You start the day with so many plans and ideas of things you want to achieve and then suddenly realise that it’s almost 5 pm and you haven’t achieved anything as you have spent most of the day procrastinating. How did this happen? and more importantly, how can you stop it from happening again?

As the year ends and a new start is just around the corner, it is traditionally a time that many of us start thinking about making changes in our lives, goal setting and developing positive intentions for the coming year. On average a quarter of the population will make new year resolutions, resolutions such as to lose weight, quit smoking reduce drinking, exercise more, live a healthier lifestyle, improve relationships, get a better job, set new goals and start relaxing more.

People are naturally more optimistic at the beginning of the new year, it’s a fresh start and they fully believe that they will stick to the resolutions and goals that they have set and will accomplish them. Despite all these grand plans and ideas though only a small number of people will achieve their goals, with the majority of people giving up before the month of January is out.

The brain is a complex organ in the body and can work either for us or against us. Much of how we live our lives is governed entirely by the thoughts that we have in our brain, from socializing to what job we do, to where we live and what we wear, we listen to the thoughts that our brain sends us, and act on them.

We all know the scenario, you wake up and before you even check your clock, you know that it’s going to be 3.00 am and that you will then spend the next hour or so, tossing and turning, trying to get back to sleep, all the while your brain will be ruminating on all of the things that you really don’t want to be thinking about. Everyone will have been in this situation at some time or another but why does it happen? And what can we do to stop it from becoming a regular pattern?

Who remembers sitting in their bedroom when they were younger, writing in their diary. Writing down all of that was going on in life; who said what, who did what, and most importantly, how you felt about it all.

Childhood diaries encapsulated our personalities; stickers of our favourite pop stars. actors or celebrities, written in multi-coloured ink with drawings inside; or diaries with a lock and key so nosey siblings couldn't go peeking to see what had been written.

What to wear, what to eat, what to watch on Netflix, what to do at the weekend?…….the list of questions that we ask ourselves and decisions that we have to make on a daily basis sometimes seem exhausting. And for the most part, the smaller, more inconsequential questions are the ones that cause us so much deliberation, whilst more important life-changing decisions can be made in what seems a fraction of the time.

We are often led to believe in life that following a certain path and achieving set goals will give us everything that we want and that this will lead to us being happy as if in some way, happiness is a goal to be reached, an endpoint in life. This is not what being happy is about. Happiness is not some final destination or something to be earned once you have put in the hard work, happiness is about living, day to day doing things that you love, that bring you satisfaction, and things that you want to be doing.

We live in a society where we are led to believe that there are certain markers we should hit by a certain age; finishing school, college, getting your first job and meeting your life partner usually by your late 20s. Then marriage, family, buying a home, career advancement by your late 30’s. Life up until this point is all mapped out. We are programmed from an early age to follow this formula to bring us success and happiness, and to set us up for our later years, with a family we can rely on as we get older, financial security as we retire, and all the trappings of the world that we live in.

Do you ever feel that you have never lived up to your true potential? Are there areas in your life that you have always wanted to transform? Are there goals and ambitions that you have wanted to achieve but have never managed to?

The brain is a very powerful organ, a supercomputer capable of the most amazing feats. It manages the activities that our bodies perform on a daily basis. It processes the information that comes into and goes out of our bodies and it operates our emotions and all of our cognitive abilities, such as our memories and our thoughts.

Are you the type of person who finds it hard to say no? Do you say yes to everything even when sometimes you are screaming No!! inside? Do you want everyone to like you and so find that you are never true to yourself? If this is you then it’s time you learned to stop trying to please everyone and focus on yourself.

As a new year dawns, it is very tempting to start a list of resolutions that will often be abandoned halfway through the month. Let’s face it in the Northern hemisphere, when we are confronted with long cold days, very little sunshine, and are having to spend a large part of our time under artificial lighting, setting resolutions and sticking to them is destined to failure. It is the time of the year that our bodies crave carb-rich foods, chocolate, and the odd alcoholic drink. We don’t fancy going out into the cold to exercise and on top of all of that, we have the comedown from Christmas and New Year celebrations.

As we move into the final days of the year, many of us will start to set goals and resolutions for the coming year. Whether it is wanting to lose weight, get healthier, exercise more, get another job…..whatever it is, the New Year always seems like the ideal time to start a new chapter in your life.

We can all feel lonely from time to time it is a normal human emotion and there are many reasons for it. One person’s experience of being lonely may be different from another, each experience will be personal to the individual. Many people choose to be alone, they prefer living alone and they are happy to be away from busy social situations. For many though, loneliness is not a lifestyle choice, the ONS in the UK has found that 45% of adults feel lonely from time to time which equates to roughly 25 million people.

Loss is an inevitable part of living, we can’t go through life without experiencing loss of some sort or another and grief is the natural process that we will go through to help us to heal from it. There is no quick fix to dealing with grief and no one-size-fits-all either. Whether it is the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, moving home, the loss of a beloved pet, loss of physical ability, or loss of financial security. Whatever the circumstances the feelings of grief and loss will be present and knowing how to deal with them and how to get through the period is crucial.

There are occasions in life when we are apt to blame other people when we do not achieve goals that we have set, whether that be a job, promotion, or weight loss, we often look for all external excuses but don’t look to ourselves as the reason. When things don’t go our way, it is always easier to blame someone or something else but more often than not it can be our self-limiting beliefs that hold us back from achieving the things that we want from life.

As we move into the Autumn months, the changes are far greater this year than just the leaves falling from the trees or the crispness in the air first thing the morning. This Autumn is bringing with it many changes in the new post covid world. Nobody could have imagined as we saw at the start of a new decade in January, that it would be such a tumultuous year. The way we work, socialize, travel, eat and interact with each other has changed beyond recognition.

Over the last few years, the business of Life Coaching has started to get a lot of recognition. There are many influential coaches around such as Anthony Robbins who have really put the business of life coaching on the map. Many people though are still unaware of the benefits of having a life coach. If any of the benefits below resonate with you then life coaching is something that you should be looking at.

The way we talk and think about ourselves can have a very powerful effect on our mental and emotional state. This can be good or bad but for many people the way they talk to and about themselves internally is bad.

Psychologists term this negative self-talk, cognitive distortions and it is both very unhelpful and harmful. This type of mental bad habit can take us to places we really don’t want to go to. Therefore you have to ask yourself why do you do it?

The way we talk and think about ourselves can have a very powerful effect on our mental and emotional state. This can be good or bad but for many people the way they talk to and about themselves internally is bad.

Psychologists term this negative self-talk, cognitive distortions and it is both very unhelpful and harmful. This type of mental bad habit can take us to places we really don’t want to go to. Therefore you have to ask yourself why do you do it?