When I was 10 years old, I knew the answer to the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I was going to be an astronaut. It was the same year as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their ‘giant leap for mankind’ steps on the moon’s surface. As a child growing up in the UK, I remember staying up all night watching the small-screen TV, as the lunar module landed at 9:17pm on July 20th, 1969, with Armstrong making history, just under 5 hours later. Of course, as a

My desk has to be tidy otherwise I can’t function. Everything in its place; outstanding tasks neatly on one side; pens and bits on the other. My laptop in the right spot at the right height and the right distance away. I can breathe. I can concentrate. I remember visiting the home of a hoarder. Newspapers were his thing. Piles of them in the hallway leading from the front door to the kitchen. Some hadn’t been read in decades; most hadn’t been touched since they day they wer

I watched the sun rise today. I sat down at my desk (in front of a window that happens to point in the right direction) and noticed the early hints of a soft yellow glow, like embers of a forgotten bonfire, warming the underbelly of dark, scattered clouds. Some mornings I don’t see it because I am too busy. But today I stopped and watched an unfolding masterpiece. And life felt good. Burnout is cruel and unjust. It rewards your hard work and sacrifice with dissatisfaction a

Sloths Are Awesome, Slow Down and Breathe: A 21-Day Guided Journal to Overcome Burnout I started this journey several years ago when I hit a season of burnout after a particularly stressful series of events. I was leading an organisation that was understaffed, at the same time as trying to negotiate a merger with another similar one. Conversations started well and there was enough enthusiasm to fuel a momentum towards a deal. And then it happened. Somewhere along the line som

Several years ago, my wife and I took two of our grandchildren to Perth Zoo. We had a great day, and one memory stands out. As we were walking around a lion enclosure, we noticed that some families were bunched in one place next to a thick, Perspex screen. We approached them and then realised why. A lioness was lying right next to it on the other side. My granddaughter worked her way through the small crowd so she could stand right next to her and just as she got there, the l

How do you handle failure? When you didn’t achieve what you hoped to. Woodpeckers are known for their ability to persevere in their hunt for food, even after many unsuccessful attempts. They will tap on many spots on a tree trunk, trying to locate insects hidden underneath the bark. Tap. Nothing there. Tap. Nothing. Tap. Still nothing. They keep going. Tap… tap… A friend of mine, Dave (not his real name), had always dreamt of working as a counsellor. He had a heart for pe

It’s not always easy to get up after a knock-down It was my first teaching job, in the roughest part of London. I would travel in from the Sussex countryside, an hour on the commuter train followed by the squashed-like-sardines experience of the standing-room-only underground tube. One time, the only space available for me was directly under a very tall man’s armpit. I have been anal about using deodorant ever since. The school was populated by 3 types of high school student.

I don’t like giving up I really don’t like giving up. It feels like failure. Failure to see through that commitment, that idea that should have worked. I have felt this several times. For example, times when I have used the same methods in several organisations only to find—surprise, surprise! The method only works in one place. In one church I pastored we set up a program to offer free English-speaking classes to people in the area, new to the country. It took off! Within