Woody Wonders

We've waited a year longer than expected but the Olympics are finally here.  I'm still unsure how I feel about them going ahead in the circumstances, which is a shame as I'm usually bat sh*t crazy with excitement.  However, I'm determined to get behind Team GB from afar and let's hope they put a smile on our face. I've always been fascinated by the Olympics from an early age, my first experience of watching them was 1976 in Montreal and although a little too young at six years old to completely understand what was going on, I knew it was something special.  When they next came around in 1980 with Coe vs Ovett in Moscow, I was completely hooked.  By the time London 2012 arrived, I thought I was going to implode with excitement!!  On my home turf, there was no way on this earth I was not going to be there in person and, to top it off, I was there on 'Super Saturday'. Sport is a powerful tool in bringing people together, even more so at the Olympics which i...

I've always had a love / hate relationship with change.  I love change when I'm the one in control and making it happen.  In fact, there's nothing I enjoy more than mixing up my routines, learning something new, going to new places and challenging myself.  I hate change when it's not me who's doing the changing and I feel out of control. When it comes to change, I've always associated  'anticipation' with excitement about a positive change and 'anxiety' with changes that I'm feeling not so good about.  To throw something else into the mix, I've discovered there's such a thing as 'anticipatory anxiety' which is defined as '... when a person experiences worry and fear when thinking about an event that may or may not occur in the future' . I thought it was quite apt as many companies, including my own, have started communicating to their employees about returning to work and what the future will look like.  16 months on...

Tonight, England take on Italy in the final of the Euros!  I have to admit that, along with the rest of the country right now, I'm a little bit in love with Gareth Southgate.  Win or lose (hopefully win!!), you know that first and foremost he'll be ensuring his players and the team around him are ok.  Throughout the whole competition, in fact, from the moment he took on this mammoth role, he's acted with honesty, integrity and professionalism.  But what I admire most of all, is that he's had the conviction to follow his own path. When it was announced that Gareth (yes, I'm on first name terms now) was going to be the new England manager, some people criticised the decision and said he was too weak, not exciting enough, too nice etc etc.  I think we've all seen him prove people wrong over the last few years and he's shown b***s of steel to follow his own path. He hasn't always chosen the team that the public, and the media, wanted to see, he's gone fo...

I've been thinking about ageism quite a lot recently and how it can affect us, and no, before you accuse ME of being ageist, I'm also referring to how it affects young people too.  In fact, it can affect many age groups - children, teenagers, adults, senior citizens.  Obviously, most of this blog will feature on ageism from my point of view and the age I am now because that's simply where I'm at right now. Think back to when you first started out in your career, no doubt you were anxious, nervous, self-conscious and worried that you wouldn't be taken seriously and that other people would think you had no experience or knowledge As you get older, you start to experience very similar feelings, anxious, nervous, self-conscious and worried that people will also be thinking you've lost your drive and ambition and that you're not up-to-speed with how fast technology is moving and such like. Before I started in my current role, I went for an interview at another co...