If you are anything like me, then you may well find 'change' a bit of a tricky concept...

On the one hand we are surrounded by evidence that change is the only way forwards, on the other hand it can be pretty overwhelming and is often one of the reasons we feel stressed and frazzled on a regular basis

Here's the thing about change, most people - especially people who call themselves high performers, will talk confidently about how they are open to change. We are keen to be on the project teams, keen to be in the new roles, keen to not be left behind. And yet - when it actually comes down to doing things differently, working in completely new ways, with new people, new systems, new processes - very few of us actually welcome change

What's more, from Jo's experience, whenever she speaks about building change muscles in business 99% of people say they are agile, they are up for it, they are open to change yet once she actually delves a bit deeper the truth becomes patently clear. Ofte...

Countless studies prove that journaling is an extremely powerful way to boost our mental wellbeing, reduce depression and anxiety, and make us more content, productive and all-around happier with our lives

Boosting our ability to cope with intrusive and avoidant thoughts is one of the key benefits cited. A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that students who wrote about their deepest thoughts and feelings (handwritten or digital) in the month leading up to a big exam had fewer depressive symptoms because they didn’t dwell as much on their intrusive thoughts. What’s more, a  2018 study from the National Library of Medicine found that adults who completed a 15-minute online journaling session three days a week for 12 weeks were less likely to ruminate on their anxious thoughts and better able to move past them

Improving working memory, sleep, increasing creativity, and reducing stress, are all sizeable benefits of journaling...

...according to a ...

As so-called high performers we often define our success as being promoted into positions of leadership

Finally we get to do the things which other leaders before us, failed to get done

When the first few promotions come, we excitedly check the increase in our bank account. We 'accept' the invitations to the ‘important meetings,’ previously above our pay grade. We lean forward in our chairs, relishing the intellectual challenge of new projects and responsibilities. We thrive with the opportunity to lead our team and prove our collective value

Then the reality of our leadership roles kick in and we can often feel 'stuck', sapped of energy and overwhelmed with the task in front of us

Change is constant, targets are tougher, yet the cash and resource often required to hit those targets is constantly cut. and I haven’t even mentioned the politics, goodness the politics!

When we have a catch up with our boss - what we need is momentum, energy, insight - what we often get is 30 minutes ...

There's an interesting dynamic between past, present and future that's helpful for us to know - 

It goes a long way to explain why often the things we plan for are such a letdown when they actually happen!

In the study titled, “The impact of anticipating positive events on responses to stress” published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, US researchers Van Boven and Ashworth, discovered that future-musing creates more positive emotions than indulging in nostalgic trips down memory lane

On top of that, in a 2010 study on tourism and happiness, researchers discovered that holidaymakers reported a higher levels of pre-trip happiness than those who had no plans. The actual anticipation itself of the holiday had an upbeat effect on emotions. In addition, those people who went away and had a stress-free, chilled holiday, even experienced a boost in happiness on their return

Numerous research studies show that counting down to an event - any event - is as much fun as the...

Nearly all successful adults, it seems, tend to be weighed down by the responsibilities of work and life ...

We have forgotten the joy, the delight, the wonder, and awe that we had as children - we have forgotten how to be playful

Have you ever stopped to think about the impact of this on your life, and not just your own life, also that of you children and loved ones? How much fun and joy we miss out on, because we have become 'stuck' - forgetting the joys of being playful, flexible, adaptable

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. Our brain is most agile when we approach life seeing ourselves as a work in progress

Re-learning how to be open and see everything as a work in progress is supremely important

Choosing to be optimistic is something that all of us can benefit from, it adds a childlike curiosity, a wonder and...

Here’s something that makes us smile ...

Did you know that research shows that if we put as much effort into building strong connections with people as the effort we put into our diet and exercise (the gyms, the equipment, the outfits, the diets, the vitamin supplements, the list goes on …) we may actually live longer…

In fact, studies show that the positive influence of social relationships on the risk of death are comparable with well-established risk factors for mortality such as smoking or alcohol consumption and exceed the influence of other risk factors, such as physical inactivity and even obesity (Holt-Lunstad, Smith, & Layton, 2010)

So, taking some time to focus on others, building our connections in genuine ways, may well be one of the most important ways of increasing our wellbeing

And yet, it’s one thing to understand the importance of social connections, but what if we don’t feel super confident in our ability to connect with people, our people skills? Where does that ...

Mental Strength is the new Zeitgeist – we all deserve the practical tools to mentally thrive! 

You know the great news? When we think about living a great life, we often think of having great energy, and when we think of energy, we often think in terms of batteries. What is fabulous is that when it comes to mental strength – spending time doing the things we really, truly want to do, the actions which are aligned with our values, our own unique vision of our own life – rather than depleting our batteries, this gives us mental energy – it actually refuels our batteries and builds our mental strength. Mental strength really is the new Zeigeist… 

Talent, skill and knowledge? We are increasingly recognising the much more important ingredient - mental strength 

Mental strength is often linked to top performers, from Tom Daley - the British diver who competed in three prior Olympic games and only recently won his first ever Olympic gold medal in Tokyo, to Andrew Hoy - the Australian eques...

Most of us have clocked that a morning routine is a great way to look after ourselves in good times and bad

In fact, we are so keen to find a great morning routine that #MorningRoutine has over 3.3m posts on Instagram and 6.3bn views in TikTok 

When everything around us feels like it is changing, creating or adhering to a familiar routine as best we can, even if it’s just for a tiny portion of our day, can be a brilliant way of keeping us healthy in both mind and body. Feeling we are on track with our own vision, our own actions, our own way of living our life, means we are less likely to be side-swiped by the often changing reality of the external world. Each morning, despite what may appear to be chaos around us, we realise we still have some agency over our own lives and the choices we make 

Feeling that we have some control over our life, even if it’s just for a few minutes each day, is a key foundation stone for robust mental health 

But wow – there’s a lot of advice out there...

Shut your laptop, sigh a deep sigh of relief – time to unplug 

Time to plunge into a pool, walk barefoot, read that best seller, discover new places & experiences and quite simply refresh and recharge with a well-deserved break 

Then, once we have snoozed, slept, gazed at the pool, danced, swum, read, trekked ….we often start to plan… 

A lot of us use our vacation time to not only refresh and recharge but also gain new perspectives on our lives – we lie back on our sun loungers, or sip our morning coffee, gazing at a new vista - and we start to plan our next steps … 

We create private, internal visons for who we want to be, how we want to live and what we want to achieve – at work, at home, in our whole life

The thing is, whilst we create these visions and make our plans, we often miss adding in a magic ingredient ...

One of, if not the most important, keys to create our futures, achieve our goals, unlock our potential in any area of our lives – is feedback. Yet we often miss out...

I love this phrase – when things don’t go right, turn left

We often think that turning right is the only way to turn, because everyone else is turning that way. The thing is, sometimes when things don’t go right, it’s because they don’t feel right and actually, the reason they don’t feel right is because deep down, we don’t really want to do them because these are actions which are not in line with our own personal values

Very sadly – a lot of us are living lives that other people have designed ...

Our friends and family, our school teachers, even podcasters and influencers on social media. How sad is that? In truth, quite a lot of us are sleepwalking through our own lives, being someone other people want us to be

I don’t know about you, but I am over being told how to live my life – look around and there is plenty of evidence that a lot of people are making poor life decisions right now – and yet the advice just keeps coming doesn’t it?

What this means is that we often feel buffe...