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How to be more present in the moment at work

Cat focusing in the moment on the white butterfly on its nose.
Are you content to live in the here and now, or are you more future focused, always planning the next week, next month, next year even? Staying focused on what’s going on around you in the present moment is often cited as a route to better concentration, self-awareness, creativity and...

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Is anyone else overwhelmed by their to-do list?

Woman looking overwhelmed by her to-do list.
Are you a list maker? If you’d asked me ten years ago, I’d have said yes, definitely. I had lists of lists at times but increasingly, they don’t work for me. Why lists don’t work for me My husband motors through a list. I just get overwhelmed and fed-up. So I...

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Learn to stop and recognise the fruits of your labours

Fruits of our labour at our allotment: fruit, vegetables and flowers.
Picking beans has to be one of my favourite allotment jobs. Firstly, you don’t have to bend down which is rare for allotment jobs, and secondly because of their incredible abundance. Hunting among the tangle of twisting stems and palm-sized leaves, you find the slim, silky pods hanging...

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How confident are you talking about mental health?

Celia Clark, career development coach at Inspires Coaching, proudly wearing her Mental Health First Aider lanyard.
It’s June and the sun’s out so that can only mean one thing – it’s exam season! If your household is in the middle of exams, I hope they are going smoothly and the end is in sight. I’ve often thought how useful a GCSE in life skills would’ve been. Ya’...

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A question in service to others

Boy with a lightbulb idea among many questions, helping decide how can I best serve this person?
Was there a subject that seemed irrelevant at school but fascinates you now? For me, it’s history: the place to look for reasons behind many of today’s events. So I enjoyed watching the King’s Coronation last weekend and learning which parts of the service would have been...

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The perfect listener when you need to talk?

Woman writing in a journal
As I write this, it’s Time to Talk day run by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness. The Time to Talk campaign was launched in 2014 to encourage more open and honest conversations between friends, family and colleagues about things they’re struggling with. How easy do you find it to...

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The word that sums up my intention this year

Celia Clark, career development coach, wearing comedy glasses saying naughty, as a suggestion of a word you could choose to set your intention for the year.
Happy New Year ! I hope you’ve had a good start to 2023. Did you get chance to do the review of last year in the previous post? The last note I received before Christmas was a thank you from someone who’d treated themselves to a rare pause in a café to reflect on their year. It was...

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Give yourself the gift of reflection

Whilst brushing my teeth the other day, my gaze flicked to the poem Desiderata hanging on our bathroom wall. It has so much wisdom in it but the phrase that jumped out at me this time was “enjoy your achievements as well as your plans”.  Now, I’m a...

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A back story to inspire you to action

Working at a laptop and keyboard on a standing desk can strengthen your back and help ease back pain.
One of the reasons I do what I do – coaching people about their wellbeing, performance and career development – is because I want people to have a healthy relationship with their work. It saddens me to see people damaged by toxic cultures, difficult relationships, unsustainable...

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Why we avoid dealing with stuff

scared child trying to avoid the eyes glowing under their bed
What do you put off at work? For some of us, there are jobs we’d rather kick into next week but we grit our teeth and get on with them. For others, avoidance is a habit of a lifetime that really gets in the way. Of the ten unhelpful patterns of behaviour that sabotage us, procrastination...

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