Today is the day!

I can't work out if its taken me 12 weeks or 15 years to get to this stage, and either way, I am very excited. Let me explain….

When I stepped off the rowing boat in English Harbour on 17^th March 2010, I made a conscious decision to not only return to normal life but also to try and share my story. For 2 years I did that, speaking at a whole lot of schools and business all over the UK. It was great. In 2012, I decided, to move to Australia and in doing so, lost my entire network of friends and family, work contacts & references and basically, had to start over again. As I found my feet, found somewhere to live, found work and started to build a network of friends, my speaking took a very long and distant, background role. I did very little, if anything, at all.

Doing the 1st of many drafts, at my desk, at home!

In January of this year, we sold our glamping retreat (Challenge Chaser Retreat…. google it, it was nice!), and I started working at a caravan park nearby. Being totally underutilised, I lost that job in late April. HOWEVER, during my last week, either by fate or co-incidence, I met a man named Tony Mowbray. He has done 18 Sydney to Hobart yacht races, including the famous 1998 one where so many sailors sadly lost their lives. In 2002/3, he sailed single handedly around the world and since then, has made his living by doing keynote speaking etc. He heard my story and wanted to meet me….

It has been a fascinating, difficult, confronting, yet very enjoyable 12 weeks, as I have spent well in access of 100+hrs working with Tony, to get my act together and create a product that not only shares my story, but presents it in a way that allows me to include all the parallels required to incorporate my story into your workplace, school, social club, whatever it might be. AND today, I am ready to launch it.

Looking over all my past experiences both in the sporting context and in my choices of work, has not only been very comforting and emotional, it has also allowed me to re-live some forgotten memories, feelings, joy, despair amongst other things. Digging out my old logbooks, training guides, equipment, photographs and more, it has been a really powerful couple of months. It has also allowed me, for what feels like the first time, to actually sit back and not only see what I managed to do and achieve but also appreciate the sacrifices and discomfort I went through to reach my goals. Its so difficult, because a lot of this happened before I made that step to Australia, and apart from the 30 in 30, its like a life that doesn’t exist to all the people I call friends and family now. But, at the end of the day, isn’t that what its all about. Surprising people with what you did in a “previous life” and unearthing skills, work ethics, pure stubbiness and looking at the things differently, putting those skills into practice and then slowly but surely moving forward with each and every step.

Each week I will be writing a blog about what the future holds, what I have been up too but also re capping previous events that I have done, and feel is the right thing to share. It will be an ongoing project, a project I hope you will enjoy. As one of my favourite quotes says:

“Never ever fear the storm……learn to dance in the rain!”

See you next week. Rx