Monthly Archives: March 2014

One of my favourite sayings, other than that great politician Tony Blair’s “now is not the time for soundbites [but] I can feel the hand of history on my shoulder”, is that “everything in life is a trade-off”. Now, this saying can be applied to many situations, be it the hassle you put up with from your other half when staying at the pub for ‘one for the road’, the pushback from your body when you’ve gone the additional mile in training, or the benefit of deferred gratification when you make a spending splurge after a long period of parsimony. However, in [...]

Dear reader, have you ever noticed how significantly your immediate environment can dictate your state of mind and outlook? If your office, the weather or geographical location are sub-optimal, then it's only too easy to have equally grey, despondent thoughts. Over the last few editions of this column, I've touched on post-bonus blues, job insecurity and lack of respect/professionalism in the industry as topics. I suspect that it is no mere coincidence that those articles were written in the 'mizzle' of a Scottish winter or the equally depressing environs of a soulless office space in Central London. However, by contrast, I'm writing [...]