Guess how many different types of apps you have on your phone. Do you know the answer?

On average, we have 80 apps on our phones, and each day, we interact with at least 9-10 different types of apps. This means that for most of us, we have more regular interactions with different types of apps than we have regular interactions with different types of people! 

As humans, we are a social species, meaning one of our deepest-wired behaviours is building a social group or network - but how diverse is your network and why in truth is this diversity important?
 
The thing is, at a time when a lot of us are worrying about the impact of AI, a way to feel confident, strong and thrive with AI is to remind ourselves of what differentiates us as humans from apps and computers. Humans use the brain's computing power, memory, and ability to think, whereas AI-powered machines rely on data and specific instructions fed into the system. A way to thrive in a time of AI is to focus on building the skills...

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...

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

Human performance expert Stefan Falk, highlights that “sinking into boredom” is a downside of having an "autopilot" mind-set. When we deal with the everyday, familiar tasks and activities our brain conserves energy by moving to “autopilot” mode. When we are in this mode not only is it easier to sink into boredom, we also miss what’s new, what’s different and what’s noteworthy in the daily and familiar

Most of us have lives that are embedded in the familiar daily and weekly routines and rhythms. As a result our brain's autopilot can be restricting our perspectives and the opportunities for growth that are all around us

Even when facing the most tedious tasks, ones we have completed a thousand times over, we can cultivate a sense of curiosity and build our perspective by tuning-in to the small things that make the context or the task different. This m...

What is one thing so many of us could let go of which would truly change our lives today?

Letting go of anxiety so we can increase our energy would greatly improve a lot of our lives right now. From bar-tenders to bitcoin bankers, we are realising that living with extreme anxiety is simply unsustainable

In fact, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as one of the two most common mental health conditions, alongside depression, anxiety costs the global economy US$ 1 trillion each year

When I first thought about this, I was actually quite angry - how can we simply 'let go' of anxiety?

Well, the truth is, that some things are a lot harder to let go of than others, yet in reality a lot of us could genuinely deal with the actual problem we are anxious about a lot more effectively, if we were able to let go of at least some of our anxiety

Why is that then?

In today’s complex and ever changing world, it is no surprise that a lot of us carry feelings of anxiety which drain ou...

‘I don’t get it,’ said one of our clients this week, ‘what does it mean, to adapt and change to suit each situation, yet stay the same? It doesn’t make sense’

This is often one of the most challenging concepts for us to get our heads round and I must say that when Jo first explained this to me, it took a while for it to properly ‘click’ for me too. Now, I really love this concept and use this a lot in in my daily life. What it comes down to is all about how we own congruence which is one of the 5 Progressfull Principles

The 5 Progressfull Principles (Showing Up, Choosing Confidence, Being Playful, Owning Congruence, Welcoming Feedback) help us deal with the wonkiness, flaws and imperfections - which unless we have had an excellent executive coach or a brilliant therapist - we won’t know how to turn around to make progress. Progressfull does this by making the activities, and what we go through in typical executive coaching or therapy, accessible to everyone!

The 5 Progressfull Princ...

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...

Creating a bright future for all of us is quickly becoming a number one priority right now. Even billionaires are realising that extreme inequality is simply unsustainable

In fact, the World Bank believes the full agenda of increasing gender equality and women’s economic empowerment is smart economics enhancing productivity and improving other development outcomes, including prospects for the next generation and social betterment. They say,

"No society, country or economy can achieve its full potential if girls and women don’t have the same rights and opportunities as boys and men"

What's more, one glance at the Economist glass ceiling index (their annual measure of the role and influence of women in the workforce) reveals there are encouraging steps forward in many countries, in many areas. Yet it is also clear to see that achieving gender equality is complex and there is no quick fix. This requires a whole-of society effort, which includes all of us, women and men at the individua...