Category Archives: beliefs

Are You a Ghost in the Machine?

In his classic book ‘The Concept of Mind’ philosopher Gilbert Ryle argues against the concept of the ‘Ghost in the Machine’: the idea that our mental and physical worlds are two distinct realities which we vainly try to reconcile in illogical ways. Ryle argues that there is no such thing as a ‘ghost in theContinue reading “Are You a Ghost in the Machine?”

Avoiding Pain Leads to Disease

In our 21st century western societies, we have been conditioned to ‘think positively at all times’. Tons of self-help books have been written about the magical powers of positive thinking, ‘mind-over-matter’ and the dangers of not getting what we want, because of our ‘negative’ thoughts or vibrations. Our total devotion to positive thinking leads usContinue reading “Avoiding Pain Leads to Disease”

Stick to the Plan

I have to confess that I am a bit of a football fan (soccer for my American readers). I find the complexity of a fast-paced game where 11 players compete against another 11, following well-defined, but often ‘loosely’ interpreted rules, an interesting miniature experiment of life itself. What casual observers who are not remotely interestedContinue reading “Stick to the Plan”

It’s Personal, Not Business

Recently, I sat on a training course delivered by a business coach. He expressed the interesting (and quite divisive) view that you can only be a proper coach when you work on people’s businesses. He mocked the concept of a ‘life coach’ as someone who isn’t measuring any real goals. They instead waffle on aboutContinue reading “It’s Personal, Not Business”

What Are You Running Away From?

In a podcast interview I did last year, I shared my opinion that motivation is overrated. In the modern western world we live in, we overemphasize the importance of willpower and feeling ‘motivated’ in order to achieve our goals. In truth, as I wrote in a recent blog, we constantly do things without feeling motivatedContinue reading “What Are You Running Away From?”

Build Your System on Evidence, Not on Dogma 

How can we know what’s true? This is one of the big philosophical questions of our era. Philosopher Ken Wilber states that we currently live in a postmodern era conscious of the failure of the rational insights of modernism to solve the world’s problems. As a result of this, we have come to give anContinue reading “Build Your System on Evidence, Not on Dogma “

7 Lessons from Self-Releasing My Music

I am an amateur musician. I love creating and performing original music, but I have never found the nomadic lifestyle of the touring musician attractive and therefore I have never pursued a professional career as an artist. Having said that, I have been taking the business side of music more and more seriously in recentContinue reading “7 Lessons from Self-Releasing My Music”

Know Your Values- Interview with Dr Bridget NLP

In my most recent podcast conversation with Dr Bridget, my coach and NLP trainer, we discussed Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), curiosity, values, identity, goals and much more! A former GP and medical director, Bridget is now known as the Chief Unsticker: she helps business owners get unstuck from their unhelpful thinking patterns and create clarityContinue reading “Know Your Values- Interview with Dr Bridget NLP”

Why I Would Prefer a Magic Penny to Three Million (and You Should Too)

In his classic book ‘The Compound Effect’ Darren Hardy describes how the key to long-term success lays in small everyday decisions and positive actions that are repeated consistently. He gives a hypothetical example of having the choice of either accepting three million dollars now, or being given a magic penny that multiplies every single dayContinue reading “Why I Would Prefer a Magic Penny to Three Million (and You Should Too)”

What if some values are better than others?

Earlier this week, I cheekily asked in my Facebook group whether people thought their values, attitudes and beliefs are superior to those of others. As expected, I noticed some head scratching, stunned silence and quiet outrage as a result. Most of us live in a Western world where our current ‘post-modern’ values system dictates thatContinue reading “What if some values are better than others?”