2024 has been a year of transformation.
I astonished myself with the depth of my resolve and resilience as I put myself in situations and overcame challenges most people would baulk at to get my hands on my first Ironman medal.
At the same time, I continued to put in long hours as a project manager in the industry I’ve worked in all my adult life. It hasn’t been easy!
In some ways the expectations and the skills required in financial services are alike to those needed to train for Ironman. Bear with me.
The effort required to push past what you know and get out of the dreaded comfort zone is the same whether you’re in a pencil skirt or padded shorts. In both environments, if you want to succeed, you have to be prepared to temporarily shelve your social and personal life to meet a deadline and achieve a goal.
Although Ironman training takes up a lot of time and physical effort, it does create capacity for thinking. Going up and down the swim lanes for hours at a time, counting strokes and breaths allows plenty of space for introspection – that’s something not available in a busy workplace!
Long hours, mental resilience, discipline and deadlines are features of both corporate life and long-distance triathlon training, believe it or not!
The conversations I had with my cycling and running buddies have given me a lot to think on about how I spend my time and energy. Listening to their stories has forced me to think more about how I’ve spent my working weeks for the last 26 years and whether I want that to be my future.
Seeing the shape of my body change over the months of intense swim, cycle and run training showed me how quickly you can transform when you do something differently. It started to make me wonder if I could change the shape of my life, too.
Back at work immediately after Ironman with no time to rest, recover or reflect, I began to realise I was spiralling into depression, becoming more and more stressed and overwhelmed in my daily grind.
When you’ve spent a lot of time practicing, rehearsing, planning for a big event – whether it’s a race, or a performance or a celebration – there’s always a sort of comedown when it’s all over and done. But this was different.
A workplace that once felt as comfortable as my own home had become cold, jagged and dark in stark contrast with the summer in bloom outside the office. Was this Burnout?
Sink, or swim. Ride or die. Run for your life.
I took some time off sick, and away from the office I discovered that I didn’t care for it anymore. This path I’ve been on since the age of 17 isn’t one I want to tread in my mid-40s. What if I just let go and watched it drift away like a piece of old plastic in the ocean? What would I do then?
What I want to do is to leap into the unknown. So I decided to leave my job, and have a new adventure, while I also train for three – yes three! – ultramarathons in the first half of next year.
I’ve got myself a running coach, a life coach and several gym memberships to shore me up, a new 2025 planning journal, and plenty of time on my hands throughout the quiet winter months to sow the seeds of my future success.
“Out with the old, in with the new”
Scottish Hogmanay tradition
The old Hogmanay tradition of ‘redding the house’ meant to sweep out the old ashes from the fireplace, clean the house, pay outstanding debts – these days, it’s clean bedsheets and metaphorically throwing out the things that no longer serve you in preparation to welcome in that which does.
So, as the embers of 2024 fade to ash, I’m getting ready to light a roaring new fire under 2025.
Happy new year!
Laura goes to London 