The Performance Margin 

February is always a nice month. January feels like a year in its own right, then we’re graced with a 28 day month to skip us straight into Spring. The weather also turns, generally, as we move away from the consistent rainy days and find some breaks with some sun. But February hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows in my world. My almost one year old has been having an amazing time at nursery, so much so that he’s decided to collect every illness possible and share with us at

Stress has a bad reputation. We hear the word and immediately think of overwhelm, fatigue, or burnout. But in both sport and business, stress is not the enemy - it’s the stimulus for growth . What determines whether we thrive or crumble under pressure isn’t how much stress we face, but how well we manage, recover, and adapt from it. That principle sits at the heart of the Performance Reservoir Model , a simple yet powerful framework that explains how humans convert stress in

In high-stakes environments - like aviation, emergency response, sport, and leadership - we talk a lot about situational awareness. But too often, we only talk about it after it disappears. One moment you're tuned in. The next? You miss a cue, overlook a signal, or lose track of what matters most. So why does situational awareness fade? And more importantly, how can we rebuild it when the pressure’s on? 1. Situational Awareness Isn’t a Switch - It’s a System Situational awar

Technology is used in today’s society as both a help and a hinderance. We utilise it in all aspects of our lives, and sleep is no different! A 2021 study into the use of electronic devices before bedtime highlighted the impact this has upon sleep quality. So, we should be avoiding screens before bed, but how can we use other forms of technology to monitor and potentially improve our sleep? Wearable sleep trackers have gained a lot of traction in recent years. Most devices

Everywhere you look, there is a lot more focus on sleep than there has been over the past decade. Previously people would wear the badge of ‘don’t mind me, I’m just operating on 3 hours sleep’ with pride, but the narrative has now changed. It is now widely accepted that between 7 and 9 hours of sleep is what most adults need. But where has this research come from, what is the benefit of getting sleep and (most importantly) what can a lack of sleep look like in our day to day

In most walks of life, people find themselves in high pressure situations. This often builds over time, with increasing workload, or responsibilities, at home or at work. Pressure builds and people’s fight, flight or freeze (also known as the acute stress response ) kicks in. Some crumble under the stress, some thrive and use it to motivate them. However, the aviation domain is one where pressure does not always build consistently. The Yerkes-Dodson Law, also referred to as t

When flying frontline operations, I frequently found myself working varying hours. Set shifts were certainly not a thing. One day we would be needed on task at 5pm, two days later we were wanted at 3am. The biggest difficulty I found in the cumulating fatigue was not necessarily tiredness , but alertness . I was going from needing to be asleep in the late morning to rest for a night sortie, to needing to be switched on at midday to be planning for a sortie I was about to fly.