From The Ashes of Disaster Grow The Roses of Success

What a morning of learning! I’ve pretty much been out of action for 3 weeks a virus that’s made me everything from sneezy to dopey to sleepy – the only thing I’ve not been is Bashful. I’ve also had a really nasty shoulder injury that meant I couldn’t get up off the sofa at one …

From Failure to Success

What makes the difference between success and failure? This unnamed model defines two strategies for coping with failure.  I am not particularly keen on the labels for types of coping strategy (emotionally & problem oriented) as emotional and cognitive processes are often intertwined (see the CBT process Model).  But the model itself is one of …

Hierarchy of Characteristics for Promotion

This is a funny story which may or may not be true. In around 1916, during the First World War, the German Army High Command was short of officers so they issued a statement to their troops. The statement read: The German high command has always recognised four characteristics that are inherent in our officers. …

The Psychology of Integrity

Consistency is the need to remain true to what we have said, done and thought.  Robert Cialdini defines it as “our obsessive desire to be (and to appear) consistent with what we have already done.  When we say or do something, it is regarded as a demonstration of what we believe in, that’s why we …

Have you ever been caught in two minds? It’s probably cognitive dissonance!

Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger, 1957) is a theory which explains the feeling which can occur when two opposing opinions or beliefs are held simultaneously.  For example, if you need to work with a computer to make your living, but your PC is running slowly then you may consider doing a scan disc/defrag etc.  But this means …

Two types of thinking

Duel Process Thinking It has been argued that there are 2 types of thinking System 1: Automatic, fast, subconscious System 2: Slow, reasons, contemplative, rational, meta-cognitive System 1 thinking is what people do most of the time.  People just do, rather than think…then do.  In contrast, system 2 is what most people revert to in …

The Ten-Day Mental Challenge

The Ten-Day Mental Challenge is a fantastic way to snap out of negative thinking or to take your positive thinking to a new level! Rule 1. In the next ten consecutive days, refuse to dwell on any unresourceful thoughts or feelings. Refuse to indulge in any disempowering questions or devitalizing vocabulary or metaphors. Rule 2. …