I have been reading some great books recently and, although I haven’t finished either, I wanted to share some of the learning from both. Now I love learning new stuff and, working in the field of coaching which can be accused of being airy fairy nonsense, it’s great to know that there’s a growing body of knowledge and research out there supporting what I, and other coaches, do. But whether you are a coach or not, if either of these books takes your fancy read them.

The first is Martin Seligman’s book “Authentic Happiness” in which he describes how, having been disenchanted by traditional psychology which he argues is just about the absence of illness, he started to research the idea of positive psychology which focuses on strengths and developing positive emotions. This way of living our lives not only gives us greater fulfilment bur greater longevity! In the book he provides a range of tools to help the reader identify her strengths and an account of the research that underpins it.

The second book is Brene Brown’s “The Gifts of Imperfection”. I was bowled over by her on-line presentation and then bought the book, again, which I’m halfway through. The subtitle of her book is “Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be and embrace who you are”. She describes herself as a shame researcher and discovered that most of us hide our shame because we might be found out for being not as perfect as we think we ought to be. But what she also discovered that those who were living what she describes as “wholehearted” lives had greater happiness and fulfilment. And this was because they had the courage to “put their vulnerability on the line”. They were prepared to be imperfect.

So if there’s a message in this blog let it be this: coaching does work, it’s based on good solid research and it can help you lead happy, rewarding and fulfilling lives.