Tag Archives: values

How Does It Feel to Have Your To-Do List at Zero?

It’s quite strange. Yesterday, I managed to finish off the last thing on my to-do list for the week. For the first time in a long time, I had nothing that I had to do. Sure, there are some things that I would like to do in the future. However, nothing required me to takeContinue reading “How Does It Feel to Have Your To-Do List at Zero?”

What Things Really Matter to You?

When I think about how to best help someone, I am reminded of what psychiatrist Irvin Yalom found when he asked 20 clients what was most beneficial to them about their time in therapy (Yalom & Leszcz, 2005). The average client had spent an average of 16 months in therapy, and was just about toContinue reading “What Things Really Matter to You?”

What Qualities Do You Try to Teach Your Children?

Deep in the World Values Survey results, there are some really interesting findings to me based on how people from each country answered questions. Some of the most fascinating ones were around values that parents consider important in trying to pass on to their children. There were 11 values that parents were asked about, andContinue reading “What Qualities Do You Try to Teach Your Children?”

How to Improve Your Motivation

The problem of just using fear for motivation is that it triggers our fight-or-flight response. It increases our cortisol levels if we trigger this response too often, so in the long run it isn’t so great for our mental and physical health.

The 5 Lessons I Discovered From Being Kind

On January 1st, 2018 we kickstarted our Deliberately Better movement. Along with other passionate and driven allied health professionals, we aimed to highlight the various ways that people can choose to act if they wish to scientifically improve their health and well-being. In January, we aimed to engage in a random act of kindness each day.Continue reading “The 5 Lessons I Discovered From Being Kind”

Are You Living the Life That You Want?

In 2016, I decided to take on the challenge of accountability. As a Clinical Psychologist, being accountable was all about evidence-based living — engaging as much as possible in thinking patterns and behaviours that have been shown to lead to a happier, more satisfying, higher quality of life. The following were the five key areas that IContinue reading “Are You Living the Life That You Want?”

Is It Possible to Change Your Personality?

One of the benefits of being so interested in psychology is that I have performed nearly every psychology test on myself since beginning my Clinical Psychology Doctorate in 2010. This has undoubtedly given me many insights into myself, but it has also given me the skills and knowledge to help others find out a lotContinue reading “Is It Possible to Change Your Personality?”

Can Our Key Character Strengths Change Over Time?

I have previously written about how happiness can be sought and fostered by discovering our natural character strengths and virtues. The current article intends to see if these strengths remain consistent over time or if you can actively change them. Is our character set in stone, or are we malleable enough to shape our strengthsContinue reading “Can Our Key Character Strengths Change Over Time?”

What Life Traps Do You Consistently Fall Into?

Do you want to reinvent your life? In my top 20 psychology books countdown, I put the book Reinventing Your Life: The Breakthrough Program to End Negative Behavior and Feel Great Again by Jeffrey Young and Janet Klosko (1994) at #10 on my countdown. It is a self-help version of Schema Therapy, which Jeffrey Young alsoContinue reading “What Life Traps Do You Consistently Fall Into?”

Do You Want To Be Deliberately Better?

“Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.” — Izaak Walton It was 2016 when I first decided to take on the challenge of being accountable to myself. I later wrote this blog to take responsibility for my actions in an open, transparent way, do what I said I was going to do,Continue reading “Do You Want To Be Deliberately Better?”