How To Stay Safe In An Earthquake

The folks in Japan are basically living in the earthquake capital of the world, what with being perched atop the pacific rim of fire and all. So you’d expect them to know a thing or two about surviving earthquakes. And you’d be right. So today’s life-saving tip on how to stay safe in an earthquake comes courtesy of the safety instructions that came with my Japanese-manufactured drum kit:

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How To Be A Successful Loser

I have a recently-ex friend of mine who really gives me the shits. Let’s call him “Garry”… because that’s his name. Garry is what I call a “successful loser”. He worked hard, became successful and made a lot of money; but then threw his success away because he was unhappy. Ever since I’ve know him, he’s been at a bit of a loose end trying to sort out what to do with his life. Restless and unhappy, he spends much of his time spreading his misery and unhappiness to others. But this morning thinking about Garry inadvertently led to the epiphany which I am convinced is going to change my life.

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How To Overcome Perfectionism

A lot of people these days are struggling to overcome perfectionism. This is all based on a flawed belief system which tells us that other people will love us only if we appear to be perfect. In fact, the opposite tends to be the truth: people relate to us more warmly when we reveal our flaws and weaknesses to them.

So in this life-changing video, I reveal the secret to overcoming perfectionism:

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How To Stop Drinking

I have some friends for whom excessive alcohol consumption has been a problem in the past. Sometimes still is. They go to groups where they hide their identity while climbing a dozen stairs, and label themselves as “alcoholics”.

I see them differently: I think they’re just regular people using alcohol to avoid painful feelings. Up until now, that is. (more…)

How To Be Patient

Research has shown that our ability to defer gratification correlates directly with our eventual success in life. This was discovered by having a bunch of men in white coats give sweets to small children; which I have to admit, sounds kinda creepy.

What the researchers discovered is that the children tended to fall into one of two groups: the first would eat the sweet immediately. The second were prepared to wait before eating the first sweet, in order to be rewarded with a second sweet.

They then followed the children through life; again, creepy; and discovered that the people from the second group who had been willing to defer gratification as a child tended to do better in life as an adult than those from the first group.

So in order to help out, I’ve made the following video to give you a direct personal experience of developing patience. It’s … Continue reading…

Life Coach Training with Beyond Success

If you’re interested in training to become a Life Coach, you might be interested in my experience of the Life Coach training course run by Beyond Success.

I first heard Paul Blackburn from Beyond Success speak at a Think and Grow Rich event run by Stuart Zadel, back in July 2007. At the time, I had been suffering from Chronic Fatigue for about 4 months, and was feeling very anxious, agitated, exhausted, and desperate about my future. Having visited a bunch of doctors with no success, I didn’t know why I was ill or what to do about it. I was beginning to worry about how I was going to be able to earn money again in the future. I had burned out rather spectacularly from my Engineering career, and although I had plenty of available job offers the idea of going back to a job in an industry I … Continue reading…

What is a Life Coach?

The goal of a life coach is to help you to have a great life. This involves a sense of meaning, purpose and fulfilment, along with liberal doses of happiness and the ability to deal powerfully with things when they go wrong. As humans we get bored if we feel like we’re not moving forward, but the big question often is which direction to move in. To establish this we need to understand our core values, and set a continual stream of achievable goals based on those values. Setting goals gives us something to focus our efforts on, and achieving goals builds our sense of life satisfaction and self-esteem, and inspires us and the people around us on to further goals. It’s important that the goals we set are achievable, consistent with our values, and allow us to use and develop our personal strengths.

The coaches I know use a … Continue reading…