A major change in my life: summer 2016

Hi guys. I thought I'd share this major decision I've made with you and get some feedback. As you all know, I do spend a lot of time in my gymnastics club training and coaching - it is something I do to keep in touch with the sport that I was very good at and still enjoy. Well, this week, after a long decision with one of my best friends Mel (whom incidentally was a world class diver and now diving coach, so we're on the same wavelength), I've decided to give up coaching. It started out as something I did temporarily when I left my full time job, but I got sucked into it - taking on more and more hours because I was good at it. Coaching kept me in a familiar environment that I had grown up with, surrounded by gymnastics and in life, it is so tempting to stick to the things you're good at, that you're familiar with.

I'm not going to go into details here, but I had a difficult time coaching recently as I had a child who simply didn't want to do gymnastics but his parents had paid for the class and forced him to do it. Let's just say that resulted in some very difficult behaviour and I realized as a result, I am so unprepared and unqualified to deal with incidences like that. I know everything about gymnastics, what the hell do I know about challenging/difficult behaviour in children? Please, I am so out of my depth! There are professionals who are trained to deal with cases like that, not me. I would have rather coached older gymnasts who were like myself, very serious about the sport and were training for international competition - but coaches who taught at that level do it full time and I was only prepared to do it for about 12 hours a week whilst busy with my other work. That was why I was only given gymnasts who trained at the lower levels. Mel told me point blank: stop coaching children. What's the point? You're not enjoying it. If you wanna keep in touch with gymnastics, just train as a gymnast. It's not like you were doing it to pay the bills anyway (coaching isn't well paid work). But don't subject yourself to teaching children if you feel unprepared to deal with that kind of children.

She's right. Mel knows me very well and I appreciate having friends like that who know me that well. What that means is that I will be spending less time doing gymnastics and that will free up a lot more time. Okay, you may say that's just 12 hours a week you're freeing up - but consider the amount of time I spend traveling to the gym and back, as well as the follow up dealing with admin and it adds up to closer to 20 hours a week for not much money. I used to convince myself that I did it for the love of the sport, but it didn't quite work like that. Let me explain: coaches/teachers can get a sense of reward, of satisfaction when their students do well - but I have to be honest, I only get that feeling when it is with people I actually care about, like my good friends when I train with them. With the gymnasts I coached, quite frankly, I don't really care if they improved or not since I barely know them. Besides, many of them were just going through the motions like they were in a PE class, since they didn't choose to be there so what was the point of it all? Whereas when I train with my friends like Mel, the synergy is totally different. I don't need to be paid for that kind of synergy, the joy is enough reward for me. So for now, I will keep training gymnastics, but will no longer teach it.

I think about the last 12 years or so, I've not really tried that many new things. I think I could definitely be pushing myself to do more, to try more new things, to learn so much more. I can list the major achievements I have had with new ventures. In 2004, I decided to start acting and yes that has been fairly successful. In 2010, I started to learn Welsh and I am rather good at that language today. In 2011, I started blogging and it has been very successful. I've had a Youtube account for a long time but the first proper vlog post I made was back in 2012 and I've had varying degrees of success with my Youtube videos (as you can expect, some videos have been popular and others largely ignored). Then in 2013, I started diving and again, I'm pretty good on the 1 meter spring board but never progressed beyond that. I went diving yesterday as it was hot in London and could still do most of my dives. Earlier this year, I was involved in a start up company in the start up sector and it was one crazy roller coaster ride of an experience. I think there's something valuable about putting yourself in the position of a student, being made to learn something new.

In freeing myself from coaching, I would have a lot more time on my hands to try something new or at least expand my involvement in something else - for example, I do enjoy making my Youtube videos and I think the quality of my videos have improved quite a lot this year - especially since my trip to Lithuania. I know have a much clearer idea about what makes a good Youtube video, but it is going to take more than 20 hours a week to pump out a quality new video every week. I could spend more time blogging, but again, with the blogging, sometimes I am inspired to write in response to a topical event, sometimes I have little or no inspiration. I don't think I want to start doing a new sport at the ripe old age of 40, given that I already have so many injuries from gymnastics. I could start learning another language - but it is hard for me to decide which one since quite a few could potentially be useful. I know I ought to improve my German, but I am currently watching a Brazilian series called Magnifica 70 and I am understanding so much of the Portuguese despite never having studied the language - that makes me think, "Yeah I ought to study Portuguese, it'll be so easy".

Should I seek the unknown, rather than the familiar?

So I am not quite sure what I am going to do next. I am awaiting confirmation of my next work contract (I was told it was 90% certain late on Friday, confirmation on Monday) and I will do that, get that out of the way and then prepare to go on holiday to America later in the summer. We're having a heatwave in London at the moment with Singapore-like temperatures, so I am giving in to tropical lethargy, procrastinating. But in the meantime, I know my regular readers know me really well. What do you think I should do next? I don't quite know what I am looking for, all I know is that I need to put myself in that position of being taken out of my comfort zone, made to learn something new and that is what will keep me on edge, feeling alive and motivated to achieve. I don't want to be one of those older people who reject anything unfamiliar and new - so I am doing quite the opposite. Let me know what you think, I am keen to hear your suggestion please. What do you guys think the next challenge in my life should be? Many thanks for reading.