Below are some essays which sum up a lot of the personal advice that I tend to give students (both lawyers and non-lawyers) who are having problems in their lives and want my help to try to sort them out. I’ve written these essays in the belief that a lot of problems students go through are unnecessary, in that they are the result of students looking at the world in the wrong way or failing to understand fully the forces that are acting on them. I hope the essays below will be of some help to students trying to deal with problems that get in the way of their achieving their potential. But they are merely intended to make students see their problems from a different perspective – whether they think they ought to adopt that perspective is up to them.

Everything is a gift

Mr Fear

How old are you

The voices in your head

Do the right thing

The tyranny of feelings

The doldrums

Lose yourself

Zen and the Art of Being a Student

I would also strongly recommend that any students (doing any subject) read Shawn Achor’s excellent The Happiness Advantage before going to university – doing so will help them avoid a lot of traps that will otherwise detract from what should be a wonderful time in their lives.