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5 Steps to Making 2024 the Best Year of your Career!

New Year has come around again, all the celebrations, all the hopes, optimism, dreams and possibilities... So, what is it you need to do to make your career dreams a reality?1 Take stock by doing a review of your year. When we are wanting to make changes, it's always best to do so from a place of confidence and self - belief, so looking at your accomplishments in the last year is a great place to start.What were your biggest achievements in 2023? How are things different from this time last year...

Is Now the Right Time for a Career Change?

How are you feeling about your career? Right now, right today. If you could go back in time to when you started your current career, knowing what you know now, would you still do it? Or do you wish you had chosen something else? If you would do it all over again fantastic, if you are not so sure or your answer is no or no way – maybe it’s time for that change. Here are 3 of the most common signs you are in the wrong career…  1 You realise you don’t like your job. Have you ...

Do you have Imposter Syndrome?

Ever feel that you are not deserving of the success that you have and that you could be found out at any moment? You’re not alone. The phenomenon that has come to be known as ‘impostor syndrome’ is the belief that you aren’t really as talented, clever and brilliant as you appear to others, and that one day your mask will slip, and you will be revealed as a fraud.This self-doubt is common, despite their accomplishments, around 25 to 30 percent of high achievers suffer from ...

The Price You Pay for Being in the Wrong Career

When we are in the right job, life is a lot easier because we are playing to our strengths. It doesn’t mean we won’t work hard or that we won’t have challenges, but work and life will be a lot simpler, more straightforward and more enjoyable. Like a monkey climbing a tree (natural) – rather than a goldfish climbing a tree. As the picture alludes, everyone is a genius but only when you are in the right place. Being unsuited to your current career has a number of consequences too. 1 The lo...

3 Keys to Being Productive When Working from Home

1 Create a structure that works for you. Keeping a record of how you work, and when you are most productive will pay dividends in terms of productivity. When you’ve identified your peak productive times, make sure you use them for work much as possible. e.g. Many people do their best thinking and have their best ideas in the morning. If this is you, then avoid scheduling meetings in the morning, unless it's a creative meeting to invent something together with your colleagues. If on t...

How to Get your Motivation Back!

We all need motivation, motivation is what gets us out of bed in the morning and helps us achieve anything. When we have it in abundance we are unstoppable, and when we lose it, it can be hard to get anything done. Here’s how to kickstart your motivation and get it back…  A key component of motivation is excitement, when we are motivated we feel stirred to action. Remember back to the start of a project or a new job or the beginning of a business when every day you were doing somet...

4 Keys to Success in Your Career

When I was visiting Stockholm recently, I had an inspirational visit to the Abba museum. When I think of the 70s, the music from Abba is one of the first things I think of. They were icons in the 70s, how did they become so successful? Here are four keys... 1 Get in the right place early (or as early as possible). Agnetha, Frida, Benny and Bjorn were all singing and performing very early in their life. Indeed Frida said she never started singing because she had always sang. It’s like the play...

6 Things that are Holding you Back in your Career

If your career isn’t taking off, unfolding or progressing how you want it to we can start to wonder why and doubt ourself. Usually it is not intelligence, it can be being in the wrong profession or business or a lack of clarity about where we want to be. Other than that a big thing that slows us down is our mind set and psychology. Here are 6 of the most common things that hold us back. 1 You lack clarity If you are not sure if you are in the right career or job, it make it very hard to p...

How to Get Back to Work After a Career Break

Whether you are coming back to work after travel, doing voluntary work abroad, studying, having a baby or spending a winter season in the mountains, here’s how to get that first job back.  1 Increase your Self Belief - Remind yourself of what you are good atPeople coming back to work after a gap can often underestimate what they have to offer. Be clear on your strong points and skills to build your confidence and give you energy for your job search. Ask family and friends for feedbac...

NZ Game Changers Past & Present

In March I was fortunate enough to spend the day with my grandmother’s cousin, Madeline Anderson Orlowski. Born on the 4th May 1907, on Baldwin St, Dunedin, the world's steepest residential street, Madeline is the oldest person in New Zealand. She is the granddaughter of New Zealand's earliest Polish settlers, who arrived at Port Chalmers in December 1872. The eldest of 4 sisters, fear did not feature in Madeline’s vocabulary, not that of her youngest sisters Rayena, Mavi...

How to deal with Career Change!

Many of us struggle with change especially when there is a lot of change happening at once. How can we cope when there is a great deal of change happening and it feels as if we are spinning too many plates? And we might drop one… 1 Embrace Change. Although change is part of life, it’s common for people to resist it. The interesting thing is that often the times we resist the most can be the moments that lead us to the right place i.e. when we hate our job or we realise we are in th...

The Top 5 links between Sports & Business Success

I was cycling around Richmond Park recently with my partner, it was a sunny afternoon, the deer eyed us with curiosity as we cycled past. As well as being enjoyable, exercise and team sports can massively help our career in many ways; here are 5 of them… 1 Exercise sharpens the mind (as well as the muscles) Exercise not only tones muscles, but improves brain power. The Montreal Heart Institute’s study in 2012 showed that aerobic exercise increased cognitive function. This is because exe...

How to get what you want in 2018!

At this time of year many of us have thought about or are defining New Year’s resolutions. Setting goals can be an excellent way to keep the mind focused about what is important over the next year. There are many ideas and opinions about goal setting, but how do we keep to our New Year’s resolutions? It's important to have clear goals. Although just dreaming to achieve a goal isn't enough, nevertheless to achieve a goal without a vision is nearly impossible. If for example, a promotion ...

What Attenborough’s Blue Planet can teach you about having a successful career...

Watching Blue Planet 2 recently, I was amazed by the beauty and wonder of the oceans.  Also with the awesome things that were happening beneath the waves. Many of the creatures of the ocean were so smart too; there were many lessons in the way they live, work and play which we can learn from. Here are the 4 major lessons from Blue Planet …  1 Be playful, have fun and enjoy what you do. Watching the scenes of the dolphins surfing through for the waves, diving in and out was magic...

Armistice Day: The End of the Bad Days - Thank you Grandad!

Despite the challenges and difficulties of modern day life - we have it easier than many generations before us. This week I am wearing a poppy with pride and gratitude to my granddad and all the earlier generation who suffered unimaginable hardships so that we have freedom and privilege today. When he was 20, granddad volunteered for the war, he joined the 25th Battalion in Queensland. It was 1915, the early days of the war. After training in Enoggera, they sailed to Sydney, then to Eg...

How to Get Lucky in Your Career!

Why are some people more lucky in their careers than others, they go from one great job to another while others struggle? Being ‘lucky’ is actually a state of mind, as discovered by psychologist Richard Wiseman in his ten year study. Here are five rules to improve your luck in your career based on his findings. 1 Stay in touch. Lucky people enjoy building long lasting relationships; they stay in touch with a much wider group of colleagues and friends than less lucky people. Th...