This was a feature article for the Leader Newspaper. The turn of the year has traditionally been a time of New Year’s Resolutions; new beginnings, dropping bad habits and learning better ones. A recent survey, however, suggested that 8 out of 10 people in the UK won’t even bother to make them this year. The top two reasons given being; “They’re a waste of time” and “I’ll give up within days”. What is it that has given us this defeatist attitude and is it that difficult to make a New Year’s Resolution stick longer than normal? Statistics say that the majority of us will have broken all our resolutions before February arrives. We spoke to Leader Life Coach, Mark Darlington,

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Making Stopping Smoking Easier Part Two Last week we started to talk about the number one New Year’s Resolution, to Stop Smoking and the steps to take in order to give yourself the best chance of being successful. We looked at the “Stopping List”. This is a list of 20 reasons why you want to be a healthy non-smoker forever. All the reasons needed to be what you do want, rather than what you don’t want. So what do we do once we’ve compiled our Stopping List to help this time be the one when we stop forever? If you’ve stopped smoking before only to start again days, weeks or months later these tips may well just help you conquer

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Happy New Year! I hope the festive period was a truly great one for you and you’re looking forward to this year with excitement and anticipation. It always fascinates me what the turn of a new year does to people psychologically. Many use it as a signpost and opportunity to improve their life by making New Year Resolutions. Statistically, the most popular resolution is to Stop Smoking. As helping people to become healthy non smokers is a speciality of mine I thought I’d give you a powerful tip today. The harsh truth of the matter is that of all the people who set out to stop smoking unaided it is approximated that only 7% succeed. So if you know someone

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So it’s New Year’s Eve again. Are you reflecting back on a wonderful year and hoping 2011 brings more of the same? Or can you not wait to see the back of 2010 and think that 2011 couldn’t get any worse? Whatever you’re current mindset January 1st can act as a signpost to new beginnings, a catalyst for change or a springboard into action. Of course, in homes and workplaces across the land the hot question on everyone’s lips is “What are your New Year’s Resolutions?” and “How long do you think you’ll stick to them this year?” The trouble with New Year’s Resolutions is that we feel we “should” make them and do it without too much thought. New

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So tomorrow it will finally be Christmas Day. Hopefully the weather hasn’t disrupted your plans and preparations too much and you can settle down and enjoy the day with those who are nearest and dearest to you. Now, chances are we’ve not met yet but I’m going to do a little mind reading. Over the last couple of weeks you will have been running around trying to make this Christmas as perfect as you can for others. Also, this year will have been harder than most for you and caused you to experience increased stress leading to tiredness and maybe disrupted sleep. You don’t have time for “me time” as you’re too busy looking after everyone else and if you

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So just a few days until Christmas, that time of year that’s all about family. Well, all about trying not to fall out with your family that is. Between the budgeting, setting up parties, driving back and to from the shopping centre to the toy shops to the supermarket to home and back around again, it’s no wonder Christmas is the most stressful time of year. Sometimes, at the end of all this it can be tough to feel like being sociable with the very people we’ve been setting all of this up for. When the big get together begins, here are three things you can do to keep it family friendly so as not to let the stress get

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“It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” or so goes the song. Sadly, for many of us the holiday season can be a time of immense stress, worry, and excessive business. Instead of enjoying the warmth and joy of spending time with loved ones, it is easy to become overwhelmed by the added tasks that the holidays bring. Fortunately, there are a few simple ways to cut back on seasonal stress so that you can spend less of your time rushing and more of it relaxing. Schedule Time for Yourself No, really! Don’t just think, “I’ll sit down and read for a while if I have time.” Believe me, you’ll never just “have” time. It is important to schedule

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One of the big televisual talking points of the last few weeks (apart from Ann Widdecombe and Wagner’s exploits on the other Reality TV shows) has been Gillian McKeith’s stint in the jungle for “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here”. Comments have been flying because of Gillian’s apparent phobias and behaviours during the show. People are asking why, if she has so many phobias, did she agree to go onto the show in the first place. As well as questioning whether her reactions and fainting are real or a show for the camera. Now, I’m not sure whether this is a confession or a boast but I haven’t actually seen much of any of the 3 shows mentioned

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Christmas is fast approaching, less than 30 days now in fact. For most it’s a time of great joy and of loving and giving and if that’s how you’re feeling that’s wonderful. For others, however, it can be a time of dread and sadness. Much of the sadness around Christmas can come from the loss of a loved one, especially if it will be the first Christmas that they won’t be there. These feelings aren’t confined to those who have suffered a recent loss of course. There are no rules as to how or when you should stop missing someone at Christmas time. If this is something that affects you then there are a few things to remember and steps

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Back in the 1960’s there was a cosmic rivalry commonly known as the “Space Race” with the USA and Russia battling to put the first man on the moon. When NASA started launching manned spacecraft they found out that their astronauts couldn’t use pens to write their essential notes and observations whilst in space. The ink wouldn’t flow down through the pen in a zero-gravity environment. NASA decided to recruit and retain a man named Paul Fisher to design a pen that would work in space. Much research and a mere $1.5 million later, they had their solution to the problem. NASA now had a pen that worked in zero gravity, in a vacuum and in freezing temperatures. Of course,

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