These past few weeks I have had to make some really tough decisions. I suppose deciding to up sticks and move to Japan for several months would be a big decision for many people, although for me it was fairly easy – it felt like time for another adventure. But some of the other decisions I have made recently have felt a lot tougher.
Like the London 2012 decision. Seven years ago, when the IOC announced that London had won the right to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London in 2012, I decided in that moment I wanted to be the liaison officer who looks after the Japanese team. A team liaison officer is the contact person between the Organising Committee and a particular nation’s athletes and officials. It is a full on job and you are essentially on call 24 hours, but it is incredibly rewarding – you play a key role in helping everything run smoothly for the team. It is also emotional – you share their disappointments and elation as the results come in. I have done this job for many British and Japanese teams at various major sports events including the Winter Olympics and World Athletics Championships, but the Olympics in my home country was really the pinnacle.
With that goal in mind I applied and went through a very long selection process. I didn’t hear anything for a while, and we decided to make plans to come out here. But then, when we had already bought our tickets out here, and my man had already taken his sabattical from work, I was offered the exact job I wanted – as the team liaison officer for the Japan Men’s National Football Team at London 2012.
What to do?
In order to do take the job I would have had to leave Japan about three weeks after arriving, for various meetings and workshops, and then just a few weeks later go back for up to a month. It would have meant leaving my man stranded and alone just after we had got here, and then abandoning him again shortly after, when this was supposed to be our adventure. It would have meant spending every moment since I got here swotting up on medical terminology and reading every football magazine going. It would have meant a lot of pressure to polish my language skills very quickly to be able to serve the team appropriately.
In essence, it would have completely changed this experience of Japan for both me and for my man. I have absolutely no doubt that it would be an incredible experience, but this adventure here and now is a really important experience too.
So I turned it down. You probably think I’m crazy. Part of me still thinks I am crazy. But another part knows it was an important decision.
For years before Do What You love I was involved in the sports industry in a number of ways, and still get involved in certain projects. But for a number of reasons I made a big shift to this new life a couple of years ago, and this feels much more like me. And I know that by making this choice I have made space for other opportunities – and made this particular opportunity available to someone else. I guess we often forget that – by saying no to things we can actually do other people a favour.
I feel like for the first time ever I have truly chosen this new path over the old one. Chosen my home life over my work life. Chosen the slow lane over the fast lane. Chosen quiet over glamour. Chosen this adventure over that one. I am still not quite sure how I feel about this tough decision, but I am going to let things unfold as they will and have faith that it was the right choice to make at this point in my life.
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