Categories
Book Choice

My Top 5 Books From 2025: Increasing Knowledge And Insight

I must admit, I had a really hard time selecting my Top 5 books of 2025, so I added a few extra’s beyond the 5.

I am also reading an EXCELLENT book at the moment, which expands on Dr Sarno’s work on what causes pain, chronic pain, and a whole shopping list of other debilitating symptoms. 

The book is called Mind Your Body by Nicole S. Sacks, who also has a podcast on the topic of chronic pain, called The Cure For Chronic Pain

After almost 27 years of reading about, researching, and writing about, physical and mental health, I can say that she is pretty much bang on with her understanding and teachings about the actual “root cause” of so much chronic pain. 

Check it out. 

And just before I started reading Mind Your Body, I had finished another great book called Germs Are Not Our Enemy by naturopathic doctor Marizelle Arce. 

It comes from the perspective of Terrain Theory, which has been disputing the validity of Germ Theory for well over 150 years.

Terrain Theory makes a lot more real-world and practical sense than Germ Theory (with its ludicrous idea that a sterile environment, free of microorganisms is healthiest for us, when there are more micro-organisms in the body than there are cells (i.e. > 50 Trillion)). Huh?!?! 

Anyway, that is a topic for another day. 

Also, if there are any books you have read in 2025, which caused a major Knowledge spike for you, please do share.

And now let’s see who the winners were, shall we? 

Enjoy.

Categories
Choice consciousness Emotional

What to Do When Triggered

Once a month I will record a short 3-5 min video with a practical Tip, Tool, or Strategy. Today is the first edition, and is one of the most important (and simple) STRATEGIES that I teach all my private Coaching clients. It will improve your decision-making “RESULTS” by about 200%!

Enjoy. 

Categories
Choice Confidence Decision Making Growth Perspective Self Esteem Success

The Power of Strategic and Mindful Transitioning  

I recently got off a Podcast interview (Sandcast), with a client of mine who is transitioning out of a professional Beach Volleyball career. 

The conversation was extremely insightful. 

(I will share it with you once he posts it) 

We talked about him transitioning out of elite sport into “what’s next?“. 

However, when it comes to “transitioning” (and doing it well), it applies to us all. 

Some transitions are more monumental. 

And some transitions are at the very basic daily level. 

For instance, I have worked with a lot of clients over the years who have been REALLY BAD at switching off from work when they get home

Essentially transitioning from “work mode” to “family mode“. 

Often it just doesn’t happen at all. 

Actually, you need to actively and consciously do something (let’s call it a mindful transition), to adapt most effectively to a new environment. 

How are you at “switching off” after work? 

The more monumental transitions might be – using a personal example – transitioning from being an Olympic Games bomb management expert and security consultant (working for the man, literally ;-)); to being a Life Coach in Bali, working for myself, and not really having much of an idea how to go about it. 

Regardless of the size or complexity of the transition, the way you do it matters. 

Even in yoga, there is conscious attention given to how you transition from one pose to another, because the yogis realised its importance.  

Which takes me to the key point of this conversation. 

Categories
Confidence Growth Life Lessons

What Is “Really” Holding You Back  

As you may, or may not know, I have been Coaching for over 18 years now. 

When I have a new client contact me, I ask them to complete a (very) detailed questionnaire. 

I question what events have shaped their current reality; what they do or don’t think they have control of; what they really want in life; and what they think may be holding them back

It’s the last question I am most interested in today. 

What people “believe” is holding them back, from greater happiness, joy, health, success, etc..

There is often a common theme. 

And many people think if only they just worked harder on this one thing, or had more of this one thing in their bag of tricks, they would be way happier, successful and fulfilled. 

In my experience, what people think is the major DIFFERENCE MAKER in success is the wrong thing.  

Through no real fault of their own. 

It is just what so many people have been led to believe

Whether through bad advice from “experts” or marketing messages, or pure baloney peddled on their Instagram feed by “Influencers” (spinning worldly advice – with no context – in a about minute). 

So, my theory is that many people (maybe most) are taught the wrong thing

Let me explain.  

Categories
Choice consciousness Decision Making

A Cool Strategy o Break “Unhelpful” Patterns of Behaviour  

This strategy is both simple, yet powerful. 

It is also quite timely for the start of a New Year. 

Plus, I think it tops most “new year’s resolutions“, which many people might be working on (and already bombed on ;-)). 

The reason is – again – that it is SIMPLE

It is based on creating a singular point of focus, which encapsulates multiple different areas of your life. 

Which means, we are getting back to basics

You know I love to focus on BELIEFS, and this might be drilling even deeper. 

It is focusing on VIRTUES, which might already be stored – as potential information – in the water of every one of your 50 trillion cells. 

So, unlocking that information, from that many players (50 trillion), can have a pretty potent effect. 

And as I already said, the strategy to turn on the switch is pretty simple.

Categories
Choice Perspective Success

How to Set Yourself Up to WIN Big in 2026

Once a month I will record a short 3-5 min video with a practical Tip, Tool, or Strategy. Today is the first edition, and is one of the most important (and simple) STRATEGIES that I teach all my private Coaching clients. It will improve your decision-making “RESULTS” by about 200%!

Enjoy. 

Categories
Choice Decision Making Goal Setting Tips Growth Success Uncategorized

The hidden power of an Impossible Goal

It’s question time.

Who reading this likes reading “business” books? 

There might be a few hands up, but chances are most people would lean towards some good quality fiction before they buried their nose, and used up their precious time, on a business book. 

However, recently I read a (business) book, which I even prioritized over the very well-written and suspenseful fantasy fiction book I was reading. 

It turns out that the business book was REALLY well written. 

Focused on a theme I am infinitely fascinated with. 

It also challenged some of my current beliefs and teachings – which is always a great thing. 

Learning and growing (evolution) is one of the main games after all. 

The thing I also realised with the theme, was it could as equally apply to “PEOPLE”, as it did business. 

It caused me to take a good hard look at a few things I had been trifling with of late. 

The book in question is called “The Science of Scaling” by Dr Benjamin Hardy and Blake Erikson. 

(If you are a business owner or in senior management, I STRONGLY encourage you to read this book before you start the New Year).

These dudes were about scaling businesses. 

Where I am about “scaling” people

Taking them from Version 1.0 to Version 2.0 (which is not a linear transition but an exponential transition).  

Do you want to know what my biggest take-aways were? 

Categories
Choice Confidence consciousness Growth Stress Success

How to Become The Person Who Doesn’t Get Taken Advantage of

The one thing we DO NOT want to do, when it comes to getting out of an emotional state of anger (or the likes) is to SUPPRESS our feelings of anger. 

We might have been taught this growing up. 

We might have even had parents who modelled the “stuff it down and hope it goes away” strategy; but I am here to tell you that is a super crappy strategy, which is sure to bite you on the butt at some point in the future.

And sometimes it bites HARD!!!

So, the first thing, not to do, is suppress your emotions. 

Probably in the same sort of vein – though maybe not as harmful – are ignoring the feeling, distracting yourself from the feeling, or numbing it out.

Again, these are all pretty substandard strategies. 

It (the icky emotion) might suck, but there is a lot of relevance to the saying “you need to feel to heal“. 

Which leads me onto my next big no-no. 

Categories
Choice Life Lessons Perspective

Doing This Drains Your Energy and Equanimity

Once a month I will record a short 3-5 min video with a practical Tip, Tool, or Strategy. Today is the first edition, and is one of the most important (and simple) STRATEGIES that I teach all my private Coaching clients. It will improve your decision-making “RESULTS” by about 200%!

Enjoy. 

Categories
Acceptance Emotional Feeling

Building Emotional Fitness For Peak Performance 

I am sure that I don’t need to convince anyone that physical fitness, increases your ability to perform at your peak. 

And by physical fitness I am focusing – for this example – on the cardiovascular system. 

The ability to get the maximum amount of oxygen into our cells. 

One measure of physical fitness is how quickly an athlete can go from an elevated heart-rate to their resting heart rate.

For example, from 200 beats per minute, to 60 beats per minute (or lower). 

Sort of like returning to a state of (physical) homeostasis. 

Well, just like with the physical body, we want to do the same thing with our EMOTIONS. 

My definition of emotional fitness is the ability to go from an elevated emotional state (principally in a survival emotional state), back to a state of equanimity (calmness) or even better, into an elevated emotional state like joy. 

How quick can you get from anger, rage, frustration, or despair, back into a state of mental calmness, and emotional stability? 

That is what we are here to talk about today.