Ask any parent what they want for their child and most parents will have similar wishes: happiness, health, security and to flourish. While many of us strive to provide these things for our little people, sometimes it hard. Too often we feel a sense of failure, exhaustion and like we aren’t getting anywhere. The good news is, that if you feel this you aren’t alone and more than that there is compelling scientific evidence that if we want to boost our child’s emotional and social well-being, we must first spend time on ourselves.

Have you ever wondered what it is about some people that makes them able to succeed, no matter what is thrown at them? The answer, Mental toughness

How many ads have you seen today telling you to buy something? We live in a culture of buying and owning which tells us that the ‘good’ life is one of having (more and more). However contrary to what modern marketing tells us, by valuing ‘things’ we are actually making ourselves less happy.

Most people know what they aren’t good at, but do you know your strengths?

Strengths are our best qualities and the core parts of our character. Finding out our strengths and learning to take advantage of them helps us improve our life. Playing to our strengths can make us better partners, parents, friends, family members and colleagues.

When you think of your well-being what comes to mind? Perhaps having healthy mind, a healthy body or even striving for ‘work-life balance’. While these things all matter, Psychologist’s refer to well-being as an umbrella term for having positive relationships, positive emotion, meaning, accomplishment and health. When we invest in each of these areas, we experience high levels of well-being.

How healthy is your relationship? What if I told you the key to having a healthy relationship was conflict?

If you were asked to describe in one word what you want more of in life what would that be? I’m sure for many a word that comes to mind is happiness (perhaps money was there too). But is happiness and are we looking for the right thing?

According to new research, 93% of young Australian’s believe getting a job and earning money is either important or very important to them. Despite this, Australia has a youth unemployment rate of 12% (twice the national average), a growing list of skills shortage areas and many employers report struggling to attract and retain quality young people, particularly in the trades industries. If there is will and opportunity, why aren’t more young people in jobs? And what does this mean for businesses, parents and young people today?

Some time ago there was an experiment by Brickman et al (1971). Brickman interviewed three groups of people: group one were recent lottery winners, group two had recently been paralysed in an accident and group three had suffered no major life events such as those by group one and two.

In a recent Mission Australia study, Australian youth reported that stress, school and body image were their top three personal concerns. In Australia, 1 in 5 young people experience a mental health disorder and there is 13% youth unemployment rat – twice the national average. According to many older Australian’s millennials simply need to ‘toughen up’. But, as we head deeper into 2017 and take a look at how the problems of the world have changed, we explore why our young people might feel like this and some simple things parents can do to help their kids be happy.

If you want to improve your golf swing, you might seek out a sporting coach. If you want greater flexibility or core strength, you’ll likely turn to a yoga or pilates coach. But who do you turn to when you want to improve yourself and reach your goals? A coach.