Emotional intelligence, General

The wise man built his house upon the rock…

Foundations! When planning the build of our house beside the river, a few years ago, I would look at the Houses of Parliament, built right on the edge of the Thames, and ask myself, “How hard can it be?” I was soon to find out! To make absolutely sure we [...]

Emotional intelligence, General

Stanford marshmallow experiments

  You are probably aware of the Stanford marshmallow experiments with four-year-olds in the 1960-70s, studying the tricky subject of delayed gratification. What do we want? Gratification! When do we want it? Now! Walter Mischel, thought it a good idea to leave young children in a room, on their own, [...]

Emotional intelligence, General, Learning

How keeping going keeps you going

… towards your goal. And what it costs to get you there… I think we’ve inadvertently done our kids a disservice. I also think, perhaps as a backlash against the stricter parenting we grew up with, we’ve attempted to be less demanding of our children, and to protect them from the [...]

General, Memory

BLAST from the past!

Enjoy all over again, this blast from the past: Anneka Rice’s reaction to a Harrier Jump Jet just suddenly appearing in the Treasure Hunt TV series of the early 80s. I’ve never forgotten her reaction, probably because it’s pretty much how I’d have responded too. Just watch the last 6 [...]

General, Learning

Guess who’s coming to dinner? Boris Johnson, that’s who!

Do you by any chance remember the interview given by the leader of one of the RAF Black Buck missions to protect the Falkland Islands during the conflict with Argentina in 1982? The question put to him was something along the lines of, “How do you feel about your old [...]

General, Memory

Are you well-connected?

I expect you know that your brain is divided into two hemispheres: left and right. It was once thought that each hemisphere performed a different set of discrete functions. But we know now that’s not quite true, and that whatever it is you’re getting up to, you’ll be using several [...]

General, Learning

Informal Learning

Years ago, at a networking event, run by Refer On and John Welburn, I connected with Dexter Moscow, who helped make QVC the enormous success it is today. We’ve kept in touch over the years and back in the spring he introduced me to Paul Matthews, a thought-leader in the [...]

Brain, General, Health

Music to your ears?

Are you one of those people who says that music moves you? Well, this bloke in Vancouver was moved all right! Two metres to the right, to be exact! You can try it for yourself. What you need to do is listen to your iPod with in-ear headphones, while jogging [...]

General, Memory

Music to my ears!

Thank you and a request… Wow! Thank you! More and more, I’m getting a lot of lovely things said to me, about this here newsletter. “I love reading Lysette’s newsletters. They’re beautifully written and funny too. A pleasure to read.” Clare McLoughlin, Marlow, Bucks I’ve decided to begin the task [...]

General, Learning

Connecting the dots

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” Steve Jobs Found myself sitting next to Michael Pitfield at the Chamber of Commerce Tech Forum event. What a coincidence, since he [...]