Articles

‘Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things’ Robert Brault Be Grateful I encountered a very wise man a little while ago. I was giving a talk for a holistic group. The venue was the upstairs room of a social club. ‘What’s your talk about?‘...

‘I just want to win the lottery.’ I’ve heard that crie de Coeur from clients many times before when I’ve posed the question ‘What would it take to make you happy?‘ It generally comes in response to working on the coaching wheel of life in the area relating to money. The wheel I use divides...

[Tweet “‘The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.’ Benjamin Franklin”] A good friend brought me some yellow chrysanthemums for my birthday recently. It was a large bunch, a complete armful of flowers. It was so large, I separated them into two bunches and put one in my...

Loneliness and, in some instances, seclusion are things that millions of people grapple with daily. Loneliness can be imposed by circumstances such as the death of loved ones, family moving away, work obligations or social anxiety. Loneliness can also be self-imposed in situations where people withdraw from society into a secluded and “atomized” existence if they feel...

Craig was a young man in a hurry. A self confessed perfectionist. He prided himself in his inability to relax, loathed holidays and pushed his personal bar ever higher. ‘Holidays are just a waste of time’, he said. ‘All the time I’m away from the office, other people are making progress, doing deals, catching ma...

It’s often said that William James (1) was to the USA, what Sigmund Freud was to Europe. William James was an elderly man when he finally met Freud at a lecture in 1909. They walked and talked together for a while. Nobody knows what their conversation was about. Must have been interesting. There’s no doubt...

Sleep walking through life Have you ever noticed how you can drive from A to B and, when you get there, not have any real recollection of the actual journey? Yet you stopped at all the red traffic lights, allowed an elderly lady to cross the road, avoided collisions and, to all extents and purposes...

‘Happiness is a choice, not a result.Nothing will make you happy until you choose to be happy. No person will make you happy until you decide to be happy.Your happiness will not come to you. It can only come from you!’ Ralph Marston How are you? I often start my talks with exactly this question,...

You weren’t born into this world unhappy. As a newborn baby you were, as Carl Rogers(1) would describe, ‘a model of congruence.’ If you were hungry, you cried. If you were thirsty, you cried. If you were uncomfortable or wet, you cried. Those cries were designed to send messages to your carers that something was...

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”  –  Edith Lovejoy Pierce The end of the year is often a time for reflection but a new year is like the first page...