A few years ago I came up with my 6-week theory.

It goes like this:

Whenever you start a new activity, stick at it for at least 6 weeks.

That's it-no quitting before week 6.

I've set myself a goal to read one self-development book per month. To make sure I really reflect on what I'm reading I'm going to extract the wisdom from the best business and personal development books and share it with you.

This month I’ve been reading Sleight of Mouth: The Magic of Conversational Belief Change by Robert Dilts

We can all get on a bit of a downer sometimes. That’s only natural and it happens to everyone from time to time. The important thing though, is how we explain how we explain those down times to ourselves. This is the difference between having a bad day and sliding in a bad week or month. There are three thoughts we tell ourselves about these moments that will make any bad time worse. The good news is that knowing this, and doing something about it, can lift you out of funk pretty quickly too.

I've set myself a goal to read one self-development book per month. To make sure I really reflect on what I'm reading, I'm going to extract the wisdom from the best business and personal development books and share it with you.

This month I’ve been reading: The Power of When by Michael Breus, PhD.

Improve any relationship with just three words. No, not “I love you” but “Just Like Me”. In this blog I explain how these three words can make a huge difference.

You may have been following my business book club blog over the last 12 months, where I've been reviewing the best self-improvement and business books and sharing the knowledge with you. What you might not know, is that there are a number of books that didn't quite make it. Not only did I read 12 books over the course of the year, I actually attempted a few more that I didn't get around to reviewing. So to finish off last years book blogging I've decided to give you an overview of the ones that didn't quite make it.

10 tips, slightly different viewpoints on how to set resolutions or goals for the New Year.

It's the time of year when people tend to set some new year's resolutions, so I thought I'd share some top tips about how to set better new New Year's resolutions and set goals that you're more likely to stick to throughout 2019.

I've set myself a goal to read one self-development book per month. To make sure I really reflect on what I'm reading I'm going to extract the wisdom from the best business and personal development books and share it with you.

This month I’ve been reading The Barcelona Way by Damian Hughes

I've set myself a goal to read one self-development book per month. To make sure I really reflect on what I'm reading I'm going to extract the wisdom from the best business and personal development books and share it with you.

This month I’ve been reading Quiet Leadership by David Rock

Have you ever got caught up in someone else’s drama and found yourself thinking “How on earth did I get sucked into this?”. If you have then chances are that you have been drawn into a drama triangle.

I got geekily excited when I saw this being used to describe the conflict between characters in the BBC drama The Cry recently, although it occurred to me that many viewers might not understand why the main character Joanna was being asked about a triangle by a psychologist. Here I explain what that triangle is all about.

I've set myself a goal to read one self-development book per month. To make sure I really reflect on what I'm reading I'm going to extract the wisdom from the best business and personal development books and share it with you.

This month I’ve been reading The Test Book by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler

I've I've set myself a goal to read one self-development book per month and blog it. This month I’ve been reading Your Brain at Work by David Rock. Here are some of the insights I gained into how to make the most of your brain power.

Working from home means freedom from office life, but it also means being responsible for keeping yourself productive.

I’ve experimented with many different ways of tackling this problem over the years, with some successes, so here I share some techniques I’ve tried for keeping focused when working solo, along with my rating for how effective they are.

I've set myself a goal to read one self-development book per month. To make sure I really reflect on what I'm reading I'm going to extract the wisdom from the best business and personal development books and share it with you. This month I’ve been reading Heaven and Hell: The Psychology of the Emotions by Neel Burton

Do you really know your strengths? In the past, my work has shaped which skills I focus on and recently I've been wondering which are the things I've become skilled in because I've had to be and which are the ones I've focused on because they truly energise me. To help me find out, I completed a profiling tool called Strengthscope, and put time in for some coaching. I was really hoping it might give me some clues. Here I share what I discovered and a copy of the report I received.

Fitspo' quotes. Do you love them or hate them? 

I love seeing quotes and memes on social media. Mostly on weight loss or fitness pages. I'm intrigued to see if I can tell what a person's motivations are. I think a lot of people post these quotes and memes to show how positive they are but they probably aren't aware that they are revealing more negativity than they realise. 

This month I’ve been reading Alive at Work: The Neuroscience of Helping Your People Love What They Do by Daniel M Cable. The book largely focuses on a part of the brain called the ‘seeking system’. Our seeking system is the part of the brain that creates the impulse to explore our world and learn about our environment. But what has this got to do with feeling alive at work?

A man came to see me recently because he's not happy with his body.

He's so desperate he wants to do whatever will get the weight off quickly. When someone is in this state I know they aren't very open to taking a long term view. They make a choice which relieves the 'eurghhh' feeling but this is rarely a choice that feels good or is right for them in the medium or long term. My prediction is that unless he sees weight come off and can get into a state where he is thinking more clearly, he will give up before he even gets going. Most people do this. 

This month I’ve been reading Get The Truth. Getting someone to tell the truth is an essential skill that most people would love to have but very few people possess. Former CIA agents and professional interrogators Philip Houston, Mike Floyd, and Susan Carnicero are among the world's best at detecting deceptive behaviour. Not only can they convince people to share things they don’t want to tell but often the subjects of their interrogations thank them for the opportunity afterwards!!!

I was asked to share my experience of volunteering as a mentor for The Albert Kennedy Trust with some employees of a bank recently. I wasn't sure where to begin so I found myself sharing the story of how I got into volunteering. As it's Volunteers week I thought I'd share my journey with you here, why I started and how helping others helps me.