I was singled out. Excluded. The one kid in class who didn’t get his song played at the school Christmas party. Each one of us 9 or 8 year-olds could choose one song to be played at fun-day, the final day before the Christmas holiday. My choice was easy. The Boomtown Rats were my favourite band at the time. It was far from common for a kid at that early stage of life to be into a post-punk/new-wave rock outfit like the Rats, but I loved them. The year before, their song ‘Rat

I want to start with a ‘disclaimer’, or maybe it’s ‘full disclosure.’ I don’t want to sound judgy, but I know what I say below might seem judgmental. It’s not intended to be. It’s intended to share what no longer makes any sense to me, and the reasons it doesn’t. During the mid-day break on a coaching immersion with a client this past week, I opened my phone to check my messages. I had some e-mails, some messages on WhatsApp, some on Facebook and some on Instagram. Having rea

“This is one of those 2 mugs of coffee starts to the day,” I said out loud to the only person in the room: me. It was 7.20am and still gloomy. The thick February cloud cover tempered the post-sunrise light, and my home office was dark. The kettle made early signs of life as it began to heat the water for my first caffeine hit. The ceiling light was on in my office, but it didn’t seem to be doing much good. I’d worked late the night before, having unplugged my laptop and taken