Chapter Nine: The Mindful Approach To Working Life

Tuesday 8:19pm

I sat down a moment ago to write my blog about the latest book I’ve read – The Mindful Approach to Working Life by Carroll Macey & Catherine Midgley. Everywhere I turn it seems someone is talking about this concept – so I was pleased to get the opportunity to spend some time on it. Now, normally when I write my blog posts I do it quite quickly and the content flows easily from the book through my brain and on to the digital paper. Tonight however it’s not, it’s nothing to do with the book, it’s great and the content is engaging and interesting. I’m just trying to really get across the benefits of practicing mindfulness. But it’s just hit me… Tomorrow I’m going to do it. I’m going to hangout with Carroll and Catherine all day and document what happens when I get my mindfulness on….

Chapter Eight: The Four Disciplines of Execution

I, like many of you, have just gone through my year end appraisal. It’s an interesting time, when you look over the past 12 months and review what you have achieved… Or at least what you think you might have achieved! The distractions of work can often ironically detract from your overall impact and it’s not until you reflect that you can see where you’ve gone wrong… Even with the best intentions.

I also know this, as I have just finished The 4 Disciplines of Execution, a book designed to help you achieve your ‘wildly important goals’ and ignore the distractions of the day to day work whirlwind. It’s a fantastic book, so no wonder it was recommended to me by two people, so thanks Gemma Shallard & Sharon Quigley.

Chapter Seven: The Good Psychopath’s Guide to Success

I bet when Marion Crane was being butchered in the shower by Norman Bates in Psycho, the last thing she thought about was ‘gee I bet this man has some excellent, cognitive and behavioural attributes to
make him hugely successful’. No, I doubt that very much.

However, it seems this might be the case if new research into psychopathy continues to build weight and credibility.

Chapter Six: Quiet – The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking

I am an extrovert, a big one. I display all the classic characteristics… happy to jump in, confident talking in large groups, seek the spotlight and think shallow but fast. Except, after reading this book I’m not so sure I’m as much as I thought I was or even if I want to be one… but we’ll get to that.

Chapter Five: Black Box Thinking

This blog nearly died. Dead. Flat lined.

I read the book, that’s the easy part, I then sat down to write it, but this book in particular was harder than the others to review. It’s not that it’s bad; in fact of all the books I’ve read so far this is easily the best one. I got distracted with work, then went on holiday and before you knew it I was making all kinds of excuses – too tired, I’d better catch up on my emails, I haven’t got time, could I even remember the content clearly enough? Etc..

Chapter Four: Gravitas

People either have it or they don’t when it comes to gravitas. Those individuals who just light up a room, present themselves confidently and saturate the air with their authority. How nice it must be to be born with that kind of presence, except here’s the thing, they weren’t and you can also learn this behavior and join them in the sun.

Chapter Three: What got you, here won’t get you there

What makes you successful doesn’t make you more successful. An odd sentiment when you think about it but in Marshall Goldsmith’s self-development thriller ‘What got you here, won’t get you there’ he successfully argues the case.

The premise of the book is fairly simple; successful people try to be more successful, by continuing to exhibit the behavior that got them there in the first place. This makes logical sense, however the higher up the chain of command you go, the less your initial skill base becomes important and the more important social and interpersonal skills become.

Chapter Two: iCan – Two words that will change everything

iCan write the next chapter of my blog. iCan because Richard says iCan and do you know
what… he’s right. This is a book packed full of positivity and stories that would make even the most negative of us challenge our thought process. Yes some of it is a bit obvious and the stories are not always as out of the ordinary as you would expect from this type of book, but they work and serve, in the main, to illustrate his points.

Chapter One: The Miracle Morning: The 6 habits that will transform your life before 8am.

Firstly I’m writing this at 10:10 am, I tried to follow Hal’s advice and get up an hour early, but I’ve got a seven month old daughter so that would mean getting up at 4:30 am today. Not happening.

Let me rewind a bit.. As most of you won’t know what I’m on about…