And yet, somewhere inside, something has gone quiet.

This is one of the more subtle thresholds in professional life. It rarely announces itself dramatically, and it may not look like crisis from the outside. In fact, many high achievers arrive at this moment while continuing to perform, deliver and succeed. The question forming beneath the surface is often simple, unsettling and profoundly honest: is this still success for me?

At first, the question can feel inconvenient. Even disloyal. Especially if you have worked hard to arrive where you are. Especially if younger parts of you dreamed of this very moment. The mind may tell you to be grateful, keep going and stop questioning a life that appears, by most external measures, to be right on track.

But the deeper self has its own intelligence. It knows when an old definition of success has expired. It knows when the soul is no longer fed by achievement alone. It knows when life is asking for more meaning, more truth, more spaciousness or more alignment.

For many professionals, success is first built around competence, approval and momentum. We learn to perform, deliver, become reliable and win trust by being excellent. There is nothing wrong with this. Excellence matters. Discipline matters. Contribution matters. But at some point, success has to evolve or it begins to harden into a cage.

What once stretched you may begin to confine you. What once gave you identity may begin to feel too small. What once motivated you may begin to lose its charge. This can be frightening, especially for those who have spent years being rewarded for their discipline, ambition and capacity to keep going.

Many people assume that losing hunger means losing edge. They assume that questioning success means becoming ungrateful. They assume that longing for a different relationship with work means something has gone wrong. In truth, this can be a sign of growth. When success stops feeling like success, something deeper may be trying to emerge.

That deeper emergence may ask for a more honest life, a more human rhythm, a more meaningful contribution or a wiser relationship with ambition. It may ask you to stop proving yourself through exhaustion. It may ask you to notice that your worth was never meant to be measured only through productivity, praise or professional usefulness.

This is where Conscious Confidence becomes essential. Conscious Confidence is the capacity to stay present, clear and values-led when certainty is no longer available. It helps us meet the strange space between the life we built and the life that may now be calling us. That space can feel disorientating, especially when nothing is obviously broken.

You may still be good at the work. You may still care about your clients, colleagues or organisation. You may still have responsibilities that matter deeply. And yet, some part of you may be asking for a different quality of presence. More depth. More creativity. More soul. More truth.

The invitation is rarely to burn everything down. Sometimes it is much subtler than that. It may be to listen more carefully, stop outsourcing your definition of success, notice where your energy rises and where it drains, and ask what integrity requires now. The work that once shaped you may still have a place, but perhaps it no longer gets to own the whole of you.

This is a sacred moment.

It is a moment to pause, reflect and ask better questions. What does success feel like in the body now? What kind of work brings me alive? Where am I still performing an old identity? What am I afraid would happen if I changed? What kind of contribution is becoming possible?

Sometimes, the emptiness we fear is actually space. Space for a truer desire. Space for deeper wisdom. Space for the next expression of our becoming. When success stops feeling like success, you are not necessarily lost. You may simply be outgrowing a version of yourself that once did its job beautifully.

Thank it. Then listen. Something new may already be on its way. 🌿✨

By Neil Seligman

Neil Seligman is a pioneer in the field of conscious leadership and a passionate advocate for mindfulness, presence, and spiritual growth at work and in life. He is the author of Conscious Leadership and 100 Mindfulness Meditations, and the Founder of The Conscious Professional.

Ready to go deeper? Here are three ways to connect:

1. Try our 10-day online mindfulness course: Zen in Ten

2. Explore 1:1 Coaching or Energy Work: Schedule Here

3. Explore Keynotes and Team Trainings: Let’s Talk

The post When Success Stops Feeling Like Success appeared first on The Conscious Professional.

 Many people warn of the dangers of striving for perfection. In a world that is constantly moving and changing, that’s quite a wise standpoint, as what is perfect on one day might not be on the next. However, I would argue that, if you can hold the concept of ‘perfection’ lightly, and not become obsessed with it, its pursuit can help you to grow, and become flexible and resilient in both your work and home life.

One of my personal mantras is this…

“You must always strive for perfection yet be comfortable with the knowledge that perfection is not possible.” 

It is a saying that I repeat to myself often, as I believe it helps me to search for growth and creativity, especially during times when I’m feeling a bit bored or uninspired. Here are some more reasons why I think looking for perfection can be very helpful…

1.     It Keeps You Interested

As you may know, if you have read a select few of my previous entries, one of my two careers (writing being the other) is acting. When working on a show that runs for a length of time, there can come a point where boredom sets in, when you could be convinced that you have found all of the details and nuances in the script or show. It is perfectly acceptable to plod along and do the same thing night after night, but after a while, you tend to lose your love for it. When I begin to feel like this I ask myself, “are there any parts of this that could be better? Is there a moment I haven’t perfected yet?” This striving for moments of perfection keeps me interested. It keeps me engaged. This can be applied to any industry. If you are bored, consider if there is anything (could just be a little thing) that you could look to perfect.

2.     Forces You to Listen and Engage

After doing things the same way for a long time, one tends to disconnect. If I can use the acting analogy again… when a show is new, you are still paying attention to everything and everyone, making sure that you respond where you need to respond, be where you need to be, make work what needs to work for the performance to hold together as a whole. Once this initial stage is over, it is natural to eventually move into autopilot, and disengage to an extent. However, if you are looking for new opportunities to improve and perfect all the time, you begin to listen and engage with your surroundings once more, making your performance (whether on stage or in an office) much more creative, energetic and innovative.

3.     It Keeps You Current and Adaptable to Change

Striving for perfection and hence engaging consciously with the world you are operating within, helps to keep you resilient to change. It also helps you to stay current. As stated before, what is perfect in today’s world may not be perfect in tomorrow’s world. If you are used to searching for perfection on a daily basis, you will be aware of how the world is altering around you, and you will be personally acclimatised to dealing with said alterations. This means, that when a big, unexpected change comes along, you are likely to be more resilient to its impact, and more able to adapt what you are doing to it.

4.     Perfection Is A Good Foundation to A Strong Work Ethic

If you are always looking for ways to perfect the execution of your job, that focus is likely to underpin the development of a strong work ethic. Work ethic is something not often talked about in the workforce, but it is absolutely a desirable trait. But again, be warned, perfection is not to be obsessed over, but rather used as a focus for, little by little, growing your own skillset and realising the potential of the business you are working within.

By Chris Thomson

P.S. Whenever you are ready… here are 4 ways we can support your personal and professional Conscious Goals:

1. Access Free Live Meditations & Energy Transmissions

Inside our private Facebook Group, The Conscious Professional Mindful Community where Neil leads live weekly community events. Join now for free.

2. Learn To Meditate With Neil Seligman In Just 10 Days!

Zen in Ten, our flagship online course, is a ten-day mindfulness challenge for people who need to slow down.  

3. Work With Neil One-To-One

See if a Conscious Coaching Partnership is right for you. Book a 15-minute discovery call with Neil here.

4. Bring The Conscious Professional To Your Business

See if The Conscious Professional training and coaching programmes are right for your team or workplace. Book a call here.

The Conscious Professional is dedicated to delivering inspiring corporate mindfulness and professional resilience training, conscious leadership coaching and workplace wellbeing services at the level of professional excellence. Thank you for following our blog.

The post The Rewards of Striving for Perfection appeared first on The Conscious Professional.

Time management is a real skill. It may seem like a bit of a humdrum skill, but mastering it can lift your positivity, productivity and overall satisfaction many fold! This skill is especially important for resilience when working from home; something that many more of us are doing currently.

Good time management offers many benefits. Not only does it mean that the time you use in which to work has a higher output, it also means that you can work more productively for less time. With a little planning and realistic expectation of your work rate, you can transform your day into a well-oiled work machine. Here are a few tips on how to enhance your workday through time!

1. Plan for Tomorrow

Never wake up without a plan! By not planning for tomorrow, you have already wasted tomorrow morning. Before you know it, it will be tomorrow lunchtime and you’ll barely have started work! Believe me… I have been here before; it is so easy to have an aimless and unfocussed morning. The best advice here is to schedule fifteen minutes at the end of every workday making a plan for tomorrow.

2. A Time Sensitive Schedule

Try dividing your schedule into time slots. I like to divide my days into half hour blocks. I then assign specific tasks to those blocks. Sometimes I can fit three tasks into one lock, other times a task might take up four or five blocks on its own. This also depends on you being realistic and sensitive to the rate at which you work. Not only does this way of scheduling help you to be more productive, but it also demands that you are mindful of your own works style and output ability.

3. Start As You Mean to Go On

I have been caught out, especially when working from home, by distractions in the morning. ‘Oh, I’ll just have another coffee, and then I’ll begin’, or, ‘Oh, I’ll just watch then end of the morning news, and then I’ll begin.’ This is all too easily done… time disappears and you find yourself behind schedule. A simple solution. Pick a time to start work and start at that time. If it means you have to get dressed, leave the house, go for a walk and then come back into your space ready to begin… so be it!

4. One Thing At A Time

Try not to overcrowd your schedule. It is tempting to try and multi-task, however, more often than not you will find that two tasks take less time done one after the other than when done alongside each other. Not only that, but concentrating on one task at a time ensures that each job is given you full attention and completed to a high standard.

5. Keep Things Fresh

It is easy to slip away from a schedule if you are bored. Being bored is very normal, but not great for your workplace resilience. My advice, if you have a similar schedule day in, day out, is simply to change your schedule around. This can not only be done by changing the order of your day, but perhaps by changing the location in which you do them or who you do them with.

6. Buffers and Mini-Breaks

If you line up your tasks back-to-back you lose time to transition periods. Make sure you put buffers, mini breaks and transition windows into your schedule to keep on top of things. In addition, just because you have a schedule to keep, it doesn’t mean you aren’t entitled to a cup of tea every now and then!

7. Don’t Overload Yourself

Be realistic about what you can manage and learn to say ‘no’ to things if it will overload you. As much as keeping to time is helpful, it does not do to be over ambitious and to run out of time because you took on one task too many, or for you or to rush things so that you can beat the clock!

By Chris Thomson

Part of keeping on top of your schedule and time management is through keeping yourself motivated… Motivation: Tips on Finding It and Keeping It

P.S. Whenever you are ready… here are 4 ways we can support your personal and professional Conscious Goals:

1. Access Free Live Meditations & Energy Transmissions

Inside our private Facebook Group, The Conscious Professional Mindful Community where Neil leads live weekly community events. Join now for free.

2. Learn To Meditate With Neil Seligman In Just 10 Days!

Zen in Ten, our flagship online course, is a ten day mindfulness challenge for people who need to slow down.  

3. Work With Neil One-To-One

See if a Conscious Coaching Partnership is right for you. Book a 15-minute discovery call with Neil here.

4. Bring The Conscious Professional To Your Business

See if The Conscious Professional training and coaching programmes are right for your team or workplace. Book a call here.

The Conscious Professional is dedicated to delivering inspiring corporate mindfulness and professional resilience training, conscious leadership coaching and workplace wellbeing services at the level of professional excellence. Thank you for following our blog.

The post Good Time Management = Productivity and Satisfaction appeared first on The Conscious Professional.

New Year’s Resolutions, to my mind, are a curious thing. The urge to better ourselves is an undoubtedly positive and wonderful thing, but I fancy we don’t tend to learn from our mistakes, be realistic about what we know about our own tendencies or be mindful about the effect of making grand promises to ourselves.

Using the turn of the year (and in this case, decade) to jumpstart some new habits is great. If only we cared about ourselves this much the whole year round, and if only we didn’t feel that the phrase ‘new year, new me’ were necessary. There is nothing wrong with you as you are, you need not reinvent yourself every year!

All of that being said, this time of year fills us with optimism and positivity, which is to be celebrated. The resolutions we make often make an impact for a time, but sometimes, when we fall short of our high standards, we throw the whole resolution in the bin instead of getting back on the horse or evaluating exactly what part of that resolution continues to be of use to you. So, here I have a few suggestions on how to reinvigorate and repurpose those resolutions that might have fallen by the wayside one month in to the new year.

1. Getting Organised

Many of us would like to be more organised in order to be more efficient, less stressed to create more brain space for other things. This is all well and good, but to ‘be organised’ is quite a vague and abstract thing. This is why it is easy for this promise to fall apart, because unless you create a means by which you are more organised, it is hard to be so. Also, as far as I know, some people are naturally organised, and others are not. If you are not, it’s a hard thing to implement with immediate effect.

Here is the thing that helps me to be more organised; stationary! Get yourself a physical diary; a page a day ideally. It helps for a number of reasons. First of all, transferring plans to paper by actually writing it I think helps the mind to take in the information more effectively than when put into a device, which is both more passive, and more like every other digital action you take. Next, having one specific place for all your life and work admin means that all your information is accessible and easy to find. Also, diaries also make planning more enjoyable. I don’t know why. It just does. Try it!

2. Eating Better, Drinking Less

For me, this vague promise never works. In order for me to eat better or drink less I have to implement hard and fast rules. Small steps, taking on one or two of the following suggestions is much more mindful and acheivale way to look after your diet a little better.

• No alcohol in the house, but drinking whilst you are out is fine.
• No mean in the house, but meat in a restaurant is fine.
• Work your way through a cook book to reinvigorate your love for healthy home cooking. Make a project of it!
• One meat day a week.
• One booze day a week.
• Limit a vice. For me, its coffee… I cold drink it all day! I have just limited it to two a day.

3. Exercising More

This is one that has a reputation for failing. There is a good reason for this; getting fit is really hard. The trick is to, first of all, try a number of activities to find one that you genuinely enjoy. And then, once you have found this, to set a target. For me, for example, I am adding skipping to my workout routine this year. My first, short term target, is to manage 20 in arrow by the end of January. Simple, enjoyable and achievable.

4. Spend More Time with Loved Ones

Life flies by. You can get to the middle of the year before you know it, and realise you’ve made no improvement in your connections. Here is something I like to do. I have a few messenger groups that are based on a common interest or shared in joke. This is a good way to keep casual and light conversation going with friends and relatives. It may not be a physical meeting, but it keeps your connections consistent. What’s more, when you do next see these people you have a finger on the pulse of what is going on with them.

By Chris Thomson

‘To Do’ lists are really helpful when trying to achieve new goals. Here is a look at how to make them mindfully… How to Make a Mindful ‘To Do’ List

P.S. Whenever you are ready… here are 4 ways we can support your personal and professional Conscious Goals:

1. Access Free Live Meditations & Energy Transmissions

Inside our private Facebook Group, The Conscious Professional Mindful Community where Neil leads live weekly community events. Join now for free.

2. Learn To Meditate With Neil Seligman In Just 10 Days!

Zen in Ten, our flagship online course, is a ten day mindfulness challenge for people who need to slow down.  

3. Work With Neil One-To-One

See if a Conscious Coaching Partnership is right for you. Book a 15-minute discovery call with Neil here.

4. Bring The Conscious Professional To Your Business

See if The Conscious Professional training and coaching programmes are right for your team or workplace. Book a call here.

The Conscious Professional is dedicated to delivering inspiring corporate mindfulness and professional resilience training, conscious leadership coaching and workplace wellbeing services at the level of professional excellence. Thank you for following our blog.

The post Your New Year’s Resolutions: One Month On appeared first on The Conscious Professional.

When our internal fractures have healed and we have realised our values and true nature, we come into a powerful expression of authenticity.

In the authentic state everything is possible. The Universe opens up as a limitless playground of potential and you move through it with intention, clarity and abandon.

It might therefore be said that authentic excellence is the sort of excellence which comes from the natural expression of your mind, body and soul. The deep truth of your being and your actions are in alignment, you are one with your inner guidance system and you operate as a force for expressing your purpose in the world.

In contrast, inauthentic excellence is unconnected to purpose and who you are as a unique being, in some way the craft of excellence is forced, unnatural and counter to your soul’s drive and journey. Excellence for its own sake or in the pursuit of some goal that does not accord with your own sense of purpose would be examples of excellence misaligned with your being. This type of excellence is almost always accompanied by dissatisfaction, numbing and a misuse of power.

Success need not be bypassed altogether here, success is of course one of the principle outcomes of alignment. The lesson I have learned is that success is not the goal. Alignment is.

In my 20’s I equated excellence and success with worthiness. With a little hindsight I might have looked at my success and said – this picture does not look like an authentic version of me. I seem to be trying to buy something with this excellence and success. I am coming at this all wrong. And I was.

Instead  of taking excellence and success as a guiding principle in your life I would offer authentic excellence and alignment as worthy substitutes.

Your soul will thank you.

P.S. Whenever you are ready… here are 4 ways we can support your personal and professional Conscious Goals:

1. Access Free Live Meditations & Energy Transmissions

Inside our private Facebook Group, The Conscious Professional Mindful Community where Neil leads live weekly community events. Join now for free.

2. Learn To Meditate With Neil Seligman In Just 10 Days!

Zen in Ten, our flagship online course, is a ten-day mindfulness challenge for people who need to slow down.  

3. Work With Neil One-To-One

See if a Conscious Coaching Partnership is right for you. Book a 15-minute discovery call with Neil here.

4. Bring The Conscious Professional To Your Business

See if The Conscious Professional training and coaching programmes are right for your team or workplace. Book a call here.

The Conscious Professional is dedicated to delivering inspiring corporate mindfulness and professional resilience training, conscious leadership coaching and workplace wellbeing services at the level of professional excellence. Thank you for following our blog.

The post The Conscious Toolkit Part 3 appeared first on The Conscious Professional.

There is a huge difference between success and alignment.

As a young well-regarded Barrister in London in my 20’s I was considered by most to be successful, to have made it. Whilst I enjoyed the kudos that went with my job and lifestyle, I came to feel misaligned with the work. As I became more conscious, I realised that I would be spending my energy only once in this lifetime. I became more and more disheartened with my contribution and realised that a change was needed. My personal symptoms of misalignment ranged from frustration to boredom, irritation to over-spending and stress.

Alignment also feels quite different to success. Whilst success is predominantly egoic, alignment goes far deeper. Consequently, whilst the ego is never satisfied, no matter how many awards, things or money you gather, the gifts of alignment are peace, contentment and a distinct feeling of having and more importantly being, enough.

Whilst success is easily lauded by others, alignment is a little quieter, and once you have it, you don’t need others to tell you well done.

Alignment can only be realised by committing to personal development, honouring a regular practice of stillness and following your deep desire for self-knowledge. Every truly conscious professional will have spent time understanding their unique nature and discovering what is important to them, their values.

These values can then be expressed in all aspects of life, from professional to domestic to social. This is then alignment. A state in which decisions are easily made, clarity arises and right-action (clear and grounded decision-making) becomes clear.

In spiritual terms we might say that the highest state of integrity and alignment is enlightenment, the experience of the self and the all as one.

P.S. Whenever you are ready… here are 4 ways we can support your personal and professional Conscious Goals:

1. Access Free Live Meditations & Energy Transmissions

Inside our private Facebook Group, The Conscious Professional Mindful Community where Neil leads live weekly community events. Join now for free.

2. Learn To Meditate With Neil Seligman In Just 10 Days!

Zen in Ten, our flagship online course, is a ten-day mindfulness challenge for people who need to slow down.  

3. Work With Neil One-To-One

See if a Conscious Coaching Partnership is right for you. Book a 15-minute discovery call with Neil here.

4. Bring The Conscious Professional To Your Business

See if The Conscious Professional training and coaching programmes are right for your team or workplace. Book a call here.

The Conscious Professional is dedicated to delivering inspiring corporate mindfulness and professional resilience training, conscious leadership coaching and workplace wellbeing services at the level of professional excellence. Thank you for following our blog.

The post The Conscious Toolkit Part 2 appeared first on The Conscious Professional.