Connecting the mood music of the moment and your life experiences, with the world of Progressfull™

How to grow ... you

People often share tips and simple steps about how to grow plants, flowers and vegetables - but what about tips and simple steps to grow ourselves?

A good starting point for how to grow ourselves 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 that 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 factor for success

In other words, our belief in our capability to do an activity or task, can have a significant impact on whether we can actually do the activity or task

Stanford professor and psychologist Carol Dweck talks about two approaches that can determine results: ‘fixed mind-set’ and ‘growth mind-set’. A fixed mind-set is the idea that our abilities are high or low, and there is nothing we...

Continue Reading...

The commercial upside of coaching

A quick shimmy on LinkedIn will leave you super clear – streamlining, cost-cutting, and focussing specifically on the ‘cost of business’ is pretty much on all our agendas right now

The thing is – as anyone who has launched their 27th cost cutting project dressed up as a “transformation project” knows – knee jerk cost cutting, in fact knee jerk anything has a frustrating way of taking us backwards rather than forwards in business

So, what do we need to do to genuinely move those business measures which make us all feel a bit more joyful about why we do what we do? Maybe the answer lies in investing in being more who you want to be – who knew it!

According to Harvard Business Review’s recent report about the most successful businesses right now, they say,

“Instead of exploring how they can improve the bottom line, these regenerative leaders work backward and ask: How could we invest in our people to create a long-term impact? How could we work together differently to build a differen...

Continue Reading...

The art of futureproofing your career

Here’s the thing - a lot of us realise that the key to a good life - at work, at home, our whole life - is more about enjoying each moment and living according to our own values rather than by other people’s views of what success looks like ...

But how does this enlightening insight stack up in an everchanging world designed and built by lightning quick technology? 

Do you remember back in the day how teachers, parents, career counsellors would offer their guidance to help you make "the right career choice." Well look around, with the speed of technological change, it’s easy to see that this "right career choice" is a myth: the idea that time spent on the "wrong" ladder or studying the "wrong" course is a waste of time if we don’t then complete the course or climb the ladder. Let’s face it, in today’s world, even the walls we have propped our career ladders against are themselves moving

The great news is, even in this evermoving world, skills and insight acquired in a previous caree...

Continue Reading...

Stop cowardly communication, start courageous conversations

Our conversations have major implications – at work, at home, in our whole life. In today’s world, we have all the power of instant global communication, yet ironically, very few of us are actually able to communicate in a way which brings change, growth and thriving

In fact, look around, it’s actually shameful, we have all the gear, yet no idea how to actually communicate. Sure, right now everyone’s a super fast ‘communicator’, replying to messages instantly to show how ‘on it’ we are, making people laugh with our TikToks, wowing with our altered reality photography, catchy captions and punchy comments. Yet, at the same time a disturbing trend is clear – polarisation, sensationalism, and extremism are drowning out reasoned debate, compromise, and consensus-building

Our communication may be slick and quick, but often, it is narcissistic, narrow minded, and let’s be honest, cowardly

What we all really need right now is courage, this does not mean the courage to leave anonymous commen...

Continue Reading...

Focus on less to gain more

How do we stop the relentless deluge of things to juggle …?

When we're feeling stressed and overwhelmed by the relentless deluge of things to juggle, the last thing we would think, would be to do less. The reality is -  just like keeping our homes organised, rather than chaotic - overloading our schedules doesn't make us more productive. It makes us less effective

A great insight here is that it is not just our time that is limited each day, it is our energy too. So this is where the famous Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto's theory steps in, which is commonly known now as the 80/20 rule. The principle is simple: identify the 20% of tasks which generate the most value in our life, and then we invest our energy primarily into them

So the less we do, with greater focus, the more impactful, accomplished, and fulfilled we will be

Many people view multitasking as a necessity in the face of all the demands they juggle, yet in reality multitasking undermines productivity as focus is dimin...

Continue Reading...

See yourself differently

One of the truths we’ve come to understand at Progressfull, is that we can all benefit from choosing to see things a little differently

As humans, one of the biggest mistakes we make is forgetting everyone doesn’t think like we do. We assume what we are thinking is what everyone else is thinking

Not true

Look around and you will see this clearly is not the case in reality

The truth is people are different. We think differently, want different things, and fortunately have different ideas. The way we process and share our ideas is often different from one another. This can be frustrating if we allow it to be, but with intentionality it can also be the secret sauce which unlocks our potential. Increasing our insight unlocks our potential

We limit ourselves when we limit our perspective to our own ideas and current capabilities

So, if we recognise the need for different perspectives, how do we actually gain them?

Welcoming feedback helps us broaden our perspective and broadening our...

Continue Reading...

Mind the gap!

A lot of us are doing a lot of judging right now. Have you ever noticed how we tend to be lenient with ourselves whilst looking over the fence and judging others against higher standards?

Left on our own, we judge ourselves by our intentions and we judge others by their actions. This gap between intention and action is often the context for our relational conflicts – we expect others to give us a break and at the same time we blame them for not doing what they should be doing

Have you also ever wondered why people complain about politicians yet not vote? Why do people talk about the importance of climate change, yet moan about recycling their rubbish? Why do people extol the virtue of integrity yet tell numerous white lies every day?

Because we are imperfect, flawed, human beings and our intentions are a different thing from our actions. The great leadership guru, Ken Blanchard said,

‘Intention minus action equals squat’

That is a really helpful way for us to think about Owning C...

Continue Reading...

What if work was play

In truth, when most of us spend our time overworking, overstressing, feeling overwhelmed, being playful is the new aspirational

Guess this is why that of the 5 Progressfull Principles, the one which people often find the most appealing, is Being Playful. The very idea that being playful is something which successful, evolved, high performers incorporate into their life is refreshingly new and a real relief, a lot of our clients tell us

As the philosopher Elbert Hubbard once said,

“Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out alive” 

This is because in today’s world of constant change, hyper-visibility and endless choices, many of us end up agonizing over even the tiniest decisions. We can spend hours re-writing emails, overthinking comments, ruminating on conversations - believing that the endless hard work of perfecting every detail of every aspect of our lives is the route to success and therefore the good life

Hubbard reminds us that time is a precious gift we can’t get...

Continue Reading...

Are you all vogue on the outside yet all vague on the inside?

Without confidence, our looks are not enough, our career is not enough, even our family is not enough, in fact, our whole life is not enough

How sad is that? Yet also…look around…how normal!

It’s true that most of us are often looking for the sources of success and confidence in the wrong places – a new job, a new makeup haul, a new pair of sneakers…

We have a radical idea for you…

Instead of our barometer for success being externally derived through ‘seeming perfect on the outside’ we can choose our own internal barometer. Our own personal progress, not a mark on an exam paper, a response on social media, a performance review at work, or how fabulous we look (or don’t look) in the mirror

This means we are much more in control of our own happiness, our own fulfilment, because our confidence is sparked by our own progress, not someone else’s approval

So the great news is real confidence is something we choose to develop and grow - it’s a work in progress. Even better news is, prog...

Continue Reading...

Learning from the beautiful game

The lionesses were 90 minutes away from immortality. Then Olga Carmona worked her magic and Spain pipped them to the post in the FIFA Women's World Cup™ final

Back in Madrid the streets started to fill with joyful celebrations

Talk about bouncing back - over the course of the month-long world cup event, Spain played through the shock of last year’s player rebellion and the recovery from injury of two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas

“We fought hard, that’s the truth, until we felt like we had nothing left. But when we go to the airport and see a girl with a football or with a football jersey and the desire to play it fills us with energy again and makes us keep fighting for what we’re still missing,” Putellas said

The 19 year old superstar Salma Paralluelo exclaimed, “You have to dream big to achieve things and, when the opportunity arrives, take advantage of it” 

Wow was it tense - a single goal separated the two sides as Spain made history and lifted their first-ever trop...

Continue Reading...
Close
When you sign up, we will share regular tips and transforming ideas on how to become a progressfull, futureproofed, first-rate you plus our mood music of the moment blog posts