May 11th is International Coaching Week, World Ego Awareness Day, and World Salt Awareness Week. The events of this day throughout the centuries encompass the formation of cities and nations, scientific breakthroughs, revolutions, technological advances, cultural publications, and tragic decisions that have influenced the fate of entire nations.
International Coaching Week
This week was created to help people better understand professional coaching, distinguish it from advice, mentoring, or psychotherapy, and see how a partnership conversation works to achieve clarity, decision, and accountability.
This week focuses on goals, choices, change, leadership, resilience, and professional development. For the coaching community, this period is also associated with the topic of ethics, standards, confidentiality and the quality of training of specialists, because trust in the profession does not depend on loud promises, but on clear rules and practical benefits for a person.
Interesting facts
The International Coaching Week appeared in 1999, when the coaching profession was just gaining recognition and needed a simple explanation for a wide audience.
Initially, the initiative had a more local nature and was associated with the popularization of personal and business coaching, and acquired an international scale after the involvement of coaches from other countries.
The International Coaching Federation was founded in 1995, that is, the week itself appeared a few years after the creation of the organization, which later became one of the most famous professional structures in this field.
During a full-scale war, Ukrainian coaches worked not only with career or business topics, but also with issues of resilience, leadership in crisis, burnout, loss of control, decisions under uncertainty, and team support.
From August 2022 to December 2023, as part of an international initiative for Ukrainian leaders, 150 certified coaches provided 1,310 hours of coaching support to 234 people working in wartime.
The Ukrainian experience of coaching during the war became a separate topic for the international professional community, as coaches from Ukraine worked with clients in the reality of airstrikes, relocation, losses, remote team management, and constant risk.
After the start of the full-scale invasion, coaches from other countries organized support for Ukrainian colleagues, including in the form of professional support for the coaches themselves, who also experienced the war and at the same time helped others.
In the Ukrainian context, coaching during the war often intersected with the topic of maintaining efficiency: not “how to achieve more at any cost,” but how to make decisions, not lose support and remain useful in difficult circumstances.
World Ego Awareness Day
This day was initiated by the public organization “Ego Awareness Movement” in 2018 to draw attention to how the human ego affects behavior, conflicts, self-perception and relationships with others. The idea of the day is associated with awareness of one’s own reactions, internal defense mechanisms and the desire to better understand the motives of one’s actions.
The topic of ego is often considered in psychology, philosophy, religion and modern personal development practices. In this context, ego is described as a person’s idea of himself, his own significance, status and role in the world. Ego Awareness Day was created not to condemn ambition or self-confidence, but to talk about the balance between personal interests, emotions and the ability to see other people without constant competition and self-assertion.
Interesting facts
The term “ego” comes from Latin and literally means “I”. It was actively introduced into psychology by Sigmund Freud, who considered the ego to be a mediator between human desires, moral constraints and reality.
In ancient Greek culture, excessive pride was considered a dangerous character trait. For this, there was a separate concept – “hubris”, which meant self-confidence, which leads a person to mistakes and destruction.
In modern neuropsychology, there are studies that show that when talking about oneself, the same pleasure centers in the brain are activated as when receiving a reward or a pleasant experience.
After the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, psychologists and mental health professionals began to talk more often about collective exhaustion, when a person’s ego changes under the influence of prolonged stress, danger, and loss of control over life.
In the crisis conditions of the war, Ukrainian military psychologists drew attention to the fact that excessive suppression of one’s own emotions for the sake of “endurance” often leads to psychological exhaustion, so the topic of self-awareness and one’s own reactions became an important part of support.
In Buddhism, one of the key ideas is that excessive attachment to one’s own “self” is a source of suffering, so many practices are aimed at reducing egocentric thinking.
In the 20th century, some large companies began to invite psychologists to work with managers after studies showed that a leader’s excessive ego often worsens teamwork and increases the number of conflicts in teams.
In social networks, the topic of ego has become the subject of separate studies, as the constant desire for approval, likes and public recognition affects self-esteem, anxiety and behavior of people of all ages.
World Salt Awareness Week
This day is dedicated to the topic of excessive salt consumption and its impact on health. The initiative was launched by the World Salt and Health Movement in 2008 to draw attention to the connection between a large amount of salt in the diet and cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, the risk of strokes and kidney problems.
The main attention during this week is not paid to a complete rejection of salt, but to controlling its amount in ready-made foods and daily nutrition. A significant part of the salt enters the body not from homemade salt shakers, but from bread, sausages, sauces, snacks, cheeses and semi-finished products. Medical organizations in various countries emphasize that people often exceed the recommended norm without even noticing it.
Interesting facts
In the Middle Ages, salt was so valuable that in some regions it was used to partially pay for goods and services. It is with salt that the origin of the word “salary” is associated.
In ancient China, the state monopoly on salt brought huge profits to the treasury, and control over the salt trade was considered a strategic issue for the authorities.
About 70-80% of salt a modern person gets from ready-made products, and not when salting food at home. Especially a lot of hidden salt is found in bread, sauces, fast food and sausages.
The taste for salt is formed gradually: studies show that after a few weeks of reducing salt, the receptors adapt, and food no longer seems “fresh”.
During the full-scale war in Ukraine, the topic of salt became unexpectedly resonant due to the temporary shutdown of the Artemsil enterprise in Soledar. This caused a shortage of regular table salt in stores and a surge in demand throughout the country.
Before the war, Artemsil was one of the largest salt producers in Eastern Europe and supplied a significant part of the Ukrainian market, as well as exporting products to dozens of countries.
In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi organized the Salt March in India, a peaceful protest against the British salt tax. This event became one of the most famous episodes of India’s struggle for independence.
In some countries, food manufacturers are gradually being required to reduce the amount of salt in their recipes, as a sharp reduction in consumption at the population level can significantly reduce the number of cardiovascular diseases.
Sea, rock, pink or black salt have different appearance and mineral impurities, but the main substance in most types remains sodium chloride, so their effect on the body in large quantities is similar.
Historical events on this day
330 — The ceremony of consecration of Constantinople, the city that Emperor Constantine the Great made the new capital of the Roman Empire, took place. It later became one of the most important political, religious and commercial centers of the world.
868 — A Chinese monk produced the Diamond Sutra, the oldest precisely dated printed document that has survived to this day. This text became important evidence of the high level of printing in China long before the advent of European printing.
1709 — The first mass emigration of Germans from the Palatinate to North America began. People left their native lands due to wars, economic difficulties and religious pressure, seeking a safer life overseas.
1712 — The Tula Arms Plant was founded, which became one of the key enterprises of the Russian military industry. In 1912, to the 200th anniversary of the plant, a monument to Peter I was unveiled there.
1811 — Conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker were born in Siam, modern Thailand. Their unusual story became so famous that the common expression “Siamese twins” originated from them.
1858 — Minnesota became the 32nd state of the United States. Its entry into the country consolidated the further development of the northern territories and strengthened the role of the region in the development of the American Midwest.
1860 — Giuseppe Garibaldi landed in Sicily with a volunteer detachment known as the “thousandth.” This military expedition was one of the decisive stages in the unification of Italy.
1867 — At a conference in London, European powers guaranteed the independence and neutrality of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. This decision helped to avoid a major conflict between France and Prussia.
1907 — The Ukrainian Scientific Society was founded in Kyiv. It became an important center for the development of Ukrainian science, language, historical research, and cultural life.
1911 — Mexican revolutionaries proclaimed the city of Ciudad Juárez the new capital of Mexico. This was a symbolic step in the struggle against the regime of Porfirio Díaz.
1914 — Pyotr Nesterov, together with mechanic Gennady Nelidov, made a flight from Kyiv to Gatchina on a Newport IV airplane. They covered 1,277 kilometers in 7 hours and 45 minutes, which was a notable achievement of early aviation.
1916 — Albert Einstein presented his theory of relativity. It radically changed the idea of space, time, and gravity and became one of the foundations of modern physics.
1928 — The world’s first regular television broadcast began in New York. This was an important step in the development of television as a new means of mass communication.
1944 — The USSR State Defense Committee decided to deport Crimean Tatars to the east of the Soviet Union. Soon, an entire people were forcibly deported from Crimea, which became one of the most tragic pages of Soviet repressive policy.
1945 — The Swiss weekly magazine “Die Weltwoche” published an interview article by Carl Gustav Jung “Will Souls Find Peace?” In it, the famous psychologist reflected on the spiritual and moral consequences of World War II.
1970 — The first trolleybus line was opened in Mariupol. For the city, this was an important change in the operation of public transport and part of the development of urban infrastructure.
2014 — Pseudo-referendums were held in Donetsk and Luhansk regions on the status of these regions. They took place in conditions of Russian aggression, illegal activities of armed groups and became an element of an attempt to destabilize Ukraine.
