From the age of eight, I went to school hundreds of miles away from my home. Sometimes I was a whole continent away. As each school term approached, feelings of anxiety – and then dread – would settle on my soul, wrecking the final week of my holiday. It wasn’t so much that I hated school, although I mostly did.

Whether we like it or not, most of our decisions are made at a subliminal level. Advertising companies understand and exploit this on a daily basis. For example, a study of supermarket shoppers found that 77% of wine purchased was French when French music was playing over the loud speaker. When the music was switched to German, 73% of the

Simple steps to fulfilling your potential Over the last 20 years, I’ve asked thousands of people what motivates them and the reply – more often than not – is surprisingly vague. I find this curious because understanding motivations is a requirement for anyone who wants to be fulfilled and effective in their professional and personal life. Take the example of Ravi who

The statistics on stress don’t make for happy reading. It’s been called the ‘health epidemic of the 21st century’ by the World Health Organization, costing American businesses up to $300 billion a year. In the UK, 39% of people who are signed off work for health reasons are suffering from stress. Our foraging ancestors honed their ability to react almost

Many years ago, I worked with a remarkable man who’d spent 20 years as a monk before getting married, starting a family and becoming a brilliant educator. He was making a brief stop in the UK and I had the afternoon free, so I took him to Hampton Court Palace near London. I imagined that we’d go round the palace,