Chantal Hofstee - Reach Your Goals Without Stressing Out: A high-achievers guide to a successful life

REACH YOUR GOALS

without stressing out

Chantal Hofstee is a clinical psychologist and executive coach, who specializes in stress management and leadership training. Chantal draws on her knowledge of the brain and psychology to explain the concepts of mindfulness-based thinking and teaches practical techniques that induce the ideal brain state for focus, productivity and performance. Her work is helping people to thrive in their everyday (work) life and has been called gently life-changing; and transformational. Her first book, Mindfulness on the Run, was published internationally by Exisle Publishing and was very well received. To find out more about Chantal and her work, visit www.drchantalhofstee.com

REACH YOUR GOALS

without stressing out

A high-achievers guide
to a successful life

Chantal Hofstee

Clinical psychologist and executive coach

PRAISE FOR CHANTALS FIRST BOOK,
MINDFULNESS ON THE RUN:

Mindfulness on the Run is rich in short techniques for keeping stress at a minimum, emotions in check, and relationships happy. A kind of psychologist in your head as you live life, that over time will fade to just being mindful.

Chelsea Houghton

If youre one of the people who says you would be more mindful if only you had the time for it, this is your book. It can quickly become a friend in your search for greater peace, ease, and joy.

Krysta Gibson, New Spirit Journal

Think you are too busy to practice mindfulness? This program is for you.

Good Health Magazine

I will definitely be recommending this well-written and researched practical handbook to others who are seeking a resource that is easy to read, informative and supports their busy lifestyles.

Kirsty OCallaghan, Unity Words

simply dont have time for anything else? This book offers a quick and effective program to help slot mindfulness into your life.

Better Homes and Gardens

As Dr Hofstee effectively demonstrates, not only do we need mindfulness most when we are busy, but when we have the right tools, it is possible to practise it on even the tightest schedule. This book is worth your time.

Claire Nana, Psych Central

For Sem and Isha

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION:

How to create sustainable, stress-free success

Edit your life frequently and ruthlessly.
It is your masterpiece after all.

Nathan W Morris

Some days we are at our best. We have plenty of energy. We are focused and on track with what we want to accomplish that day, enjoying the process as much as the outcome and moving mountains of work without feeling drained or exhausted.

Then there are days when we have hardly any energy at all. We are busy, constantly distracted and wasting our energy on everything but the very things we really want to focus on. Our mind is blurred by brain fog and we feel sluggish and tired even though we get hardly anything done. Doing the little things feels like moving mountains, which can tip us over the edge and make us feel overwhelmed, frustrated or defeated.

Before I started to train my brain with mindfulness techniques, most of my days would fit description number two. It wasnt that I was unhappy with my life, but my body and my brain werent functioning the way they should. This made everyday life so much harder and resulted in high levels of stress. I had clear goals of what I wanted to accomplish, but some days every step of the way felt like a battle. I clearly remember one of those days when simply posting a letter felt like running a marathon. I was on my way to burnout.

Now with a trained and healthy brain and a better worklife balance, I have a tight rein on my stress levels. This has made life so much better and easier. Stress no longer drains my energy and worries no longer occupy my mind. I reach my goals faster, I have more energy, I have better focus and most days feel easy and effortless.

Despite the changes I made being truly life-changing, I still found that some days I should have been more productive, more focused, more energized and more in control. There were still days when I felt tired and got stuck in habits that no longer worked for me. Even though the stressed out red brain moments had been eliminated from my life for the most part, I couldnt help but wonder: could there be a next level to this? Were there more changes I could make to eliminate the blah days completely? Could I truly live from the green brain every single day and reach my goals without stressing out?

As a result of my growing brain strength my life goals had started growing too. You could compare it to an athlete building up muscular strength and fitness; as your brain strength grows so do your goals. Not because you are unhappy with what you have and what you can do, but because of the inherent desire to grow, to learn and to master new skills. I found myself in a cycle of growing brain fitness and mental strength as a result of setting bigger goals, which in turn led me to needing even more brain and mental strength to accomplish them. So I wondered whether there was a new and better way for me to be more productive and to keep stress at bay even when striving for bigger things.

This question saw me embark on a journey of rethinking the areas of my life that are linked to productivity. Combining scientific research, psychology, mindful awareness and other methods I had been using to help clients create change, I rediscovered powerful brain hacks that have helped me create a life structure that allows me to bring my best self to everything I do. This next phase of my life edit has again been life-changing.

By examining different areas of life and applying both commonsense and scientific research to rethinking daily habits and routines, I have found a way of being productive that gives energy rather than burns it. It isnt that I wasnt being productive to begin with, but this time around my productivity is different and better than it was. I call it stressfree productivity.

Stress-free productivity

My definition of stress-free productivity is:

Mindfully working towards your goals with focus,
energy, passion and perseverance in a way that gives
you lasting enjoyment of both the process and
the outcome.

The stress-free productivity recipe includes the following ingredients:

, and

.

All these ingredients originate from knowledge about the brain. Knowing the ingredients, understanding how they work and then implementing them, gives a new approach to being productive. In the following chapters we will explore the different ingredients one by one and discover how you can mix them together to create your own recipe for reaching your goals by living mindfully with focus, passion and energy so you can keep going without burning out. The very first step to better, more sustainable productivity is to switch on the optimal brain state for productivity the green brain.