Pulling my head out of the sand

For the first time in my life I put my hand up the other day and said ‘I can’t go on like this’. It was a weird experience. There is no doubt that I’ve been doing a lot these past few months and that combined with having suffered an true illness, not some pokey bug, for the first time in my life it was a bit much. It really hit me that I might not get to the start line at Kathmandu, and that was just plain stupid.

I’ve wanted to ignore the fact I was ill, because as per the text on our website it sounds like some piffy PR spin, and with justified banter I get from certain parts of the gang it re-enforced that attitude. However it was and is real and I needed to reassess where we were going and what I was doing. I couldn’t go on like this. Being ill, then better for a week, then ill, better for a week etc and this had gone on for two months. I’ve acknowledged this and delegated more Everest work and asked my 9-6 work to go to four days a week. That was a bold, and some say ballsy, call but I felt the right one deep down. I got lots of grief from my family but it paid off as work agreed. It is funny the relief I felt instantly after I asked them was huge, and the excitement when the said yes was pretty sweet too…

It was nice to have that time at home with the family questioning my priorities, though it didn’t seem that way at the time, but when you get too close to something it is hard to see the wood from the trees. Some people question being so open with parents, I guess I am lucky, I’ve always been able to be open with mine especially at times of making big life decisions, and doing so ensures that I keep perspective.

At the end of the day we are just a bunch of people trying to go up a mountain and do something that in our eyes is special and raise a decent amount of money for charity. But it takes the support of others to make even this small challenge happen and to my family and work I will be grateful for all their differing ways of delivering this.