A New Way of Being

Do you believe you will be happy and fulfilled at some point in the future - perhaps when you get the right job, relationship or house? Or maybe you will find lasting fulfilment when you do something really special - like win a World Cup... Jonny Wilkinson reached the pinnacle of his sport in 2003 aged 24, when he kicked England to World Cup glory. But, rather than being left with a sense of lasti...

Professor BJ Fogg is one of the world's top experts when it comes to behaviour change. He has spent 20 years researching and teaching insights about human behaviour, and is the author of the New York Times best-seller Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything . In this episode, we discuss why forming a new habit doesn't take place in a certain number of days. The research shows repetit...

Why when we eat may be more important than what we eat. PLUS - why going outside to get natural light in the first half of the day helps a multitude of things including your mood and your sleep, while getting blue light at night - from your phone for example - has the opposite effect. As the days get shorter, this episode has some simple to implement but seriously powerful tips to help improve you...

Will Greenwood is one of England's greatest ever rugby players. He played centre and was a key member of the 2003 World Cup winning side. His crucial try helped turn the game when England were trailing Wales in the quarter-finals, and one of the most memorable photos taken after England were crowned champions feautured Will and Jonny Wilkinson in a euphoric embrace. It has been nearly twenty years...

What can you do to help someone who is battling addiction, and what are the ways we rationalise addictive behaviours? Tony Adams - who recently celebrated 25 years without a drink - helped set up the Sporting Chance treatment clinic two decades ago. In this episode - he shares wisdom around dealing with addiction. This episode is being released in response to the large number of messages and email...

Paul Merson – the ex Arsenal, Villa and England footballer turned Soccer Saturday regular has battled issues for years with drink, drugs and gambling, which he considers to be the cruellest of the lot. Paul is currently clean and doing his bit to help others – not least through his new book Hooked: Addiction and the Long Road to Recovery. It’s a stark and at times brutal account of the damage addi...

Everything you experience - like thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions - come and go. But do you come and go with them? To help answer this question is philosopher Rupert Spira, who walks us through a simple but powerful process of 'self-enquiry' ** My debut book - Champion Thinking: How To Find Success Without Losing Yourself - is available to buy from January 18. Drawing on some of my f...

Most of us believe that there is a 'thinker' in our heads, who is thinking all our thoughts. My guest this week Sam Harris - neuroscientist, philosopher, New York Times best-selling author, host of the Making Sense podcast, and creator of the Waking Up app - argues that this is an illusion. Sam says if we can clearly see this, we can largely bring an end to our own suffering. Not pain – which is i...

At Wimbledon this year, newcomer Emma Radacanu reached the fourth round, but had to withdraw with breathing difficulties. It was - it seemed - a 'bad' thing. There was concern for her welfare, and questions as to whether it would impact her future Grand Slam chances. Emma then proceeded to produce one of the all time great Grand Slam performances on the way to winning the US Open as a qualifier -...

Sally Gunnell is a British athletics Great; the only woman to be Olympic, World and European 400 metres hurdles champion while simultaneously holding the World Record. While she dominated her sport in the early 1990s – Sally admits she couldn’t have done it without the team she built around her. She was ahead of her time in seeking help with the psychological side of competing - but brought in exp...

As Shakespeare wrote, "there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so." Albert Ellis - founder of Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT) - ran with this idea and came up with a model to help identify the role belief plays in how we feel and subsequently act in the world. Sports psychologist Helen Davis explained how the model worksin our earlier episode on 'beliefs' and she step...

What lessons can we take from the approach, attitude and outlook of Roger Federer? Helping me answer that question is Christopher Clarey – arguably the top tennis journalist in the world. Chris has written a book called ‘the Master – the Brilliant career of Roger Federer’, in this episode we talk about what anyone can learn from the Swiss maestro – and Chris shares many stories to illustrate Feder...

The importance of powering your brain down several times a day. Sir John Kirwan - the All Black's legend who was knighted for services to mental health - shared this golden nugget with me. His is a fantastic analogy - when your computer stops working and you ring IT - what do they advise you to do? Switch it off and then turn it back on again! It's something we all need to be doing - but with our...

Making good choices - even when you feel like you are missing out or not progresssing as quickly as you would like. This is something Josh has done throughout his life, even in the face of peer pressure and frustration. We also talk about getting perspective in your life, stopping complaining about things that are really unimportant in the big scheme of things and why having no regrets when you ar...

Amor fati means "a love of fate". The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche quoted it as his formula for human greatness. In other words – whatever happens in your life – or whatever has happened in the past – accept it fully. Not begrudgingly and reluctanctly - but as if you had chosen it yourself. The question is - how? In this short episode we explore two ways of looking at it. Firstly, throug...

How smartphones and social media may be making us more anxious and distracted - and what to do about it. Cal Newport is the author of two seminal books: 'Deep Work' and 'Digital Minimalism'. He argues that our ability to perform undistracted work on something cognitively demanding is a vital skill to train. However, the ability to perform 'deep work' is increasingly rare - not least because of the...

Why self-sacrificing and people-pleasing can be selfish, while looking after yourself can be selfless. Ed Jackson suffered a devastating accident after diving into a shallow swimming pool and breaking his neck in 2017. He made a miraculous recovery despite being told he would never walk again. Ed first appeared on the show two years ago but this episode is very different. In this conversation we g...

The power of tapping into our internal guidance system - and trusting that it will take us where we need to go. Chrissie Wellington is one of the greatest athletes of all time: a four-time Ironman World Champion who broke the world record and retired undefeated. More importantly, Chrissie is a humble, kind and generous person (which is not always true of people who have reached such lofty heights!...

Why avoiding sport's undoubted riches and ensuing fame - and remaining grounded and humble - can be a blessing. Laura was the world's number one squash player and its World Champion. However, squash doesn't get the attention of some other sports, and is overlooked by the International Olympic Committee time and again. Using her mantra 'life can only be understood backwards', Laura has come to see...

Remembering the importance of play - with the first woman to make a British Olympic rowing team after having children. Helen Glover is already a two-time Olympic Gold medal winner, and wasn't expecting to have the opportunity to win a third. Since winning gold at Rio 2016, Helen has given birth to three children. She has a three-year old, and a pair of one-year-old twins to contend with. She had n...

In the words of one of Britain's greatest ever athletes, "complacency has a tendency to bite you on the backside". At the 1992 Olympics, Colin Jackson was hot favourite to win gold in the 110 metres hurdles, but finished seventh in the final after getting ahead of himself in the earlier rounds. Jackson won the World Championships twice thereafter and held the world record for over a decade, so he...

It may be easy to think – we all know how to breath, but many of us do it in a way that is not optimal for our health. This week’s guest is science journalist and best-selling author of 'Breath, the new science of a lost art' James Nestor. The science shows breathing through your nose is key, as is not over-breathing – something we are prone to doing, particularly when stressed. James has been par...

The importance of building strong foundations and not striving to reach your goal too quickly. Matt Little has coached Andy Murray for 15 years, and is the longest standing member of his entourage. He is a man who knows the importance of values, and of building strong foundations - rather than rushing to achieve success in the shortest time possible. It is about paying your dues and enjoying the j...

What does success mean? Is the simple 'winner and losers' narrative we hear about in sport and life too simplistic? Tim Henman reached six major tennis semi-finals - four at Wimbledon - and was ranked fourth in the world. And yet – in some quarters – there is a false narrative that somehow Tim didn't deliver, or choked when it mattered most. If that were true, then almost all of us are failures. I...

The importance of separating our self-worth and sense of who we are from what we do. As one of Britain's best swimmers, Siobhan-Marie's sense of self-worth was often bound up with her performance in the pool. When she recorded the third fastest time in history at Rio 2016, she was on cloud nine, but when her times slipped she felt like she was a failure. This isn't an issue only related to sport;...