Are you looking for an effective way to manage stress? Or have you ever wondered how you might be able to improve your quality of life?

If your answer was, "Yes", then writing a journal could be a solution. But there could also be other benefits to journalling which you may not have anticipated.

Overview

Typically speaking, journalling involves writing out your thoughts or feelings. Put differently, it's a practice which enables you to explore life events and the surrounding emotions and thoughts relating to them.

Because of its nature, you may find you write about things you'd ordinarily take to counselling, for example. As a result, journal writing, can be both strategic and therapeutic, whilst simultaneously forming part of your personal learning journey.

The power of journalling

Journalling can be done in various ways, but will usually involve writing in a notebook, diary, or electronic device. Writing a journal, even periodically, can be a powerful tool for increasing...

People pleasing involves placing other people’s needs ahead of your own, even if you don’t really want to.

As a habit, it can lead to unhealthy self-neglect and self-sacrifice, which can result in poor physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.

In this video, I share seven top tips to help you put an end to people pleasing habits and start to feel more in control of your life again.

The end of the month is always a good time to check in. And the end of the first month of the year, is an even better time to evaluate progress towards the intentions you set at the outset of the year.

Regardless of whether or not you set goals, research suggests that as long as your goals are in line with your values, measuring progress can help with improving your overall wellbeing.

Though I believe goal setting is advantageous for more than just accomplishing outcomes, for example, the formation of character, I still advocate defining and reviewing them.

My favourite method of tracking progress is what's known as the Seinfeld Strategy. It follow American comedian Jerry Seinfeld's advice to young comedians on how to become better comics.

In response to a question about how to be a better comedian, Seinfeld noted that "the way to be a better comic [is] was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes [is] was to write every day..."

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Good quality sleep is essential for overall wellbeing. And in particular, it's necessary for maintaining your physical, emotional and mental health.

But sometimes, because of stress, illness, or other life circumstances, it's possible for normal sleeping habits to get disrupted.

When this happens, your day-to-day performance can be negatively affected and your ability to cope can decrease.

In this video, I share six scientifically grounded tips for helping you get back to sleep when you wake up in the night.

People decide to work with a professional coach for various reasons. 

Some come to coaching as they want to gain clarity about the next step in their journey. Others because they feel stuck in their current situation and want to determine ways to move forward.

Then there are those who want to accelerate their personal or professional growth and recognise the value of having someone in their corner.

If you can relate to any of these common reasons, and you’re not currently working with a coach, then read on, as I’m going to share four reasons why working with a coach may be right for you.

1. You’re unclear about your future

Working with a coach can help you gain clarity about what you want for the future.

If you have questions about the direction your life is going in, your ambitions or the possible steps to help create the changes you’d like to see, coaching can help.

As a coach, I have the privilege of sharing in many light bulb moments....

Your mindset is powerful. It affects how you see the world, and shapes what you do and how you relate to others on a day to day basis.

The type of mindset you have will make a difference to your wellbeing, and also the kind of outcomes you get in your personal and professional life.

In this video, I look at mindset, touch on its potential impact, and share three steps you can take if you want to change your mindset for the better!

In overloading our brain we limit our ability to perform. This is why finding ways to manage how we use our brain and reduce the amount of stress we place on it, is important to our wellbeing and effectiveness.

Each day we’re faced with making thousands of decisions. Some are mundane, like what cereal to have, whilst others are more serious, like whether to sell our home or undergo surgery. Decision making is also taxing on our working memory - 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 increased risk of making poor, unethical, and possibly costly decisions (Kouchaki & Smith, 2014). So what can we do?

The mental demands of responsibility

It's not uncommon to feel overwhelmed by the number of decisions you need to make on a daily basis, or to even find it difficult or unpleasant (Luce...

The most common self-care habits tend to be practical activities. For example, getting a good number of hours sleep, exercising regularly, and maintaining a healthy diet.

Each can be effective, but what might surprise you is that there are other habits you can develop to help lay a foundation for even better self-care.

In this video, I share three self-care habits you may not have ever considered, that when practiced, could actually change your life!

The idea of creating a plan for your personal development might conjure up feelings similar to when you're invited to attend a work appraisal. But, when it comes to your growth, it's worth giving it some attention.

A clear vision of your ideal future is a sure fire way of boosting your chances of living a meaningful life. And as part of that, having a personal development plan, is key to you making progress.

In knowing what you want for your future, a personal development plan can provide clarity and focus. In other words, it can act as a roadmap to help you stay on track to achieving your goals.

But if you've never given thought to creating a personal development plan, you might be listening to me wondering where you'd start, or what one could look like.

And if that's the case, no problem, I'm going to share a seven step process that can get you going on creating your own personal development plan and giving yourself a better chance of success in life.

1. Envision...

If you're into personal development and want to see yourself succeed in life, you'll know growth and success don't come easy.

Among other things, one of the benefits and outcomes of personal growth and success can be increased confidence.

But what if a lack of confidence is the very thing getting in the way of your success in the first place?

In this video, I'm discussing five habits shared by confident people, and how you could start to develop them to boost your confidence too!