What really makes the difference today? Talent, skill, knowledge?

We are increasingly recognising the most important ingredient is mental strength

When we think of someone who is strong, we typically think of someone who is physically strong — someone who lifts heavy weights, wins ultramarathons, or treks miles in the snow. The truth is toughness applies to what our minds are capable of too

When we have a strong mind, we can better manage our emotions, thoughts and energy when we’re faced with any type of challenge, setback or difficulty. We gain the ability to remain cool, calm, and poised no matter what we’re up against. Mental strength really is your secret super power

Top performers learn that this super power of mental strength is essential to effectively regulate their emotions and attention to ensure best performance.  Because if they don’t keep their emotions in check, they compromise their performance under pressure. This goes for all high performers and all high performa...

Are you aware of your own potential?

Well are you?

Some of us are totally unaware that we 'could do better' – others of us are too tired to even think about our untapped potential

The thing is, seriously, what a waste!

What it boils down to, is that we are all nearly always capable of achieving much, much more than we currently are – in pretty much all areas of our lives – whether as a baker, a designer or a CEO – we are simply oblivious to our strengths

So we stay, comfortably uncomfortable in our own ‘one day I will’ – but never do

Often this is because we don’t have the time or courage to shine a light into the blind-spots of our lives by reflecting on what we really want, and who can really help us do that. We do not Welcome Feedback  

From our experience this is because we believe to welcome feedback in the most important areas of our lives will be like opening Pandora’s box. The potential for discomfort and disruption on learning about where we truly are in a particular a...

Ah, success ... the dream ...

So we have a question for you, do you make major life decisions based on other people’s ideas of what success looks like?

And if you do, do you then, years later, wonder why you don’t feel quite as fabulous as you thought you might, given all the 'success' you have achieved? 

The truth is – in today’s world – it’s often hard to separate out what we really truly want to do with our life – from what society or our peers, podcasts – or even well intentioned friends and family – think we should do with our life

Here's something to share with you which might help

Have you ever heard of  ‘Congruence’?

Congruence is about…

1. the quality or state of agreeing, coinciding, corresponding
2. a correspondence in physical structure or thought; harmony
3. compatibility, accord, chime, consistency

The key things to take hold of about congruence are – being in harmony, in accord with / agreeing with - the harmony, accord, agreement is with our internal and external w...

Do you ever feel bogged down in how ‘stressed’ or ‘busy’ you are? Good news - time to play! 

Sounds crazy eh? It's true, for many of us, the first thing we think about when we wake up in the morning is how much we have to do that day, the last thing on our minds is how important it is for us to find time to play 

Well what do you know, it should be, because a secret solution for this feeling of being bogged down and feeling stressed - is Being Playful!

It's such an unusual idea, to think about the importance of being playful for us as adults, we thought we would share with you some of the ways you can benefit from Being Playful

1. Being Playful helps us replace worry and anxiety with curiosity and passion

Look around and you will see a lot us have a bad habit of worrying. The thing is, we think worrying is a normal - even healthy response - to our volatile world. Actually, this is not the case. We can swap this restricting habit of worrying with releasing beliefs, behaviours and m...

Do you know your worth? Do you back yourself and feel confident because you know you are enough?

If you don't, you aren’t alone - we are all aware of the increase in the number of people feeling anxious or stressed in today’s world. The amount of people who fear they cannot cope with what may be round the corner, the increasing numbers of people feeling imposter syndrome are on the rise

We know these feelings of stress and anxiety are not helpful. In fact, they are harmful to our bodies as well as our minds, to say nothing of the impact we have when we appear anxious and stressed on our friends and loved ones and frankly, also our credibility at work. But what can we actually do about it? Especially because some of the factors which are making us feel this way, may appear to be so far out of our control?

The good news is, that honestly (and surprisingly for some of us), there is actually a lot we can do about it 

Some of these things we may be vaguely aware of. For example, the i...

Over breakfast yesterday, we were watching Kelly Holmes winning her 800m Olympic gold. Even though we have watched it many times before, we were still … silent … spellbound

Why is it that some of us capture that brilliance and potential we are all capable of and some us don't? "How does she do that?" my 12 year old daughter turned to me and asked

Kelly is famous for overcoming heartbreaking injury at the World Championships in Athens to come back and win double Olympic gold in the 800m as well as the 1500m. But did you also know that Kelly was deaf until she was 3 years old and taught herself to speak by lipreading. In the army - despite her own fears of heights or water - Kelly was always first in line when it came to abseiling down sheer cliffs, or rafting fierce rapids. So the simple answer is, how Kelly does that, is she shows up - day after day, defeat after triumph, injury after injury, challenge after challenge

Showing Up is about being able to deal with life’s challenges, to...

Look around and we can see that in the 21st century, change is constant and stability is rare, not only in our work life, but also in our home life

So the reality is, to flourish and enjoy success in our rapidly changing world, we must learn to thrive in the face of this change, adapting and continuously reinventing ourselves

In fact, according to bestselling author of 21 lessons for the 21st century, speaker and award winning historian Yuval Harari, the most critical skill for all of us today is the ability to cope with change and keep evolving

What this means is embracing lifelong learning, developing resilience and adaptability, and being open to new experiences and opportunities

Swapping seeing change as an energy sapping drain for embracing change, even making it central to our personal and professional growth. This way we can flourish and thrive in the face of all this uncertainty, creating brighter futures for ourselves and our world

But here's the rub - when faced with a c...

From city lawyers to start up CEOs through to parents of toddlers and teenagers - mental strength really is the new Zeitgeist

Don't know about you, but right now, a lot of people tell us they are feeling exhausted and overwhelmed yet also want to move faster so they can keep up and keep ahead. To get the most out of life, especially today's seemingly ever-changing whirlwind world of work and home life - we all deserve the practical tools to mentally thrive. You know what's great? Well, just like building our physical strength, we can all build our mental resilience

Ok, so how do we do that then?

The first thing to be aware of is that ensuring we refuel and recharge results in mental strength. Failing to recharge or refuel weakens our mental capacity and leaves us less strong and less able to perform at our best

The good news is, personal energy is renewable. The bad news? Many people don’t know how to recharge or refuel - do you?

At Progressfull, we believe that's why so many peop...

Have you ever been part of a brilliant team?

The fact is, whilst it might be so much easier to do things on our own, in win or bust situations, competitive advantage often boils down to excellent teamwork and collaboration

As Ken Blanchard, author and motivational speaker famously says,

'None of us is as smart of all of us'

Being part of a truly brilliant team which challenges each other creatively, working together seemingly effortlessly, to deliver fantastic results, is one of the best feelings us human beings can have. It gives us a sense of success, achievement and belonging - all wrapped up in one energising bundle. Yet, from sports arenas, to Silicon Valley start ups, many teams fail due to mediocre team performance

The thing is, whilst we may roar our advice and despair from the sidelines as we watch the missteps and mistakes, often with a combination of frustration and judgement, how many of us stop to think about how strong our own team muscles are? How do we actually c...

Despite the fact that countless studies prove that journaling is an extremely powerful way to boost our mental wellbeing, reduce depression and anxiety, make us more content, productive and all-around happier with our lives - most of us miss out, seeing journaling as a chore, definitely not a treat

The irony is, in today's competitive, fast paced environment having a great journaling practice, according to Harvard Business Review is a super accessible, low cost, efficient way to boost not only our immune system, but also our ability to perform and thrive 

The question for us though, is if it's so helpful, why on earth do so many of us see journaling as a chore? Why in truth, do so many of us find even the thought of 'journaling' so overwhelming we never bother giving it a go?

At Progressfull™ we have a point of view that can help you understand why - our observations are gleaned from working with over 14,000 people globally in the last two decades

Journaling should be a treat not...