Blog Posts

Why Change Is a Systems Issue and What Leaders Need to Assess First Notice how differently you see yourself, other people, and the world when you’re well rested, the sun is shining, or you feel supported by someone you trust. Nothing external has changed. But everything feels different. That shift is not about mindset or attitude . It’s about capacity. This builds on a simple principle that runs through all my work: sustainable change starts with capacity, not pressure. When

Why January Is the Hardest Time to Change and What We’re Missing Last week, I wrote about the idea of capacity before change , the often-overlooked truth that sustainable change doesn’t begin with willpower, goals, or better habits. It begins with whether our internal systems have the capacity to support something new. I’ve found myself thinking about it even more this week. The children are back at school and university. The house is quieter and routines are slowly re-emergi

Why the future you want requires building internal capacity first The first blog of the New Year always carries a certain weight. Not the loud, goal-setting kind, but the quieter kind, the one that invites honesty before momentum. As I sat down to write this year’s first words, an uncomfortable truth surfaced. Things inside me and outside me are changing all the time, whether I like it or not: my body, my energy, my capacity, the season of life I’m in, and the world around me

Opening: A Return, A Reckoning The moment I landed in New York, a wave of sensory memory hit me—the sharp tang of city air, the layered...

Why Change Feels So Hard (And How to Make it Easier) The neuroscience of resistance, energy conservation, and a metaphorical boulder Have...

All too often, we jump in to solve challenges by going straight to the brain, and in doing so, miss a crucial step. The nervous system is...

Most leaders don’t struggle because they lack strategy, intelligence, or ambition. They struggle because, under pressure, they rely on stories that help them stay operational   even when those stories quietly undermine health, judgement, and long-term effectiveness. As the year closes, many leaders review outcomes, performance metrics, and plans for next year. The more consequential review is this: What internal patterns shaped the decisions I delayed, avoided, or pushed thro

Today I noticed my feet were icy, I’d been sitting for hours, focused on writing and 'forgotten' to move! At first I was just uncomfortable, then I realised my concentration was slipping. Instead of getting annoyed, I got curious. Cold hands and feet are small, but meaningful signals. They’re the body’s way of whispering that energy and circulation are running low . Underneath that chill is a story about your nervous system, metabolism, and brain energy. The Nervous System St

How shifting from judgment to curiosity changes everything We all know the feeling: the task looms, the to-do list grows, and somehow…...

We’ve all been there—feeling stuck. Not physically stuck in snow or mud, but mentally and emotionally paralysed. It’s that frustrating...

Remember the line leaders in kindergarten? Did you ever want to be chosen but weren’t, no matter how hard you tried? Teachers selected...

This week’s newsletter focuses on the chemical messenger (hormone) cortisol, in particular what happens when levels are disrupted due to...

Can you guess what caused my readiness score to drop from a peak of 97 and an average of 86 to 74? In my previous newsletters I have...

Have you ever tried to change something about yourself? How did you find it? How about changing someone else or for that matter an...

Over the last few weeks, the roads around our village have been flooded several times, sometimes so much so there was no way out and we...

I’ve had unpleasant sensations in my right heel for almost two years… the details of which I won’t bore you with. However, I will share...

I was listening to Louis Theroux on the radio and I learned a new word- SPELUNKING. This word got me thinking, I like the way it sounds...

1. Stick to a sleep schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day. As creatures of habit, people have a hard time...

It's free, always with you your breath! 5-FINGER BREATHING is an easy way to develop the skill of slow, deep rhythmic breathing, aim for...