Forget 9-5, life is for living...and pushing boundaries

Last week I wrote about how unemployment had affected me and how I got through it. One further thought came to mind in terms of survival techniques. Over the last year I have come to realise how critical it is for me to find ways of testing myself.

After years of the 9-5 (and in truth many more of the 8-7) I was looking for a bit of excitement and in the last year I’ve found a variety of ways to spice things up.

I guess the first example of this was going travelling by myself. About 2 days into my redundancy I was whinging to a friend about how bored I was. Now that seems incredible – facing work again now I am remembering all the things I promised myself I would do if I only had the time but somehow haven’t got to. Anyhow, day two and literally I didn’t know how to fill my time. My mate’s response was “hop on a plane to Asia”. Well my first reaction was – that’s ridiculous! I had never been abroad by myself before and certainly never been to Asia. In fact all my immediate thoughts were about why I shouldn’t do this: ‘I need to save my money’, ‘it may be dangerous’, ‘what about getting a job’ – dull dull dull! And within 24 hours I had booked myself in for my jabs and was actively planning my holiday, taking in Hong Kong, Vietnam and Cambodia. Liking a challenge, I decided I must be in New York for my birthday so the obvious thing to do was add this to the end of my Asia journey and use 44 hours in transit to make it – but that’s another story! So with my friend’s help, my itinerary was booked and I was boarding a flight to Hong Kong before the blood from my last rabies jab was dry.

I should perhaps also mention that at this stage I was terrified of flying. Petrified. So much so I would have to take pills to knock me out. The longest flight I had been on was to the west coast of America. This fear got cured somewhere between Hanoi and Hue in a plane that seemed so fragile and rusty that I concluded pre flight that my death was imminent and found a reassuring calmness in that knowledge. To be honest the huge gin and tonics and cocktails I had drunk in the departure lounge probably helped a little too.

The next challenge or fear I faced was in Hanoi itself. In retrospect Hong Kong is a straightforward starting place for Asian travel. Yes it is party central but it is all easy for the foreign tourist – people largely speak English, the public transport system is excellent and it is reasonably easy to navigate your way around. Travelling from there didn’t really prepare me for Vietnam in general and Hanoi in particular.  If you haven’t been, look up ‘crossing the road in Hanoi’ on YouTube and you can begin to see the fun that is to be had just in leaving the hotel. The first night I was there I literally found a bar on the same side of the road as my hotel to avoid having to take my life into my own hands and venture out into the traffic. The following day due to an unlikely string of events I needed to get to the sister hotel of my hotel and accepted a lift, not realising that this was a lift on the back of a motorbike. Well, the adrenaline rush from that trip will live long in my memory. Not least as I thought it would probably be the last memory I formed.

More generally, travelling reminded me that I was quite capable of looking after myself in most situations. There were a few hairy moments but I dealt with them and sorted things out. And I realised that what previously had felt like a huge challenge, actually was something I could easily deal with.

Since my travels I have actively sought other ways of either scaring or testing myself. I have a perverse fascination for heights – I think I am scared more by the thought that I may jump rather than the danger of accidentally falling but whatever is the cause, heights usually trouble me. So the obvious thing to do was to sign up to ride the Wembley zipwire from the top of the stadium to the bottom. It was terrifyingly fabulous and actually over far too fast. On a different tack, I survived the mud (and flood) of the Isle of Wight Festival, my first major music festival ever. Within a minute of getting out of the car, my mate had sprayed me head to foot in mud from a wicked wheel spin so that fear was conquered instantly! And last month I overcame my fear of going underwater by half drowning doing the Sheep Dip on the Commando Challenge (again, if you don’t know, google it).

I guess all of these were ways to prove to myself that, despite not having a job, I still was a capable person who could achieve things. But more than that, it reminded me that life is for living and, for me at least, part of that is about pushing my boundaries to see what I really can do.

I currently haven’t got any more challenges planned as starting a new job may well fit that bill. But I am considering the marathon length Moon Walk next year ...

Until next time... Ali