Thoughts

Everything will work again if you unplug it and plug it in again, including you. Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird           Space.   I reckon it’s all too rare a thing for many of us these days. When I ask people ‘what are you most looking forward to over […]

  Back in my mid-20’s, I was on an 11-day Outward Bound course at the top end of New Zealand’s South Island. A few days into it, our group of 12 strangers found ourselves tasked with a two-day cross-country navigation exercise through some pretty rugged terrain.   After lunch on the first day, with us […]

    Yesterday morning I arrived back in Wellington after a sleep-deprived, red-eye flight from Perth. As the kids and I meandered our way into the airport’s multi-story car park, a lady kindly held the lift door open for us so we could jump in, rather than wait for the next one. She and I […]

  The picture above is a word cloud of my clients’ and colleagues’ responses to this question: “What’s the first thing you think of when you think of me?”      I have it on my wall in my office and I get to see it every day. When I’m having a tough day, just […]

  At least three people I know well have recently decided to resign from their jobs. With no new job to go to.   These are not people at the beginning of their career who are going backpacking overseas. They’re not people at the end of their career, dialling their work hours right down. And […]

  Being laid low with Covid over the past week has meant I’ve had to reschedule a lot of appointments. I was due to host a housewarming party. I had a bunch of client commitments in the calendar. And then I was supposed to be flying to Perth to visit family for the first time […]

Have you ever held a clear view on what to do about an issue, but you held back on sharing it because you thought you might be ridiculed? And later hear that very same view being later held up by the leaders as the right way to go?   Or maybe you’ve found yourself at […]

Do you ever get to the end of a week, a month, a year, in a kind of bedazzled state, and wondering if you’ve actually achieved anything for your efforts?   Last week, a client said to me “my work here is finishing. It’s been an amazing ride, but I’m not sure if I’ve achieved […]

  In Tim Ferris’ latest podcast episode, he interviews bestselling author and journalist A.J. Jacobs, who’s just published a book about the history of puzzles. I heard A.J. share this offhand idea that a good puzzle can be described in three stages: the question, the journey and the exclamation.   The question: What’s the answer? […]

  We live in an age of velocity of thought and action. Our brains process more in a month than our ancestors did in their lifetimes.   Sound familiar? You could be forgiven for thinking that it’s a modern day quote. In fact, it comes from a 19th century medical practitioner.   Hurried. We’ve been […]