Consider going big

This is no time for false modesty. You’re a successful person in your line of work. You’re highly motivated, you know how to get things done, and you’re always looking for avenues for self improvement.

It’s so easy to get distracted in so many ways. Add in a global pandemic and those distractions seem to increase at an exponential rate.

“Can I give you toilet paper”, I asked. “Why are you giving me toilet paper”, came the suspicious reply…

COVID-19 has played out differently in our lives, but we’re united in the human condition of being locked down, social distancing and feeling concerned about the future. Because it’s clear, there’s no ‘normal’ to return to; instead, it’s a brave new world.

For the bulk of my life, I lived with the Sunday Scaries. I thought I was alone….

There’s a running joke amongst Type A personalities that we aren’t just Type A, we’re Type A+++. With that comes high performance, but the cost is often high-functioning anxiety, which we aren’t even aware of.

There’s little that is more challenging in our lives than when we come into conflict with our own values. Sometimes we may not even be aware of what those values are until we are in conflict, or misaligned with them.

My clients joke that I specialise in two types of problems— Rich People Problems (referencing the third book in the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy) and Overachiever Problems. Each group is curious about the unexpected problems the other faces— we believe that each other’s world is so perfect, what problems could they possibly have?

I love that new car smell. We all do, right? It’s quite distinctive. Clean, a little sweet and yet undeniably industrial. You wouldn’t wear it as cologne, but it’s part of the pleasure of buying a new car, probably because of its associations with the pleasure and excitement of a major new purchase.

We all know that training our bodies physically helps us to avoid physical illness. Well thanks to the intersection between psychology and neuroscience we now also know that we can train our brains mentally to avoid mental illness and be totally awesome in the process.