Do you want to live the good life?

Half empty of half full?

Are you living the good life? What actually makes a life good? I love an amazing wife and our four young children. We live in a home with a spacious garden. I have good friends living close by. I enjoy working to empower other people in their lives. But it’s…

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Why I make promises I can’t keep (and what to do about it)

Broken Christmas Decoration

Promises. The world is littered with broken promises. Wild, unfounded promises. Sleazy-salesman’s promises. Solemn and sincere promises. Just-to-keep-you-quiet promises. Made-in-the-heat-of-the-moment promises. With each broken promise the sense of regret or resignation to the inveitable, “How could I have been so stupid?” or, “Did I really expect them to keep their…

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Life lessons from 1960s Computer Science

Dustbin snack bar

Logic. It’s simple. Follow a series of predetermined steps and you’ll arrive at a final outcome that is most definitely correct. What could go wrong? Unless, of course, your starting point is not what you thought it was. Then you’re really in a mess. The acronym GIGO was coined back…

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Make peace with the past

Make peace with the past

Standing at the threshold of yet another year, what are the thoughts that come to mind? No doubt a mixture of emotions will surface as you allow your mind to trace the journey of the year that was. Moments of drama, of angst and relief. Perhaps joys tainted by sorrow,…

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It’s not how you start that counts

Runners on the road

The excitement was palpable. Adrenaline pumping, fuelling enthusiastic chatter. All around happy faces, laughing and joking. Anticipation. An expectant hush falls, all listening for a sound… that sound… BANG! The starter’s gun fired and, as one, the crowd leapt to their feet unleashing a wall of sound that engulfed the…

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The contradiction of the inevitable

Sunlight behind a gravestone

Life is not without pain. Indeed, without pain there could be no celebration. We cannot know what light is unless we have known darkness. There is no sweetness in victory but for the pain of preparation and training. The pain of pregnancy and childbirth give way to the celebration of…

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One important lesson from two of earth’s richest men

telescope and city

It was on Friday the 5th of July that Warren Buffett and Bill Gates met for the first time in 1991. Buffett had little interest in Gates, who was 25 years his junior, except for the fact they were neck-and-neck in the Forbes rich-list. And as for computers? Forget it.…

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It’s time for your 60,000 mile service

Of all the days, why did it have to be today? Everything had seemed to be going so well. We were cruising along the ever-busy M25 motorway when suddenly the engine stopped, the dash flashed up a warning “Antipollution Fault”. Now, here we were, stranded on the hard shoulder; four…

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