How's your day looking? Packed calendar? Back to back meetings? Trying to keep abreast of Teams, Slack, Whatsapp, email and have normal conversations with actual people? Yep, I've had plenty of days like that too. I wrote something recently about the need to take time over each weekend to pause and renew ourselves for the … Continue reading Pause
I really enjoyed thinking about and working on my recent post on habits. I spent a little bit of time jazzing them up further and compiled the whole thing into a PDF over on LinkedIn. It's free to download from there so please help yourselves: CLICK THIS LINK
It's been a weird few months hasn't it? Globally and nationally, obviously, but for many of us personally too. Certainly has for me. On March 16th I went into my employer's office in Birmingham, little suspecting that it would be the last time I ever did. The following day, all who could were working from … Continue reading The times they are a-changin’
Do you have goals? Things you want to achieve one day? I do. I have measurable goals mapped out in all areas of my life for the next 15 years. These are then worked back in greater and greater levels of granularity to goals in 5 years, 1 year, 6 months, 1 month, 1 week, … Continue reading 6 simple ways to develop new habits
Something I've known for a very long time is that I need to spend more time being still. Time doing nothing but pausing to think. There are plenty of great examples (not least among which Stefan Sagmeister's superb TED talk) of the times when we're able to stop and think becoming launchpads for the successful … Continue reading Movement as meditation
One of my favourite books is James Cracknell and Ben Fogle's "The Crossing". It tells the story of the authors' attempt at the Atlantic Rowing Race in which, inexperienced and unprepared, they rowed almost 3,000 miles from the Canary Isles to the West Indies. It's incredible and inspiring stuff. The overwhelming feelings I took from … Continue reading The open ocean
Some years ago, I worked for a company who had developed a genuinely great product. Technologically better than the competition. More advanced. Reduced whole-life costs. The future made real. The only thing is, no one wanted to buy it. No matter how much we explained, in pitch after pitch, the significant benefits of this product against its peers. What every … Continue reading Are you trying to sell a Betamax?
I am definitely one of life's note-takers. Over time, keeping notes has become one of the most important practices in helping me to live an intentional life, seek purpose and work effectively. Whether I'm in a meeting, at church, in a cafe or whatever, I always have a notebook with me. I write things down … Continue reading The notebook: analogue in a digital world
Take your pick. Get off the fence. Choose a side. But I was made for balance. I'm equally at home in the country or the city. In the UK or abroad. In silence or with other people. I live in the space between the two and my life is the richer for it. Do we … Continue reading On balance
This week, I've been taking advantage of the lovely weather to get some outside DIY done. The front of our house was starting to show its age and so some serious TLC has long been in order. By far the biggest job has been leveling the front garden to widen our existing driveway. Older kids … Continue reading In praise of monotonous work
