Gudrun Smith

3 booksNon-FictionProductivitySelf-Help

Gudrun is a health and traffic psychologist, burnout coach, and the founder of SMITH-Consult, based in Lehrte, Germany. With a Dipl.-Psych. — Germany's equivalent to a Master's degree — and a background that spans academic teaching at Hochschule Fresenius in Köln and MEU Magdeburg, Gudrun has spent her career helping people understand the mechanics of stress and rebuild sustainable ways of working and living. Her practice today runs across two brands: START-with-Gudrun!, her English-language resilience coaching work for professionals and leaders internationally, and MPU-mit-Gudrun!, a fully online German-language traffic psychology practice. She has also worked with Lycra, a Zurich-based Employee Assistance Program, since 2012. Her work is built around frameworks she developed through years of clinical and coaching practice — among them the Stressor Landscape, the Circle of Control, the Perfect Day system, and the Map Breathe Deliver methodology — tools designed to make the invisible mechanics of stress visible, and manageable. She brings a rare combination to her writing: the rigor of clinical psychology and the pragmatism of someone who has also built and run her own businesses. The result is work that doesn't just explain stress — it gives readers a map through it.

Books

The Evening Shield

Protect Your Daytime Energy and Reclaim the Calm of Your Twilight Hours

Non-Fiction

Do you finish your working day feeling entirely depleted, collapsing on the sofa only to scroll numbly through a screen? Most evening routines fail not because of poor personal discipline, but because your mental stamina was squandered hours earlier on demands beyond your control. When dusk arrives, there is simply nothing left to give to your family, your passions, or yourself. In The Evening Shield, Gudrun Smith introduces the transformative Three Circles framework—a practical psychological model designed to map and defend your emotional and cognitive energy before exhaustion sets in. Through compelling, relatable case studies of professionals struggling with boundary erosion, you will discover how systemic workplace pressures silently drain your evening reserves. Learn how to identify hidden daytime micro-leaks, navigate professional resistance without guilt, and establish impenetrable boundaries that safeguard your domestic peace. It is time to stop dreading the end of the working day. Build your shield, protect your stamina, and reclaim the twilight hours you deserve.

Open Book

The Grit Trap: How the Most Determined People Get Back Up (And Why Most Don’t)

Break the burnout cycle, master strategic recovery, and build sustainable enterprise resilience

Business & Entrepreneurship
Resilience + Grit

Modern business culture sells a dangerous lie: relentless grit cures everything. Yet when crisis strikes, blind persistence often accelerates collapse. Founders, executives, and high achievers push well beyond capacity, only to find that pushing harder in the wrong direction leads to catastrophic burnout and enterprise failure. When the inevitable crash happens, the standard advice to simply "try harder" proves thoroughly useless. In The Grit Trap, strategist Gudrun Smith dismantles the myth of linear progress and introduces the crucial, overlooked discipline of the getting-up skill. This is not about toxic positivity or brute force; it is an objective, shame-free operational framework designed to audit damage, protect cognitive reserves, and engineer rapid comebacks. Through clear blueprints and practical case studies, you will discover how to: • Recognise overreach before your organisation hits breaking point • Transform failure from a personal defect into a strategic market signal • Rebuild momentum with small, high-impact reroutes rather than all-or-nothing gambles • Build institutional resilience that protects both your venture and your well-being Stop falling into the trap of endless exhaustion. Learn how to recover with clarity, poise, and lasting strength.

Open Book

Reroute: A Stress-Smart Way to Plan When Life Won’t Cooperate

How to adapt, recover focus, and make meaningful progress when circumstances disrupt your routine

Self-Help
Business & Entrepreneurship

You are not failing your plans—your plans are failing your reality. Most productivity frameworks make a fatal assumption: that your energy, time, and focus remain constant day after day. Yet when real life intervenes—a sudden work crisis, family demands, or the exhaustion of chronic stress—rigid schedules crumble. Left with feelings of guilt and frustration, we fall into all-or-nothing thinking and abandon our most meaningful goals. In Reroute, Gudrun Smith introduces a revolutionary, stress-smart framework designed around your actual capacity rather than an unachievable ideal. Treating personal planning like a sophisticated satellite navigation system rather than an inflexible railway track, this book provides the tools to establish your true starting Location, identify a clear Destination, and map an adaptable Route built to bend. Discover how allostatic load secretly drains your cognitive stamina, master the skill of recalibrating without shame when plans break, and apply practical four-week templates tailored to your life. Stop forcing unyielding routines into chaotic weeks and learn how to navigate your ambitions with resilience, clarity, and peace of mind.

Open Book