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...

So what the heck do I mean by 'are you a stone or a sponge?'   Well, I'm hoping there's lots of sponges out there! It's simply another way of describing how we think and behave.  In recent times, companies have started to realise that creating the right kind of culture is top of their list.  It's simple really when you think about it, build a safe, welcoming environment, keep your employees happy - boom, winning at life, or winning at business should I say. Stones are seen as being very rigid in their thinking, not willing to learn new things or listen to other people's ideas.  They tend to do their own thing and go their own way without really taking other people's feelings into consideration. Sponges do exactly what it says on the tin, they're willing to soak up new information and learn different ways of doing something and they will always listen to others.  They may not agree 100% all of the time but they'll listen and be willing to hear o...

Don't let anyone say that you can't Following on from last week's blog which focused on how to be less judgemental, I'm going to have a little rant this week as it's still very much along those lines. Apologies in advance as I am going to focus on one specific area but I'm pretty certain we will all have experienced some kind of prejudice during our lives. For some unknown reason, it's become perfectly acceptable in the western world to write people off when they reach a certain age and, in particular I'm sorry to say, this mainly applies to women.  Women become 'veterans' at age 35 in running categories and are also classed as 'geriatric mothers' when having a baby at this age.  How insulting! So it's very easy to understand why we develop a complex about age and find ourselves saying "No I can't do that, I'm too old".  It makes my blood boil.  Who exactly are these mysterious people that suddenly decide we're t...