Wise Wednesdays

Yay! Your mother said it, Jesus said it, Tolkien said it and neuroscience says it: life’s a journey. We see life through our brain and the brain is neuroplastic. It keeps remoulding its neural connections way beyond the end of childhood and adolescence.  What does that mean in practice? We can keep learning until we die. Great news, right? It means your personality isn’t totally fixed, your happiness set point isn’t either and you can still learn to play a musical instrument or language late in life. I think it’s fantastic. It’s also why coaching works: because we can still transform throughout life. In fact, if we don’t engage in repeated cycles of transformation, life can start to feel pretty stuck, stale and dreary. Boo. Not under my watch! But what’s the cost of this transformational magic?... * The people I work with want to be the greatest version of themselves. Consistently. They want true happiness, authentic success and to make a difference. ...

It’s Wise Wednesdays!  Thank you to everyone who took part in the beyond Imposter Syndrome webinar! We had some great input from a range of people including early career professionals and doctors, organisational leaders/CEOs and independent professionals. Here’s the webinar replay.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnEuWd80-UM&t=179s Tomorrow, we have a wonderful group of career explorers at the Leaders Circle at Harley Street where we’ll dive deeper into this month’s theme on imposter syndrome (and anti-imposter syndrome). I’m very much looking forward to it. (n.b. The event is full now, so apologies if you’ve tried to sign up and been taken to the waiting list). Dates for your diary: - Next Leaders Circle online webinar (60min): Wednesday 12th of September, 6.30pm UK / 1.30pm EST / 10.30am PST. Register here: http://eepurl.com/dEJFan - Next Leaders Circle at Harley Street (2 hours): Thursday 27th of September, 6.30pm. Ticket detail...

The joys: you’re unique and others see it The perils: you’re unique and others see it * This week I learned about the Japanese phenomenon of hikikomori describing when adolescents or adults withdraw from social life to extreme degrees of isolation and confinement. I came across it while doing a little research on hermits. Hikikomori has been linked to extreme social pressure and mental illness but, interestingly, it is thought to be more common in Japan because of its strict social norms.  According to a review in the Research and Advances in Psychiatry, modern Japanese culture is based on two major criteria: inclusion and mainstreaming, which predominate over individual self-expression.  In another words, you’re put under pressure to conform and fit in rather than explore your own unique ideas and values or express them. So do hermits withdraw because they don’t want to sacrifice their individuality to fit in? I can see the logic: modern ma...

On the path of change and personal transformation, it can be hard to find balance: should you push or should you wait? Developing your intuitive discernment around this is part of the process. Last weekend, I started watching Dietland and didn’t stop. It’s a story of self-acceptance and the painful journey it might involve represented through an obese young woman’s life.  To summarise, she’s determined to look thin and will do anything to make it happen. We meet her when she’s reached the point of undergoing gastric surgery and body reshaping and is going everything to make it happen but blind to the full picture. Along the way, she becomes involved with women’s empowerment groups (one pacifist and one violent) and her reality is shattered. She takes the socially conditioned lenses off starts to see herself in a different way… I don’t want to spoil it so essentially the idea is that once she expands her level of awareness and sees the full picture, (painfully)...

It’s a medium one. Do you feel guilty or anxious when you’re not doing anything? Do you worry you’re wasting time or not making the most of what you have (aka FOMO - Fear of Missing Out)? It’s a glorious and torturous feeling. If recognised for what it is, the impulse of life coursing through you and asking to be channelled in a creative way – great. If you treat it like a problem to be solved, you may find yourself suffering a lot and returning to this feeling more often than you’d like. I guess it’s a glass half-full or half-empty situation – how do you choose to perceive the feeling? More importantly, are you willing to sit with it fully and wholeheartedly until you understand the message it carries or would you rather fight it, resist it, try and get rid of it?... On a day with news of another life lost to suicide (young athlete Ellie Soutter whose father believes the pressure to perform was a factor), it's worth pausing for thought. * Si...