Are you always looking over your shoulder?

It’s really normal to evaluate yourself against others. To start exploring the question, ‘how am I doing compared to my peers?’ It may be where they have got to materially. Or in terms of status. Or their family / relationship situation. I was reflecting on this today with my wife. I was comparing myself to my friends. […]

This little shift can make an enormous difference to high performance

Can you tell when you are swimming with the tide of your life / work / relationships? For many years, my attitude to performance and achievement was, ‘head down, push on through.’ It helped me (or at least I thought it did) create a lot of success first in my career as an employee, then as a  […]

Do you hold back from promoting yourself and your value?

If life and work, were complete meritocracies, then we’d never sweat about whether we’re getting recognised and rewarded for what we do. But as most of us have found out, it isn’t always the best person who gets noticed or promoted, it’s sometimes the person who’s done a great job promoting themselves. If you sometimes secretly seethe […]

Is fear driving you?

Over the years, I’ve pushed hard towards my goals. There were times when I was all in, full of enthusiasm and energy. There were other times when it all became a drag and I had to effort hard. I think that’s pretty common, when you’re focused on creating an outcome. There was another characteristic to this […]

What if they won’t play ball?

Last week I got into a tussle with my son over screen time. He has limited access to screens and specific games and he asked to play a game on my phone which my wife had deleted on hers. He assured me that she would let him play the game and I chose to trust that. […]

Is it that you can’t or that you don’t want to?

I was having a fascinating conversation with a super smart and successful client who wants to take his career to the next level this week. We were exploring how he can maximise his impact when he is very time poor, given the pace and breadth of his role. Through this conversation, one thing that came up was […]

What to do you when you get agitated or overwhelmed

I was in a state of agitation The morning hadn’t got off to a good start. My son was dragging his feet for the school run and I could see we were going to be late. I’d slept badly and could feel myself getting into a state of reactivity.  Not the responsive, considered energy I might normally bring […]

The secret to getting things done, even when you don’t feel like it

“I get so frustrated. I know I have these tasks to do, and yet I find myself hopping onto social media or getting a drink or something else. I never get as far as I want. I’m  sure everyone else is crushing it.” I’ve heard so many flavours of this observation/ complaint / self-criticism over the […]

Are You Stuck in a Rut? Identifying Signs of a Personal and Professional Plateau

I’d been doing the same role for a couple of years and I realised that’d I’d hit a wall. Meetings were routine, the level of challenge had fallen off, and worst of all, I didn’t feel like I was growing. I was starting to get that Sunday night feeling, that I had associated with stress. But this […]

Squirrels in Your Brain? Time to Take a Dip in the Lake of Presence

I’m in a pickle. I’m feeling revved up and strung out. The day has not gone as intended.  I am so distractable. I just need a tool. For goodness sake, give me a tool. Mindless scrolling 1 – Productivity 0.  That to do list I had so carefully crafted. Sitting with a coffee ring on it, looking the […]