Personal Development Newsletter, January 2009
Tim LeBon
New Years Resolutions to have been broken and forgotten.
But what's a constructive way to deal with the
"Three Weeks into New Year Irresoluteness phenomenon"?
Today I'm going to suggest three useful ideas that can help a lot more than New Year's Resolution.
First, individual Life Coaching. Even if it does nothing more, one-to-one life coaching
provides a regular boost to your motivation and some objective feedback to your progress
in achieving your important goals. Good Life Coaching will offer much more than this, and the ideas
that I use most with clients come from practical philosophy (what would a wise person advise about this?),
,positive psychology (what does research tell us will help me become happier?) and cognitive therapy
(how can I change the way I think to change the way I feel?). I've just opened up some extra slots
for life coaching in Central London on Friday afternoon/early evening. If you are interested in finding
out more about how this can help you, drop me an e-mail at t...@timlebon.com
A second acitivity that can be very useful and enjoyable is to attend an adult education class. London may
have many faults, but lack of good adult education is not amongst them. Adult Education classes at central
London locations like the City Lit near Covent Garden and City University in Islington are a great way of getting
the brain stimulated instead of vegging out in front of the TV.
I'm running three courses that might be of interest in the next week.
There's a one-off workshop on Philosophical Life Coaching next Saturday
at the City Lit - no previous experience of philosophy or coaching required -
and two ten-week courses at City University, on Personal Development Through
Philosophy (Tuesday evenings) and Positive Psychology (Thursday evenings) respectively.
None of these courses require previous experience of philosophy or psychology, and all
that is needed from you is an interest in the subject and a desire for it to help you in practice.
A third practice that may help you achieve your goals this year is to read some good personal development books.
Regular readers will know that I am not one of those people who disparage all personal development or "self-help" books.
Sure, Aristotle, Sartre, Marx and Darwin were more original and profound thinkers than those that feature in the self-help section
of your local book shop - but how readable and practical are their great works?
The best self-help books distill this wisdom into understandable and practical advice -making it as simple as it can be, but no simpler.
This year you will see that whilst the top few classics remain much the same as last year, there are some new entries lower down the chart.
The new entries cover mindfulness, relationships, and changing habits - all very important topics. The recommended books on them provide
accessible and well-researched introductions. Hope that some of these books are of use for you.
1. The Seven Habits of Highly
effective People Stephen
Covey (1)
2. Man's Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl (2)
3. The Feeling Good Handbook David Burns (3)
4. Overcoming Low Self-Esteem Melanie Fennell (4)
5. The Conquest of Happiness Bertrand Russell (5)
6. The Mindful Way Through Depression Mark
Williams, John Teasdale et al (-)
7. Don't Sweat the Small Stuff -and it's all small stuff Richard Carlson (6)
8.
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work John
M. Gottman& Nan
Silver (-)
9. Changing for Good James
Prochaska et al(-)
10. How to Win Friends and Influence
People Dale
Carnegie (9)
Bubbling Under
Emotional Intelligence Daniel Goleman (7)
The Consolations of Philosophy Alain de Botton (10)
The
Art of Happiness Howard
Cutler and the Dalai Lama (8)
Happiness - Mathieu Ricard (-)
The How of Happiness Sonja Lyubomirsky (-)
Of course this list just reflects my personal opinion - I wonder what
books we'll find helpful in 2009 ..
Whichever of these three roads you choose, or if you choose your own path, I wish you
every success with all your dreams and objectives for 2009
Tim LeBon
http://www.timlebon.com