Edwin's Corner

  Why two people can experience the same event and walk away with completely different lives. "Events shape our lives far less than the stories we tell ourselves about those events." --- The email arrived at 8:17 on a Tuesday morning. It contained five words. Can we talk this afternoon? No greeting. No explanation. No context. By 8:18, David had stopped working. By 8:20, he had replayed every meeting he had attended in the previous month. By 8:30, he had convinced himself that management had discovered a mistake in one of his reports. By 9:00, he was calculating how long his savings would last if he lost his job. Before lunch, he had rewritten his CV. By mid-afternoon, he had practiced how to tell his wife he was dismissed. He hardly registered what colleagues said. His stomach clenched, and his breath grew shallow. The afternoon seemed to drag on endlessly. Finally, three o'clock arrived. His manager invited him into her office. David sat down, bracing hi...

  The hidden reason intelligent people stay stuck — and what truly creates lasting transformation. "We spend much of our lives trying to change our behavior, when the real work is learning to understand the operating system that produces it." --- The notebook landed on the table with a heavy thud. Its leather cover had lost its shine years earlier. The corners were worn, the pages curled with use, and colored sticky notes protruded from almost every section. Before its owner said a word, I knew I was looking at someone who cared deeply about his own growth. He opened it. Handwritten notes from leadership conferences. Book summaries. Annual goals. Morning routines. Habit trackers. Journal entries. Mission statements. Mind maps. Underlined quotations. Years of quiet effort, captured in ink. He had read Atomic Habits. He loved Carol Dweck’s  Mindset . He could recite The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People  from memory. He had attended the workshops, followed ...

  This article is adapted from one of our live conversations in The Clarity Room —a free weekly Zoom coaching session held every Tuesday at 7:00 PM (EAT) . Together, we explore the psychology of change, emotional intelligence, habits, leadership, relationships, purpose and practical wisdom for everyday life. Each session combines research, coaching, reflection and real-life stories to help people move from insight to lasting transformation. Join us every Tuesday at 7:00 PM (EAT) Zoom Meeting ID: 743 0647 1122 Passcode: Clarity --- There is a question I ask nearly every client — but never at the beginning. The start feels overwhelming. People come with various goals: fixing the marriage, breaking habits, calming anxiety, or becoming disciplined. These are all valid pursuits, but none of them address the deeper question. The real question comes much later, after several sessions. After the tears have slowed, the blame has softened, and the old stories have begun, almos...

This article is adapted from one of our live conversations in The Clarity Room —a free weekly Zoom coaching session held every Tuesday at 7:00 PM (EAT) . Together, we explore the psychology of change, emotional intelligence, habits, leadership, relationships, purpose and practical wisdom for everyday life. Each session combines research, coaching, reflection and real-life stories to help people move from insight to lasting transformation. Join us every Tuesday at 7:00 PM (EAT) Zoom Meeting ID: 743 0647 1122 Passcode: Clarity --- I often hear a particular phrase every week, coming from chief executives, parents, entrepreneurs, and highly intelligent individuals. It typically sounds like this: "I don't know what came over me." Or, "I wasn't myself." Or — my personal favorite — "I just reacted." Whenever someone says it, I find myself fighting the urge to smile. Not because their discomfort entertains me, but because I already antici...

  This article is adapted from one of our live conversations in The Clarity Room —a free weekly Zoom coaching session held every Tuesday at 7:00 PM (EAT) . Together, we explore the psychology of change, emotional intelligence, habits, leadership, relationships, purpose and practical wisdom for everyday life. Each session combines research, coaching, reflection and real-life stories to help people move from insight to lasting transformation. Join us every Tuesday at 7:00 PM (EAT) Zoom Meeting ID: 743 0647 1122 Passcode: Clarity -- For most of my adult life, I believed I was a logical man. Not perfectly logical. I'm Kenyan. I have survived Nairobi traffic, which means I have, on more than one occasion, looked at Waiyaki Way at 5:30 p.m. — a road that, at that hour, stops being a road and becomes a philosophy — and told myself, with the confidence of a man who has learned nothing, that today it will be different. Today I will beat it. So no. Not flawlessly logical. But ...