Create, innovate, inspire
Recharging your mind involves gaining a greater understanding of the way we think and why; focusing on more positive optimistic thoughts and fewer automatic negative thoughts; connecting with our values and what’s really important in life; managing and controlling the inevitable stresses in our lives; getting rid of a lot of the daily distractions that compete for our energy and time; and learning how to tap into the amazing plasticity of our brains to create, innovate and inspire.

Utilise the 3 Russian Brothers & Their Cousin

1. The First Russian

The first Russian brother’s name is Morov. Look at all the good stuff you have been doing in 2008 and work out what good stuff you need to continue to do more of. Maybe you have made some progress with health or maybe you are doing some nifty creative things. If so, plan to do that little bit more. As the Australian song-writing philosophers Kev Carmondy and Paul Kelly say ‘From little things, BIG things grow’.

Read about the other Russian brothers from Glenn Capelli

Dr. Tim Sharp talks about happiness

As the founder of The Happiness Institute, Dr. Happy is frequently asked about happiness. As such, we thought you might like to see some of the more common questions along with his responses.

Q: What is The Happiness Institute and what’s your role there?

A: The Happiness Institute was Australia’s first, and remains its only, organisation focused solely on promoting happiness in individuals, couples, families and organisations.

Read the entire interview with Dr. Tim Sharp

Creativity - exercise your brain

While we can be congratulated for our efforts to cultivate a healthy body, many of us neglect our mental fitness. Here are five simple strategies that you can use to achieve optimal fitness for your brain.

For ultimate health, mental fitness is just as important as physical fitness because mental fitness contributes to our over all emotional wellbeing. And as such, we should assess our emotional health regularly, and try to consider the particular demands or stresses we may be facing and identify how they are affecting our daily lives.

Read the entire article by Gary Bertwistle

How to avoid burnout - Robert Gerrish interviews Andrew May

BNET Australia blogger Robert Gerrish speaks to performance and productivity expert Andrew May about how to function at your peak in the workplace.

Watch the interview

Accentuate the Positive - Thorough minded optimism

It seems some folk have the Hanrahan gene born into them and can always be found focusing on the dark side of life. ‘We’ll all be ruined’ said Hanrahan, no matter what the situation. These are the folk who see the glass half empty.

Other folk see the glass half full. They respond to situations with a ‘we can work it out’ mentality and whenever things are bad and can really make you sad they always look on the bright side of life. They believe that life is too short for fussing and fighting my friend.

Read the entire article by Glenn Capelli

The 3 levels of energy management

No one can argue that the world has gotten faster. We used to date, now we speed date, we used to read now we speed read and we used walk now we speed walk. The world has gotten fast and the fall out is that we are all busy, time poor and exhausted.

The energy we bring to our day, our work and our lives, is the difference between elite performance and mediocrity. Energy is infectious to the people around you and you have to ask yourself what are you infecting your environment with.

There are 3 levels to energy management physical, emotional and mental.

Click here to read the entire article by Dr. Adam Fraser

Recharge your behaviours - break old habits

Did you know that 90% of our behaviour is made up of habits? Yes, that’s right – not conscious and deliberate action – mind numbing, thought-free habits! If they happen to be habits that work for us (like putting our clothes away, or placing the car keys in the same place each night) then that’s great. But all too often our habits are part of our behaviours that we would very much like to change – if only it wasn’t so hard!

Change isn’t easy. Some are harder than others. The first step is making the decision to change.

Read the entire article by Fiona Cosgrove

Clear clutter to clean up your life

Feeling frustrated, lethargic or like you have stagnated? Or feel like you just can’t move on from a broken relationship? Clearing out your material clutter can re-energise you and give you a new lease on life. Maya Anderson reports.

If you’ve ever felt peaceful or satisfied after you’ve given a messy room a good cleanout, there’s a reason. According to feng shui and clutter clearing consultant Nidia Hansen from Global Feng Shui having clutter in your home or workplace creates stagnation in your life in a variety of ways. “Clutter clearing is a modern and helpful means of making a difference in your life,” Ms Hansen said.

Read entire article by Maya Anderson

Energy Vampires

Some people light-up a room the moment you enter it and then there are those who leave you feeling stressed out, drained and totally flat.

Performance coach Andrew May refers to such people as ‘energy vampires’ and suggests that they should be dealt with before they sap your energy.

“Energy vampires drain positive energy in many ways,” explains Mr May. “They intrude on your life, ignore boundaries and privacy, and generally don’t think of you.”

Watch the interview with Andrew May

Positive Leadership

If you’re reading this blog then you’re a leader.  You might not have “leader” or “manager” or “executive” in your title but I’m guessing that if you’re still with me then you are, in one way or other, the sort of person who has, or at least wants to have a significant influence within your team and/or organisation.

And that’s great, because I don’t think we can ever have enough leaders…assuming, that is, we have positive leaders.

Read the entire article by Dr. Tim Sharp

I like to watch

In a recent television interview, star American comedian Jerry Seinfeld was interviewed by one of Australia’s best talk show hosts Andrew Denton. Denton made the comment that Seinfeld was what they call an observational comedian. Seinfeld agreed. Denton then went on to ask ‘So you observe. Is it something that you consciously have to switch off or is it something that you’re always doing?’. Seinfeld’s response was ‘No I never really turn it off, its just there. I don’t know what it is, you just get ideas.’ Denton then asked ‘Is it something you train your brain to do, or is it always just there?’  Seinfeld replied, ‘You just pick things out as they go by and think I could do something with that.’

Read the entire article by Gary Bertwistle