Have you ever played “Name That Tune” with someone and they just have the ability to blurt out the artist and name of the song within seconds of it coming on?

...and you haven’t even recognised the song yet, let alone remembered its name.

This is pretty much every member of my family except for me and my dad.

When I was a teenager, I would often ask my Magic 8 Ball “Am I going to get a good grade for this exam?”. If the answer was YES, then there was no need to study, if the answer was NO, then why would I study because I was going to get a bad grade anyways. 

Wise teenager logic…

A few years ago when I was over 100kg and in quite bad shape I decided I wanted to go back to the gym. I hadn’t done any physical activity for a few months but for some reason that day I had a spurt of motivation.

Apparently I had also decided that I was going to make up for 4 months of not going to the gym in one single session. So I went all out…

The first time I was exposed to meditation was when I was 16 and my english teacher made us do it on a school trip.

We had snuck alcohol into our room the night before so I was tired and a bit hungover. He made us close our eyes for 30mins while lying on the floor…

How often have you been quick to blame others before looking at the role you might have played in that situation?

I used to do this all the time... I blamed my manager for our bad relationship… my parents for not making me play the piano… my partners for not understanding me...

After seeing what was probably one of my best ever “No Scrubs” by TLC Karaoke performances at Fridays work drinks, one of my colleagues asked me if I wanted to sing with his choir during the Rugby World Cup for the France-Italy game.

Unfortunately his choir was double booked that weekend so they needed a few more singers. He would be going to Brighton to sing at a conference there…

After beating one of my friends 3-0 at Fifa in 2012 (One of my rare ever victories), I decided to retire from pretty much all video games. I hated losing so much that I would rather never play again than risk defeat to any of my hyper competitive friends.

It’s probably important to mention that I was also really bad at these games...

Ever since my mid twenties, when my metabolism started slowing down and my bad eating /drinking habits caught up with me, January was always the month where I would try to get back into shape.

I’d always start off super motivated and see quick progress. After 3 weeks I would feel great and was convinced that this was the new me now. I couldn’t wait for the summer because I was going to have the best beach body I’d had in years…

It’s Monday morning… I receive a long email from someone and procrastinate replying to it because it’s not urgent and I know it will take me a while. Every time I look at it throughout the day, I feel resistance and instead I choose to tick something else from my to do list that requires less effort.

Wednesday morning… Ok it’s been more than 2 days and I still haven’t replied, my guilt levels reach maximum capacity so I sit down to reply and write the email. It takes me less than 5 minutes. 

When my travels ended due to Corona and I suddenly had to go back to the UK, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me to get into amazing shape.

My goal was to grow my chest and get very defined abs. I took a “before” picture of myself and designed a 5 week workout plan. I had a pretty decent home gym set up and I was really motivated to achieve my goal.

A few years ago, I did a random behavioral test and discovered that Recognition was one of my determining traits. It was definitely something I agreed with and it really helped me understand what drove and motivated me.

At work, I made sure to always communicate this with my managers so that they would be quick to praise me whenever I did something good.

How many books have you read in the last year?

If you are anything like me 3 years ago the answer is probably in the low single digits.

I always thought I was just someone who had a low attention span and that books were not my form of entertainment. I was just a Movie/TV/Series kind of guy.

A couple of months ago, some incompetent driver turned into the bike lane without checking, forcing me to emergency brake and just about stop myself from smashing straight into his car (a common occurrence in Amsterdam). 

A bit embarrassed, the driver apologised nervously and quickly drove off. As I cycled on, my mind started to wonder and I imagined a scenario where he had actually run me over…

This was my actual motto for many years. I can’t even begin to describe how much I loved kebabs - I would dream about them, talk about them, sometimes even wake up next to them…

When was the last time something went wrong for you at what seemed like the worst possible time? 😫

Maybe you were late for work and your bike chain came off (or your car needed filling up)… Maybe your Uber driver cancelled when you had an important flight to catch… or maybe you spilled coffee on your shirt just before an interview... ☕

Growing up I was always fairly street smart, good in social situations and at solving real life problems 🏃‍♂️. But as a result of being bottom of the class in an elitist French system and getting bad grades throughout most of my teenage years, I developed insecurities around my intellectual capabilities 😳…