Posts in Dr Mike's Blog
My GP’s theory

My GP is a fascinating man. He knows all these obscure things and treatments. He always likes to see me because I have exotic symptoms that he regards as a test of his trivia trove (and they are trivial). One of his trivia titbits is that there is a part of the brain called the locus coeruleus which is responsible for filtering out unwanted sounds.

Read More
When coaching, practice is perfect

My youngest son is a wonderful musician, already better than I will ever be. He was born with musical talent (he owes me for that), but he learned to be a musician, and he owes a great teacher and a determined mother for that.

Mrs T said he had to practice for 30 minutes a day and every night his mother made him practice for at least that (sometimes with a timer and often with a lot of resistance).

Read More
The missing piece of the puzzle

After 15 years I’ve worked out what we do here and why it works so well.

I’ve always practiced “outside in” – bringing the world to my inbox via subscriptions to bloggers, periodicals, newspapers and book reviews.  This has its downside as a couple of them are American magazines (The Atlantic and New Yorker) and I can lose up to 20 minutes a day Trumping.

Read More
When it happens (as it does)

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but sh*t happens. Often. All the time, to varying degrees.  We’re rolling along happily, and then avvompha! We get knocked off our stride.

Last year we were working on a big initiative. Great opportunity, wonderful relationship yadda yadda yadda. The great opportunity got smaller and smaller until it was whatever the opposite of opportunity is.

Read More
Your best intentions will fail unless you do this

Good intentions, we all have them. We begin the new year full of vim and vigour and a whole lot of resolutions to do things better, differently and with more conviction. But it is normally a matter of weeks (if not days) and we are right back to our habits of 2017.

We’re working too many hours, feeling stressed, eating the wrong things, skipping workouts, missing time with the kids, cancelling date nights, and so the cycle continues.

Read More
Make it work

It’s all very well to set Most Important Goals. They establish what we rationally consider to be our priorities. They represent our beliefs about what’s important – they're our convictions.

But priorities are only meaningful if they involve choice and sacrifice. In those moments when honouring the priority involves inconvenience, disruption, additional effort on the part of yourself or others, then your commitment to priority is tested.

Read More