Wiser Ways

Wiser Ways Wiser Ways offers individual & relationship counselling, & executive coaching. Please visit the website or contact us to book an appointment.

I help people realise their goals & strengths, providing them with the tools to reach their full potential. Andrew’s professional journey has been rich and diverse, shaped by experiences in private enterprise, government, coaching, and more. As a counsellor, he draws from these varied roles to support individuals in navigating personal growth and life challenges. Andrew believes that meaningful change comes from within, and his approach focuses on tapping into clients’ internal resources to help them transform their circumstances in positive ways. Having worked as a senior manager in multiple organisations, Andrew eventually felt drawn to a role that allowed him to give back to his community. His passion for helping others comes from a deep-rooted understanding of the power of self-discovery and the value of investing in personal development. Whether you’re feeling stuck, unsure of your next steps, or simply seeking clarity, Andrew provides a compassionate and respectful space for you to explore your thoughts and goals. Andrew’s extensive experience in various sectors, combined with his strength-based approach, allows him to be flexible and adaptive to each client’s unique needs. His belief in the capacity for individuals to make meaningful change is at the heart of his practice, and he takes great delight in supporting people through their journey of overcoming adversity and achieving their goals. If you’re looking to make a positive difference in your life, Andrew’s empathetic and client-centred approach may be just what you need to spark that change.

05/02/2026

Sometimes the best way to progress a goal is to take a break and stop trying.

When you're trying to accomplish something, including giving something up or building a new habit, it can be very challenging to stay committed, especially if there are additional demands being placed on your time and energy. This can lead to making mistakes and falling short in your commitments, which can cause you to believe that you're not capable of accomplishing your goal.

But if you recognise when you're struggling and making mistakes that are shaking your self-confidence, you could decide that taking a break may be an effective way to regain your confidence.

It's unavoidable that there will be times when staying committed will be more challenging than usual, and getting yourself to continue putting in the same amount, or even any effort may be asking more of yourself than you can provide.

Working on your goal can become associated with negative thoughts and feelings, so it can become something you don't like working on and no longer believe you have the ability to accomplish. This is when taking a break can be an effective strategy for eventual success.

Ideally you'll only stop working on your goal for a set amount of time, such as telling yourself that you'll get back to your goal after you finish moving house or once a demanding project is wrapped up. Sometimes these deadlines have an unclear end date, so in these types of situations, it's valuable to determine when you'll resume working on your goal so your break doesn't last longer than is helpful, and possibly indefinitely.

When done intentionally to preserve your beliefs in your abilities and with the intention of returning as soon as possible, breaks can be a useful way of staying committed to goals even when you're lacking the internal resources to work on them.

04/02/2026

Everyone feel worried at times, but how you respond and how much you believe their messages plays a strong role in how impactful these feelings are.

Worrying can be distracting and keep you from enjoying yourself. But stopping worrying is difficult - if you suppress or ignore what you're worried about, these feelings won't go away and are more likely to grow, which typically makes them even worse.

One of the ways to reduce how much you're affected by your worries is to dedicate a specific time to worrying. When you get worried, instead of thinking about it immediately, tell yourself you'll explore those thoughts when it's the right time. When the time does come, what you were concerned about can seem much less impactful than it initially did because you gave yourself distance from your worries before experiencing them.

When exploring your worries, ask yourself what you can do to address the cause. This could be scheduling a doctor’s appointment, having a difficult conversation, or doing more research to determine if your concerns are warranted. Then you can remind yourself that you have a plan and ruminating it isn't helping.

It's possible that you can't remove the cause of your worry, but recognising this is highly valuable. Instead of feeling that something is going to go wrong and you're doing nothing to prevent it, you recognise that there isn't anything you can do and you'll likely feel better if you accept this.

Mindfully exploring what you’re worried about during dedicated times can help you be less affected by them. Worries aren't pleasant, but you can think of them in ways that make them far less impactful and potentially as solvable problems.

03/02/2026

Regret can be motivating by driving you to address its cause. But regret can also be a painful emotion if you feel unable to make changes.

Some people will use regret as motivation to take action, while others can believe that these perceived failures are evidence that they're not capable of being the type of person they would like to be. Instead of feeling motivated to take action, they think their regrets are evidence of character flaws that can't be changed.

Experiencing regret but not feeling capable of addressing its cause can lead to rumination, self-critical thoughts, and dissatisfaction. But usually these thoughts are untrue and there is something you can do to ease your regrets.

If you regret not travelling when you were younger, you likely still could. If you wish you had chosen a different career, you can find ways to make it a part of your life, even if it doesn't become your main source of income, such as a hobby or side hustle.

It's often best to start with small goals that aren't intimidating to build your belief in yourself to accomplish what you put your mind to. This could be planning a weekend holiday before travelling overseas, or finding a small-scale way to explore a business idea before investing a great deal.

Taking action on your regrets can be empowering and relieve negative feelings about your past decisions, although feeling capable of doing so may require challenging beliefs telling you that you can't.

29/01/2026

How often do you reflect on your strongest skills and ways you’ve succeeded in the past? In some contexts, this practice could be considered highly self-serving and egotistical, but it can be very helpful for those who are lacking confidence.

Many people question their abilities and believe they don’t deserve their positions even though they’re highly capable and accomplished. This is a painful way to feel and these thoughts can be very persistent.

If you often struggle with low confidence, doubting yourself, or imposter syndrome, you can feel less insecure and more capable if you have a list of reasons why you shouldn’t feel this way.

Reflect on past experiences where you: completed something challenging, accomplished more than you realised you were capable of, helped someone with a task they thought was very difficult, and moments when you felt proud of yourself.

However, these must also be accurate and realistic: you can acknowledge mistakes you’ve made and ways that you can still grow while also recognising what you’re capable of and all that you’ve accomplished that proves your talents and abilities.

Reminding yourself of what you're capable of isn’t egotistical if you have the tendency to think poorly of yourself, especially when these thoughts are largely untrue. Being aware of your skills and incidents that confirm your talents can help you be more self-assured.

28/01/2026

If you’ve felt anxious, overwhelmed, or other difficult emotions while working on a goal, this could be because you’re unclear on what you’re trying to accomplish.

Some people can be vague when they set goals and/or they aren’t sure what they need to do to be successful. Giving yourself a task to achieve but little direction in how you can best do this is often mentally draining. If you only have a notion of what you want to accomplish so you aren’t certain what you have to do to achieve your goal, you’re likely to feel that you’re making little, if any, progress since you aren’t sure what will bring you closer to accomplishing your goal.

But goals can become positive and affirming practices when you know what you want to accomplish and how you can do this. Give yourself clear short-term targets, such as working out three times per week, completing one module of an online course, or spending two hours decluttering on the weekend.

This approach gives you a sense of control over your ability to succeed as well as the ability to measure your progress so you know if you’re getting closer to success or need to make adjustments to your approach.

Knowing what you want to accomplish and how you’re going to do it is motivating, inspiring, and can help reduce stress and make you feel more fulfilled.

27/01/2026

Making personal changes is difficult, but if you can shift how you think of yourself – your self-identity – it can become easier.

A great deal of what makes changing so challenging is believing that the behaviours you're trying to quit are a part of who you are or new ones you want to adopt are incompatible with your personality. You’d like to start getting up earlier but you’re not a morning person, you want to grow your social circle but you’re shy, or you want to learn a new language but you don’t have the memory.

These beliefs often become self-fulfilling prophecies. But changing your behaviour can be easier if you also change how you think about yourself. This can be as simple of telling yourself that you're the type of person who does the behaviour you’re trying to adopt. Then pay attention to your behaviours, including the decisions you make, to find evidence that you're acting in accordance with the type of person you want to become.

The more times you notice that you’re making decisions and choosing behaviours that are aligned with the type of person you want to be, the easier it can become to continue making healthy decisions.

22/01/2026

I believe that time is incredibly precious, but that doesn’t mean you should aim to be productive as possible. For me, the best measure of if I’ve spent time well is how an activity makes me feel afterwards.

When you spend your time in ways you’re proud of, even if they required energy, you typically feel refreshed. But if you do things that seem meaningless, you can feel drained afterwards because you haven’t gained or accomplished anything.

Activities that require some effort typically have the greatest potential to make you feel better once you’re finished because you’ve accomplished something. This could be working on a hobby, catching up with your partner, or reading a good book, just to name a few.

Yet plenty of people turn to empty activities when they have free time. They want to unwind and they believe that relaxing with something that requires nothing from them is the best way to do this; the most common example is scrolling on social media. But just because an activity is easy doesn’t mean it’s restorative.

Spending time wisely doesn’t always mean being productive, but aiming to accomplish something, even if it’s just for fun, can be the most rewarding and energising.

21/01/2026

If your goal when you disagree with others is to ‘win’ the argument by proving that you’re right, you're likely putting strain on relationships.

Having a disagreement with someone who is unwilling to reconsider any of their points and doesn’t want to learn or change their mind is often frustrating and feels pointless. This can make people avoid speaking up when they disagree with you so tension can build while problems go unaddressed.

In the workplace, where people with very different personalities and beliefs often have to work together while maintaining respectful relationships, disagreements can easily be left unsettled. This can lead to resentment, people not feeling comfortable sharing their ideas, and isolation.

But if you’re willing to listen to others and admit when they have something to teach you, especially if you're in a leadership position, you can contribute to a workplace culture that encourages sharing ideas as well as rethinking old, possible mistaken, beliefs without being judged for having been wrong.

The drive to prove your beliefs to others can be strong, but if you’re willing to listen to others and consider their opinions, you can have healthier communication pattens and stronger relationships.

20/01/2026

Wanting to learn from others who have done something similar is a valuable approach when you’re going to attempt something new and challenging, but often you’ll need to discover a great deal yourself.

When preparing for a goal, some people will aim to learn as much as possible about how others have done the same things. They can try to find out: what time they should get up, how many hours they should spend on their goal, the times they should be working, and other easily replicable aspects of their methods.

Basing your approach closely – or exactly – on what someone else has already done is appealing as it gives you a ready-made plan. But you can only learn so much from others because a great deal of what enables accomplishments is internal: how you motivate yourself when you’re struggling, how you recover from mistakes, when you give yourself breaks or push yourself to do more, etc.

What motivates, reassures, and inspires others won’t always be the same for you. It’s likely that you’ll need to overcome obstacles, experiment with different approaches so you can compare them, and learn through experiences.

Success doesn’t come from copying the patterns of others. You can gain insight into the approaches they successfully adopted, but you don’t have to do the same. Use what works for you without believing there are pre-formed pathways to success.

15/01/2026

If you have too much to do and are feeling overwhelmed, focus only on what is important and time-sensitive.

Many to-do lists contain tasks that are optional, don’t need to be completed for some time, or both. But you give them a similar amount of attention as things that must be completed right away, you can feel that you have more to do than what’s possible.

Furthermore, when you spend your limited time on jobs that aren’t important, at least not right away, you can feel that you’re accomplishing very little despite being busy because what you complete doesn’t bring you a great deal of relief.

Focusing your time and energy on the tasks that have the greatest potential to reduce your mental burden, especially when you feel that you have too much to get done, can help you feel less pressure and more productive.

14/01/2026

Staying consistent with healthy behaviours is difficult when your routine changes, but this can be easier if the habits you want to keep are part of your self-identity.

Many healthy habits require structure. So when routines change, even temporarily, it can be difficult to maintain your ideal behaviours. Without routines to guide you, your behaviours are the most influenced by self-identity. This includes thinking of yourself as someone who will stay late at work to finish everything after a busy day, the type of person who indulges during the holidays, or being someone healthy.

Adopting a new self-identity takes time, but it only requires changing how you think of yourself. As you give yourself small examples that you are the type of person you want to be you can feel more convinced and it will become easier to stay consistent.

Routines are incredibly useful for making ideal behaviours easy to carry out, but an even better approach is to develop a self-identity that encourages them.

13/01/2026

Sometimes coming back to a task is the best way to get more done, even though it requires leaving work unfinished.

Many people don’t like the idea of leaving something incomplete – they can feel lazy, unproductive, and don’t want the thought of what they still have to do to stay in their mind.

While there are some jobs that are easiest when you finish them all at once, this isn’t true for others. Leaving and coming back could make finishing much easier than if you force yourself to keep working until you’re done.

If you keep working when you don’t want to, you could produce worse results than you're capable of. Staying on the same task too long can drain motivation and creativity, while breaks can give you clarity into what you want, perspective about what is important, and renewed energy.

Leaving tasks unfinished, for a set amount of time or indefinitely, can help you feel more engaged in what you work on and produce better results.

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