Gardening. Not really my thing; at least not in the conventional sense. My parents loved gardening and spent what as a child felt like in an ordinate amount of time dragging me from garden centre to garden centre. When not at (or on the way to) a garden centre, my parents spent large chunks of their weekends working on the gardens; planting, weeding, nurturing and maintaining what they clearly loved. As a kid, even the non-gardening me could appreciate the beautiful end result of their labours. The gardens were really very pretty.

It recently occurred to me that personal bests or records are very much like the flowers (or vegetables) found in gardens. Much like a well maintained garden will produce beautiful flowers (or vegetables), with appropriate training, recovery, nutrition and maintenance, the human body is capable of producing some amazing, often beautiful results.

Unfortunately, a 60 second clip on the Internet of someone’s PB can’t show the hours, days, weeks, months and (potentially years) of training that produced the beautiful PB; the ‘Secret Garden’ if you will. Based on some recent observations, it seems to me that many people are focusing their attention on hitting PBs as opposed to developing the ‘garden’ that will (eventually) produce the PBs. Instead of spending time training, developing and recovering, they seem to be on some sort of continual PB quest. They want their PB and they want it NOW! In part I suspect this may be down to a lack of real understanding of just how much work a top level athlete puts into THEIR PB flowers (ie the ‘Secret Garden’), in part it may be down to impatience and a desire for instant gratification.

Although beautiful flowers may be available relatively quickly by visiting a florist, the beautiful flowers living in a well tended garden will in all likelihood live much longer. Similarly, although it may be possible to hit a PB every now and then without following a training plan, the athlete that employs sound training, recovery and maintenance strategies is, in my opinion, far more likely to nurture a ‘garden’ which will produce PBs on a far more consistent (and repeatable) basis.

Looks like I actually rather like ‘gardening’!

2014 was the year I said goodbye to life as a finance lawyer, and hello to being a full time personal trainer. It’s fair to say that a fair few of my legal friends and colleagues thought I was crazy, ditching a pretty good, consistent salary for what seemed to be a future full of seeming uncertainty, not to mention financial pressures and challenges. Many commented on how ‘brave’ I was to do something ‘so dangerous’, often followed by a quick ‘wish I had the guts to pursue my dreams’. Whenever someone said something along these lines, I found myself a bit confused and surprised; by no means did I see myself as doing something ‘dangerous’ in a ‘may cause death’ kind of way, nor did I consider myself to be doing anything particularly courageous.

As I begin 2015, I find myself looking back at the year that was 2014 with a definite sense of ‘hey look what I can do’. Without a doubt it was a year full of challenges, some expected (ie financial), some not (injury, etc.), but I got through the year, still have a roof over my head, food to eat and clothes to wear. On one level I think of having ‘survived’ 2014, but on another, I think of the numerous things I learned over the year and actually think I started laying the groundwork to thrive.

If I were to try to summarise my 2014 lessons:

1) Materialism: Without the disposable income I once had, buying unnecessary stuff wasn’t really an option. Apart from a few splurges, I was by and large a cheapskate. Initially it really bothered me that I couldn’t buy/shop like I used to, but then I remembered how miserable (and stressed out) I was in the job that allowed me to shop like it was a sport! I realised I’d much rather do less shopping while working at something I was passionate about.

2) Nothing is forever: something my Mother instilled in me from a very young age, all too frequently something I have previously forgotten, instead dwelling on just how crap something/a situation is. Ultimately, tough times and situations arise and happen, but they won’t last forever. Things may be bad, but keep on keeping on and you’ll get through it.

3) Fail to plan, plan to fail: I’m sure we’ve all heard this before, but, by and large, subject to point(4) below, I feel this is true. Ok, not always, there is something to be said for spontaneity, but, if a specific outcome is critical (ie how to pay the rent, credit card, etc), make a plan.

4) Be prepared to assess, evaluate and readjust the plan if necessary: if the plan isn’t working (in terms of achieving the desired objective), why would you continue to follow it? The winning isn’t in following a plan, but in following a plan that works.

5) Sometimes not taking a risk is more dangerous than taking a risk: without a doubt, it would have been easier for me to have stayed in Legalland (which I can assure you is not as exciting as Disneyland!). I could have collected my dependable salary doing dependable work in an environment I felt unappreciated, unchallenged and under-utilised; but doing so would have meant the continued erosion of my self-esteem and self-confidence. Having spent the past year working with clients to achieve things in the gym they didn’t think possible has provided me with some of the most rewarding experiences of my professional career, not to mention revitalised my self-esteem and confidence. I’ll take helping someone get their first pull-up or press-up over drafting and negotiating finance documents any-day.

Looking back at the year that was 2014, I’m now convinced it was the year I started living NOT so dangerously.