Log In

“Needs to work on transitions” was a comment on one of my son’s report cards. He was 7 at the time, I think. “What does that mean?” I asked the teacher. “Moving on from doing one thing and being ready to do the next. For example, not getting stuck ...

The term ‘bad news’ denotes that it’s not likely to be met with jubilation, but if we’re the ones giving it we can learn to navigate those difficult conversations with respect and understanding, and hopefully minimise the fallout. In this final inst...

When I got kicked out of clown school in Paris, (yes, you read that right. How I ended up in clown school in the first place is a whole other story. Suffice to say, always read the small print, particularly if it’s in a foreign language. When they g...

Few things make me squirm more than having to deliver bad news. It’s a task that, in the past, I have done anything to avoid. The prospect of letting someone down, giving negative feedback, or even worse, letting them go, filled me with such dread an...

Sweet talk. When we want something, it’s easy to reach for the butter and spread it on thick. Often, we don’t actually ask for what we want. Instead, we pussyfoot around it, leaving hints and clues to what we’re after, hoping the other person will p...

In a conversation recently I was told I was being aggressive. “Emphatic” is the word I would have used, but in truth it was more a spat than a chat so, being caught up in the heat of the moment, perhaps I’m not the best judge. I’m a firm believer th...

Love is … Do you remember that comic strip? It reminds me of childhood birthday cards. It appeared in the papers, just a single frame: a little naked girl and boy with a different one-line phrase about what love is. “Love is … the way to grow.” “Lov...

Every so often I’ll hear something that completely changes the way I think. Or poses a question I’d never stopped to ask. Or offers an insight I didn’t realise was missing. Of course, this happens way more frequently when I go on one of my TED talk b...

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it,” — the famous, wise words of a teenage skiver. Recently my doctor told me I needed to do less and relax more — my levels of cortisol not doing me any fav...

I have a friend who apologises for being her. The telephone rings. “Hello?” I say. “Hello Julia, it’s just Suzy…” She says it every time she calls, “it’s just Suzy”, as if to say, “I hate to disappoint but, before you get excited, it’s only little, o...