Sport has always been an integral part of my life. As a child learning, as a teenager improving, and as an adult competing at a decent level, my favourite sports were football (soccer) and karate; although I also enjoyed playing first XV rugby for my school side… All pretty normal stuff for a lad growing up in the UK in the 1970s, when lessons in a sense of ‘fair play’, sportsmanship and learning to live with disappointment came principally from a backdrop of muddy school playing fields.
One thing of working on sport as an Audio Director in Australia suddenly brought back some unexpected, but fond, memories from my childhood.
I’ve only been living in Australia for 3 years and the novelty hasn’t yet worn off (I wonder if it ever will!); and as I went about my work as an Audio Director on an Outside Broadcast vehicle, parked at a beautiful provincial cricket ground in Queensland, I suddenly remembered the pleasure I’d had as a boy listening to the coverage provided by the ABC – for the BBC – of test match cricket, coming through loud and clear on my precious transistor radio. Back then, the games would be taking place in sunshine thousands of miles away, whilst it was dark, cold (and more often than not, wet) at home. Beneath the blankets I would hear commentary from a land down under and I would wonder what it would be like to be there, in such impossibly exotic sounding surroundings.
And here I was.
A career is rarely a straight line trajectory, and so just like a racing yacht, an airliner or a space rocket, small incremental changes and adjustments need to be made constantly for external factors that inevitably come to bear: whether it be tide, wind or gravity; or for us as professionals, on our own personal journeys, our preparedness, our readiness and our ability to spot beneficial opportunities.
A coach is not only there to help with getting you on the right track for you and your dreams; they’re also there to help and advise when you unexpectedly get blown off course. A steady hand on the tiller.
I know from experience how that can happen.
The waiting list and details of my coaching content, including how to download my free eBook on the benefits of coaching for creatives, awaits you here:
www.soundproducer.com.au/coaching
(Why not take a look? There’s no obligation.)
