The first week of January has a familiar energy. New notebooks. New goals. New routines.The quiet pressure to “come back strong”.To prove that this year will be different. And yet, most professionals start the year the same way:With a plan to do more. More output.More productivity.More intensity.More ambition. I’ve done that too. But over time,…
Holiday week has a funny way of revealing who we are. Not in the dramatic, movie-scene kind of way. But in the small decisions we make when no one is watching. The gym that gets skipped.The emails that pile up.The “I’ll start again in January” promise we whisper to ourselves like it’s a plan. And…
Introduction Every December, the same quiet tension returns.People look back at the year and feel a strange mix of relief and disappointment. Relief that it’s over. Disappointment that, despite all the effort, not much really changed. The conversations sound familiar: “Next year will be different.”A new role. A pay rise. More balance. More control. And…
Introduction At some point in your career, you realise you’re not simply “doing work” anymore, you’re building something. I saw this repeatedly while coaching professionals who felt stuck, frustrated, and strangely capped. They weren’t lacking talent. They weren’t lacking opportunity. What they were lacking was a shift in identity. For years, many of us have…
Introduction Every year around this time, many of us pause, take a breath, and quietly acknowledge the truth we’ve been avoiding. We’ve grown, yes, but not without paying a price. And if we’re honest, the cost often surprises us more than the achievement itself. This past year taught me that the real story of progress…
Let me start with a simple question: When the government releases a new Budget, do you feel more informed… or more exposed? If you’re anything like the UK professionals I speak to, the answer is probably both. Because on one hand, you want clarity, you want to understand what’s changing, what’s rising, and what you’re…
The traditional career ladder is vanishing. In its place is a more dynamic, varied, and potentially liberating landscape: the portfolio career. But what exactly is it, and more importantly, how do you build one successfully without getting overwhelmed? A portfolio career isn’t necessarily about inventing an entirely new professional existence. It is essentially the career…
Introduction There was a time when I genuinely believed that being busy was proof I was doing something right. A former rugby teacher even reinforced it: “You’re most successful when you’re busiest.” At fifteen, that sounded like wisdom. Years later, it felt more like a quiet curse. The calendar is filled. The to-do list grew….
The Illusion of More A few years ago, I fell into a familiar trap, the chase for “more.” You know the one. Everywhere you turn, someone is talking about having seven streams of income, passive earnings, or financial freedom through endless side hustles. It sounded exciting at first. I was running my consultancy, working on…
There comes a moment in every professional’s journey when you realise the label you’ve been carrying no longer fits. For years, I called myself a contractor. It felt respectable and secure. I was earning well, delivering projects, and ticking boxes. But beneath the surface, I was stuck in a quiet loop, chasing contracts instead of…
When I first stepped into the world of independence, I imagined one thing: freedom. No more long commutes. No more endless meetings that led nowhere. No more waiting for permission to make progress. For a while, that sense of control felt incredible, like walking into fresh air after being cooped up for years. But over…
Most people manage money based on how they feel. Consultants, on the other hand, manage it like data. That small difference is what allows them to stay calm when the economy shifts. I learned this the hard way. During the 2024 General Election, several public sector projects I was involved in were suddenly frozen. For…
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