Back to the UK, again, for something to watch at the weekend (third in a row, becoming a habit). This time with journalist, author, and coach John-Paul Flintoff, who has just started filming a series of interviews with people on the street about conversations that changed everything.
With the backdrop of greasy spoons and cafes, offices and train stations, these charming pieces show the sometime simplicity of advice, that a conversation that has an impact is dependent as much on the timing as the words.
Here are four pieces: the one above on how someone became more confident at work even without the PhD; how someone realized he had to end a relationship that wasn’t working; how some else stopped crying over a relationship that wasn't working; and how someone came to believe in the possibility of serendipity and synchronicity, those magic moments that come just when you need them.
The films are short and simple, but they indicate a wider idea about trust. Why do we accept what someone says to us, in the way they say it, at that particular moment? Sometimes other people have the words to articulate what you don’t or to recognize something in you or your situation that you can’t see.
Maybe there’s a conversation that has changed you, or maybe it hasn’t happened yet. The key it seems is receptivity, to be open to talking. Someone might have something to say that you actually want to, or need to, hear. We just need to have the conversation.