Personal Development Articles

What's the Return On Investment of working with an Executive Coach? This is such a juicy question. Ten years and over 1000 clients ago, as I tentatively opened my doors to my first inca ation of being an executive coach. I had very little understanding of the value I was bringing to my market. I charged accordingly at £50 to 100 an hour - where I could get that fee and I worked with some middle managers, some junior executives and many small business owners most of whom hired me out of their own salaries.

The first secret to success and prosperity is BE AWARE. Be aware of your creative power, as you are a creative being. Be aware of your choices, because they do affect your results. Be aware of your conscious thoughts, as they are just like seeds that you plant in the ground. They are the ...

"You know nothing about me. I was lost long before the [Berlin] Wall fell. I was once destined to become a man much like yourself: true-hearted; determined; full of purpose, but … character is easier kept than recovered. We cannot control the things that life does to us. They are done before you know it, and once they are done, they make you do other things. At last, everything comes between you … and the man you wanted to be." - Wilhelm Wexler (traitor played by actor Ar

“Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going too fast -- you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.” -- Eddie Cantor For many of us, our days typically overflow with busywork. We’re running on habit and reacting to the influences around us. If we want to get more out of life, we need to pause once in a while and consciously choose how we spend our time. This starts with awareness.

Empowerment -- the act of investing oneself with more authority and control over one’s path -- is a vitally important process that I teach and explore every day as a career transformation coach. I’ve personally witnessed the transformative effect it can have, when an individual takes control of the reins of her life and decides to no longer be a victim. Yet many still say to me that “empowerment” is a cliché, an overused term that’s new-agey and silly.

Building and maintaining long-term selling relationships is the key behavior and skill of the top ten percent of the money earners in sales, in every field, selling every product and service.nnIf you could take everything we know about communications, put it all in a large pot, boil it and distill it down into its critical essence, it is about the importance of relationships in successful selling.nn The Reason for Success nMost of your success in life will depend on your abil

"The things which hurt, instruct." -- Benjamin Franklin How do you respond to the problems that continually surface in your life? If you're like most people, you feel victimized. Moaning "Poor me," we get angry, impatient, depressed and stuck. We think problems spoil what life OUGHT to be. And we do whatever we can to avoid the pain. For those of us on a spiritual path, problems and blocks are precious gifts that open the door to deeper self-knowledge.

What was your predominant mood like this past week? If you were to ask me what mine was, I'd have no hesitation in telling you. Frustration. If any of you are like me and have to deal with the vagaries of a website that sometimes seems to have a mind of its own, you'll know what I mean. If not, I suggest you look at the faces of those sportsmen and women who come somewhere other than first and, when asked how they feel, shake their heads and say "disappointed", "crushed", or just plain "gutted". The word "frustration" comes from the Latin "frustratus" meaning "without effect" or

Today, despite its recent entry into mainstream professions, personal coaching has become extremely popular. This kind of service assists a person to exploit their own abilities, skills and potential to the maximum level possible, thus achieving goals and objectives, which have been set earlier. ...

What if I told you that in the future your life could be dramatically different to what it is now, what would your initial reaction be? I doubt it, but I’ll never stop dreaming. Yes it will and I know exactly how it will happen. The first answer doesn’t inspire confidence, yet for ...

In the course of my work, I ran a lovely Faery Wisdom workshop recently. I do love running those. They're a real treat for me, and people seem to go away inspired by what they find too. During the workshop we use guided meditations and oracle cards to help us find our 'wisdom', and one of the exercises I like to do before we 'choose' our card is to 'connect to our hearts'. As usual, when you run these things you don't always have time to practise what you preach and it's not an exercise I've done much lately.

“I have learned that most regrets come from the things I DIDN’T do. I have learned that regret lasts forever.” Simply Brilliant Procrastination...putting off what you can do today until tomorrow...7 years, 5 months, and 2 days later you’re wondering why you never started that book. It would ...

Successful results occur in our personal lives and in our careers when we are proactive in setting and achieving goals. When striving to accomplish a meaningful objective, the path is much clearer and easier to pursue when it is thoroughly considered and well constructed. The person who has ...

If you are one in a creative career field, then you must have experienced a creative block at some point in your journey. To some it comes only once in a while, but to others it can be so frequent that it impedes productivity. So how can you keep you prevent these creative blocks and keep your creative juices flowing? 1. Stay Active A study done by cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato, showed that people who exercised four to five times a week performed better on creative c

Is goal setting really that important? Just by simply setting goals, your brain is given the vital psychological ingredient it needs, to give you a fighting chance of achieving a successful outcome. So what is this vital ingredient? You'll probably work out the answer yourself with this simple example... Suppose you have a 100k debt that has to be repaid within 12 months or else your home will be repossessed. On top of this, you're broke. Repaying 100k in just 12 months is a tall order, especially when you're broke. So, what to do?

I can’t tell you how many times I have had clients who were so completely absorbed in their work that they had lost sight of the rest of their life. As you can imagine, the results are not good for personal, professional or spiritual health. The challenge for anyone like this comes in ...

Change Your Questions Change Your Results. We know that if you change your thoughts/beliefs you change your behaviours; change your behaviours you change your results; change your results and you change your life. We all have times when we would like to change our life. We know that we can’t ...

There are many forms of Personal Growth available to you at all times. Below is a list of 101 different ways that you can integrate it into your life right now. Whatever you experience is, there are several ways you can take your Personal Growth to the next level. Everything you think, feel, ...

A Few Words on Apologies Last fall, on a walking tour of downtow Toronto with my son, a particularly attractive building caught my attention. I was so busy admiring its architecture that I didn’t see the bench in my path. Boom! I took a tumble worthy of a Hollywood stuntwoman. It was a spectacular fall – no worries, no injuries – and my son, despite his efforts to help me regain my composure could not contain his laughter.

I sent an article out recently, and I had one of the beautiful people on my subscriber list write me back. She happens to be a practicing psychic, and so she gave me a message, apparently because she was touched with the depth, the profoundness of the article. The basic message was that she had gone into trance, and she felt someone resting their hand on her shoulder. And she told me what the feelings or sentiments were, including the fact that she felt I was speaking with the voice of someone who has done their work—who is able and ready to go.

A lot of people try “affirmations”, “creative visualisations”, techniques such as the Law of Attraction and other methods outlined in "The Secret", or other ways to achieve their goals. They do this for a while, sometimes for a long while, but find nothing appears to be happening. They are no nearer their goals than when they first started. What is going wrong?

"In uncertain times go against the norm. Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open to the opportunities and choices surrounding you. Get creative. Take new actions. Be courageous. Adjust. Trust. Know that you can make this a positive experience. Stay in the light." Beth Tabak Fear and insecurities ...

Is there really happiness over the rainbow? What’s so special about that place over the rainbow? What’s so wrong with Kansas? Is Glenda, the Good Witch really any more special tha Auntie Em’? Are the scarecrow and the tin man any better than the farm hands whom so adoringly care for Dorothy? Or are they only so in our own minds? Does Kansas really only exist in black and white? My argument is that Kansas exists in vivid, screaming, cannon blasted color! But we suffer from self-inflicted color blindness.r

"I want to leave my marriage. Will my husband allow me access to the children when I leave him?" This is a challenging situation because it goes against the norm. People would expect a woman to leave her marriage and by default take the children with her. However, let us not look for right or wrong and be the judge of a situation that we are not part of.

A Zen story goes something like this: A student was having a meal with his Master. When they were finished eating, the student asked his Master, "What should I do now?" The Master replied, "Clean your bowl." At that moment the student was enlightened. This story illustrates one of the most ...

Isn't She a Queen? Doesn't she have courtiers?Ravens are obviously in certain secret tie with her. Banished from the world,nailed on deserted land,she becomes an easier catch.Her road surely won't be straight,often she was to be leaden by paths of Evil. There is Nobody enough for her.What ...

My travels around the world have allowed me to experience a different perspective on life. I have had the opportunity to meet and talk with many people from around the world who come from many different places. I have listened to many stories of survival, triumph, heartache, celebration, love and success that have brought many lessons to my heart and life. There are so many people and stories that have stayed within my soul for me to recall and draw upon when I need a simple reminder of how beautiful, bittersweet and magical this thing called life is.

It is not a new concept that "you are as young as you feel." This is great news, unless, of course, you feel old. As you wake up to a view of living in the new paradigm of a more peaceful life, it is important to let go of obsolete, outdated beliefs. Symptoms often attributed to old age are: ...

Imagine a life without clutter: No mail piled up in your “in” tray, you easily stay caught up on your e-mails. Your productivity is up, but your schedule isn’t packed. You avoid interruptions, arrive on time to appointments, and leave the office early enough to enjoy quality time with your family at the end of the day. Is this an accurate picture of your life? If not, you may need to beef up your organizational skills.

In a perfect world, each area of your life would balance out neatly. You’d work from 9 to 5 each day, take an hour-long lunch, and then come home and spend uninterrupted quality time with your family, and of course there would be plenty of time to exercise and indulge in hobbies or favorite sports. Sounds pretty good alright, but the reality is we often find ourselves coming up short on the life balance scale, and when we’re hit by one of life’s inevitable obstacles or unexpected detours it can quickly throw an already strained lifestyle into a state of stress and overwhelm.

I’m celebrating today, and I figuratively invite you to lift a glass of champagne with me. I just put the last nail into the project, El Nuevo Piense y Hágase Rico, the Spanish translation of The NEW Think And Grow Rich. I dispatched the translated autoresponder series off to my webmasters and asked them to go ahead and insert them. And later, as I was reflecting on this, I thought…”Wow, this whole thing looks so easy, but this is a real project. It took a loooot of time.”

Alcoholism is a serious disease. It has become the fourth leading cause of death (preventable) in the United States. Those stats include both those from alcohol caused accidents and direct fatalities like those through illnesses and poisoning. It is a shocking figure and one that doesn’t get nearly enough focus in a world dominated by worry over the opiate and meth epidemics. When you are an alcoholic it is likely not these figures that have pushed you to work on your sobri

We all have the ability to decide to make decisions that will determine the ultimate outcome and the achievement of our WHY in life! There is a very thin line between being a Gold Medal winner and just being there. The Olympic games are a great example of this statement. You could win a Gold Medal by beating your competitor by the tiniest 1/1000th of a second! (Less than it takes to blink.) When you compare life to the Olympics it is the same.

I like to ask people what it is that they that want in their life. I mean, here's what a seminar offers you: the BMW or Bentley that you want or whatever it is; the house or castle. It offers you the ability to write a check for your children's education instead of sweating, taking notes, and mortgaging your future at a time when you might be nearing retirement. The fulfillment of travel will always come up high. Would you like to visit different countries in the world? In other words, it's everything you want to do, including helping poor people.

Professional women have made tremendous strides in terms of drawing on our strengths, abilities, and confidence in the workplace in recent years, but it’s clear that we have a long way to go before we are using our female power with self-assurance and ease. Based on my national in-depth research study Women Overcoming Crisis: Finding New Meaning in Life and Work, and my work with hundreds of professional women each year, I have found that even high-level, high-achieving professional women report battling insecurity and discomfort in using their voices to lead powerfully and say “no” o

How do YOU define Success? Everyone wants to be successful but the image and the meaning of success is very different for different people. It is crucial though that before you start seeking success your clearly discover your definition of success. Remember, it must be your definition. Don't fall into the trap of pursuing someone else’s "Success". You and you alone should decide what's the meaning of success to YOU. And the good news is that once you commit yourself to being “successful” (whatever it means to you), your life will never look and feel the same.

I am sure that you want to be happy in life and live to your fullest potential. These free personal development tips that I will be sharing with you today will focus on how you can become a better person. It does not matter how you start off. What counts is where you end up and he journey you take to reach that destination. Keep reading as I share with you how you can become a better person. Firstly, it is important that you learn how to take care of yourself. Your body is a

No matter in which family you are born and what upbringing and education you get, nothing can help you in getting to the height you want to achieve in your career or profession better than realizing your own potential. This is perplexing for many as there is no dearth of men and women who believe that being born in a rich and influential family is all it takes to make it big in life. Then there are millions of individuals who have a strong belief in stars or destiny.

How are you doing on all those wonderful, fantastic New Year's resolutions of yours? Are you still sticking with it? Or have you fallen back into the same old routine, the same old rut, the same old habits that caused you problems last year? Read on and learn how you can stick to your resolutions this year and not feel like you are giving up on those big changes you want to make in your life.

"Real champions believe in themselves even when no one else will!" Author Unknow To take your life and business to a level that makes you ecstatic there is a good chance you will need to step boldly into the world and stand distinctively apart from others. Here are 5 tips to support you to ...

It was already 77 degrees at a little before 7:00 when I began my walk this morning. The air was clammy in Fort Tryon Park in northern NYC and the Hudson River was veiled with fog like a bride searching for her groom. Thankfully, a breeze saved my fellow exercisers, dog walkers and me from spontaneous combustion! Part meditation, part self-reflective therapy, my walks are central to my staying grounded and grateful.

When you see someone, when you meet someone, when you interact with someone, when you get a chance to look at someone who has done what you want to do, whoosh, you have an amazing belief change—because you can see that it is possible. Now, I don't mean people out there. Because we know there are multi-bega-deca-millionaires out there, billionaires out there. I'm talking about when you see someone that you judge as relatively someone you know. That's good.

Recently, it occurred to me that the sessions and workshops I deliver to corporations’ new recruits could be called Business Boot Camp. Fitness marketers have created a designation called “body boot camps” and I see an interesting parallel. My role, like that of the fitness instructors at all these body boot camps, is to encourage new recruits to look their best, to target areas that need work and perhaps most importantly, to motivate them. These recruits are the best and the brightest. They come with credentials and confidence.

It's funny that usually you associate traffic with road rage, time lost, and general frustration and hassle, BUT online and offline it is targeted traffic that means the difference between a successful business and one that doesn't make it. So I'm going to share just 5 easy and quick ways you can generate and capture more leads to your business today: Create an Opt-in Page: This can sit as a portal to your website or be a stand alone page but it is vital as a destination for your traffic.

Statistics show that, on average, only about 10% of college grads write a thank you note after an interview. So, should you? Absolutely! It’s a great way to distinguish yourself from the sea of other candidates, and it will help your individual personal brand stay memorable. In fact, if you’re in the “maybe” pile when you leave the interview, a well thought-out thank you could easily move you to the “yes” pile. After contacting over 50 of the country’s top recruiters, I learned dozens of powerful tips that they suggest college grads consider during their job search.

As I prepare the audio version of this article, the time is 4:03 a.m. I'm on my way to the airport, heading to Panamá. I just wanted to make a few notes on this political situation with Immigration. One of the reasons why I can comment on this is because I am half-Latino, I guess you'd call it, or adopted Latino. In other words, I'm a Gringo and the Latinos aquí, the Latinos here, they understand that I’ve adopted myself into LatinoLandia. They know they can trust me. Number one, I speak the language.

Dear Friend, ... Our Thinking Habits are either faithful servants or tyrannical masters - just as we allow them to be. However we have the say about it and we can take our choice.

Finding enough time in the day to fit everything into our busy lives remains a hot topic for us all. To help us find the way, thousands of pages have been written about time management – books, reports, articles, and even video. And at any given time there are hundreds of people giving time management workshops to packed rooms, and yet . . . many of us either jump from one system to another unable to find something that ‘works’ or end up avoiding implementing any sort of time management system into our world at all.

Have you ever put together a puzzle? First, you open the box and dump all of the pieces on a table. You spread them out. Then, you pick up each piece one at a time, turn it over, observe it for shape, color and a glimpse of something that might be useful, and then place it face up on the ...

Life has meaning if we choose. Why don’t we choose? Everyday we have so many options and potentials that we seem to miss. Why? Is it that we are tied down to the ‘rat race’ of life? Why do we choose to have meaning on the events that we cannot control? The events that hit ...