Your attitude is the way you view the world. What attitude did you choose to bring with you today? We all have a choice. We can choose an inner dialogue of self-encouragement and self-motivation, or we can choose one of self-defeat and self-pity. It’s a power each of us has. We all go through times of hardship; it can’t always be smooth sailing. The key is to realise it’s not what happens to you that matters; but as we’re sure you’ve heard before, it’s how you choose to respond.

When things don’t go your way, “looking on the bright side” is a real test of your ability to show gratitude. No one is perfect at showing gratitude at first, but here’s an idea that can help that I learned from Tim Ferriss, author of Tools of Titan and The Four Hour Work Week.

If you’re chronically late, how do you start showing up on time? Many people have the habit of constantly running late — and they drive themselves, and other people, crazy. Now, I have the opposite problem — I’m pathologically early, and often arrive places too soon. This allows me to arrive relaxed, calm and confident; I also always sure I keep reading material on me like my Kindle so I can feel productive while waiting. I make sure I don’t make it someone else’s problem that I arrive early and wait for the scheduled time before calling them.

I started going to a gym when I was 13; I am now almost 36. I think this gives me my 10,000 hours of mastery according to Malcolm Gladwell. Here are some unexpected lessons I’ve learnt at the gym that can be applied to the real world.

There is no question that your ability to communicate confidently and authoritatively is critical to your career success. Presentations are amongst your most important opportunities to make an impression, to stand out and enhance your personal brand. It’s not simply another boring meeting. Get over thinking of presentations as burdens. Just by thinking about them differently, you can shift your level of confidence, and that, as you know, is the first step to improving the overall way you are perceived. Here are some tips from ‘Own Your Space’ to make your presentations more effective.

As women, as leaders, professionals, mothers, and wives, in all the roles we play as human beings, we need to finally get it through our heads that there really is no such thing as perfect. ‘Perfect’ is not only a total myth, it’s a deeply destructive and limiting myth.

Forget what people say about ‘vanity searching’ or ‘ego surfing’, to google yourself is neither about vanity nor ego. If you’re serious about your professional presence, about owning your space in the virtual world as much as you are about owning it in the physical world, googling yourself is an absolute necessity.

We hear so much about the importance of having a personal brand, but what does that really mean? Put simply, your brand is your reputation, which is the culmination of almost everything you have ever done and said. As Amazon’s Jeff Bezos says, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”