The UK Governments health advisers are advising businesses to deal with stress in the workplace. Not only is stress is a killer and destroyer of lives it is also the cause of an awful lot of lost money. As much as 25% of all business losses due to sickness are down to stress, according to the research. My own research might suggest that as much as 80% of the costs to business of sickness could be due to stress. The BBC has a fuller report on the recommendations but I can’t help but wond... Read Full Story

Recent research has shown that eating lots of processed foods could lead to feeling depressed. You can read more about it in this BBC article … It’s another reminder that there is a link between what you eat and how you feel. I’m suspicious of wonder diets and I fear people are too quick to appeal to allergies for their problems but there is little doubt that having a good – well balanced – diet is the best option for us all. Read Full Story

Have you noticed how angry everyone seems to be getting these days? It’s not a young person thing either, in fact it may be an older person thing. Psychologists have all kinds of answers as to why this might be – but whatever the causes of it there is no doubting that things are getting worse. I find it happening to me as well at times. It usually happens when I get tired or there are just too many things to think about and then something tips me over the edge and I can feel that ... Read Full Story

Perhaps one of the biggest questions about life that any of us has to answer is the question: “what am I here for?” This post must involve a bit of a discussion about religion. I hope that isn’t going to put you off because I feel that this is one of the most important questions to answer. The first point to make is that this is an even harder question to answer if you are an atheist (or even agnostic). I’m not saying this to force my viewpoint on anyone but that you n... Read Full Story

Research undertaken on behalf of the BMJ has found that despite common expectations retiring early does not prolong life. In the research it was found that those who retired at 55 were actually more likely to die in the first 10 years after retirement than those who retired at 65. Whilst it is true that a percentage of the early retirees would have done so for health reasons the research shows that there is no reason to believe that retiring early will prolong a persons life. You can read abo... Read Full Story

Table of contents for Self-motivationSelf Motivation: What do you want?Self Motivation: Create the right feelingsSelf Motivation: Understand whySelf Motivation: Make a planSelf Motivation: What will success look like?Self Motivation: Measure your progressSelf Motivation: ReviewSelf Motivation: What? Why? This is the last part of the self motivation posts (at least it is for now).  One of the great keys to being self motivated is knowing what you are trying to achieve and why you are doing it.... Read Full Story

Table of contents for Self-motivationSelf Motivation: What do you want?Self Motivation: Create the right feelingsSelf Motivation: Understand whySelf Motivation: Make a planSelf Motivation: What will success look like?Self Motivation: Measure your progressSelf Motivation: ReviewSelf Motivation: What? Why? The next step in self motivation is to set some time for reviewing what you are doing. You cannot assume that what you initially set out to do is going to remain the same for ever. Ask yourse... Read Full Story

Table of contents for Self-motivationSelf Motivation: What do you want?Self Motivation: Create the right feelingsSelf Motivation: Understand whySelf Motivation: Make a planSelf Motivation: What will success look like?Self Motivation: Measure your progress An important element of motivation is feeling that you are making progress.  The only way to do this is to find some measure for your progress. This is really hard to do in a lot of cases because measuring progress in something that is not e... Read Full Story

Table of contents for Self-motivationSelf Motivation: What do you want?Self Motivation: Create the right feelingsSelf Motivation: Understand whySelf Motivation: Make a planSelf Motivation: What will success look like? To get yourself motivated you need to have a clear picture of what success for you will look like. The clearer your picture the more motivated you will be. Without a picture you will find it hard to get motivated at all. So take some time to think through what success will actua... Read Full Story

Table of contents for Self-motivationSelf Motivation: What do you want?Self Motivation: Create the right feelingsSelf Motivation: Understand whySelf Motivation: Make a plan There is a wise old saying (not sure where it came from) that goes “failing to plan is planning to fail”. There is a great deal of truth in this saying and not least when it comes to being motivated. We misunderstand motivation if we see it as being pumped up for a task. I guess we’ve all seen the films a... Read Full Story