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I regularly share practical, evidence-based articles and tools on mindset, decision-making, habits, and personal growth—to help people manage stress, build resilience, and perform at their best.

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Why Insignificance Has Become So Important To Me (And How I Plan To Practice It)

I could taste the dust in my mouth. I could feel the intensity of the sun through my shirt. As I stood looking out over the Pyramids of Giza towering out of the desert, it wasn’t simply their size that struck me. I couldn’t remember ever physically feeling this immensity, this depth and weight of history and humanity. I was 19 and I couldn’t remember ever feeling so small.

A Pale Blue Dot - Carl Sagan

Insignificance – Perspective, Happiness, Experiment, NYC, London, Zurich, My Most Read Poem

According to Professor Arthur Brooks, Harvard author and researcher on the science of happiness, a feeling of being small is an important contributor to our sense of wellbeing.

Insignificance - perspective

Byron Bay | Mindset + Breathwork Fundraiser, 7 Oct

I’ve had many, many great times in Byron Bay - music festivals, holidays, surfing, hanging out with friends, walking the lighthouse path. Over the years, like everywhere, the town has grown and changed. There have been lots of great things to come of those changes, but also some downsides. One of those issues is the rising numbers of people experiencing homelessness. So I’m really excited to announce that I’m going to be a part of fundraising workshop focussed on mindset and breathwork on the 7th of October (11am - 3pm) in Byron - all the details here. It’s a collaboration with breathwork coach Joey Hurl and health and wellness club Social Remedy in Byron. We’re going to raise money for community funded program Fletcher St Cottage to support those in need with basics like meals, showers and laundry. To register for the event, there’s a minimum donation of $30. All of that will go to the Fletcher St Cottage. It’s a small way to give back to this community that has brought so much joy for me and my family. All the event details below and at this link >>

Byron Bay workshop

How To Quickly Find Clarity When You’re Feeling Stuck [New Tool] – Valued Living Questionnaire, Importance + Satisfaction, Designing Action

They say pressure makes diamonds. But for me, sometimes it just revealed the cracks.

nasa CzigtQgPi unsplash

Mindset Reinvention

I’ve been thinking more about my online workshop tomorrow at 2:30pm (free rego here). I titled it Momentum. But I may have made a mistake. Certainly a sense of momentum is one of the possible outcomes. To either find some momentum if you’re feeling stuck or maintain it and build it if you already have it. But the heart of the workshop is to reinvent what we know about mindset. I used to believe mindset was all about positive thinking, about setting goals and chasing them, about visualising success. But the science of psychological flexibility - of what repeatably works to better manage stress and pressure - flies in the face of that. It’s not about positive thinking. It’s about positive action that moves us towards what truly matters. It’s not about building people into brick walls of stronger, tougher, harder. Brick walls break when hit hard enough. It’s about building trampolines that can absorb the hits and bounce back. And it’s not about reducing stress and pressure, it’s about changing our relationship to it. To know in advance that it will be a part of everything we do and then train and practice for it. I’ve had to completely reinvent how I think about mindset.

Mindset Reinvention

[Live Online] How You Can Develop Psychological Flexibility

Thanks for your comments and questions on my previous articles on adaptability and the myth of tradeoffs. As I said in those articles, there is a huge opportunity to develop psychological flexibility in our leaders, teams, organisations and communities to manage wellbeing, lead and perform better in situations of stress, pressure and discomfort - regardless of the context. I’ve loved learning and teaching about it in all sorts of settings – business, non profit, tech, military, sport. My clients and I have used it to perform at work, rebuild health, to improve parenting and relationships and more. That’s why it’s the starting point for me in every one of my coaching and speaking engagements. So I’m really excited to bring this to life in a public online workshop this coming Thursday.

Psychological Flexibility

Busting The Tradeoff Myth – Wellbeing, Leadership, Performance, Directionality, Away, Towards, The Longest Game

Thanks for your comments and questions on my previous article on Adaptability. It was great to explore the role of psychological flexibility in wellbeing, leadership and performance. There is a huge opportunity to develop it in our leaders, teams, organisations and communities to work better in situations of stress and pressure and develop our ability to handle discomfort. I’ve loved learning and teaching about it in all sorts of settings - business, non profit, tech, military, sport. It’s the starting point for me in every one of my coaching and speaking engagements. So here are a handful of the questions I’ve received:

Busting the tradeoff myth

Adaptability – Challenge, Opportunity, Psychological Flexibility, Scaling For Organisations, Coming Soon

I’ve been speaking with a host of business, sport and non profit leaders and their People and Culture teams recently. (A special thanks to those of you who completed my survey a few weeks ago.) One of the key themes that’s emerged has been the adaptability of their people and organisations in the face of today’s rapidly changing environment. What can we do to address this?

7 Steps To Rebuilding Personal Health – From Broken To Baseline And Beyond, Healthspan For Impact, Identity, Reps

To fall from Olympian to limpin’ around feeling like I’d been kicked between my legs took 19 years and 5 months. Here’s how it happened...

7 Steps To Rebuilding Health

How To Quickly Create Culture For Small Teams – Goals, Tension, Vision Framework, 30 Min Workshop, Practice

We never formally discussed culture or wrote down values, purpose, mission or even a goal for our Olympic campaign. We were utterly focussed on the playing process. Which, of course, is incredibly important. But, in hindsight, to not put anything down on paper, no goal, no result, nothing at all? It seems an extraordinary oversight.

Creating culture for small teams

Overcoming Fear, Olympian Mindset, High Performance Culture, Elite Sport To Executive

Hi there, I hope you’re having a good week. It was great to share some of the lessons learned from my journey in a couple of recent interviews: Toby Jenkins OLY on overcoming his fears for the Olympic Water Polo team to finding his voice as a leadership consultant (2nd Wind Podcast - Ryan Gonsalvez) Unleashing The Olympian Mindset: Toby Jenkins on Leadership and Success (REDD Business and Technology Podcast - Nigel Heyn and Jackson Barnes) Champion Mindset: Lessons on the Synergy between Elite Sport and Executive Coaching (Medoo Coaching App Panel - Paulwyn Devasundaram and Allard van Helbergen) Thanks to these hosts for having me involved. I love talking through these topics! Would you like me to be on your podcast, panel or stage? Let’s have a chat. All the best, Toby

Olympian Mindset

Gratitude – Embracing The Hardest Part

The temperature was below zero. The stars were still out. My breath fogged in the predawn Canberra air. It had been 25 years since I’d lived at the Australian Institute of Sport and made this walk from the athlete residences to the pool. There was a beep as the security pass opened the door into the swimming complex. It was completely empty. Everything was still. Even the robot cleaner on the bottom of the pool. The humidity and smell hit me. So many laps done. So much time. So many experiences. It felt like coming home but there was also an edge.

Reinvention – Triggers, Challenge, Opportunity, Outcomes, My Playbook, Taking It Further

In our fast-paced world, transitions are inevitable. They can be exciting but also daunting. It can feel like stepping off a cliff into an unknown void. In my previous article about Psychological Flexibility, I explored the critical role it plays during exits and transitions. The subsequent discussions have made me realise that there is a pressing need for a solid and immediately actionable framework to navigate these periods.

Psychological Flexibility – Sledgehammers, Navigating Exits, Reinvention, History, Science, Framework (ACT Triflex), Tools, Practice

If you were facing a swinging sledgehammer, would you prefer to be a brick wall or a trampoline? If a sledgehammer hits a brick wall hard enough, or enough times, it breaks. A trampoline, on the other hand, absorbs the energy and bounces back. And we all face events that feel like sledgehammers at times.

Psychological Flexibility

Finding A Voice – Rebooting Writing, Benefits, 5 Principles, Fear, Imposter, Perfectionism, Contribution, Tools, Publishing Checklist, My Top 5, Beating ChatGPT

Contemplating Death – Stoicism, Deliberate Practice, Planes, Last Time, Calculating Days, Gratitude, Enough

“Do you have life insurance?” This was the opening question from my neurosurgeon. My mum and dad were sitting on either side of me. 10 minutes earlier, I’d been in the bathroom trying to compose myself while we were waiting for the appointment. A day earlier, I’d been at home waiting for my MRI results after a concussion wakeboarding. As the referring GP, my mum was faxed the radiologist’s report. It said I had a brain tumour.

Contemplating Death

Maximum Aerobic Function – Ego, Injury, Dr Phil Maffetone, Most Shared Ebook, HR: 180 Minus Your Age, Personalisation, Longevity.

For someone who thought they knew a fair bit about health and fitness, I’ve had to completely rewire my approach to training in the last few years. My old approach was built on sayings like: More is better. No pain, no gain. Go hard or go home. It was about toughening up with sets of 10 x 200 metres freestyle on 3 mins wearing a t-shirt. I have a clear memory of diving off the blocks in a sprint swim set with the absolute intention of going so hard that I’d make myself vomit. Even at the 2003 Water Polo World Championships in Barcelona, rather than recovering on our rest days, I’d hit the gym because I was telling myself that “it wasn’t the Olympics”. It wasn’t just me though, it was coaches at the time too. And there’s only one word for it. Ego. It nearly cost me my Olympic spot.

Maximum Aerobic Function

Wanting a change in 2023? [Hiring an EA]

I’m looking for the perfect EA. This person will be my right hand for all things organisation to help me translate my ambitions for 2023 into reality. They’ll be working across my diary, events, client experience, partnerships, finance, product development and content. You would start with a paid one-month trial, probably around 10 hours per week. If all goes well, there could be potential to expand significantly from there. Competitive pay and tons of interesting opportunities. Here’s more on me, if needed. Job Description To help me focus exclusively on content creation and experience delivery, I need someone who’s a ninja at handling quite a bit.

The Power of Scrum for Olympians, Entrepreneurs and Solopreneurs

Forgiveness – Letter, Structure, Guide, Ritual, Practice

I’ve tried writing letters to people in the past in order to help me process and organise my thoughts. Some I’ve sent, others I haven’t. But each time I’ve found it useful.

Burnout In Women – Science, Recovery, Strategies, Decisions, Lessons [Dr Kellie Pritchard-Peschek]

I have a very personal, vested interest in this article. I grew up with incredibly strong female role models in my great- and grandmothers, mum, aunts and my three sisters. Now days, my wife and three sisters work, parent and wear many other hats as do so many other women I count as friends and colleagues. My mum grandparents 15 kids. And while my three daughters are all below ten and my six nieces are awesome, they’re all growing up and will need to understand this topic too. So when I met Dr Kellie Pritchard-Peschek, I wanted to understand how she’d become so purposeful about the science of women’s health and how it applies in the workplace and beyond.

Burnout in women

Acknowledging Country – Fear, Mindfulness, Journey, A Script, Connection

Three years ago, at the Brisbane Powerhouse, 30 minutes before my event Changing The Game of Influence was due to start, my speaking coach said to me: “You have to do the Acknowledgement of Country, Toby. Google the right words, then say them.” He was right of course. It was my event. But it had been a long time since I’d run my own event and I’d never started with an Acknowledgement of Country before. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it in my preparation. And I was afraid of making a mess of it. Afraid of missing an important piece of protocol or that I might offend someone.

Acknowledging Country

High Performance Recovery: Step-By-Step Guide, Principles & Questions, Lower The Bar, Design For Fulfilment, The Long Game

“I’m just heading off for a swim.” It was lunch time on a beautiful, sunny, winter’s day. This was from one of the most experienced, senior executives I know. For a long time, I’ve admired them in both their accomplishments and conduct. The decisions they’ve made, the organisation they’ve built and the impact they’d had on tens of thousands of lives (including mine) and organisations over decades of work. But at the heart of the reason why I’ve sought their counsel over the years, is that they speak about their proudest achievement as being the relationship they have with their children. And all of this through accomplishments, curveballs and crucibles. It struck me in this brief exchange that here was someone who’d created a habit of maintaining energy, health and wellbeing through it all. But this conversation seemed in stark contrast to others I’ve had recently.

High Performance Recovery

Practicing Discomfort – Cold Water, Benefits, Science, Safety, Architecting Recovery, Periodisation, Rituals

“…and have a great life.” Breath work was over. We’d followed Wim Hof’s breathing pattern on YouTube. His dutch-accented, closing words were already fading. It was cold bath time. Full body, cold water immersion (9 degrees) up to the neck for 10 mins. The tension in the room was rising. “When you get in a cold bath for the first time, you’ll feel awful. Your mind will scream at you that you’re dying, that you can’t breathe, that you have to get out of there.” “That’s completely normal.”

Practicing Discomfort

Mindfulness For Performance – Importance, Definition, Practice, Examples, 19 Activities <1 min

Mindfulness For Performance Activities

My Olympic Crucible – The Critic, The Optimist, Task Focussed Attention, Checklists, Non-Duality, My New Inspiration.

27 Principles Of Facilitation From Decades Of Practice – In Person And Remote. (With Alix Dunn)

Facilitation Principles remote and in person

[Podcast] How To Thrive As A Leader And Be Your Best Self – Olympics, 3 Questions, 4 Ideas, Crucibles, Buddhism

Jeff Bullas Podcast

How I Coach Myself: Importance First, My Daily Practice, Time, Workflow, Priorities, Uncertainty, Inbox = 0, Evolution

Showing Up – My Olympic Inspiration, A Minute, A Few Words, An Old T-shirt, Pay It Forward.

“You’re not in the official squad Toby. You don’t get swimmers and uniform.” This announcement from the head coach was in front of 30 of the best water polo players in the country - some of them my great mates. All of us were striving to be a part of the Sydney Olympics just 2 years away. We were in the briefing room above the pool at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra for an Australian Men’s water polo training camp with Serbia. When the coach asked if everyone had their gear, I was the only one who put my hand to say I didn’t. I was on scholarship, living and training at the AIS at the time. The training block in the lead up had been the hardest I’d ever trained. I’d put everything into it but still hadn’t been selected in the official squad. It was a completely fair response. “You can join in the conditioning work and be part of the warm ups. But you won’t be getting game time. You can watch and learn.” I wanted to crawl into a dark corner and hide.

showing up - my olympic inspiration

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