About 4 months ago, I had an idea for a physical challenge that would test me beyond the physical. One that would also challenge me on a mental and emotional level. The idea was simple – the year is 2024 so why not attempt to do 20 hours of exercise over a 24 hour period!…
Having studied the psychology of wellbeing and subsequently trained specifically in the area of how to measure and evolve wellbeing in organisations, my lived experience is that a huge amount of companies don’t quite know where to start and so their efforts are often limited to food, fitness and mindfulness interventions. All very valid and…
The clock had just hit 8.10pm, our 4 and 2 year old children were in bed and my wife Colette was also in bed feeding our 7 week old. The washing up was done, the place was moderately tidy so I poured myself a cup of decaf tea, and turned on Netflix to find a…
I remember the moment when it dawned on me. I was sitting in a module called human performance in the final year of my psychology degree. The dawning moment was a realisation that some of the psychological knowledge being absorbing, was putting words on areas I had a deep lived experience of. Terms such as…
When I return from an adventure trip or expedition, I often find I want a period of “decompression” to enable me integrate back into my day to day life. After being away for over 2 months on the North West Passage, this period of decompression lasted a few weeks. Last year after climbing Mont Blanc,…
We were over 1,200 miles offshore and in trouble. The goal was to row our boat across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean island of Antigua but we were being pushed south by mother nature and were utterly helpless to her power. At this rate, we feared we would not only miss Antigua but potentially…
A few years ago, a good friend of mine Mark McCartney started a really interesting project called “What is a good life?”. Over the course of 3 months, Mark interviewed over 100 people from all walks of life around this one question. I was one of the people Mark chatted with and I remember having…
It was a Friday afternoon and I was coming towards the end of not only a busy week but a busy day. I hadn’t planned out the day as well as I might have, and as a result had a smaller gap than I’d like for my exercise. As my zoom call was coming to…
The times we are living in have definitely brought a more considered air of reflection for me. My godmother Irene passed away two and a half years ago at the age of 84. I was thinking about her recently and the time I went to visit her in Chicago back in 1996. She brought me…
About 4 months ago, one of my best mates suffered a brain aneurysm. Not only did he survive, but he is on track to make an incredible recovery. The levels of resilience, courage and sheer grit he (and his wife) have shown are something that will inspire me for a long time to come. I…