If Roald Dahl hung out with Charles Darwin, what advice would they give us today?

They would say that sometimes, when the going gets tough, the best thing we can do is lighten up and play a little!

I don't know about you, but it's still all a bit much isn't it?  This time of year is always a bit tricky, often with cold, flat grey mornings, the festivities over, New Years resolutions less of an exciting new start to a new you and now either in the bin or proving a bit more of a grind than most of us optimistically signed up to on the 1st of January - and don't let's get started on 'the Covid' as the postman refers to the unrepentant global disruptor which seems to ruthlessly bring heartbreaking tragedy on one hand or a mild cough on the other. For some of us, it's hard to find a chink of light when we gaze uncertainly out of our windows each morning

What both Roald Dahl and Charles Darwin would recommend is, the ultimate rebellion; the real disruptive solution when faced with so much...

Illustration: @ljmlondon2014

Shut your eyes and imagine what you really, really want for Christmas …

For most of us, when we really think about this, we move from more obvious choices of the latest gizmo from Apple, a massage gun or a designer hoody - to wanting to feel happy - confident and secure about our futures, knowing we have our own purpose, meaning and sense of who we are and the direction we are headed in

Look around and you can see that most of us are feeling pretty intrepid as we head into the holiday season, because actually after all the overwhelming drama of 2021, what we really want is to be able to relax and enjoy life. For at least the second year  in a row, this seems almost impossible with all the volatility in the world right now

And yet…

What if we could receive a gift which actually does make a difference to our lives? Something which unlocks our potential and helps us progress in ways we never thought possible? Now that truly would be a great gift

So what ...

Passionate about design? Obsessed with interiors? What about your inner world?

For many of us, when we think of where we spend our lives – we tend to think about our homes and when we think about improving our lives – our thoughts often turn to improving our homes and our health

Ask the average person what they would do if they won the lottery and often buying a fabulous new home is the first thing on the list

In fact according to the 2020 Renovation Nation Report by money.co.uk - UK homeowners invested an average of £4,035 each on home improvements since the lockdown began in March 2020

It makes complete sense – as we spend more time in our homes, so we dream of well-designed spaces -  a beautiful place to hang out, play and chill during uncertainty

Spending time in a good environment is good for us – somewhere safe, secure and comfortable with the right level of stimulus or entertainment is a good place to be

Here’s the thing though… have you ever walked along a street of dream...

Do you have a secret ? A unique private vision for your life - yet are wilfully blind to your own potential?

We find this shocking, and frankly heart-breakingly wasteful

Many of us 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, yet choose, sometimes consciously but mostly not, to remain unseeing in situations where in order to achieve our vision. We could know, and should know, but don’t know. Because we believe it makes us feel better not to know

And so our unique vision for what a great life would look like fades into ‘normal’, into ‘fine’ into ‘I’m good, thanks’ – and a weak smile. We know we could learn new skills at work, but don’t. We know we could improve our communication skills to benefit all our relationships, especially those with our loved ones. But don’t. We know to be happier, better people - we could let go of internal baggage. But don’t. We know we could learn new skills in...

The laptop falls to the kitchen floor – “that’s IT! I’m DONE! I’m OFF!”

This is pretty much a regular scenario now in homes across the world ...

Overwhelm. The great resignation. We are leaving sour relationships, unfulfilling jobs, toxic work environments in our millions. Left, right and centre, over the last 18 months an overarching theme of overwhelm is leading us to reflect, reconsider, and re-evaluate our lives

We are picking different choices in an attempt to rid ourselves of this feeling of overwhelm – and often the choices we start with are the obvious ones – new job, new partner, new routine, (new laptop!)

What we often don’t start with, when we feel so overwhelmed – is building our mental strength

Which is ironic really – because actually – when we start our new job, our new relationship, our new routine – wouldn’t we want to start from a position of mental strength?

Because if we don’t – guess what – in 6 months time, that feeling of overwhelm might just still be there...

From start-up founders, to top stylists to Olympic athletes ...

...we increasingly understand that what makes us not only successful, but also happy in life - is having a great mind-set

The thing is – look around, from world-class athletes, to global influencers, to our own friends and family – what with enforced isolation, shutdowns, restricted access, home-schooling and business closures – even the most upbeat of us can fall into the depths of stress, anxiety, loneliness and deep uncertainty

Surely it’s almost impossible under the conditions that most of us experience today - to ‘have a great mind-set?'

Actually – it is possible – it’s possible for any of us to approach each day with energy and motivation, confident that whatever is thrown our way, we can - not just survive, but thrive

We don’t just know this, we live it – during lockdown we created Progressfull™, a company designed to unlock personal progress and professional potential

During lockdown I became healthier, durin...

As so-called high performers in either start-ups or in larger organisations, we often define our success as being promoted into positions of leadership

The hard work and dedication has paid off. We are so proud, so inspired, so motivated. We know we will now finally be able to implement our own creative ideas, we know we can now set our own challenging targets and get the stuff done, we know needs to get done. We know how to drive the growth, we know our teams and our business deserve. We know, we know, we know. Yes!  We finally get to prove it!  

Our hearts and brains overflow with the potential we see around us, in our teams, our brand and in our own ability to make great things happen

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 out of our pay grade. We lean forward in our chairs, reli...

This is all about you – not us, not anybody else

One of the key ideas behind Progressfull™ is that we all have extraordinary potential, we all have capabilities beyond our wildest dreams. And with the right insights, frameworks and tools we can all unlock our infinite potential and enjoy living unique lives, filled with meaning, purpose and progress

We are also aware that, despite external so-called success, nearly all of us experience deep fears that 'we are not enough' at some point, or even most of our lives. Some examples of how this feeling can be disguised are; relentless ambition, jealousy, or a feeling of shame at not being lovable - this can often be triggered when we compare ourselves to others

It is for this reason that we have created a brand “Progressfull™", rather than taking the approach of using one person's name ie “Erin Example, or Sam Sample", which is the norm these days

We know that in reality, all the answers to the questions of how to progress and live a bett...

In a world of so much beauty, yet so much uncertainty, so much opportunity, yet so much volatility...

Never has the demand for us all to Show Up as the best version of ourselves been greater

Together we have the talent, we have the knowledge and we have the potential. We can discover new ways of doing things, we can develop new businesses and design new products, we can create positive change. And yet...

Why do so very many of us, at some point in our lives, suffer from the fear of not being good enough?  Which means, we don’t start, we don’t try, we don’t finish, we give up. We don’t Show Up

For some of us, this so-called normal feeling of not being good enough only hits us on certain days, when nothing we do feels good enough. We kind of hate ourselves for a bit, pour ourselves a glass of wine or take it out on our loved ones, go to bed angry and wake up kind of ready for a new start the next day 

For those people this feeling of  ‘not good enough-ness’ seems to pass and doesn’t...

Frankly, are you over it? 

The relentless uncertainty, the daily "can we, can't we, shall we, shan't we" of mask-wearing, social meet-ups and staycations, has now writhed it's way into our morning coffee-catch ups and our message feeds. The snake of uncertainty brings with it small, sneaking, daily confrontations with tricky choices, the relentless drip, drip, drip of new decisions, draining our energy and distracting our focus

With every glimmer of fun and freedom, we now peer into the shadows, calculating the risks and assessing the new behaviours to adopt. To keep safe, to keep strong. We have swapped worrying about 'if our job has enough purpose' for 'will I still have a job' and 'how do I keep myself and my family safe'. The statistics collaborate with our instinctive refocus on the basics of survival - whether looking at the economy, the local area R number, or the 30% of Corona survivors who are now likely to suffer PTSD

Yup, for pretty much all of us, our current reality is...