The end of the year is fast approaching, as is the start of a new one. With that, now is the perfect time to review your goals, record your learning, and use any insights to help you accomplish more next year.

For the last few years I’ve spent a few days in December thinking about what goals I want to achieve the following year. It's become a bit of an obsession which I get genuinely excited about.

In this article I’ll walk you through a step-by-step approach that’ll give you an opportunity to consider what you've achieved and learned this year, and then apply your learning to the coming year.

The approach consists of five steps:

1. Identify your...

Mistakes are an unavoidable mark of our humanity. And though the extent of damage caused by them varies, as will the steps required to address them, we all have the opportunity to learn and grow from them.

Like most people, I don't like making mistakes. Such is my dislike of mistakes that I've been known to double or triple check punctuation and grammar on text messages.

However, despite being aware of my dislike of making mistakes, I'm of the belief that embracing them is an important part of my development.

So, with mistakes being an inevitable, yet valuable part of our experience, here are five things to consider the next time you make one. Each could prove valuable to your...

We all have rituals of some kind. These could be described as routine tasks or activities we do on a regular basis; more often than not, on autopilot. Showering, exercising, and drinking a morning coffee, are typical examples. 

Some of your rituals occur by default, as they'd have been ingrained in you from an early age. For example, bed making, teeth brushing, and locking the front door at night. Possibly!

However, there'll be others you might've introduced in later life. Which I suspect, in most cases would've been incorporated in an effort to improve your lives in some way shape or form.

For example, a daily exercise schedule, self-care...

When was the last time you felt out of your depth?

How did you cope?

We live in a complex and fast-moving world. And, with the ever changing contexts we find ourselves in, the reality is there'll always be occasions when we experience feelings of inadequacy.

You may find yourself being asked to take on a new role, lead on a project, or share your learning or experience with others.

And at times, these opportunities may give rise to insecurities.

With these insecurities can come the onset of a well known phenomenon called imposter syndrome; a feeling of not being good enough.

And, despite knowing you're not the finished article, these feelings can have a crippling effect.

Some of my...

In processing too much information we limit our ability to perform at our best and increase the risk of decision fatigue. This is why finding ways to avoid brain overload is key to our effectiveness.

Each day we’re faced with making thousands of decisions. Some are mundane, like what cereal to have, while others are more serious. For example, whether to sell our home or undergo surgery.

Decision making is also taxing on our working memory. That is, our ability to hold, process and use new information to guide our behaviour (Hall & Jarrold, 2015).

Similarly, as we use our decision making muscles, our ability to self-regulate and make sound choices reduces. This results in an...

Reviewing your wellbeing is good for your health. Learning what affects you is also helpful for making decisions about any improvements needed to take better care of yourself.

Management expert, Peter Drucker, stated:

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” 

For high achievers, I believe this maxim applies to performance and wellbeing. So, just as tracking your habits can help you achieve more, mood tracking is worth consideration as a method for analysing and improving your wellbeing.

Defining emotion and mood

In addition to feelings, the terms emotion and mood are often used interchangeably to describe a state of...

Fear can be crippling. It has the potential to stunt growth, limit progress, and derail dreams and ambitions. It’s also real and more common than many care to admit.

Not only is it real, it looks different and shows up in our lives in different ways. For some it hides behind perfectionism, for others, it becomes more evident in their procrastination.

In some cases, fear can have physical effects; tightness in the chest, fatigue or ongoing illness. In other instances it can lead to unhealthy or destructive behaviours, like alcoholism or overworking.

Whatever your relationship with fear, or however it shows up for you, here are three helpful strategies you can use to...

Dave, a twenty-something professional that I've worked with for some time now, lives with social anxiety but is learning to overcome it - one day at a time!

From the outside he appears calm. To his work colleagues reasonably composed and confident. But to his closest friends and partner, Dave's anxiety has been, on occasion, a disruption.

Take for example his partner changing plans for a day trip at the last minute because he was anxious of being alone until evening. Or, his friends being unable to enjoy an evening out, as a result of him having a panic attack at the thought of being around a crowd.

Social anxiety

But Dave's story isn't uncommon. Though anxiety...

Stress is an all too familiar struggle for most people. So much so, that it can easily become viewed as something we just need to learn to deal with. To get on with. To live with!

But it doesn't have to be that way. In fact, with a little thought and a commitment to regularly practicing some simple techniques, we can learn to keep a good handle on the stressors we face in life.

Now, let me be clear; there's no silver bullet that will eradicate stress from your life forever. And this is because stress is a natural response to situations your brain views as being a threat to your safety.

And this is actually a good thing, as it can serve to keep you from danger, keep you...

A High Performance Mindset is a way of using your mind to find, be, and do your best. It's about harnessing a healthy way of making sense of your inner world, and organising your outer world for maximum impact.

For this reason, developing a HPM involves getting a better understanding of your values and beliefs, and making improvements to your thoughts and actions, so they align with your goals.

But more than this, a HPM seeks to develop mastery. Put differently, rather than achieving a goal in itself, it's an approach which gives emphasis, and places value, on process.

It's also one which, with practice, can be developed by...