June 14, 2019

Ruled By Rules: How Good-Enough Guidelines Can Set Us Up For Painful Failure

June 14, 2019/ David Bird

Rules are important. They can be helpful. Define boundaries. Create order. All the good stuff we complained about as children and eventually learned (somewhat) to appreciate once we got older.

But some rules can set us up to fail…

May 24, 2019

High Achieving: Why Chasing Achievement Can Fail To Bring You The Feel-Good Hit You Expect

May 24, 2019/ David Bird

I went to London recently to see some friends I haven't for a while. And this might seem trivial. But it was nearly a whole day spent on connection. And well away from anything I could consider 'productive'.

Now, it's not like I wouldn't have done that in the past. I would. And did. But I'd have found myself increasingly uncomfortable as the time-to-leave drew closer and closer.

But why?

April 19, 2019

Scale Tips: How Your Social Equilibrium Can Stunt Your Efforts To Rebalance And Grow

April 19, 2019/ David Bird

Striving for good enough, I thought I had to be unfazed by everything life threw at me. Little did I realise that was the set-for-failure expectation of the perfectionist in me…

April 05, 2019

Soap Box Stress: How Your Rules Create The Very Problems You're Trying To Avoid

April 05, 2019/ David Bird

Often find yourself on edge? Like a ready-to-boil-over pan, or Jenga pile nervously awaiting the next nudge?

I used to get stressed a lot. So much hacked me off. Slow drivers. Program crashes. Blown light-bulbs. Instruction manuals that didn't make sense just by staring at them blankly for four seconds…

March 28, 2019

Killing The Urge: What Drives The Urge To Self-Terminate (And How To Combat It)

March 28, 2019/ David Bird

Suicide. It's not something we like to talk about.

Keith Flint of Prodigy. Chester Bennington of Linkin Park. Chris Cornell of Audioslave and Soundgarden. And, of course, the beloved Robin Williams. All tragic losses…

August 15, 2018

Bedtime stories: how what you believe can make it hard to sleep better

August 15, 2018/ David Bird

Do you struggle with sleep? Too little or too much, maybe always feeling somewhat tired?

I used to chronically procrastinate sleep. Eventually I discovered a belief "going to bed early = less time to do stuff = not good enough". And I've found this kind of miscalculation quite common.