A Bit Of A Boost

If you're a fan of A Bit Of A Boost you've probably read your fair share of personal development books, listened to other podcasts or watched inspirational and uplifting videos.   But how much of it do you put into practice when the right moment arises?   Personal development is less about the accumulation of knowledge and more about the implementation of new approaches.   To do that we need to be...

This week I'm joined by Jack Kavanagh to talk about resilience, inspiration, grief and change.   Jack's a pharmacist and speaker on health & wellbeing and his personal story is simultaneously tragic and uplifting.   In 2012 he suffered a life changing spinal cord injury leaving him with just 15% muscle function, and as he shares his story there's a real honesty and vulnerability that comes through...

I have always been fascinated by the power of the mind to help you accomplish more and effectively change your reality.   It's something I've leveraged in nearly every aspect of my life, from relationships to health and fitness, challenges and my business.   When I read Dave Robson's book 'The Expectation Effect' I made pages of notes and got some big takeaways that I've since gone on to apply.  ...

in April 2020 Robert Glynn was given 12 months to live following a terminal cancer diagnosis, 2 months after losing his father to cancer.   He was also offered the chance to be a part of a trial treatment at The Christie hospital, which he 'jumped at', and at the same time made some big changes to his lifestyle through nutrition and exercise.   Two years later and Rob is not only still with us but...

I'm joined today by Emotional Empowerment and Wellbeing Coach Daniel Dzikowski to talk about 'letting go' of stuck emotions.   This is something he introduced me to when we first met at an event and I was really intrigued to find out more, so I invited him on the podcast to explore it!   Early on in our interview I became aware that understanding this was something that was going to take full conc...

My guest on this week's episode is mental health nurse, speaker and educator, Alex Williams.   Alex has almost 2 decades of clinical experience working with patients suffering from severe cases of mental ill health. Over the years as he has helped these people he has made a number of observations about mental health that don't often get discussed.   He also has a powerful personal story of overcom...

Today's guest is a friend of mine and fellow fitness enthusiast, Greg Williams, who has established himself as the go-to guy for everything and anything related to Hyrox - the emerging sport of fitness racing.   Greg is the man behind the RoxLyfe website and YouTube channel, and as well as sharing information on tips and techniques to train for and approach a Hyrox event he has interviewed some of...

Today's guest is a lady who I came across in a Facebook group for marathon runners, and after reading some of her jaw dropping story I knew that she'd make a great guest for the podcast.   Rachel Kennedy is a runner, and just a few short years ago she was a complete beginner. In fact, she describes how she despised anything related to athletics - at school she was sick a lot with asthma, was - as...

I'm joined today by leading lifestyle behaviour change specialist Dr Heather Mckee to talk about one of my favourite topics, habits.   Having studied health behaviour change psychology for 10 years, her mission is to offer a sustainable, evidence-based alternative to an industry saturated with quick fixes and health fads.   In today's conversation among other things we talk about: - What is a habi...

The previous strategies I've been sharing in this series are applicable in most areas of life but the ones I have for you on today's episode are focused on training mindset.   There may be some carry over to other areas as well but I wanted to put together some of the top strategies that I regularly use with my own training in case as some of them may be of value and benefit to you.   There are 10...

Part 5 of the mini-series of mindset strategies is 'deliberate discomfort'.   Life inevitably involves brief moments of physical discomfort, whether it's carrying heavy bags around an airport or having to run to catch a bus.   If you're used to training and pushing yourself as a part of your exercise routine, you can use the Deliberate Discomfort strategy to reframe these moments  and  boost the m...

Part 4 of this mini-series of mindset strategies is another one that can be boiled down to a short and snappy phrase: control the controllables. I t's one that could application across many different aspects of your life, particularly when you find yourself feeling overwhelmed.   We're going to take a look at what it means, where it comes from, and how adopting it could potentially benefit you.

Part 3 of the mini-series of mindset strategies is 'cast a vote'.   This phrasing comes from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, where he talks about 'casting a vote for the person you want to be'.   In this week's episode we take a look at how we can use small habits to reinforce a part of our identity that is important to us. Related quotes that we dig into is Aristotle's 'we are what we repe...

Part 2 of the mini-series of mindset strategies, is the 'Fertile Garden'.   This comes straight from a Bruce Lee quote where he says "The mind is a fertile garden – it will grow anything you wish to plant – beautiful flowers or weeds. And it is with successful, healthy thoughts or negative ones that will, like weeds, strangle and crowd the others. Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind,...

A Bit Of A Boost has had a bit of a break for a couple of months but we're back with a short series of mindset strategies that have helped me over the years. Some may resonate, some may not, but they're all practical with real world application. This week's episode descibes a strategy called 'Get Out Of The Chair', which I frequently call on when I'm tackling some big project or task.  

My guest today is former World Rally Championship driver Penny Mallory, who became the first woman in the world to drive a Ford Focus World Rally car.   I met Penny at an event a few years ago and having seen her presenting numerous car-related programs on TV and listening to her talk about her specialist topic of mental toughness, I knew she'd make a great guest for the show.   We talk about her...

We all know people who are the absolute masters of their craft, whether that's as an artist, in sports or in their job. We look at people who make it look so effortless and ask the question 'how on earth do they do that!', yet often when we have mastery of an aspect in our lives we dismiss it or don't even notice it as being anything exceptional.   Parenting, in our relationships, in our own appro...

20 years ago when I started out as a personal trainer answering the question of 'what do you do?' was an easy one.     Over the course of the last 2 decades the scope of my work has expanded to include what can be broadly described as 'wellbeing & performance', but what do these words actually mean?   There are many definitions depending on who you talk to, and although I don't claim to have the d...

There's been a bit of a pause on the podcast these last few weeks because my father sadly passed away at the beginning of the month.   In today's episode I describe the process that has been helping me navigate the challenging landscape of grief in what feels to me to be a healthy and adaptive way.   Often in times like this we know that we should 'take the pressure off' or 'go easy' on ourselves,...

We all have the capacity to survive and thrive in the presence of stress.   In fact stress is the very thing that enables us to perform at our best but if the pressure grows too much we can slip into a paralysing feeling of overwhelm.   In today's episode I explore some of the areas that a state of overwhelm can impact, and some practical techniques to bring you back to a more grounded, action-ori...

Have you ever come away from an event with loads of ideas but then gone back to your day to day and not done anything with them?   Or perhaps you've listened to a podcast, read a book or watched a video and felt motivated and inspired to put things into action but struggled to bridge the gap between knowing and doing.   Today's short episode is dedicated to the simple idea of implementation, not j...

A bit of an unusual episode this week as it was produced in two parts. I interviewed a friend of mine, Mat Poole, a couple of days before he departed for the Sahara desert to take part in the infamous Marathon des Sables.   At the start of this episode I share the notes I made during this call with Mat, where I asked him about his hopes and fears, logistics and expectations of the event.   Then in...

My guest this week is cognitive neuroscientist Dr Lynda Shaw, and we spend the episode discussing the brain and neuroscience and how we can improve our wellbeing and performance.   I seem to spend most of my free time reading journals and books and studies about neuroscience and we had a great conversation!   I was really interested to hear from Lynda where the cross over lies between psychology a...

I'm joined this week by life coach and author Simon Ong, who's new book Energize has just been published.   We talk about the subject matter of the book and the importance of optimising your energy. This is a topic I'm passionate about and active with in my own work, and it was great to get Simon's take on it.   He shares some of his own journey through a decade in the corporate world and into the...

If I look back at my life it's been relatively straight forward. There was a bit of a course correction after I graduated with an engineering masters and moved into personal training, but from there on it's more or less been a series of variations on the theme of wellbeing.   I'm always fascinated by people who have lived a more unconventional life and finding out what makes them tick and I was de...