Want to perform at your very best? Guess what, it's time to put down being so serious, and pick up being playful

Multiple studies show that playfulness in adults is not only extremely beneficial to our physical and mental health, it is also key for optimal functioning. Studies have found that play relieves stress, improves brain function, boosts creativity, increases and improves connections with others, and to top it all, increases our energy levels. These benefits extend beyond ourselves to our loved ones as we are playful in our relationships. Neuroscience supports the old theory that laughter really is the best medicine

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. What we don't realise is that our brain is most agile when we approach life seeing ourselves as a work in progress

Re-learning how to be open, to be hopeful abo...

A lot of people  - and we are talking very, very 'super successful' people - tell us that they suffer from imposter syndrome

Famously, even the multi award winning actress Meryl Streep is quoted as saying,

“You think, why would anyone want to see me again in a movie? And I don’t know how to act anyway, so why am I doing this?”

What is fascinating is that these ‘super successful’ people are often falling for the myth that everyone else surrounding them is way more confident and composed than they themselves are. The Meryl Streep sentiment is playing on repeat in their mind

It's fascinating because we often don't realise that the reason you can’t hear other people’s inner monologues of self-doubt isn’t that they don’t have them. It’s because you only have access to your own mind, your own imposter syndrome playing repeat, minute by minute, hour by hour

As the UK organisation Action for Happiness points out, one of the biggest reasons many of us feel miserable is because we constantl...

Opening our mind to the idea that we are all a work in progress allows us to look beyond our current work, home - in fact, our whole life - and see we have the power to open up our world. Developing new skills, adopting new beliefs, behaviours and mind-sets, we change what we may have once thought was a fated potential

With this new perspective of progress, we open up a world of opportunities for ourselves, improving our overall quality of life and workplace productivity so that we can live our best life, a life full of progress

A good starting point for how to open our minds to open our world 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 why 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 ...

At Progressfull we like to say keeping balanced and staying on the front-foot involves being willing to stick your neck out, yet for a lot of us, honestly, we prefer to stay stuck where we are

The thing is, staying stuck where we are, when it comes to the world of work, can often mean stuck like a sitting duck. Stuck with outdated skill-sets, mind-sets and behaviours. This is frankly, not a great idea if we want to be relaxed and fizzing with excitement about opportunities ahead of us in our future work life

What to do?

What we recommend is to futureproof yourself. If you futureproof something, you design or change it so that it will continue to be useful or successful in the future if the situation changes. Let's be clear, for many of us, our work situations change monthly, if not weekly. Frequent change is now our new normal

Futureproofing is about making sure you’re ready for what your work journey may have round the corner – this could be new technology, new processes, new ways...

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s you being promoted to a leader – you are now a Superhero!

And we do all love a Superhero – from 1938 when the first Superman comic was published, to Wonder Woman appearing in comic in 1941, to the present day Marvel cinematic Superheroes. The Marvel Superheroes look like us but they’re better. Whether she is battling baddies, fighting against the odds, smart, strong, fast, furious. Wrestling the insurmountable, Superheroes offer a sense of hope and inspiration. When things seem overwhelming, They are something to look up to. They take on the impossible and win

And now you are a leader, that Superhero, my friend, is you

The thing is, a lot of us sort of ‘land up’ in our leadership roles. We are picked as captain of the football, hockey or chess teams at school, identified for our ‘natural leadership style’ and it sort of goes from there. We maybe get sent on a leadership course or two, yet often we simply work hard, are the best at what we do, an...

Are you aware of your own potential?

Well are you?

Some of us are totally unaware that we 'could do better' – others of us are too tired to even think about our untapped potential

The thing is, seriously, what a waste!

What it boils down to, is that we are all nearly always capable of achieving much, much more than we currently are – in pretty much all areas of our lives – whether as a baker, a designer or a CEO – we are simply oblivious to our strengths

So we stay, comfortably uncomfortable in our own ‘one day I will’ – but never do

Often this is because we don’t have the time or courage to shine a light into the blind-spots of our lives by reflecting on what we really want, and who can really help us do that. We do not Welcome Feedback  

From our experience this is because we believe to welcome feedback in the most important areas of our lives will be like opening Pandora’s box. The potential for discomfort and disruption on learning about where we truly are in a particular a...

Ah, success ... the dream ...

So we have a question for you, do you make major life decisions based on other people’s ideas of what success looks like?

And if you do, do you then, years later, wonder why you don’t feel quite as fabulous as you thought you might, given all the 'success' you have achieved? 

The truth is – in today’s world – it’s often hard to separate out what we really truly want to do with our life – from what society or our peers, podcasts – or even well intentioned friends and family – think we should do with our life

Here's something to share with you which might help

Have you ever heard of  ‘Congruence’?

Congruence is about…

1. the quality or state of agreeing, coinciding, corresponding
2. a correspondence in physical structure or thought; harmony
3. compatibility, accord, chime, consistency

The key things to take hold of about congruence are – being in harmony, in accord with / agreeing with - the harmony, accord, agreement is with our internal and external w...

Do you ever feel bogged down in how ‘stressed’ or ‘busy’ you are? Good news - time to play! 

Sounds crazy eh? It's true, for many of us, the first thing we think about when we wake up in the morning is how much we have to do that day, the last thing on our minds is how important it is for us to find time to play 

Well what do you know, it should be, because a secret solution for this feeling of being bogged down and feeling stressed - is Being Playful!

It's such an unusual idea, to think about the importance of being playful for us as adults, we thought we would share with you some of the ways you can benefit from Being Playful

1. Being Playful helps us replace worry and anxiety with curiosity and passion

Look around and you will see a lot us have a bad habit of worrying. The thing is, we think worrying is a normal - even healthy response - to our volatile world. Actually, this is not the case. We can swap this restricting habit of worrying with releasing beliefs, behaviours and m...

Look around and we can see that in the 21st century, change is constant and stability is rare, not only in our work life, but also in our home life

So the reality is, to flourish and enjoy success in our rapidly changing world, we must learn to thrive in the face of this change, adapting and continuously reinventing ourselves

In fact, according to bestselling author of 21 lessons for the 21st century, speaker and award winning historian Yuval Harari, the most critical skill for all of us today is the ability to cope with change and keep evolving

What this means is embracing lifelong learning, developing resilience and adaptability, and being open to new experiences and opportunities

Swapping seeing change as an energy sapping drain for embracing change, even making it central to our personal and professional growth. This way we can flourish and thrive in the face of all this uncertainty, creating brighter futures for ourselves and our world

But here's the rub - when faced with a c...

From city lawyers to start up CEOs through to parents of toddlers and teenagers - mental strength really is the new Zeitgeist

Don't know about you, but right now, a lot of people tell us they are feeling exhausted and overwhelmed yet also want to move faster so they can keep up and keep ahead. To get the most out of life, especially today's seemingly ever-changing whirlwind world of work and home life - we all deserve the practical tools to mentally thrive. You know what's great? Well, just like building our physical strength, we can all build our mental resilience

Ok, so how do we do that then?

The first thing to be aware of is that ensuring we refuel and recharge results in mental strength. Failing to recharge or refuel weakens our mental capacity and leaves us less strong and less able to perform at our best

The good news is, personal energy is renewable. The bad news? Many people don’t know how to recharge or refuel - do you?

At Progressfull, we believe that's why so many peop...