I recently spoke to a client who told me that he was plagued by what I would describe as useless thought – feelings of inadequacy, distractions, negative thoughts, worries, even fears. The first thing that I said to him was that, at the very least, he could count himself among the horribly ... Views: 2073
From talking to clients in various countries, from talking to radio talk-show hosts, from following the latest news it could be said that we live in desperate times. And, as the old saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures. No they don’t. What people need now is a sharper and ... Views: 1919
Real life is full of possibilities and opportunities that the normal mind is unaware of. That’s because the normal mind is rarely present – our subconscious mind expends most of our energy focusing on its internal ‘stored knowledge’. Taking the psychological-speak out of the last sentence, we ... Views: 1744
A clear mind is the only state of mind worth being in. It enables you appreciate what’s actually happening around you and places you in a position to act – rather than react, which is the normal response of so-called normal people. A clear and focused state of mind alerts you to the ... Views: 1926
Do you ever suffer from low self esteem? The Oxford English Dictionary defines “self esteem” as confidence in you own worth or abilities. So let me ask the same question a different way - do you ever doubt yourself or question your abilities? Because, if you do ever question your own value or ... Views: 1498
Many personal development ‘gurus’ lead people to believe that, once you follow their course of action, life will be plain sailing – only good things will happen –life will simply be one wonderful moment after the next. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I recently got a call from one of ... Views: 5912
Each Monday morning, I recommend a self improvement book to my Personal Development Ezine readers. But I’ve decided to stop. I’ve come to the conclusion that self help, personal development or self improvement books – whatever you’d prefer to call them – don’t work. For starters, Forbes ... Views: 1868
Undoubtedly, we, as normal crazy adults, are built to worry – it appears to be an integral part of our hard-wiring. And, if we can’t find something to worry about, we’ll invent it. I once had a client, who should have known better, telephone me to tell me that he was having sleepless and that ... Views: 2170
We all want more out of life. Some of us want to change our lives radically – some of us have things about ourselves that we want to change. But, unfortunately, for most of us, life keeps getting in the way! The stress of everyday life – yes, millions of people are suffering from stress and ... Views: 1771
So many people struggle against things that they can do nothing about. So many people become upset or annoyed about things over which they have no control. And oh so few people take control of the one thing in life over which they can exercise absolute and total control. Like puppets, we ... Views: 1633
What impact does your self esteem have on your personal effectiveness, your relationships and the normal course of your daily life? How does low self esteem affect your view of what you can and cannot achieve? Indeed, what is low self-esteem, how does it even come about in the first place? Are ... Views: 2239
Myself and my family recently spent an evening on our balcony star-gazing – watching the annual Perseid Meteor Shower – when the earth passes through a band of wayward comet grit. Many people might just see one shooting star in their lifetime – but, in the space of about twenty minutes, we ... Views: 1760
I may be in danger of breaking into song here – and anyone who has heard me sing will confirm that you don’t want to be there when that happens! Seriously, thought, the well-known hit song does actually say it like it is – “Ooh heaven is a place on earth”! Confirmation of this fact comes from ... Views: 2220
Our lives are the product of what we ourselves do to create them. Although, ultimately, we cannot fully control our lives, we can, in the right frame of mind, exert a huge influence on our success and happiness. Unfortunately, however, the normal person exerts little or no influence at all ... Views: 1723
Perhaps this is an unusual introduction to an article on personal development or self improvement but, I would like to start by quoting 50 Cent – yeah, the rapper 50 Cent – who said “Most people can’t handle boredom. That means they can’t stay on one thing until they get good at it. And they ... Views: 6402
No doubt you have heard the old saying that no one, on their deathbed, would ever say that they wished that they'd spend more time in the office! Well, given the mass hysteria that is the fear and panic that has been gripping world economies over the last few months, some don't even have the ... Views: 2701
The purpose of life is to be happy – so says the Dalai Lama. Jesus Christ said something similar when he said that he came so that ‘you might have life and have it to the full’. Unfortunately, however, having worked in the field of personal development for more than fourteen years, I have ... Views: 2843
I’ve just received an email from a reader who tells me that, after wasting many years on “normal” living and “normal” people, she is now determined to take the necessary steps to find peace of mind, contentment, happiness and success. Her use of the word “normal” refers to many of my articles ... Views: 1858
Years of psychological research suggests that we are not living life to the full. This research concludes that we go through the motions of daily life, using the faculties of automaticity (to enable us perform almost everything mindlessly), categorization (so that we can pigeonhole every new ... Views: 1426
There is a well-worm saying that suggests that perception is, in fact, reality. And, no matter how most thinking people might laugh off such a notion, the fact is that for the normal mind, reality is just that - the sum total of our perceptions. How we perceive the world, how it works and our ... Views: 2379
I’ve been running my Personal Development Workshops for the last fifteen years and, during that time, I’ve met plenty of people who, for one reason or another, wanted to change their life. I’ve all sorts of reasons – from the proverbial midlife crisis to the career crossroads, from low self ... Views: 3027
Are your intentions honourable?! An age-old question asked by prospective fathers-in-law – and one that is at the very centre of whether or not you can achieve the success that you want out of life. In terms of aiming for success, we need to know what we intend to get. Truth is, most people ... Views: 1583
As a once senior banker, I know all about inertia. Studies from various parts of the world show that the majority of bank customers are unhappy with the levels of service they receive. In addition, many bank customers are aware that, at various times in their “relationship” with their bank, they ... Views: 3660
Did you leave your house naked this morning? Of course you didn’t. Isn’t it bizarre that everyone has no problem preparing themselves physically for the day ahead whilst almost no one bothers to mentally prepare – and being mentally prepared is far more important because the quality of your ... Views: 4131
I was sent an article on lottery sales by a reader a couple of weeks back - how, the Texas State Lottery was heading for record sales of US$3.83bn this year. Yes, that's one State and that's billion, not million! You'll also see in the article that its the poorer people who spend a ... Views: 1876
Surely we hit what might be described as the ‘peak performance zone’ when we are striving to achieve our goals. Goals, by their very nature, are things that we don't have at present – they are things that we are aiming for in the future. So why do so many personal development experts or ... Views: 1892
Join all the dots plotted by over seventy years of psychological research and you’ll immediately come to the blindingly obvious conclusion that normal people are crazy. You probably don’t even have to look far for concrete evidence of this psychological fact. Normal crazy people are all ... Views: 2982
Worrying about money, being anxious about job security, worrying about children, fearful of personal security, feeling inadequate – these are the things that occupy the normal mind. Unfortunately, psychology has proven time and time again that the normal mind is plagued by negative thought. ... Views: 2107
The word ‘focus’ is often used in the context of success. We’re told, for example, that highly successful people are better focused than the rest of us. We hear stories about athletes or sports people who are totally focused. Surely, if either you or I could get some of this focus, at the ... Views: 1765
In business – and often in our personal lives – frustration and worry go hand in hand. We get frustrated that our efforts are not receiving the acclaim that we believe we deserve and we get worried that, if things continue like that, we’re either not going to be the success we want to be or, ... Views: 2899
Everyone is at a crossroads each moment of each day – it’s just that we never stop to reflect on the fact that each minute decision we make can have life-changing consequences. A client recently recounted a story from his youth. He told me about he used to hang out with his best friend – and his ... Views: 5333
I constantly tell my clients that meditation is like your life in miniature - in other words, everything you encounter during meditation mirrors your daily life.
So, for example, during meditation, your conscious mind will distract you - with an average of 50,000 random thoughts whizzing ... Views: 3402
For those of us who live in these times – where economic adversity continues to be the order of the day, where extremism simmers in various quarters from Al-Qaida to Yemen, to Plains, Georgia where an effigy of President Obama was found hanging recently, to the ongoing political upheaval in Iran ... Views: 8747
Too many people are going through their lives wishing, hoping, wanting or waiting for something to happen. “I wish I could just get that lucky break.” “I hope that tomorrow will be better.” “I want to win the Lottery!” Unfortunately, what most people don’t realize is that nothing “just ... Views: 3438
I’ve been in the personal development business for nearly sixteen years and, to be quite honest, a get a little fed up when I see people, who are all over the place themselves, suddenly proclaiming themselves to be a life coach because they did a weekend course or get some online accreditation. ... Views: 3506
People tell me that, having met me for the first time, they are shocked to discover that they aren’t there! They are stunned to realize that their body is present but that their mind is somewhere else. And, even as you read these words, you’re only partly here. Decades of psychological ... Views: 2231
For the vast majority of our adult lives, we live in a world of make-believe. However, as most of us know, it’s no fairy story – most normal lives are a mundane up and down affair that never really goes anywhere – more like a second-rate soap opera. However, in stark contrast to our personal ... Views: 7423
How are you going to be up to the not-too-onerous task of getting the very best out of life if you are mentally unfit? Unfortunately, many years of research confirms that the normal mind is not just unfit for effortless living, it has been living on a diet of clapped-out old movies (from your ... Views: 1796
You’re one of those people who want to, to quote Oprah, live your best life. So, you’ve read the books – you know the ones, those feel-good self-help books. And you felt good while you were reading them. But your life has gone on much as it did before – with the normal stress and worry of ... Views: 1756
As I travel around from country to country, working with and talking to my various personal development clients, I am struck by the number of people who are doing what they’re doing for the money. In asking them what they would do with their life if money were no object, few tell me that they ... Views: 1714
Over the last year or so, I have spoken to a number of people who have found themselves at a crossroads in their careers through no fault of their own. Economic circumstances, being in the work place at the wrong time, employers using the excuse of the economic downturn to re-structure – have ... Views: 1862
I recently received an email from a journalist in the US asking me what I knew about people gaining an online certification for life coaching. And a few weeks back, one of my clients mentioned to me that he'd been approached by a life coach who had "qualified" following a weekend course and ... Views: 1800
Over the many years that I’ve been working with clients who want to better their lives I’ve come across the goal of “financial freedom” – people looking for an end to financial worry (over 905 of males claim that it is their greatest source of worry), people looking for “passive income” or ... Views: 3404
Over seventy years of psychological research proves conclusively that we live automatic lives. "Automaticity" is what psychologists call our extremely efficient ability to perform routine tasks without paying attention to them. Stop for a moment to reflect on how much attention you paid, ... Views: 1665
We’re in our eighth great year living in the French Alps. When we upped and left Ireland in 2002, many friends and clients remarked that we were taking a courageous decision – after all, our children were thirteen, eleven and eight years old at the time and were establishing their own little ... Views: 2379
I have yet to meet someone who does not want to change something about his or her life – no one is 100% happy with themselves or their lives. Whether they’re seeking that illusory goal of ‘financial freedom’ or the utopia of the ‘perfect job’ (there’s no such thing, by the way), or they’re fed ... Views: 1785
If you’ve got everything that you want out of life and want for nothing at all, in any aspect of your life, do not read this article. Everyone else – read on! From my experience in dealing directly with clients for the last fourteen years, or through my online workshop, I reckon everyone ... Views: 1861
A long-standing friend recently recommended one of his best-loved self-help books to me – it was the latest in a long list of his recommended reading. In chatting with him, I enquired as to how he was getting on putting into practice what he was learning from all his reading. It emerged from ... Views: 1929
The secret to dealing with difficult people is to take the necessary action before they become difficult. Like everything else in life, if you deal with something before it becomes a problem, you’ll never have any major problems to deal with. The problem is, of course, that in the ordinary ... Views: 1796
How did you start your day today? When you leaped out of bed, were you ready and alert for all today will offer or did you drag yourself out of bed on automatic pilot, and lurch into the bathroom in the normal early morning daze. If, of course, you were awoken by an alarm clock, then you ... Views: 3901