Want to perform at your very best? Guess what, it's time to put down being so serious, and pick up being playful

Multiple studies show that playfulness in adults is not only extremely beneficial to our physical and mental health, it is also key for optimal functioning. Studies have found that play relieves stress, improves brain function, boosts creativity, increases and improves connections with others, and to top it all, increases our energy levels. These benefits extend beyond ourselves to our loved ones as we are playful in our relationships. Neuroscience supports the old theory that laughter really is the best medicine

Being Playful is often a huge mind-set shift for people. We tend to be more restricted by our past experiences, than being optimistic about our future because we don’t see ourselves as a work in progress. What we don't realise is that our brain is most agile when we approach life seeing ourselves as a work in progress

Re-learning how to be open, to be hopeful abo...

A lot of people  - and we are talking very, very 'super successful' people - tell us that they suffer from imposter syndrome

Famously, even the multi award winning actress Meryl Streep is quoted as saying,

“You think, why would anyone want to see me again in a movie? And I don’t know how to act anyway, so why am I doing this?”

What is fascinating is that these ‘super successful’ people are often falling for the myth that everyone else surrounding them is way more confident and composed than they themselves are. The Meryl Streep sentiment is playing on repeat in their mind

It's fascinating because we often don't realise that the reason you can’t hear other people’s inner monologues of self-doubt isn’t that they don’t have them. It’s because you only have access to your own mind, your own imposter syndrome playing repeat, minute by minute, hour by hour

As the UK organisation Action for Happiness points out, one of the biggest reasons many of us feel miserable is because we constantl...

For a lot of us today, one of the most exciting and aspirational ideas is to imagine a world in which we can swap the now often normal feeling of overwhelm for a feeling that we can show up and thrive, no matter what our day brings

So many of us are fed up of feeling overwhelmed. We are bored with our own catastrophising. We are drained by the lack of hope and optimism. We want to swap this feeling so often labelled as 'overwhelm' for a feeling that we can face any challenge that comes our way head on, roll with the punches and enjoy - even relish - the ride!

The truth is, for a lot of us, we can improve our lives dramatically by letting go of the rubbish that a lot of us carry around in our heads today about how life should be, without challenges or difficulties, and start to Show Up, roll with the punches and actually enjoy the ride of this wild thing we call life

We spend our entire lives in our minds, yet very few of us ensure they are a great place to be by carrying out a regul...

There's this boy ... 

A 15 year old GCSE student on his way to one of our best Universities. He is smart, sociable and spirited, excelling at everything he puts his hand to, from sport, to his grades, to fronting the school band. Looking in from the outside it seems that his life is stretching before him full of hope and opportunity 

And yet. He is crippled by anxiety and shame. Anxiety and shame driven by perfectionism. Permanently on a high wire, of perfectionism. Desperately driven by an anxiety thinking that if he falls off, there is no world to welcome him. He does his schoolwork, he does his pull-ups, he does his push-ups, he checks his phone, hour by hour, minute by minute, ever fearful of the shame of not hitting his high performing, perfectionist targets

How can I explain to this smart, sociable and spirited 15 year old that striving for excellence is one thing. Striving to excel in his unique way, using his own combination of brilliant brain, inate sociability and fierce d...

Opening our mind to the idea that we are all a work in progress allows us to look beyond our current work, home - in fact, our whole life - and see we have the power to open up our world. Developing new skills, adopting new beliefs, behaviours and mind-sets, we change what we may have once thought was a fated potential

With this new perspective of progress, we open up a world of opportunities for ourselves, improving our overall quality of life and workplace productivity so that we can live our best life, a life full of progress

A good starting point for how to open our minds to open our world is to start with understanding a bit about what is a 'growth mind-set'

The concept of a growth mind-set first appeared in 1988 as a theory relating to learning and education. It was cited as the reason why super smart kids can still fail, despite their actual capability. The central thought is that a child’s attitude towards taking on a challenge, instead of their innate ability, was the main ...

"I really enjoy change, in fact, I think I am really good at it. What I don't understand is why other people 'don't just get it, get on board!'Are they stupid?"

Honestly, I can't tell you how many of the seniors leaders we work with say this to us, I'd say 80% of senior leaders believe they are great at change, yet are also frustrated, believing most of the people in their business are sticking to their old ways, refusing to adapt and move forward. This is clearly a problem because in today's world, especially if you are a leader - change is the new normal - and businesses that can't adapt and move forward are often doomed

The trouble is, most of these senior leaders are the ones who 'don't get it' because it is actually them who are tending to focus on the wrong things. They proudly sacrifice their Sundays, swapping precious family time with preparing for the meeting. Choosing the sharpest data, the slickest visuals, the punchiest examples, soundbites from the CEO – about why change...

Isn’t it tragic that many of us spend our lives feeling trapped, waiting to escape from work which ironically, we have often fought so hard for?

We can't wait to get to the weekend, to escape on vacation, even to finally retire so we can forget about the stress and anxiety so many of us feel in our everyday work life

Wouldn’t it be great to ditch feeling trapped, stressed and overwhelmed by our work - for feeling as excited and curious about our work as we used to feel, when we were dreaming about ‘what we would be’ when we were grown ups

If you face a lot of change, a lot of pressure, a long to-do list, and ever challenging people situations at work, at home, in your whole life, there is a way back to a more child-like curiosity, a calm and more poised reality. The way back is about enjoying and seizing the opportunity of every bounce, even in today’s working world ... so you swap your mind-set from trap to trampoline

Have you ever wondered how CEOs often bounce from one gig to an...

At Progressfull we like to say keeping balanced and staying on the front-foot involves being willing to stick your neck out, yet for a lot of us, honestly, we prefer to stay stuck where we are

The thing is, staying stuck where we are, when it comes to the world of work, can often mean stuck like a sitting duck. Stuck with outdated skill-sets, mind-sets and behaviours. This is frankly, not a great idea if we want to be relaxed and fizzing with excitement about opportunities ahead of us in our future work life

What to do?

What we recommend is to futureproof yourself. If you futureproof something, you design or change it so that it will continue to be useful or successful in the future if the situation changes. Let's be clear, for many of us, our work situations change monthly, if not weekly. Frequent change is now our new normal

Futureproofing is about making sure you’re ready for what your work journey may have round the corner – this could be new technology, new processes, new ways...

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s you being promoted to a leader – you are now a Superhero!

And we do all love a Superhero – from 1938 when the first Superman comic was published, to Wonder Woman appearing in comic in 1941, to the present day Marvel cinematic Superheroes. The Marvel Superheroes look like us but they’re better. Whether she is battling baddies, fighting against the odds, smart, strong, fast, furious. Wrestling the insurmountable, Superheroes offer a sense of hope and inspiration. When things seem overwhelming, They are something to look up to. They take on the impossible and win

And now you are a leader, that Superhero, my friend, is you

The thing is, a lot of us sort of ‘land up’ in our leadership roles. We are picked as captain of the football, hockey or chess teams at school, identified for our ‘natural leadership style’ and it sort of goes from there. We maybe get sent on a leadership course or two, yet often we simply work hard, are the best at what we do, an...

George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright and political activist said, “the single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place”

This is so true! How often do we delude ourselves thinking we have been clear and others have understood our communication - when it's patently not the case

When we think of being a great communicator or having great 'people skills', we often think of words such as empathy, story telling and even personality. In truth, despite being what appear to be super successful communicators, many of us struggle to communicate mindfully these days, especially when it comes to communicating with people who are different from ourselves. People with different skill-sets, different backgrounds, different cultures and different age groups to ourselves

This is important because being able to communicate well with people who are different from ourselves paves the way for diverse perspectives and learning. Multiple ideas breed creativity, they p...