The Athens Marathon: A humbling, painful, and immensely rewarding life experience. On November 12th 2018, I completed the Athens Marathon. I ran the race with 3 good friends, one of whom (Constantine) I ran the entire race alongside. It was one hell of a battle, and we made it through all 42.2km in 4:08:53. I’m not going to go into too much detail about the race itself in this blog post. While the stories are compelling (and amusing!), the most valuable insights I took from t

It’s the night before my 26th birthday. And as I hang on my beloved gymnastic rings besides the Tenerife shore, watching a breath-taking sunset unfold before my eyes, I find myself in a reflective mood. Sunsets tend to have that effect on me. Let me share a short story with you. When I was 19 years old and beginning my 3rd year at Cambridge University, I experienced the toughest period of my life thus far. I hit my personal rock-bottom. I questioned my life, my purpose, and w

Feeling anxious about that university interview coming up? Don’t know what the interviewer is looking for? This 3-part blog series will give you exactly what you need to know to give you the best chance of receiving your university offer! There are three key attributes that university interviewers look for when assessing candidates: ENTHUSIASM, APPROACH & TEACHABILITY (EAT). Each attribute within the EAT Model (now I'm hungry...) will have a blog post dedicated to it, in whic

Feeling anxious about that university interview coming up? Don’t know what the interviewer is looking for? This 3-part blog series will give you exactly what you need to know to give you the best chance of receiving your university offer! There are three key attributes that university interviewers look for when assessing candidates: ENTHUSIASM, APPROACH & TEACHABILITY (EAT). Each attribute within the EAT Model (now I'm hungry...) will have a blog post dedicated to it, in whic

Feeling anxious about that university interview coming up? Don’t know what the interviewer is looking for? This 3-part blog series will give you exactly what you need to know to give you the best chance of receiving your university offer! There are three key attributes that university interviewers look for when assessing candidates: ENTHUSIASM, APPROACH & TEACHABILITY (EAT). Each attribute within the EAT Model (now I'm hungry...) will have a blog post dedicated to it, in whic

The ‘Learning Styles’ theory suggests that we have individual preferences that determine how we learn best, and that we should be taught using our preferred ‘style’ in order to maximise our learning. Sounds great in theory, right? However, scientific studies are becoming increasingly critical of this idea. But before we discuss better alternatives to ‘Learning Styles’, it is useful to get a basic understanding of what they are. There are many different categories of ‘Learning

Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist who unintentionally discovered an incredibly useful productivity and prioritisation tool. He recognised that 80% of Italy’s wealth was held by 20% of its population, and found that this 80-20 relationship (or similarly-weighted distribution, such as 70-30 or 90-10) also applied to many other aspects of life. For example: 80% of the output is produced by 20% of the input. 80% of the results are produced by 20% of the effort. 80% of the

If there’s one thing students complain about, it’s procrastination – but thankfully, there are several ways to overcome it! One of the keys to overcoming procrastination is to recognise where our priorities lie, and how to plan in line with them. So, what is prioritisation? And how do we prioritise our time? Prioritisation is about being able to recognise the importance of each task or activity that we need to undertake in line with the goals that we want to achieve, and then

"So, what do you do?" I wince. Here we go again. I'm going to (eventually) reply by briefly describing my profession, as I'm expected to. But that isn't what the gentleman who asked the question is going to hear. To him, my answer will provide an insight into my character, my values and, most importantly, my status relative to him. Don't believe me? Try it for yourself! Next time you ask someone, make yourself consciously aware of what you've essentially programmed your brain