Thoughts

OK. So the other night I had a very strange dream. It was my birthday, and I was in the middle of hosting a big party. In the middle of it all, I got a message saying I had to go and see my new GP. So I dutifully left my own party and tootled […]

  Fear does not stop death. It stops life. Anon.   Fear. It’s part of who we are, yet it can stop us from becoming who we want to be. It keeps us safe, yet merely staying safe is no way to live.  Fear can shrink us. And it can liberate us. Fear lies behind […]

If you’re anything like me, you’ll often feel like there’s never enough time in the day to get done what you want to get done. I reckon there are three ‘isms’ that lead us to feel more hurried than we’d like: Short-term-ism If the story we tell ourselves is that how much we get done […]

  “Don’t change your behaviour. Change what shapes your behaviour, and watch your behaviour change.”   Got a gnarly problem? Most of the time, we try to solve problems by changing what we do. Faced with a challenge, we ask what can we do differently? For simple problems, that’s usually sufficient. Light bulb blown? Replace […]

Last week I was in a session with my counsellor. Yes, I see a counsellor! He’s super-helpful to help me try to make sense of my life in a turbulent world. I was sharing with him how full-on life is right now and how it just feels non-stop. It’s like I’m always ‘on’. I’m on […]

I just watched Seven Years in Tibet. Brad Pitt stars as a headstrong mountaineer who becomes a prisoner-of-war in 1930’s Tibet. After multiple solo attempts, he escapes by teaming up with his fellow prisoners. When he’s out, he says “I’m going it alone” and runs off into the wilderness. Yet another movie upholding individual heroism. […]

When he was three years old, he was stung by a bee. His mother said “what a naughty bee!” And he replied “Mum, it’s OK. I think the bee thought I was a flower.” When she was 39 years old, she got a note from the tax department saying that she was due for a […]

When you’re on a mission to change the world, you’re going to hit some headwinds. Below is a transcript from a conversation I had with a client last week about how they’re dealing with headwinds, and how they can use them…   Right now, I feel like my wings have been clipped. For the past […]

I was in conversation over a drink with some good friends the other day, and the question came up “who’s been your greatest teacher?” Inevitably, we all initially gravitated towards people who have inspired us: an old boss, an old coach or an old school teacher. You know, the usual pat answers we give to […]

You may know that I’ve been learning Wing Foiling lately. It’s kind of like being on those America’s Cup boats but on a smaller scale. You’re riding a kind of surfboard with a hydrofoil attached underneath, flying above the water powered by a ‘wing’, or sail. It’s exhilarating, and the learning curve comes with lots […]