Fergie Time

Threat or Challenge? By Daniel Ferguson Often in sports, it's not the event itself, it's how an athlete perceives it. Boxing Andy's Story Andy is a boxer: he loves his sport. However, he struggles on fight day. Why? Because he views fight day as a threat as he views his nerves as a bad thing, the pressure gets to him and the crowd and noise make him shy. There's nothing wrong with how Andy feels: you can't avoid how things make you feel, but you have a choice how you react. If Andy viewed fight day as a challenge: that it's good to be nervous, it's okay to feel pressure, it's just how he chooses to face it and the crowd can be used to his advantage, he would be better off right? There's a link to our bodies... When an athlete is in a challenge state, they experience better blood flow and heightened arousal that is better for performance . When in a threat state, they experience restricted blood flow and anxiety that impairs performance . This shows t...

Helping People Open Up By Daniel Ferguson A friend is struggling, you can tell. You want to explore your friends mental health but don't know how to. I'm not an expert by any means, but recently I went to a men's mental health talk and the biggest takeaway for me was don't ask people to be open, don't try get it out of people: create a place where they naturally do. Train Platform Being Open Perhaps be open yourself to a mate and it might make them be open too. Ask how they have been, they may go deeper. Or simply just listen when they talk: they may go on. Typically people say men don't talk, I wonder if they don't listen too? These are very generalised statements but I know as a man I want to give solutions, you want to be that hero who saves the day for someone's problems in life: but majority of the time people just need to get things off their chest. These days I just let people talk, I'll never forget  Simon Sinek on the Diary Of A CEO podcast ...

Let It Naturally Occur By Daniel Ferguson We want things to happen. Change. Meeting a lifetime partner. Our mutual friends to be best friends too. We can't force life. What will be, will be; sometimes the beauty of life is letting it naturally unfold.  A Leaf It's not easy. We want things now, we remain impatient. But can you think of a time when something just happened just because it did, or you met someone without meaning to, who became a great friend. I remember really wanting a girlfriend and I was trying to force relationships: yes you should still go out there and seek, but when I actually met who my girlfriend is now our relationship felt a lot more natural, it just felt right: I didn't need to force anything. Now this wasn't instant, however, I always had that good feeling about her. Tom and Tim Tom was seeking a friend similar to him: he had great mates but still felt he needed someone in his life who he could connect with on an even deeper level. He tried net...