3 Keys To Unlock The Opportunities Of Adolescence

3 Keys To Unlock The Opportunities Of Adolescence

by | Feb 19, 2018 | Unlock Your Potential | 0 comments

What do you think of adolescence?

Tough period… Maybe it was your case or perhaps you have teenagers going through some challenges right now.

Indeed, adolescence is a challenging period in life. So many things are happening “under the hood” so to speak, that it’s no wonder that it can easily derail teens. Confusion, anxiety, and overwhelm are frequent in teens. And most adults blame raging hormones for teens losing their minds.

While hormones do increase during this period, what adolescents experience is primarily the result of important changes happening in their brain.

Instead of being a “time of immaturity” where teens need to “grow up” as generally thought. The changes that are happening in the adolescent brain push them to test boundaries and explore what is new and exciting.

While those dramatic changes can lead to challenges, they also open the door to new opportunities.

“Adolescence is not an immature period of life that teens need to get through and survive”.

In contrary, it is an opportunity to thrive.

With the right tools and strategies, teens can take advantage of this unprecedented brainstorm. The brain changes of adolescence offer both risk and opportunities.

The essence of adolescence include:

  • Novelty seeking comes from an increased drive for immediate reward. Yet, Impulsivity can have negative long-term consequences that often escape the adolescent mind. Turning an idea into an action without reflecting on the consequences can do more harm than good.
  • Social engagement leads to a greater influence of peers and creating new friendships. When teens are pushing away from adults, they are getting closer to peers. And that can at times trigger risky behaviours.
  • Increased emotional intensity gives an enhanced vitality to life. Yet intense emotions can also rule the day. Impulsivity, moodiness, and reactivity make it difficult for teens to find mental balance.
  • Creative exploration starts with the adolescent’s new conceptual thinking and abstract reasoning. This often leads to better problem-solving due to a natural ability to “think outside the box”. The downside is that soul searching can cast a shadow of doubts. An identity crisis and vulnerability to peer pressure can lead to a lack of direction and purpose.

Why all this brainstorm is happening in teens?  To prepare them for leaving the nest and go on their own path.

Finding a way for teens to harness this  brainstorm to thrive requires them to:

  • Get crystal clarity of their identity,  who they truly are what’s their purpose.
  • Learn to manage their emotions and develop social intelligence and resilience.
  • Design their own unique authentic strategies, those that will work for them.

Doing his on their own is not an easy task. As a parent you can help them find their own answers, or give them the means to find their own answers…

This is the greatest gift you can give your teen to tap into the opportunity of adolescence.

In Nutshell:

To unlock the opportunities of adolescence, focus on clarifying your identity, develop emotional intelligence and resilience skills that will allow you to create your authentic strategies and move closer to your dreams.

My name is Olivier Becherel and I am Mentor and Coach. I am the co-founder of Mastery to Success and we specialise in helping teens gain clarity, confidence and certainty on their path forward in life. Our clients come to us because we have over 15 years of experience of Life coaching and mentoring young adults. We have assisted hundreds of clients develop resilience and gain clarity and confidence on their unique path forward in life.

So, if you are looking for a Mentor and Coach to help your teenage son or daughter get a clear direction in life get in touch with us and let’s have a chat and see if I can help you. Request your complimentary 60-minute session  now.

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3 Ways The Brain Creates Meaning

3 Ways The Brain Creates Meaning

by | May 2, 2017 | Decision-making, Understanding the Brain |

Every person I meet wants to live a happy life.

Living a happy and fulfilling life relies on being able to draw meaning out of everyday experiences. One way to find more meaning is to better understand how we create it ourselves.

The more we understand how the brain creates meaning, the better we can communicate, and the better we can think and collaborate together.

Cognitive psychologists now tell us that the brain doesn’t actually see the world as it is, but instead, creates a series of mental models through a collection of “Ah-ha moments,” or moments of discovery, through various processes.

The processing begins with the eyes. Light enters, hits the back of the retina, and is circulated, most of which is streamed to the very back of the brain, at the primary visual cortex. The primary visual cortex sees just simple geometry, just the simplest of shapes. But it also acts like a kind of relay station that re-radiates and redirects information to many other parts of the brain. As many as 30 other parts that selectively make more sense, create more meaning through the kind of “Ah-ha” experiences.

Let’s focus on simply 3 of them:

  • The ventral stream recognise what something is – It’s the “what” detector. That’s the part of the brain that is activated when you give a word to something, in other words put a label to something.
  • The dorsal stream locates the object in physical body space
  • The limbic system is the part that feels. It’s the kind of “gut centre”, where you see an image and you go, “Oh! I have a strong or emotional reaction to whatever I’m seeing.”

The combination of these processing centres help us make meaning in very different ways.

When you look at an image, a good graphic invites the eye to dart around, to selectively create a visual logic. The act of engaging, and looking at the image creates the meaning – it’s the selective logic. The limbic system is activated when we see motion, when we see colour, and there are primary shapes and pattern detectors.

We make meaning by seeing, by an act of visual interrogation.

The lessons for us are three-fold.

  • Use images to clarify what we’re trying to communicate.
  • Make those images interactive so that we engage much more fully
  • Augment memory by creating a visual persistence.

Making images meaningful has three components:

  • Making ideas clear by visualising them
  • Making them interactive.
  • Making them persistent.

In Nutshell:

Understanding the how the brain makes meaning and tapping into its mechanics by using images can be useful to solve a wide range of problems, better remember things and make more sense of the information we deal with. A picture is worth a thousand words…

My name is Olivier Becherel and I am Mentor and Coach. I am the co-founder of Mastery to Success and we specialise in helping teens gain clarity, confidence and certainty on their path forward in life. Our clients come to us because we have over 15 years of experience of Life coaching and mentoring young adults. We have assisted hundreds of clients develop resilience and gain clarity and confidence on their unique path forward in life.

So, if you are looking for a Mentor and Coach to help your teenage son or daughter get a clear direction in life get in touch with us and let’s have a chat and see if I can help you. Request your complimentary 60-minute session  now.

REQUEST NOW
The Key is Perspective

The Key is Perspective

by | Apr 11, 2017 | Live on Purpose |

From time to time, we find ourselves doubting…

  • We may doubt about our knowledge, our intelligence, or our abilities…

  • We may have doubts about our purpose, or our path…

  • We may have doubts about who we think we are, or who we would like to be/become…

  • We may have doubts about what we (really) want to achieve in life…

  • We may have doubts about the people around us…, or our relationships…

  • We may have doubts about what to do next…

Often these doubts come about for a simple reason. We lack perspective.

We see things disconnected, limited, incomplete… We focus on the details, and as a consequence, we feel overwhelmed, frustrated because we’re missing the big picture.

The order that naturally exists in our life escapes us…

If you are currently feeling, stuck, lost, no knowing what to do or where you are going…

Take a moment to press pause, switch off all distractions (external and internal), and get comfortable with yourself.

Relax and take a few deep breaths… get into your body, feel it, and focus on your heart as you imagine breathing in and out through your heart… After a couple of minutes, breathing in and out from your heart, then simply ask yourself:

  • What’s the One Thing that has remained constant/similar throughout my life?

  • Why is that important?

  • Where is it leading me?

Once you’ve answered these 3 questions, notice how your doubts started to fade away… You’ve just reached a higher perspective of yourself by reconnecting your mind and body.

In Nutshell:

When you doubt yourself and your life, it’s time to press pause and get some perspective on your life. Look for the common thread in your life… and start to appreciate how all the little pieces (which appear random at first) are actually connected. You’ll soon find a greater appreciation for yourself and your life because nothing is ever missing…

My name is Olivier Becherel and I am Mentor and Coach. I am the co-founder of Mastery to Success and we specialise in helping teens gain clarity, confidence and certainty on their path forward in life. Our clients come to us because we have over 15 years of experience of Life coaching and mentoring young adults. We have assisted hundreds of clients develop resilience and gain clarity and confidence on their unique path forward in life.

So, if you are looking for a Mentor and Coach to help your teenage son or daughter get a clear direction in life get in touch with us and let’s have a chat and see if I can help you. Request your complimentary 60-minute session  now.

REQUEST NOW
The Game Of Life

The Game Of Life

by | Apr 4, 2017 | Live on Purpose |

What people really need and demand from life is not wealth, comfort or esteem, but games worth playing.

Seek, above all, for a game worth playing.

Such is the advice of the oracle to modern man. Having found the game, play it with intensity and authenticity, play as if your life and sanity depended on it. Well, because actually they do…

If life does not seem to offer a game worth playing, then invent one…

For it must be clear, even to the most clouded intelligence, that any game is better than no game.

 “The only game worth playing is the Master Game, the aim of which is true awakening, full development of the powers latent in man” – Robert S. De Roop.

In Nutshell:

You are unique, so go create your own game of life, play it fully, intensely and whole heartedly. When you you do, you’ll realise that you there is no competition with your authentic self, and that’s when you you start living fully…

My name is Olivier Becherel and I am Mentor and Coach. I am the co-founder of Mastery to Success and we specialise in helping teens gain clarity, confidence and certainty on their path forward in life. Our clients come to us because we have over 15 years of experience of Life coaching and mentoring young adults. We have assisted hundreds of clients develop resilience and gain clarity and confidence on their unique path forward in life.

So, if you are looking for a Mentor and Coach to help your teenage son or daughter get a clear direction in life get in touch with us and let’s have a chat and see if I can help you. Request your complimentary 60-minute session  now.

REQUEST NOW
Response-ability

Response-ability

by | Mar 21, 2017 | Managing Emotions, Overcoming challenges |

Responsibility is usually easy when we have a good day or when things work out the way we expect. In those circumstances, we happily take responsibility for what we have created… However, on tough days, we might say ”My work is overwhelming” or “my boss is really frustrating”.

But… is that true?

If only we could understand that this is impossible. Work can’t overwhelm you, someone can’t frustrate you, because these are external objects and they have no direct access to your mind…

Epictetus, the stoic philosopher said

“There is nothing good or bad outside my own reasoned choice.”

Those emotions you feel, as real as them are, come from the inside, not the outside. We can’t blame other people for making us feel stressed or frustrated.

We all have a choice, because we are the one in charge.

The cause of irritation, or our notion that something is bad, comes from us – our labels, our beliefs, our expectations, or our assumptions. The cause is within us, and the people or objects we project those labels and expectations onto are simply targets.

The cause of my irritation is not in this person, but in me…

Timeless wisdom to remind ourselves of that distinction – everything originates from within and it’s our responsibility to own whatever we project… Its’ only by taking ownership that we can retain our power to effect change.

In Nutshell:

However you feel starts from within. Good or bad, happy or sad, no one and nothing can make you feel this way without your consent. Take responsibility for how you feel, so you can then decide to change the way you feel…


My name is Olivier Becherel and I am Mentor and Coach. I am the co-founder of Mastery to Success and we specialise in helping teens gain clarity, confidence and certainty on their path forward in life. Our clients come to us because we have over 15 years of experience of Life coaching and mentoring young adults. We have assisted hundreds of clients develop resilience and gain clarity and confidence on their unique path forward in life.

So, if you are looking for a Mentor and Coach to help your teenage son or daughter get a clear direction in life get in touch with us and let’s have a chat and see if I can help you. Request your complimentary 60-minute session  now.

REQUEST NOW
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words…

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words…

by | Mar 14, 2017 | Live on Purpose |

In Nutshell: There you go, our coaching framework – The Success Blueprint™. All you need to know, be and have to live a purposeful and prosperous life…


Dr Olivier J. Becherel

Dr Olivier J. Becherel

Co-founder of Mastery to Success - The Human Potential Academy

Dr Olivier J. Becherel is a Human Potential Activator who integrates Neuroscience & Human Potential to optimise performance and wellbeing. His mission is to help senior executives in the Health & Life Sciences industry realise their goals, stay cool under pressure, and break free from the invisible traps that can slow down and/or stall their performance, career and success.

To learn more, visit MasteryToSuccess.com.au

The real freedom

The real freedom

by | Mar 7, 2017 | Decision-making |

We’re all complicated people. We have multiple sides to ourselves – conflicting wants, desires, and fears. The outside world is no less confusing and contradictory. If we are not careful, all these forces – pushing and pulling – will eventually tear us apart.

Furthermore, it is sad to consider how much time many people spend in the course of a day doing things they “have” to do – obligations we needlessly accept out of vanity or ignorance.

Consider the actions you take in order to impress other people or the lengths you’ll go to fulfil urges or sate desires you don’t even question.

Seneca once said “No slavery is more disgraceful than one which is self-imposed.”

If we don’t focus on our internal integration – on self-awareness – we risk external disintegration…

Take an inventory of your obligations from time to time.

  • How many of these are self-imposed?

  • How many of them are truly necessary?

  • Are you as free as you think?

In Nutshell: Take the time to reflect on what you do and determine whether it’s really congruent with who you are, or you just doing it to please others… Self-awareness through reflection and introspection is the only real key to freedom.

Dr Olivier J. Becherel

Dr Olivier J. Becherel

Co-founder of Mastery to Success - The Human Potential Academy

Dr Olivier J. Becherel is a Human Potential Activator who integrates Neuroscience & Human Potential to optimise performance and wellbeing. His mission is to help senior executives in the Health & Life Sciences industry realise their goals, stay cool under pressure, and break free from the invisible traps that can slow down and/or stall their performance, career and success.

To learn more, visit MasteryToSuccess.com.au

Business rules or Life rules, both are the same

Business rules or Life rules, both are the same

by | Feb 28, 2017 | Managing Relationships |

In business, success is based on the following three rules:

  • Distinction

  • Excellence

  • Service

However, if you think about it, these three rules also apply to life and friendship, which is by the way one of the most important part of our journey.

We are as born social beings. Alone, we only have a limited chance of surviving and thriving. Only with social, family and friendship support and challenges can we evolve in our terrestrial journey…

So, let’s quickly have a look at the parallel between business rules and life rules:

  • Distinction: Being unique, delivering unique value and content to our customers and clients. The more influential we become, the more we have to display our uniqueness to our fans and followers. A fan or a follower is someone who has a strong interest in or admiration for someone “famous”.

Well, this also applies to life. Being yourself, delivering unique value and information to your entourage, family, friends, colleagues, and loved ones.

The truer you are to yourself, the more authentic and congruent you are, the more others will appreciate you, trust you, and follow you, both in life and in business.

Strengthening that invisible bond that exists between friends, loved ones, colleagues, and peers is the foundation of our society. That invisible bond is what gives purpose and meaning to our lives and to the lives of those we meet and greet…

  • Excellence: Excellence is about giving your greatest effort and caring enough about your career, customers, and clients to make sure the value your bring is equal or better than anything else out there. It’s striving to be a master and a leader in what we do. Developing an obsessive focus on being the best at what we do and challenging our customers to be their best in everything we teach them to do.

The sad truth is that most people do not have someone in their lives to push them to grow as a person and become better at what they do. Be that person for your customers and clients. Challenge them to be their best selves and act with excellence.

The more you set accountability and standards for people, the more they become attached to your work and the value you are providing – because nobody else is doing that for them.

Similarly in life, the more we strive for excellence, whether in relationships with family, friends, colleagues and loved ones, the more we fill a void. A void in our life, and a void in their lives.

Become a master in what you do and do it with sincerity, passion, and genuine care. Be the best you can be with your entourage, friends, family, loved ones, and colleagues, challenges them, push them to be their best, to help them reach their highest personal potential.

Keep people accountable and set standards of excellence in your relationships, whether that relationship is professional, general, casual, deep, or intimate. Whatever you do in life, be that person for someone else and help them see their magnificence.

  • Service: Business is based on helping others by providing valuable information, skills, or tools that can improve their lives. Caring about helping others, having a deep connection with those we serve, is helping them reach their potential. Being a servant leader by always taking care of our clients ans customers.

Again, this also applies to life. Our life purpose is to help others improve their lives, so we also improve ours at the same time. We are an interdependent society, so whatever we do to others will someday, somehow, sometime come back to us. What you sow you shall reap. What you think about, and thank about, you bring about.

Always take care of the people that made an effort to meet and know you in greater depth. For those are the people that care about you, believe in you and want to see you shine. To those people, give your best, be sincere, authentic, open, caring and genuine. Treat them the same way you would like to be treated because they are a reflection of yourself, or some parts of yourself.

Take care of your relationships, because those are the most important things your could ever have, and also because you chose them, so make sure you keep them alive and well.

In Nutshell: Business rules and life rules are the same, so be an eternal student of life and business, and teach the best lessons you gain from both worlds.

Dr Olivier J. Becherel

Dr Olivier J. Becherel

Co-founder of Mastery to Success - The Human Potential Academy

Dr Olivier J. Becherel is a Human Potential Activator who integrates Neuroscience & Human Potential to optimise performance and wellbeing. His mission is to help senior executives in the Health & Life Sciences industry realise their goals, stay cool under pressure, and break free from the invisible traps that can slow down and/or stall their performance, career and success.

To learn more, visit MasteryToSuccess.com.au

The Enemy of Happiness

The Enemy of Happiness

by | Feb 21, 2017 | Decision-making |

Epictetus the stoic once said in his discourses “It is quite impossible to unite happiness with a yearning of what we don’t have.”

Very often we tell ourselves that “I’ll be happy when I….” for example “I’ll be happy when I get promoted” or “I’ll be happy when I have a lot of money” or “I’ll be happy when I’m retired…”

Conditional happiness is eagerly anticipating some future event, imagining something you desire that is going to be wonderful, looking for some happy scenario… Paradoxically, that yearning for more, better, someday is the enemy of your contentment.

Instead of yearning for something you don’t have, slow down, pause for a moment, and look around you, examine your life right now and pay attention to many things you already have and be grateful for them.

You can be happy and content right now…, If you choose to not get carried away by anticipating some future happy scenario.

Stop looking for happiness where it is not… and find it where it really is…. It’s already there at your finger tips because happiness is a choice!

In Nutshell: Instead of focusing on what’s next… focus on what’s already there, pay attention to the details and appreciate it. Happiness is a choice and you can choose to be happy right here right now…

Dr Olivier J. Becherel

Dr Olivier J. Becherel

Co-founder of Mastery to Success - The Human Potential Academy

Dr Olivier J. Becherel is a Human Potential Activator who integrates Neuroscience & Human Potential to optimise performance and wellbeing. His mission is to help senior executives in the Health & Life Sciences industry realise their goals, stay cool under pressure, and break free from the invisible traps that can slow down and/or stall their performance, career and success.

To learn more, visit MasteryToSuccess.com.au

Life lessons from Mathematics

Life lessons from Mathematics

by | Feb 14, 2017 | Decision-making |

Recently, I have been revisiting mathematics and mathematical thinking. After exploring the power and beauty of mathematical ideas from the great thinkers and great theorems, I came to realise that mathematics teach us important life lessons and frames of mind to help us to refine our thinking process and make better decisions.

Mathematics is everywhere and it can enrich our lives when appreciate it…

In order to better understand the world, find ways to gain more precision in what you see.

Mathematics help us deepen our experience of the world through 3 main aspects:

  • Measuring and counting (numbers)

  • Identify and describe shapes and forms (Geometry)

  • Deal with uncertainty and the unknown (Probability)

So today, I’d like to share 5 mathematical life lessons:

1). To be a better thinker, ask “how many?” in any situation. When you ask how many, you focus on quantitative measures of any issue. Estimating quantities or finding the order of magnitude can put various ideas into perspective, because it allows us to put some order even on randomness.

2). Constantly look for pattern to bring the world into focus. Looking for connections and associations is what makes life beautiful, but it also what gives meaning. If you master the art of associations, you have access to a tremendous number of opportunities.

3). Look for the essence of things:

Why is something true?

What is the essential feature that makes this true?

Take a complicated situation and first investigate a simple reflection (model) of it. What is it that when you look at it from different points of views, it remains the same?

Complex phenomena can be understood by looking at simple circumstances and making approximations…

4). Look at something you know and see if you can find something unexpected...

Look deeply into the simple things of life to see the hidden beauty that is already there. The law of conservation states that nothing is created nor destroyed, thus nothing is missing, it’s just present in an unexpected or unnoticed form…

Look at the opposite of what you’re interested in considering.

5). Work in the domain of the familiar and get so strong that you can apply it to the unfamiliar. Start with what you know and let what you know grow to push your boundaries and move out of your comfort zone.

 Albert Einstein said “You cannot solve a problem at the same level of thinking the problem was created.”

In Nutshell:  Mathematical thinking allows us to move from the material plan of reality bound in time and space to the abstract plan of ideas that is timeless and spaceless. Reflect on those mathematical life lessons and more importantly find ways to apply them in your daily life to gain greater clarity, precision and understanding of the world.

Dr Olivier J. Becherel

Dr Olivier J. Becherel

Co-founder of Mastery to Success - The Human Potential Academy

Dr Olivier J. Becherel is a Human Potential Activator who integrates Neuroscience & Human Potential to optimise performance and wellbeing. His mission is to help senior executives in the Health & Life Sciences industry realise their goals, stay cool under pressure, and break free from the invisible traps that can slow down and/or stall their performance, career and success.

To learn more, visit MasteryToSuccess.com.au