Clients sometimes ask me how much sleep they should be getting. What they’re really asking is “How little sleep can I get away with?” Here I want to look at the question from a different perspective. What do you gain by having ‘enough’ sleep? Then, how much is that for you? Studies have shown that… Read More »How Much Sleep Do You Need?
I suspect there is not one single human being who doesn’t know that if they just dropped some habits, or adopted others, their life would improve. So why are people not doing this? Many years ago, not long after I started my private practice, I realised that helping clients to make lasting changes was not… Read More »Just 20 Seconds to Change a Habit
Consider this very familiar scenario: someone makes a decision to start the New Year by putting a new healthy habit in place. A few weeks later, and it’s been forgotten. Perhaps you are one of those rare people that simply follows through with everything that they commit to? So what goes wrong? Generally, when people… Read More »Why Willpower Is Not Enough
You’ve probably been tempted by books or programs offering to transform your life, e.g. “21 Days to a New You!” I confess I’m still tempted by them, but I now have enough wisdom to know that they are unlikely to work. Most importantly I know why they are unlikely to work. This helps me see… Read More »How to Make Lasting Changes In Your Life
Long ago, in the summer holidays, I worked in an engineering workshop, fixing machines in the local textile mills. One day on a job with the engineer he discovered that he was missing a specific bolt that he needed to finish the work. We could have gone all the way back to the workshop which… Read More »Wisdom Is Knowing What to Ignore
I’m sure you have received the message many times that everything you do should be done to the best of your ability. This just does not make sense! This strategy is highly costly in terms of the effort required, and means that overall you’ll get far less done. Take Joe. Joe is a skilled engineer… Read More »When Is Good Enough, Good Enough?
You can probably think of an occasion where the feelings you were experiencing at a particular moment were stronger, more intense than the situation really deserved. Something from your past had been awakened or ‘triggered’. Sometimes people are aware of what these memories are; sometimes they just experience the emotional charge from the past event.… Read More »How to Help Yourself When you’re triggered
I know you’re busy. You have more commitments than your energy and time allow. I also can guess that many of your commitments are not taking you in the direction want your life to go. They’re not aligned with your values. We’re constantly bombarded with requests from work, from family; even your phone keeps demanding… Read More »How One Extra Second Could Make All the Difference to Your Life
ou may have had an experience broadly like this: you buy a new car, then it seems as if the manufacturer is paying people to follow you around with the same model and colour as you bought. What’s going on is a priming effect on your brain. Your brain has become more sensitive to an… Read More »What Do You Really, Really Want?
I’m going to skip the usual explanations about stress in the body, and all of the science stuff, and all of the problems that stress can cause you. There’s plenty of information out there if you want to read about this. I am going to focus on some practical suggestions that you can implement right… Read More »Stress Relief – This May Be All You Need To Know
Excessive overwhelm can be a significant contributor to stress, anxiety and depression. Overwhelm happens when a person is faced with more to be done than they can manage, and where some of those tasks involved are beyond their current capabilities. Often, the initial reaction to overwhelm is to work harder, work longer hours, try multitasking… Read More »Overcoming Overwhelm
We need to talk about happiness. Happiness is something that often gets overlooked, especially amongst some professionals and the business community. However we know this much: folks who report higher levels of happiness also tend to be more resilient, creative and productive, whilst at the same time having lower levels of stress and anxiety. Happier… Read More »Being Kind Is Good For You
There are two well-established problems that people can face in their communication with others; their mind wandering and their preconceived ideas. How many times have you found yourself having a conversation, when you realise you’ve drifted off and have to bring your attention back? You know the conversation is important, but you can’t work out… Read More »Two Barriers To Good Communication – You Might Not Realise You’re Doing!
You have probably never met a single person who wouldn’t want to change their habits, and build new, more positive automatic processes into their lives. When I work with clients, I may come up what I think would be the most brilliant strategies for them, but unless they become habits, they’re not going to get… Read More »How to Build New Positive Habits
The human brain is prone to distraction; our ancient ancestors gained a distinct survival advantage by being able to quickly switch the focus of their attention. Our modern lifestyle of push notifications, open-plan offices and constant calls for our attention make it far easier for our brain to be distracted. We can even get hooked… Read More »Control of Your Attention Influences Your Success