Everyone is different, everyone is unique and everyone should be treated as an individual.
Now this takes some doing as it requires knowledge of a person's character and to do that you have to know somebody well enough and your view of their character may not be the view of others or their view of themselves.
When I was running a youth football team I got to know the individual players well. Some needed encouraging, some needed cajoling and some needed a harsher approach. One lad would burst into tears if he was shouted at but would give you everything if he was encouraged.
Another was lazy and only really responded to a much more aggressive stance. I channelled all my knowledge on this front into gaining diplomas in life coaching and sports psychology which helped me to occasionally establish a person's character.
Sports psychology is now a massive part of sport. It's all about mindset and mental toughness.
I'm not different to those youngsters in my youth football team. I respond to kindness, support and encouragement. I don't respond in any way to being shouted at or bullied.
In my working life and in my voluntary life I would do anything for those who have treated me with respect and nothing for those who don't.
Awkwardness is in the DNA of people from Norfolk. They can be cussed but if treated in the right way can be wonderful allies. Often what you see on the surface is not what that person is like inside. Loud people can often be insecure. Quiet people can often have hidden depths.
The problem is that bullies abound, people who think that they can make it to the top by ranting and raving. I'm sure we have all come across them.
I think the biggest compliment I could have would be for people to use the time honoured phrase "what you see is what you get. He's exactly how we expected him to be - although maybe somewhat shorter."
On a more humorous but strangely serious note, I am always amused how size changes people's perceptions. A short person is often referred to as a littl s--t whereas a tall person will be a "gentle giant."
I admire the more vertically challenged people who emphasise their "shortcomings" so people aren't surprised.
The DJ David Hamilton calls himself Diddy David Hamilton so that people meeting him aren't surprised by his lack of inches. There's a short darts commentator who calls himself Little Richard so you know where you stand (or sit as the case might be).
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The video footage of staff in Number 10 Downing Street partying at Christmas during lockdown makes me feel sick.
Whilst we were all suffering and not seeing family, these morons were dancing the day away having been sent an invitation to jingle and mingle.
What kind of person sends out an invitation with the word mingle on it when the Government's advice is that mingling is absolutely forbidden? The image that sticks in my mind is of the bloke with the Christmas jumper dancing with a woman and having a right old time when the public are pretty much having Christmas cancelled.
Historian Simon Scharma talks a huge amount of sense and was on the television on Sunday talking about jingling and mingling. He summed it up for me by saying hat these people felt the rules didn't apply to them but only applied to " the little people."
Anyone involved in that party should be immediately dismissed and charged with public order offences, perhaps some of them have been. How could these people not see that what they were doing was totally wrong? Did they have no moral scruples? Don't bother to answer that question as I think we know the answer. They saw nothing wrong in doing what they told the rest of the country they weren't allowed to do.
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I know circulation figures of newspapers are plummeting but I didn't realise just how low they have gone.
I have a figure in my head that at the height of its popularity the circulation figure of the Norwich based Eastern Daily Press was in the 90,000s. Today it's around 15,000 and still dropping. The Norwich Evening News is down to around 6,000 sold copies a day. These figures must put those papers in jeopardy but are a sign of the times in which we live.