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Navigating stormy waters…and other leadership lessons
It’s years since I left the Royal Navy. Since then I’ve mainly been helping other leaders figure out how to lead. And yet every time I board a ship I have a goosebump moment. As if my body is simultaneously remembering and anticipating the feeling of being at sea. A...
It’s never too late to dream
I’ve just done a 4-day retreat with this wonderful couple. They are thinking ahead to their retirement in a couple of years and they came to my Time Out retreat to talk about what that means for them. They want to plan for their retirement in a conscious way. This is...
Finding the purpose you’ve already got
Funny how you can happily build a successful career over 20+ years in a top class organisation and then, when you stop doing doing doing, you come unstuck. Joining the Royal Navy straight from university seemed like an obvious step. As a linguist with a thirst for...
Disappointment to joy in 3 simple steps
It was a horrible Christmas. It was a great Christmas. I’d been looking forward to it for weeks. My young adult twin sons were coming home on Christmas Eve. And some old friends of ours were coming to stay with their 3 younger children. Our preparation was...
Still too busy to meditate? Try this while you eat..
Eating in calm silence; slowly; seeing, smelling and tasting your food as if for the first time; reflecting on its origin; appreciating all the effort that’s gone into producing and preparing it; and paying attention to your breathing. One of the joys of this glorious...
Don’t just do something, sit there!
A journey from the outside in Funny how you can happily build a successful career over 20+ years in a top class organisation and then, when you stop doing doing doing, you come unstuck. Joining the Royal Navy straight from university seemed like an obvious...
Too busy to meditate? Try this…
Stop. Take a breath. Notice how it feels in your body. This is your first step to meditating. In doing this you’re creating a new mini habit. Mini habits start small – even ‘stupid small’. But what matters is they start. Once you’ve taken one breath, it’s...
Breathing for energy and calm
Guest blog by Stephen Burt - executive coach, speaker, teacher and facilitator The words “vegan mindfulness retreat” sent a chill through my heart: summoning images of cold, Spartan cells, raw tofu and severe gurus. I owned up to this to my host and guide, Sally-Anne...
To unplug or not to unplug – is that the question?
Ever find it hard to get through the day without logging on to social media? Or to go more than 30 minutes without checking your messages? You may want to join thousands of others around the world in the National Day of Unplugging. It starts at sunset this...
Resolving to Change
If you’ve wavered on your new year resolutions, you’re not alone. A Guardian article highlights the fact that 63% of the people surveyed in a Bupa opinion poll last year failed to keep their new year resolution and 43% of them had abandoned theirs within a...
The Pause Tool
Do you ever feel you’ve got so much to do you don’t know where to begin? Have you ever thrown yourself into something important only to get stuck? Have you ever been frozen by fear of failure? All these scenarios, and many more, can occur when we lose our...
Think like a startup
Contemplating the glistening mountain waterfalls where I live, I breathe a deep breath of gratitude. I remind myself how lucky I am to be here, now. And how I never want to get used to this… I’ve done this every morning since the remarkable week I spent...
In me I trust?
One beautiful morning late last week I was in the company of six courageous leaders on a journey into the unknown. It was the culmination of a 4-day “bucket project”, created by Steve Stark and Jack Hubbard and supported by mountain guide Arno de Jong. I was meeting...