From being replaced and manipulated by unregulated AI tools to the enormous challenge of climate change – a lot of us are feeling fearful of the future

It’s certainly true there is a lot going on right now which seems to be very different and larger than anything we have faced before – yet in reality from the fire of Prometheus to the mutinous neural network of 1984s "The Terminator" – humans have often been afraid of new technology. Some building structures in recent earthquakes and tsunamis would also be evidence of how we struggle to adapt to new ways of living in the face of impending natural catastrophes. Rather than doing what we can to mitigate the oncoming threat, we focus on impending doom scenarios, reach for a cold beer to drown our sorrows, and so the problem just gets bigger

Indeed, for a lot of us these external changes can seem so far outside our influence that we prevent ourselves from identifying the solutions to the very problems we are all facing

What to do?

It's...

How do you swap feeling stuck for feeling smart and sharp?

Look, listen and learn to be playful, making progress the Progressfull way

Are you pursuing your personal interests and passions? Are you chasing your professional ambitions? Lifelong learning gives us a great sense of purpose, fulfillment and satisfaction, at work, at home – in our whole life. It’s really all about connecting with our innate curiosity and childlike willingness to ‘have a play, have a go’ – learn something new

But in reality, most of us adults definitely don’t have a lifestyle which makes learning easy, so we miss out on all the progress, the passion, and fulfilment and can end up feeling stuck

Stuck because in truth we humans have a natural drive for curiosity – to learn, to explore, to play, and to grow. So if we aren’t learning, we aren’t making progress – we feel like we are stressed, stuck and stagnating – wasting our potential

Learning new stuff, new ideas, new skills, encourages us to improve our o...

We're often exhausted because we spend our time shadow boxing in our mind...

Our imaginary opponents are worry, stress, and what might be

Do you waste energy fighting the idea of something that may never happen?

How often are we told ‘don’t worry’ as Bob Marley sang – by our friends, by our families, by our colleagues, our doctors, and our teachers. The reality is, in today’s world, worry and stress are absolutely a normal part of most of our daily life

What's more, most of us believe that worry is a normal healthy reaction to so much turbulence and trouble. The thing is – it is normal in as much as this is most people’s reaction – but worrying, being anxious and stressed, robs us of the very energy we need to actually make a positive difference. To adapt and change - to benefit both ourselves and everyone around us in today’s world - cannot be done unless we are confident in our capabilities, are self-assured, seeing possibilities and opportunities for positive change and alternat...

Why do so very many of us, at some point in our lives, suffer from not having clear enough boundaries? 

Which means we don’t say no, we don’t protect our time, we don’t value our personal energy. We do plenty to help others yet we don’t Show Up for ourselves

What’s more ...

Not having clear boundaries is one of the biggest causes of stress for a lot of us

This inability to set boundaries is experienced by a lot of high-performing and equally highly helpful people the world over – from activists to healthcare professionals, from teachers to management consultants, from best friends to parents, to partners

Look around and you will see we all face ballooning expectations from multiple stakeholders with increasing number of us having overworked schedules. A lot of us feel overwhelmed, overworked and overstressed. With little to no time to take care of our own personal wellbeing - we are at risk of experiencing burnout

So, what can we do about this?

Well a good place is to start bui...

Imagine sitting on a beautiful wooden bench looking out at one of your favourite views. Sitting next to you and smiling kindly at you, is your 80 year old self - what would they be saying to you?

Quite possibly, your 80 year old self would say to live more in the present, to find work you love and people to love and quite possibly to look for the opportunities, take more risks and stick your neck out - because, at the end of the day, we only live once

The thing is, we never do know what tomorrow will bring – but what is definitely true is that if we don’t take some risks, if we don’t challenge ourselves and re-imagine ourselves, life is still going to happen, even if we are standing still, the meter is still ticking, life is still happening

At Progressfull, we like to say...

As progress involves being willing to stick your neck out, how about we start thinking about whether we stick our necks out enough to achieve progress in the areas of our lives which matter to us most - at ho...

Has the trend toward quiet quitting spread to your team yet? Probably...

According to a recent Gallop poll, over 50% of people are quiet quitting, so most likely, if you are a manager, this is half of your team!

The idea spreading virally on social media is that millions of people are not going above and beyond at work and are just meeting their job description. This is a problem for you as a team leader, because most likely the roles in your team require some level of extra effort to collaborate with colleagues and meet your customer needs, so you can hit your targets

According to the Gallup poll, the ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is now 1.8 to 1. This is the lowest in almost 10 years. As a leader or manager, it will come as no surprise to you that in terms of timing, the fall in engagement began in the second half of 2021 and happened alongside the rise in job resignations. Managers and leaders among others, experienced the greatest drop

The overall decline in...

A lot of us are feeling stuck right now, struggling to take a step forwards 

With so much that is unsettling and changing in our world today, having a familiar routine, a path to step along, even if it’s just for a tiny portion of our day, can be the super useful step we can all take to keep us healthy and feeling strong in both mind and body 

This is because taking small steps forwards on a path can give us the positive feeling that we are in control and making progress in our lives, despite being surrounded by chaos 

So, what sort of familiar routine really makes the biggest difference?  

A lot of us know that incorporating some form of movement (exercise) and some form of meditation can often really help. The third practice which experts often recommend is a regular mind-set practice 

Sound a bit unusual? 

Well, recent research from Harvard now confirms what the Ancient Greeks already knew – the mind-set practice of self-reflection is a real game-changer 

Purposeful self-re...

So here’s a thing, ask over 1 billion people on the planet what they were doing on Sunday 18th December 2022 and most likely they will say 'watching the World Cup final’. Nothing enchants so many of us at the exact same point in time, so much as watching the World Cup

What's more, do you know what are the all-time most watched single-network television broadcasts in the US? According to Nielsen, of the 32 most-watched broadcasts, 30 are Super Bowls

In Feb 2022 over 101 million people watched the Superbowl, in the US alone, including 75% of 18-34 year olds. What’s more, in 1969 an estimated 652 million people watched the live broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing (approx. 1/5 of the world's population at the time)

There are lots of reasons why we gather together to watch great achievements, to feel a sense of belonging, to feel the awe and excitement of another’s accomplishments and to feel inspired at the potential we have as humans

We are awestruck by the speed of the game, the ...

Look around and you will see that a lot of us feel overwhelmed and unfulfilled. We live each day with an uncomfortable feeling that we don’t really know why we are here, how to spend our time and what really makes us tick

What’s more, so many of us live like this that for a lot of us, we actually think this is ‘normal’. So, to get rid of the uncomfortable feelings of feeling overwhelmed, unfulfilled and that we may be ‘not doing life right’ – we develop the behaviours and habits of self-soothing with shopping, alcohol, drugs, sugar, social media, and even expensive holidays to ‘escape’ our day-to-day life

We don’t love this behaviour, yet we feel OK about our habits because we look around and see that’s what everyone else is doing – so we are normal

The thing is, honestly is normal really good enough for your one and precious life?

Who even invented ‘normal’ – did they really know what would make you, yes you, happy? Frankly, we know enough now that the shareholders of the companie...

I don’t know about you, but don’t you find yourself getting so bogged down in how ‘stressed’ or ‘busy’ you are?

For most of us, the last thing on our minds is thinking about how we can be playful!

The thing is, what if we are missing out on one of the most important secrets to living a long and happy life? Being Playful is about building your ability to enjoy life, and its adventures. It’s about regaining a childlike curiosity, determination and wonder at what is possible, together with a belief in your ability to thrive and bounce back from adversity

Being Playful equips us to understand how we can build our hope and openness to future possibilities - and doing all of this with a genuine, relaxed smile

Being Playful means, we are more resilient, able to adapt to change more quickly, and create a more holistic sense of who we are ...

At home, at work, in our whole life - as a partner, a parent, a team-player, a friend, a leader, an enthusiast for a particular sport or hobby. Loo...