WHEN ALL YOU NEED IS A LITTLE SUPPORT!

How I miss travelling!

I was thinking about it the other day when I was reading an article about the trans-Tasman bubble and thought to myself…

...how good will it be when we are able to travel back to Ozzie again.

I know everyone is enjoying travelling around our own backyard but won’t it be that little bit more exciting knowing we can travel across the ditch once again?

It reminded me of the many times I used to do it before COVID changed everything.

I used to always catch the early morning flight to Melbourne, or the 6:30 pm flight back to Christchurch.

Not only were these the cheaper of all the flights, it meant I could spend as much time as possible in each city as I possibly could.

I’d arrive at 8am in the morning in Melbourne, be at work by 9am ready to go and I’d be back in Christchurch at 11:50pm, be in bed before 1 am ready to get up the next morning and get back into work here.

Now because of the late-night and early morning flights, it was essential, I got some sleep on my flights.

I learnt pretty quickly that even though I could fall asleep if I didn’t have the right pillow, I’d wake up with a really tight neck which would affect me for the next few days.

This is when I got into trialling different pillows.

In total, I think I went through about 6 different types of pillows and finally settled for one that gave me the best support.

I could almost guarantee I’d always wake up feeling 100% if I slept with this pillow.

Much like the pillow, I’ve always felt it important to surround myself with the right support network so I perform at 100%

There have been times in my life where I’ve tried to do everything myself but always come up short and find myself asking the question, “what did I do wrong?”

I’ve almost always come back to the conclusion that I’ve thought I don’t need the help and then end up with a massive problem which could have been avoided if I had just reached out to someone.

Being vulnerable to be able to do that is one of the hardest things to do especially when you’re meant to be a leader.

I remember watching Richie McCaw's movie ‘Chasing Great’ and he talked about winning the world cup in 2011 and preparing the campaign to do it again in 2015.

He realised that the way they won the cup the first time wasn’t going to work for them the second time around and so he sought help to find a new strategy on how they were to do it.

A player at his peak humbled himself for the betterment of his cause and is now the only team to ever win it back to back and the first country to win it 3 times.

In his case and with my own experience, it’s important to search for support in those who you trust. You can’t just become vulnerable to anyone.

This is where your support network will most likely always change depending on what season you are going through.

Like my pillow, it took me a while to find the right one but if I was on a long carrier flight, I know I’d need a different one.

With the right support, you feel more confident to be able to step into the things you know you need doing and grow through battles you would usually take on yourself.

This year has been super crazy not just for some but for everyone and now more than ever, we’ve had to learn more and more on each other.

This weekend I want you to take the time to reach out to those who are there for you, those who used to be and those who you think will be moving forward.

Let them know you appreciate them. You are probably just as much of a support system to them as they are to you.

Appreciation for the little things in life is wasted too often.

Take the opportunity today to waste no more!