I have been thinking this week about luck. A Harvard professor I came across on a podcast made the case that luck is less random than we like to think. You create the conditions for it by saying yes to things, by being in the room, and by not letting
When I sent last week's newsletter, the crew had been in space for two days. They were still in Earth's gravitational sphere of influence, running systems checks, sleeping in four-hour shifts, dealing with a malfunctioning toilet. The moon was still four days away. Since then, the
What a week. This is a long one, but it has been a very exciting few days! On Saturday morning I was sitting at my kitchen table when my phone rang. Five minutes later I was live on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme to several million people, talking
This week I went to my first ever book launch. Dallas Campbell (BBC science presenter, actor, great guy) launched Space Journal: Art, Science and Cosmic Exploration, and it is one of the most beautiful books I've ever held. It's sitting on my desk right now, and
What 60 years of spaceflight can teach us about human performance This week I gave a talk at Airbus in Stevenage on something I find really fascinating: how the demands of human performance have shifted across six decades of spaceflight, and what that means for all of us right now.
Sophie Adenot launched to the ISS last week. I taught her Human Factors in 2023, along with her ESA astronaut classmates, nicknamed 'The Hoppers'. When I saw she'd named her mission Epsilon "small but impactful" it made me think about the small but impactful
This week in Launchpad we worked on self-management, and one of the conversations that kept surfacing was about boundaries, specifically, when to push through and when to say no. It's a genuine dilemma for most professionals, particularly those in technical or engineering roles. You've been rewarded
It’s the first proper week back at work for a lot of people, including me, and I know I’ve found it hard to get stuck in again! If the conversations I’ve been having are anything to go by, many of the problems people are dealing with at
When you run your own business, no one hands you an annual review. So this week, prompted by a group of business buddies, I sat down and did something I don't do often enough: I looked back on the year. The milestones, the highs, the lows, both professional
Last week I ran my Courageous Leadership workshop with Dallas Campbell. I’ve just got the photos back, and they capture the day perfectly… a room full of people willing to look at what courageous leadership means in their lives and work. Together we explored: • having braver, values-led conversations • stepping
It’s been busy this week. The kind of busy where you’re absolutely exhausted, but in a good way, so I'm not complaining! A whirlwind of Christmas shows and pantomimes for the kids… and, for me, a whirlwind of work too. On Tuesday I ran my Courageous
I had a very funny moment this week. You know those unboxing videos that are everywhere on social media? Perfect lighting, fancy knife gliding through tape, immaculate nails delicately lifting a lid… Well, I tried to do one. For the new notepads, pens, postcards, and the special Christmas gift I’