A New Way of Being

Are you the sort of person who tries to combat anxiety and other challenging inner experience by practicing positive thinking? If so – this bitesize episode is for you. My guest is Dr Russ Harris, the best-selling author of the Happiness Trap. He argues that positive thinking has its place – but it is limited. So called negative thoughts are an inevitable part of the human experience – and its not...

"Language is the post powerful drug known to man" Dave Alred is one of the most in demand coaches in elite sport. He’s helped major winner is golf, elite athletes galore.. and was famously Jonny Wilkinson’s guru and mentor during his World Cup winning heyday. In this bitesize episode – Dave talks about the power of language, and how to use it to positively impact people and even get them to change...

"If you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same..." As Rudyard Kiplng was well aware, success and failure are relative. Neither change who we fundamentally are, and life goes on. One man who understands this is England cricket captain Jos Buttler, who led England to T20 World Cup success recently. When we spoke in our full length episode - number 14 in the b...

The importance of circadian rhythms for health and longevity - with Professor Satchin Panda, the world's leading expert on circadian rhythms When we eat may be more important than what we eat, and going outside to get natural light in the first half of the day can improve your mood and your sleep. As the days get shorter, this episode has some simple to implement but seriously powerful tips to hel...

"If you don't produce, you won't thrive—no matter how skilled or talented you are.” People tend to be distracted and distractable these days, and so if you can develop the powers of focus and 'find the joy in monotony', you can achieve some truly remarkable things. This bitesize episode is about how to do that - with Ebony Rainford Brent, the former England cricketer and world cup winner, who was...

So many of us learn to avoid our feelings as we grow up, and turn away from them or try and medicate them away – and that can come at a great cost. One man who knows this is the former Premier League footballer and chairman of the PFA Clarke Carlisle, who was awarded the title of Britain’s brainiest footballer. Clarke has suffered with addiction problems, and has tried to take his own life on more...

"If your emotional abilities aren't in hand, if you don't have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can't have empathy and have effective relationships - then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far." That is one of Daniel Goleman’s quotes about emotional intelligence, which was also the title of his best-selling book – which outlin...

Social belonging is a fundamental human need, hardwired into our DNA. Owen Eastwood is a performance coach who has worked with some of the most elite groups in the world, including the England football team, NATO and the Olympic’s Team GB. Evidence shows are hardwired to seek to belong and be accepted as we are, and when we are part of an organisation or team where that doesn’t happen, it is a hug...

You might know him currently as one of the most eye-catching dancers on Strictly Come Dancing, but Tony Adams is an Arsenal and England football legend. For a significant proportion of his time as one of England’s most successful footballers, Tony Adams was also stuck in the grip of alcoholism. He got clean in 1996, and proceeded to set up the Sporting Chance clinic – to help thousands of other pe...

"Purpose is about aligning yourself with what life wants to do through you" Bernardo Kastrup is a scientist and philosopher who has worked for the European Organisation for nuclear research at CERN, inside the Hadron collider - and who has a PHD in computer engineering as well as a PHD in philosophy. He argues that, instead of thinking of ourselves as separate from life, if we can recognise that t...

"Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time." Most people are super busy and the rates of burnout are soaring. So, something has to give, but the question is what? One person who came up with a brilliant formula for working out how to spend his time is Ed Jackson. Ed was a professional rugby player who broke his neck and was told he would never walk agai...

This a bit of a different episode of Life Lessons - a special episode to mark Roger Federer's retirement from tennis. As many of you know, I am a huge tennis fan, and have found Federer's play to be beautifully transcendent. I have been lucky enough to interview him on several occasions, and did the last ever one to one sit-down interview with him at Wimbledon at his last appearance in 2021. So, t...

"With discipline, people don't need rules" One of the best books I have read during the four years I have been recording this podcast is Legacy by James Kerr: about the strategies, attitudes and lessons that have enabled the New Zealand All Blacks to the most successful team in sporting history. In this episode James is talking about the power of giving people responsibility, and the example he st...

Kindness can have a profound impact on your health, your relationships, other people and the world at large - with Dr. David Hamilton Dr. Hamilton is a leading expert on the power of kindness, having written several books on the subject, including "The Five Side-effects of Kindness" He explains how even small gestures can have a profound effect, and the key role that 'the kindness hormone' oxytoci...

Taping your mouth shut at night has gone mainstream. I have been taping my mouth shut using microporous tape from Boots (for about £1.50) for about five years now. I used to hold my breath at night and suffered from brain fog - and this one hack had a transformative effect. Now the research is starting to show how powerful it can be. Best-selling author of Breath - James Nestor - is another sleep...

Here are two powerful techniques to tackle anxiety and stop uncomfortable feelings controlling you. The first is about getting out of your head and into your senses - using the 5,4,3,2,1 method The second is called the Sedona method - and is about truly welcoming anxiety, without an agenda to get rid of it. It is paradoxical - but powerful. Chloe Brotheridge - coach, therapist and author of the An...

Are you someone who eats lunch in a hurry, perhaps while catching up on emails? This might not sound hugely significant BUT it can come at a not insignificant cost, even if you have the cleanest, healthiest diet – as my guest Dr Rangan Chatterjee can explain. He talks about the ritual of lunch, about taking our time, about stepping off the daily treadmill – to be able to slip into the all importan...

Are you someone who is better at giving other people advice when they are faced with a problem than you are at helping yourself? If so - don't worry - it’s a really common phenomenon. Everyone has an inner voice. Sometimes the conversations people have with themselves can tip over into destructive rumination and self-criticism, which can affect our mood and negatively impact our physical health an...

What are you like at having difficult conversations? You know the type of thing, you have something you want to say, that needs saying – but rather than embrace the discomfort you decide it’s more bother than it’s worth and sweep it under the carpet. However – our ability to have difficult conversations and express ourselves truthfully, honestly and responsibly is one of the most important life sk...

When was the last time you were bored? For many people, not an easy question to answer. Why? The ubiquitous use of smartphones. Professor Cal Newport is the author of two seminal books, Deep Work and Digital Minimalism. In this episode he explains what Deep Work is and why it's important, and why our inability to find it is making us anxious and less effective. Smartphone use is a big factor - so...

Is your mind on a treadmill? Burnout is a modern epidemic, so – what can you do about it? The answers can be simple and don’t have to be time consuming, but it’s about trying things out and putting them into practice. Here bringing the wisdom is former New Zealand and All Black legend Sir John Kirwan, a true rugby great who suffered from severe depression during his career and has since been knich...

"How to let off steam without blowing your top and upsetting everyone around you." Professor Steve Peters is an English psychiatrist who works in elite sport, who is also the acclaimed author of the Chimp Paradox. In this bitesize episode, Steve explains how to vent to discharge emotions like anger and frustration in an effective and inoffensive way. I also take Steve's example and apply it to 'ex...

Is it time to stop striving for continual personal improvement? This episode is about challenging the idea that we always need to be better than yesterday. This continual striving to improve ourselves is such a pervasive idea – particularly in the so-called self-help industry. My guest is a performance psychologist of the very top order – the world class Katie Warriner ** Follow/message me : Insta...

"Character is doing what needs to be done in spite of pressure and fatigue" In this episode we will be hearing from Bill Beswick, the highly acclaimed sports psychologist who worked at manchster United alongside Sir Alex Ferguson during Manchester United’s hayday. The topic we are talking about is character. What does it mean? And how can one develop character? ** Follow/message me : Instagram htt...

What is flow and what does it tell us about reality? Wimbledon has a different feel this year, because someone who has captivated the audiences here for two decades is missing – Roger Federer. Now Roger’s not this week’s guest, I’m still working on that, but I am talking about Roger as an example of someone who was so able to enter flow and be inspired when he played, to the delight of people watc...