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Is Slow And Steady Best After All?
I used to be an ‘all or nothing’ type. I would only take on the all-consuming challenge. I would leave my bedroom until it was so messy that it took a whole day to clean up. If I needed to diet I would...
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Talk Doesn’t Cook Rice
In my community microbusiness class a while back, we were discussing the things that get in the way of making time to think creatively about your business. A popular topic was procrastination, another...
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How To Encourage 'Aha' Moments
The other day I woke up with the answer to a problem that had been chasing me around in circles for several days. It felt great to finally have it resolved. Isn't it a relief when it all falls into...
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Your Career Story
One of my favourite quotes is from American poet Muriel Rukeyser:The world is made of stories, not atoms. Stories aren't just for children, or indulgent afternoons on the sofa. They are are equally...
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How Do You Plan Your Projects?
If you want to implement a change in your life, it takes more than just making a decision in your head. (Nothing new there...) I’m developing some new programs at the moment, including an online course...
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Need A Fresh Idea? Find Three…
It's a great technique: Whenever you have a problem to solve, or need to come up with a fresh idea, challenge yourself to come up with at least three ideas, not just one. Or if you are a team leader,...
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Gratitude Can (Really) Change Your Life
Today’s blog is about gratitude. I have been into gratitude for years, but used to feel a bit squeamish about blogging about it. Silly, really, but I felt it was a bit hippie-herbal and not at all...
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What Are Your Questions?
Whenever I work with a client, I talk about the value of curiosity - it's one of the 4 elements in my '4 habits' model for creative thinking. Curiosity, and asking questions, are also central to a...
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Is Collaboration Useful For Creative Thinking?
Many people believe that all creative genius is a solo affair and that to involve a group at best dilutes the process and at worst risks ridicule or outright idea theft. Whilst it is true that private...
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Are You In Flow?
I’ve been doing some talks lately about using your strengths, and on each occasion I include a discussion on that state called 'flow'. It's an almost automatic, effortless, yet highly focused and...
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Time For Some Mini-Breaks?
I am busy at the moment, really busy. (Actually, REALLY REALLY busy is more like it…) So a few days ago I went off on one of my recurring fantasies, which is about taking a year-long creative...
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Looking To Kickstart Some Fresh Thinking?
Whenever I run a creative thinking workshop, I generally include my two fave processes, mind maps and 'reverse goals' (or LAOGs).LAOGs is a more complex process than some others that I use, and takes...
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Energy and Focus
I mentioned last week that I was busy, and this week I have decided to take a proactive approach to my energy and focus. I remembered that a few years ago I heard Andrea Culligan speak at a most...
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Have You Met The Procrastinator?
I am pretty excited to have been given a contract by Harper Collins for my upcoming book on working past 50. Of course, that means I now have a high deadline to deliver the completed manuscript, so I...
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Success and Satisfaction
I often talk about the importance of creating an ‘internal’ definition of success, one that doesn’t rely solely on the stars aligning for you in the external world. This is particularly important in...
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5 Tips for Taking Risks at Work
I am in the process of changing my business model, in order to make ongoing time for writing and also academic work.What this means is that I need to take some risks, both financial and strategic. I...
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Are You Stronger Than Your Excuses?
I am on a bit of a health and fitness campaign - currently five to six walking sessions a week, stretching, back into meditation, AFDs (alcohol-free days), drumming group and a few other things. It...
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30-Day Challenges
Nearly five years ago, I ran an experiment for a month. I made one little change to my life every day - with a commitment to continue every change at least until the end of the month. And each change...
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The Third Space - A Key To Happiness, Creativity And Productivity?
I’m a bit of a fan of the Happiness Conference (described by a colleague of mine as ‘that happy clappy thing’, but pretty excellent nonetheless…). Lots of great speakers, fascinating data, and enough...
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The Why Of Leadership
I am setting a world record for length of time to complete a Masters (of Education) but am slowly limping towards the finish line. One of the most interesting rocks I turned over was looking at the...
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Can You Overuse Your Strengths?
It’s very fashionable these days to focus on strengths and ignore weaknesses, and in the main this is a good thing. But it doesn’t mean that you just need to find your top one or two strengths and...
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Stuck in a Rut? Collage Your Way Out!
I had a client a while ago who was struggling to get clear on a new direction for her life. We had done a number of exercises, discussed options and played with possibilities, but she was still stuck....
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Why? Why? Why?
When something goes wrong in business (or in our personal life, for that matter) we tend to spend little time on analysing the reasons, but jump straight in to find the quick fix. With small things,...
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Transition Tips
One of the last things in my new book on working after 50 is a section on dealing with transition. it’s a big topic, so I thought I’d share some of my tips with you. Any change involves transition, and...
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Mind Mapping: A Simple and Elegant Tool
I have been a fan of Tony Buzan's mind mapping technique for at least 20 years. I use it most days for one thing or another. I use it to plan workshops, map out articles to write, prepare my class...
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What If You Broke The Rules?
I was talking to a client the other day about when to follow rules and when to break them. It can be tricky, and we all have a different idea of where to draw that line.It reminded me of one of the...
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14 Ways To Get Time Out (Now)
I am busy at the moment, really busy. (Actually, REALLY REALLY busy is more like it...)And I am starting to fantasise about taking time out to reflect, relax and recharge.My first thought was that a...
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Where Do Ideas Come From?
I was listening to an audiobook a while ago, all about research done on how mathematicians and scientific types came up with their creative ideas. It seems that creativity happens in the space between...
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If You Can't Find Your Passion, Are You Doomed?
What if you don't have that 'one thing', the thing you are utterly passionate about, the thing that's just waiting to be turned into your dream career? Can you still have a satisfying working life?Of...
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Your Work/Life Snapshot
Plenty of people have done a 'life satisfaction' exercise where you rate yourself in different areas (such as health, work, finances etc). It's usually limited to 8 categories, but it's not a bad way...
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Can You SCAMPER?
Have you ever run out of ideas? Or become caught up in your own assumptions (about materials, time, markets, budgets, or...?) Or felt like having a simple structure through which you can work through...
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Looking Back On 2016 - And Forward To 2017
I like to have some questions to reflect on over the end of year break. Over the years, I have collected my list from here and there. A couple of years ago I started sharing my list with you towards...
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Is The Script In Your Head Running Your Life?
All of us have a script inside our heads that contains our beliefs about our world. These are not necessarily helpful to you today, or even true. They were laid down long ago, and should be brought out...
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Is Magical Thinking Holding You Back?
Over the new year, I reflected on the reflection questions that were the subject of a recent blog. (Yes, I actually do use the exercises I recommend to others...).I've been doing this for the last 8 or...
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Do You Have A Strategic Plan For Your Career?
I spent the first 15 or so years of my working life drifting in and out of a series of different legal jobs, without a clear plan for the future. Actually, that's not quite true. Towards the end, I did...
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What Are Your 3 Futures?
Are you at a career crossroads, struggling to decide whether to go this way or that?Here's an excellent exercise that helps you imagine what your life might be like if you took this path, or that path,...
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Are You A Fox Or A Hedgehog?
Are you the kind of person who pursues many ends at the same time and sees the world in all its complexity? Or do you simplify your world into a single organising idea, a basic principle or concept...
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Careers and Chaos
Do you have a grand plan for your career? Have you got it all mapped out? Do you fret when it goes off track?Well, maybe you can take heart from the story of Anna Bligh. As you will know, she was...
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Think Like Socrates
Have you ever been out-argued? Do you remember a time when you just couldn't work out the answer to something, even though you had all the facts?I'm running a workshop next week that will reference...
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5 Ways To Chill Out Without Taking A Holiday
So the work year has well and truly started and I hope it's going well for you. It will be a while before most of us can take another break so I thought it might be timely to offer a few tips to manage...
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How's Your Decision Making?
Do you struggle to make decisions? Do you have recurring questions about your working life, the kind that never quite get resolved - and never quite go away, either?I found a nifty little book while at...
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Want To Simplify Work And Increase Satisfaction? Here's how...
Is your work getting more complicated, more bureaucratic? Is there less connection between your work and your sense of satisfaction? Are your productivity and your engagement dropping?I re-watched a...
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What Are Your Dumbo Feathers?
I'm always interested in the habits or rituals we weave around ourselves, the talismans that we develop to feel confident, safe, in charge or successful, especially in creative work. (And creative work...
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How Coffee Can Help Your Career...
Have you ever wished you could buy a coffee for someone who has your dream job, sit them down and then pick their brains for tips and inspiration? Well, why not?I'm always researching new and...
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Declutter Your Space, Declutter Your Mind
When I say the word 'clutter', is there a corner of your life, your office, your house that comes to mind? (Or maybe more than one corner?)Most of us have no trouble thinking of some part of our life...
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Can Random Connections Help You Think?
Are you stuck in a thinking rut?We are hardwired to notice patterns in our day-to-day life, which is generally a very useful adaptation - it helps us get through our day efficiently, without constantly...
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Have You Tried Timeboxing?
Are you busy at the moment? Making up for time off over Easter, maybe, or just lots of different things to get done?I'm overcommitted at the moment in work and life, so I have lists and lists of...
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Do Sweat The Small Stuff
I'm a fan of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. I love his version of the Bowie classic Space Oddity (recorded when he was boss of the International Space Station) and I had the great privilege of...
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Acting As If The Universe Was Friendly
We often get into a mindset that the world is out to get us. From that perspective, life feels like a struggle, and everything (including our creative thinking processes) starts to go into survival...
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Could You Use A New Mindset?
Last week I talked about changing your mindset to see the world as a friendly place. Whether that was one of your challenges - and whether we realise it or not - we all see the world through filters...
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