"Where the bloody hell have you been?!"

This is a post dedicated to the advantages of taking the time out to think a situation through, or to gain some perspective, or just to recharge your batteries.  Those of you who know me will already be worried because, as you well know, those are things which in my entire live I have NEVER done.  It is an established and well known fact;  Jim Robson, 100mph all the time, lots of noise and gesticulation, doesn't really think before acting/speaking/doing anything....doesn't get much actually done.  Well recently I was forced to take an extended break, and it has given me the chance to both gain some perspective and recharge my batteries after running myself ragged with worry and pressure for no real reason since I joined BRNC.

I've been out of the regular training pipeline for nearly nine weeks.  Over two months!  Its not like its been an inactive or wasted two months, but its certainly been a long time.  However, as Bond said in Skyfall "You should try it sometime, get away from it all it really lends perspective."  I can already see my you shaking your heads in despair.  "Oh God!  Jim's comparing himself to Bond...again!"  Well no not on this occassion, despite the obvious similarities and the fact that I will change my surname to Bond if I ever make to Commander, I'm merely pointing out that these are very profound words.

Two months out and no shortage of coaching has indeed lent some perspective to the way I approached the training since I arrived here.  Putting myself under such pressure to do well, to impress, to get everything right first time, led to the inevitable choking which led to failure.  A little break really has helped with that; i'm in a training environment, I'M NOT MEANT TO GET IT ALL RIGHT FIRST TIME!  So lesson learned on that count, but it can be applied to any situation in life, if something really is giving you sleepless nights then just take a step outside the box.  Are you going to lose your job over it?  Probably not, so don't make the pressure on yourself any worse.  Unless you are actually going to get fired, in which case you'd better get it bloody right!

Moving onto point two, recharging your batteries.  For the first 3 of the last 9 weeks all I did was mooch around Germany, Wales and Devon going kayaking, caving and mountain biking.  This ties in with the whole self induced pressure thing because what better way to take your mind of it all?  And the fact that you haven't made the grade this time?  Well trust me it goes right out the wind when your trying to avoid capsizing in rapids.  My point is that gaining perspective is unavoidably linked with doing something to take your mind off of what's bugging you.  It means that when you come back from your break, however long it may have been, you're fully refreshed with a fresh outlook on things, your confidence is high, you know you can achieve what you have to, and you're itching to get back into the fight.

So, when my mate asked me in the bar, "Where have you been lately?"  I was able to reply:

"Enjoying failure.  007 reporting for duty."  See, I told you there were obvious similarities!