I really enjoyed giving my talk on Happiness last Friday, which one of the attendees described as "awesome". We had an engaged and interested group of professionals joining in the fun and learning together. Here are the ten ideas I shared, which were taken from the best evidence-based studies on happiness: Positive Relationships – The quality of your close relationships is the strongest predictor of long-term wellbeing. Purpose and Meaning – Having a sense of purpose in life is more strongly...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Have you seen the viral interview with Scottie Scheffler at the British Open? It is doing the rounds on social media with the headline "What's the point?" And it really is fascinating. Here are some of the most eye-catching quotes: “You get to world number one and then you think, what's the point?” “This is not a fulfilling life.” “It's awesome for two minutes. Then we're back where we were.” “Why do I want this so badly? I don't know.” “I'm a sicko. I love the process.” Bit of a surprise to...
13 days ago • 1 min read
Decades of research repeatedly reveals that positive relationships are the number 1 predictor of long-term wellbeing. And so, it is always important to prioritise connection with others. For most of us that means making a little more effort to speak to friends or family and to genuinely be present for those interactions. Put the phone away! If you don't have much opportunity for that, you can still make a point of connecting. That can be a slightly longer than usual conversation with a...
14 days ago • 1 min read
I am super excited to be writing about this topic. Much of my work is about goals which usually means clients are: trying to fix something/solve a problem trying to achieve something/complete a goal But why? I mean, why do we bother? When you dig down into it, the truth is that we all want to be happier. But that can be an elusive state of being can't it? Maybe we have a great weekend, but we sink into despair on a Monday morning commute. Perhaps we love our work, but feel lonely and...
15 days ago • 1 min read
Is happiness something you are born with? Is it something you acquire? Is it an emergent property of life itself? Is it dependent on certain conditions? Is it a skill? Can you learn to be happier? I think the answer is that you can learn to be happier. You can learn skills to be happier moment to moment and you can create the conditions to have more happiness more often. How do I know this? Because I have done it myself. On Sunday I wrote a post about how challenging my life was 10 years ago....
16 days ago • 1 min read
"Why did you make your last stupid mistake?" If I ask you that, you have three basic reactions; defend yourself (fight) deflect the conversation (flight) get embarrassed and clam up (freeze) This is because the question why feels like an attack on our character. And the truth is, we don't actually know why we do most things, which is a fascinating truth about the way brains work. A better question might have been: "What were the conditions that led up to that mistake?" Now we are being...
22 days ago • 1 min read
I'm about to give you 1,000 reasons to invest in yourself and make every relationship you have better. Well, as the marketeers like to say, "up to 1,000" reasons. In just over two weeks (9-12 am, July 22nd, 2025 ), I am running my Coaching Skills for Leaders workshop online. You can read about it and put your name down here. I've run versions of this workshop to organisations and groups all over the world. Literally from Manchester to Manilla (true story). And the feedback is always great....
23 days ago • 1 min read
"You cannot sprint all day. You need deliberate decompression." Dr Andrew Huberman Work hard, then be at peace. Energy isn't infinite, but it is renewable. Stephen EXCLUSIVE LIMITED OFFER In other news ... I am running an online version of my very popular Coaching for Leaders workshop on July 22nd. Click here to find out more and join the waitlist. This time it comes with two very special bonus offers. You don't want to miss out. I only release tickets in groups of three and one place has...
26 days ago • 1 min read
Today I was drifting. Not too sure what to do for the best. Struggling to move from a period with lots of action, to a period where I have time for strategy. And so I avoided, I scrolled, I sighed, I avoided some more. It was hard to overcome. Partly because I wasn't sure where to start. And so, I grabbed a pencil and a notebook and I started writing. Not with any intention other than to keep going until I felt I'd done enough. Which took about 40 minutes. After which, my head was clear, my...
27 days ago • 1 min read