Swindon is on the up so no more false dawns please

The first edition of a regular column by Charlotte Mannion; local business coach and writer, trainer and avid local networker.

Swindon is a great place to do business and it’s a great place to live too.  

I know because I have lived and worked in the area for more than 30 years. 

Despite moving away for a few years in the eighties I came back as soon as the opportunity presented itself.  So I am always a little surprised when people criticise without basis or imply it is a town going nowhere.  When people have a go at something that matters to you it can undermine your confidence.

It really came home to me this weekend how difficult it can be with some friends.  I mean some people can bring you down just when you don’t need it.  If you have a friend who continues to tell you ‘it won’t work’, ‘it’s a waste of time’, ‘it’s not worth the effort’, ‘you’ll never be thanked for that’ well whether you like it or not that has an effect on your levels of self-esteem and confidence.

The people with whom you have the most contact and hang around with will always have a positive or negative impact on you.  The negative ones can drain your energy and bring you down to their level, a million miles away from the level that YOU want to be operating on.

For far too long we have moaned and complained about poor old Swindon.  From criticising our councillors to moaning about the road works.  The problem is it puts people off and reduces their confidence and interest in what we have to offer.    For too long those outside our heritage town have accepted without question the bad publicity and continue to laugh at us or worse avoid coming to visit, live, or even work!

We live in a world demanding instant gratification.  We know we need a new station forecourt to welcome visitors but we hate having to wait for it to be built. There are traffic black spots but we don’t want to wait for new roads. The Swindon Advertiser letters page is filled by people moaning and complaining. Progress of any sort is seen as destroying some mythical past. Even the occasional thank you letter has a comment such as ‘not expected nowadays’ added to the end. 

Why can’t we use the same energy to talk up Swindon and to genuinely believe we have something to offer?  That is ‘to sell’ our town and its people instead of constantly knocking it.

So instead of criticising let’s try problem solving - looking for answers to problems and coming together to make Swindon a town to be proud of.  We will soon have new buildings and roads, better public transport links and lots of great work opportunities if we start talking up the good parts.

Looking confident and behaving confidently has the same effect as talking Swindon up not down.  As we have learned how to be confident by behaving confidently we should behave as if Swindon is the top place to be so that everyone around us will want to experience that feel good factor.

Total Swindon is here to bring us together; people, businesses, voluntary organisations, leisure and entertainment and lots more.  So from now on let’s talk confidently and positively about where we live, work and play.