So you’re outside your comfort zone – what now? Understanding the four stages of learning can help you cope with the challenge and maintain your momentum. Here’s how to use the four stages of learning to make that new habit stick.

You're human; running at 110% is not sustainable. Exhaustion and burnout are serious problems in law. Setting boundaries is essential for lawyers to maintain a healthy balance in their lives. Yet succeeding in law practice can make this very challenging. Here’s 5 tips to help lawyers (and other humans) set and maintain boundaries.

Quick: you have three minutes to prepare a song to perform in front of the group! Your comfort zone is comfortable… and essential. So is challenging it. But don’t make the mistake of thinking the panic zone is where you need to be. You can be confident outside your comfort zone – it’s all about balance.

Go hard or go home! We know it’s easier for humans to make big changes by starting small, but we keep forgetting. In organisations, the impact is magnified.

If play is so good for us, smart people would spend lots of time doing it… right? Recently I’ve been revisiting Life Lessons by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and David Kessler. I was reminded how central playfulness is to our wellbeing, and how often and easily we seem to put it low down on our lists.

Humans are wired, for survival, to avoid threats and pain. And we’re wired to prioritise immediate threats over distant ones. Which makes sense. If it’s a choice between fleeing a fast approaching tiger, thereby leaving some food behind and being hungry later, or avoiding later hunger by hanging around for a nice meal as the tiger runs towards you… clearly, it’s an easy choice.

I’ve learned, now, that slowing down can sometimes actually get you further than going fast. And sometimes quick, profound change is what’s needed. The challenge is knowing when to use which approach.

As a leader approaching 2021, have you considered the biggest challenges you expect your people to face this year, and how you will operate and lead?

Having a framework can really help people make positive change in their lives and can be useful tools to have in the kit. I’m sharing with you a framework I’ve developed to guide me over the summer break.

Today I’m sharing six practical tips that you can apply when you’re sinking at work. When it comes to escaping quicksand, slow and steady wins the race.

There are indeed moments of genuine connection and sparks of curiosity and insight on LinkedIn and other social media. Often, I am delighted to read about someone’s exciting news. I enjoy sharing things of value with people. But I rarely think to post pictures of me doing my job. Perhaps I should.

When we are working hard without having the impact we want, we can respond by struggling harder. Don’t beat yourself up over responding in the “wrong” way - that will only make it worse. Stop, think clearly, and gently, slowly ease out of the mud.

Over the years I’ve been coaching, many clients have been facing decisions around making a career change. Often, they are struggling with the unknown and finding it difficult to decide what kind of role they are looking for.

Lately I've been thinking about "being cruel to be kind". I'm against it. Why not just be kind? That might (will) mean making decisions other people don't like, but that's very different from treating people with contempt and indifference.

When faced with significant change, do you continue operating as your authentic self, or flip completely to meet the new needs? Here are my tips for expanding what is authentic and sustainable for you.

Change management has historically been about helping people, teams and organisations get through a change. The big assumption is that there’s an “other side”, when the job is done and the change is complete. I hear a lot of people talking about getting through 2020, on the assumption that somehow in 2021 things will get back to “normal”. Maybe they will. I’m not counting on it.

Traditionally, preparing for retirement has been all about finances, with the emotional, relational and psychological aspects left ignored. However, some organisations, particularly professional services firms, are now beginning to “actively prime outgoing partners for life after the firm” through coaching.

How could positivity be toxic? It sounds like an oxymoron. Humans do better when we experience roughly 3 positive emotions for every 1 negative one. Most of us have plenty of negative emotions without needing actively to seek them out. Yet we often do cultivate them. That’s toxic negativity… what about healthy positivity? Healthy, authentic positivity allows room for the inevitable negativity we will all experience from time to time.

Contentment comes from appreciating what I have, rather than focusing on what I don’t. Gratitude for what we have is powerfully good for us. But if that means not striving for new experiences, growth, development, achievement – and yes, material things - well, that’s a turn-off.

I recently spoke with three separate people in very different roles and organisations, but each having work issues with some similar themes. Each person is finding significant challenge in their role. They are working extremely hard. Each is very highly skilled but having difficulty making an impact. And each is increasingly unhappy about it.