Building habits and sticking to them can be tricky. I am sure that most of us at some time or another have set out with the best of intentions when it comes to starting a new routine, giving something up, exercising more, eating or drinking less, only to break the habit almost as soon as it has started. Why is it that we find setting good habits and sticking to them so difficult?

Anchors can also be used metaphorically by coaches with clients during NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) sessions when they are experiencing stress or anxiety, want to appear more confident, or want to change learned behaviour from a negative into a positive. These anchors are usually external stimuli, that when applied can trigger an internal response or feeling. If you thought of your own anchors for instance, how do you feel if you hear a particular piece of music that reminds you of a favourite time or a smell that reminds you of a loved one? Or think about an alarm going off and it may bring back memories of stress or fear.

It isn’t just people who suffer from SAD (seasonally adjusted disorder) who suffer from winter blues. For many people, the winter months can prove to be a source of unhappiness and lethargy, that can leave them feeling depressed, unmotivated, and unhealthy. With shorter days, less natural light, and colder weather it can mean that even the most positive person can have days where they feel a bit blah!!

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.

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.

As a life coach, a frequent question that clients ask is “ how can I find my passion in life?” This question causes many women concern. in the world that we live in today, many people find themselves living a life that they have no passion for which leaves them feeling empty, disillusioned, and hankering after something more.

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.

Life Coaching sessions are often about goal setting, helping the client achieve something that they want or need, whether that may be a new career, weight loss, giving up smoking, dealing with anxiety, or creating a better work/life balance.

A lot of people seem to believe that to achieve things in life, you have to be in the right place at the right time. Although this will be the case for certain circumstances, creating opportunities is always going to be the best way for getting the most out of life. Instead of looking at other people who seem to have it all and assuming that their lives are perfect and things just land at their feet, a fairer way is to think that they have searched for opportunities and have used them. This outlook is the best one to have because it demonstrates that anybody can achieve what they want if they create their own opportunities.

“Where do you want to be in ten years’ time?” or “How do you see your life in ten years’ time?” I am sure at some time or other most people have been asked a variation of these questions. Maybe in a job interview, a relative quizzing you on where your life is going, a date with someone who is getting to know you. The situations may all be different but the meaning to the question is always going to be the same…..have you thought about where your life is heading and what it is going to look like in ten years’ time?

Do you find that you don’t have enough time in the day? Are you always behind on work tasks? Do you often feel overwhelmed by responsibilities and find that you have too much to do and everything seems to overrun so tasks are never completed successfully? If this is the case you will probably benefit from time management tips so that you can manage your time more effectively.

For anybody embarking on a weight loss journey, there is so much information to wade through that you can be put off before you even begin. From celebrities’ telling you how they lost weight to books, blogs, magazines, the over-saturation can leave you feeling lost and confused.