What can breaking your foot teach you about Covid-19?
What is something you are really proud of in the last 12 months? What about the year before, or the year before that?
I was asked that question 10 years ago and I froze. I was at a work Christmas dinner. Twelve of us seated around a large oak table in a beautiful restaurant in Islington, decorated with gorgeous Christmas decorations and us adults all looking slightly ridiculous in our xmas paper hats.
My boss asked us the question - to share that one moment which stands out as the highlight for the year.
My heart beat faster as each person shared around the table, each time getting closer to me. What was I going to share? My face got hotter. I had nothing to share. In those moments, I was questioning ‘What had I been doing with my life?’ It was my turn. I did the only thing I felt I could. I made it up. It felt better than saying nothing at all.
I made a decision that night. I would never let a year go by again without having that one moment to share. We only live once right? I had all the reasons and excuses in the world, why my life was the way it was. But at the end of that day, there was nothing, I drew a blank and I decided that wasn’t ok.
That question changed my life.
The impact? Going from the least adventuring person you’d know. Shy, with no confidence - a passenger in my own life. To becoming a person who said yes. Yes to paddle boarding to france. Yes to climbing the highest point in every European country. Yes to running nearly 400 miles over 17 days as a non-runner, and all the other crazy adventures in between.
Saving those epic adventure stories for another day, I want to talk about shit that doesn’t go to plan.
There are many of us who have experienced low times in our life. I had one of those times in May last year. I had said yes to going indoor bouldering for the first time with two pretty awesome friends.. They were teaching me how to boulder and I was loving it.
That was until I was on the last climb of the evening. Feeling pretty confident I climbed something a little more tricky to end the night with. I got to the top of the wall and I felt so proud. The guys were cheering me from below. The grin on my face was huge.
That was until I lost my grip and came crashing down. The weight of my body went straight into my right ankle. I nearly passed out. In those few seconds my foot was broken and all my dreams and plans for the summer were over in an instant.
I was supposed to be getting on a plane two days later, to have the most amazing 10 day stand up paddle boarding journey across Sweden, but I couldn’t even make it to my front door, let alone carry the 30kg of kit I’d packed to the airport and SUP for 10 days.
Instead, I was going to spend the summer recovering. Learning how to walk again.
I will always remember the moment when I walked to the end of my road for the first time following the accident. In normal life it would normally take me 2 minutes. That day however, it took me over 10. I looked across the street to see my 90 year old neighbour with his zimmer frame. We looked at each other with a knowing smile. ‘Race ya’ our smiles said. We were the snails on our street. Of course he bet me. I was no competition. I sighed and took a deep breath and made my long journey back home.
I was exhausted both mentally and physically. My joy is living an adventurous life. It was summer, the time of the year when I come normally come out of my winter hibernation of adventure scheming and put all those plans into action. But everything I had planned for that year was gone.
One morning on the phone, a friend heard the upset in my voice and he asked me one question. He said, “So you can’t do all of that, but what can you do?”
Just one question. That one question changed my summer of doom and set me on a new path. Why? Because I set out to find the answer. So I couldn’t walk, but what could I do? I could lie on my back!
It was then that I discovered the 30 day abs challenge. I hate the gym and gym-type exercises, but I love a challenge and I love taking others on a challenge with me.
If I was going to do this, I wanted team mates, just like I would have on my summer adventures. Why do things alone, when it’s so much more fun sharing an experience with others.
For a week before I started the challenge, I started contacting yes-type people and even some of the no-type people too. I managed to convince 18 people to say yes to discovering what a 30 day abs challenge would look and feel like to them. Would we have the picture perfect Peter Andre style abs on day 30?
We formed a Whatsapp group, where every day we reported in after completing the day's challenge. I still couldn’t walk and I was housebound, but all of a sudden I had 18 teammates, 18 cheerleaders supporting me mentally in my recovery.
But it wasn’t just about them helping me. With my overly supportive text messages I helped them get through the 30 days too. It was challenging at times, especially when life gets in the way, but 30 days later we had all achieved something pretty special. We didn’t quite have the Peter Andre six pack, but we were now capable of doing 150 crunches and 200 sit ups. We were shocked, amazed and thankful for such an awesome team.
It was six months later that I was able to start walking to the end of my road again in under 2 minutes. The abs challenge was behind me, but that one question I was asked didn’t leave me.
In the last 12 months I have created further challenges, because what I learnt is, that if I am struggling with something or up for a challenge, it usually means other people are too. When we create a team, we work so much better together, than we do on our own.
Since May 2019 when I fell off the bouldering wall, 163 people have joined me on a series of 30, 60 and 90 day challenges, all stemming from that one question - ‘What can you do?’ We have shaped our abs together, toned our butts, found the strength to do push-ups, we’ve undertaken a dating challenge and more recently we’ve challenged ourselves to take on the memories we are creating in Covid-19. Our 2020.
Reflecting back to that awful experience at my Christmas work dinner years ago, it made me wonder what I will remember 2020 for? How will I look back at 2020 and it not be a year filled with cornacoaster Covid-19 stories?
The answer? We make our next 90 days count! Life beyond that feels too hard to predict. But I do have a say over what I get up to over the coming days and weeks.
That is where on the 1st June 2020 the #90DayChallenge was born. I created just one aim. To get myself and others outside for an adventure, a journey of awesome experiences, meaningful conversations and a bit of grit.
And it worked. We hiked, we cycled, we laughed and we created the most beautiful memories in our weekends, only a few hours from home.
I am now a real believer that the questions we ask ourselves, can have the power to change our lives. Yes, there are so many reasons and barriers that keep us standing still in life or even worse, pushing us back. Covid has been one of those. But we have the opportunity to make 2020 and every other year memorable for something positive too. I believe we can still make great memories out of challenging times.
Are you left wondering “but how do I do that?” Maybe we just need to ask ourselves some new questions?
The questions that have set me on a new path have been:
So you can’t do X, but what can you do?
When you say ‘I can’t, maybe that is just just a belief you hold onto? Or is it really true?
What are you curious in?
What will your question be, that you want to find the answer to?
Imagine if we lived in a world where we focused on what we can do, rather than want we can’t? I’d like to think it’d create a much healthier and happier world for us all. Bring on the next 90 days I say!
Shells x