really good book. I read it on the beach in Tunisia last year Some really fantastic insights and it contextualizes how to and why to become a person of influence different walks of life, different industries that give great fantastic leadership insight. So that is a resource in itself. So they are not three recommendations before. I hope that's okay.
Speaker 2Wonderful set of recommendations. Thanks for doing that, and here we are the last of the part of the round. Since you are a well-being columnist, it is only fair to ask you this particular question what are those three well-being practices that you recommend for listeners?
Speaker 1so the first well-being practice that I think is really important is that root success routines morning routines or evening routines or whatever routines you have they have to align with you. Right, so you can watch YouTube and you can read books on how other people do it, but is that something that aligns with your energy? So, for example, if I've got a client who's a manifesting generator in human design, they are not going to want to do the same thing every day. Their energy is about variety, right? They are not going to want to do the same thing every day. Their energy is about variety, right? They are not going to keep up, all right, with the same routine every day. They'll find it boring.
Speaker 1If you've got someone like me who's a projector, I will not be able to go to the gym and wake up at 5am every single day because I don't have the life force energy. So maybe every other day, then walk every other day, maybe take a bit of a rest, yeah, so your morning routines have to suit your energy, and I've worked with a few fitness coaches on human design so they can tailor their fitness plans to someone's human design type. Because they were saying to me this person just does not follow this, I said because that's not their energy type. I said we are now evolved, right, we are so conditioned in life to watch other people who are successful, right, which is what we should do. But we have to then say, does this align with me? So if you, you have a routine, make sure it aligns with you. Right, you know you have to push yourself and consistency is key. But within that consistency, what can you do? So, if you can't go to the gym every single day because you just feel so tired, right, can you go to the gym twice a week, or can you walk every day? What can you do? Some people are better off doing yoga, pilates. Some people are better off doing cardio. You know, really going for it Depends on what their energy type is.
Speaker 1So, also with human design, some people are cut out to not eat so often. Some people are cut out to eat regularly. Right, you're either focused or passive in the way that you do things, right? So you've got to say to yourself yourself okay, what can my eating habits be, but what suits me? So the message I'm trying to get across is tap into who you are when you do things that align with who you are and they're the things that you enjoy and they're the things that light you up. You're more likely to have a routine about it and you're more likely to be successful. So so, yes, I would definitely say that is. That is something important wonderful, thank you.
Speaker 2That wraps up the power of the road uh segment here. Thank you so much for doing that. What next for bj?
Speaker 1so I'm at a phase now where I'm at the nurturing phase right. So now I want to build on the things that I have created, the things that I have put out into the world. I want to nurture. I want to make sure that they give absolute value, that they're making a difference to those leaders. I want to be part of projects that are absolutely advocating for coaching, mentoring and training and nurturing the new generation of leaders that are coming up.
Speaker 1All right, I've got a lot of guests coming on my podcast, the Think Link Lead podcast, who now talk about AI and they talk about neurodiversity. So it's about adapting programs and putting in training to support organizations, you know, to serve those leaders, because the new generation of leaders are not going to be like the generation of leaders that we have now and they all know about their well-being and they're incredibly creative. They've got to absolutely have that platform to unleash their creativity. And with AI coming as well, I want to make sure that schools also understand that. You know prompt generation. You know, when you put in prompts in AI, that generation they're going to grow up with AI. So they need to have a curriculum that helps them to understand AI, how to use prompts. You know how to use it to really impact creativity. So these are the things I want to be involved in giving absolute value, impacting leadership and the future generation of leadership. And also, you know, working with schools as well to really develop curriculums that are modern, relevant and are going to get pupils that are future fit for leadership and the changing world.
Speaker 1And obviously, focusing on raising the profile of human design, because I think that it's a really good little guide to help you to. You know, align yourself with who you are, because we're transforming, aren't we? You can see the world is changing, right? People are doing drastic things. People are leaving their jobs, people are. If they're in their jobs, they are going into something different, right? Okay, there's people who are now going. Does that work for me? Does that not work for me?
Speaker 1People are talking about wellbeing. It's about time that humans learn how to balance their wellbeing with their work, whether it's employed or not. We've got to start understanding and enjoying life. This work, work, work all the time. You know how many times do you hear oh, I'm so burnt out, oh, I'm so tired. I had Dr Audrey Tang on the Think Link Lead podcast and she's a multi-award winning author and she has this trilogy of books about leadership, well-being. And she said to me on the podcast you know, you hear people say today was a good day. I said, yeah, what's wrong with that? And she said what's wrong with that is that every day should be a good day and bad days should be the rarity. But it's the other way around and I thought that was quite a penny dropping moment, because we do say today was a good day, today was a good day, but what if every day was a good day and bad days were just something quite rare?
Speaker 2so that was something as well that I wanted to highlight yes, that looks like a very tall mission, mission filled with a lot of hope, a lot of aspiration and also a future fit mission. It is not something that you want to do for the past, but but it is something that you're preparing for the future. So, wishing you good luck, wishing you loads of success, bijal, thank you so much for taking time and sharing this wonderful information, knowledge particularly. Like I said, I'm intrigued with the whole human design systems. Before we sign off, inspire Someone Today is all about critical reports of inspiration. Watch your Inspire Someone Today message for all of our listeners before we take leave from them today look, it's no coincidence that you were born on this planet.
Speaker 1You're here for a reason, okay, and you have got the skills, the attributes and the qualities that you have because they're the things that you should be utilizing and leveraging in this life. They're a natural part of you, right? So my message is take some time to understand who you really are, connect with your inner being and then take it from there. When you do life in a way that really suits you and suits your energy and aligns with what you're naturally good at, you're just going to have a better life.
Speaker 2That's a secret mantra for you to have a better life. Find alignment, find that inner congruence.
Speaker 1Yes, inner congruence yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2Wonderful Bijal. On that note, thank you so much and wishing you and your mission a lofty success. Wishing you and your mission a lofty success. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Inspire Someone today. This is Srikant, your host, signing off. Until next time, continue to carry the repulse of inspiration, stay inspired, keep spreading the light.
