Two noisy incidents happened to me the other day. The first occurred on a commuter train. We’ve all probably noticed that in recent years the socially-acceptable amount of sound that can come from phones has increased sharply. The tinny sound of drum and bass emanating from earphones has been replaced by people watching streamed videos without headphones...
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Recently I was having breakfast in a very small guest house. The owner was a Basil Fawlty-type, complete with passive-a...
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I wrote this essay in 2016 as part of my coaching training with Meyler Campbell.
My relationship with Myers-Briggs has undergone a transformation. Since my first exposure to it over 15 years ago, I have gone from being a true believer to sceptic, and from sceptic to seeing it as irrelevant. Jung him...
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Have y...
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I’ve never experienced a hurricane. A real hurricane. But I know people who have, including people who live on a main hurricane route. For them, every year there is a hurricane season. And there’s the “once in ten years” hurricane. And then there’s the “once in 50 years” hurricane. Forecasting nowadays is pretty accurate so they know th...
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A crisis is, by definition, not business as usual. It requires different ways of thinking, acting, and behaving. Everyone knows this, but not everyone makes the necessary shift. One of the most consistent things I’ve heard in recent days is how manic people are, how frantic everything is, and how hard they’re working. It’s natural in the ...
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What is the proper way to react to the current situation? Ought we try and make the best of it by carrying on regardless? Should we panic or volunteer, write a novel or learn the piano? Is it ok to feel scared and must we blame others? And is work more important than family? And talking of family, is it ok to admit that one more week of being nice to each other ...
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There’s nothing like a good crisis to bring people together. At times of catastrophe and urgency, it gladdens the heart to see society embracing its shared humanity as it fights for the last hand sanitiser in the supermarket. Self first, family second, and neighbours and everyone else third. Seriously, if ever there was a time to listen to the advice of Corpor...
Read MoreThere are many things that I can be accused of but being a dedicated follower of fashion is not one of them. My hairstyle, for instance, is essentially unchanged since the late 60s. And recently I was going through some family photographs with my grown-up daughter when we came across a photograph of me taken 15 years ago. There I was wearing a blue shirt with a blue sleeveless jumper and beige ...
Read MoreIt is curious that nowadays when asked “how are you?”, the fashionable answers are “good” and “busy”. Variants include “good but busy”. For the word good I think we can all blame Friends, but for busy we have to blame ourselves and, by extension, society at large. We have become a civilization of doers. We define ourselves by what we do and success is measured by activity...
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