I believe we are all better when the kindness of strangers exists. Running out of fuel while riding my motorcycle from Sydney to Melbourne a few weeks ago confirmed Australia is still a place where this exists. And lucky for me too…

Most people don’t struggle because they lack motivation or skill. They struggle because they’re looking for insights in the wrong place. This post explores why leaders often see themselves clearly but miss the wider layers shaping their reality and how that blind spot quietly limits their impact.

By asking three deliberate questions at progressively wider perspectives, you can learn how to see your reality more clearly and take the right actions to help you achieve more.

Beliefs can propel you through the toughest challenge or they can fix you in place before you start. They are powerful drivers of our behaviour. 12 months ago I started writing my new book Problem Hunter. But a limiting belief almost derailed the project after the first month. I learned a three step strategy to overcome limiting beliefs and it set me free to get done what I had thought was impossible.

The next few years will see rapid new learning by everyone who uses their knowledge to make a living. The pace of learning is not letting up. A super simple and clever hack discovered by Washington University can help you learn faster and retain it for longer.

It’s tempting and quite easy to raise your voice and let off steam at others…it’s almost normalised. What it is isn’t is a way to be heard, it’s a sign you’ve lost control. And respect. I once coached a CEO who used to brag about letting her team “have it” when they weren’t meeting her expectations. Then she realised she’d broken their trust, created an unsafe workplace and the business went further into the red. What she did next saved her business and gave her a new model for leading.

How do you overcome the wall of indifference people can have to your ideas to make things better? Bottom line: Don’t push harder to be heard— make it matter more so they start to listen. Inside are five actions to help you do this and have your ideas be heard.

Getting pushback is common challenge. Pushback met with more force just creates bigger barriers. The smart approach is isn’t to push harder, it’s to invite curiosity.

Most people look at what happened and stop there. The pros ask, “What could have happened instead?” That’s counterfactual thinking, the quiet superpower behind great problem solvers and innovators, from the engineers that saved NASA’s Apollo 13 crew to anyone brave enough to imagine a better way forward.

Focus is fragile. Your brain sips from a firehose of a billion bits per second while conscious thought crawls along at only ten. The trick to greater focus for longer isn’t working harder, it’s designing our environment and routines to optimise the little attention we can give at any one time.