Yesterday I played my first game of 11-a-side football in over 20 years. It was a game for the coaches, following a kids’ football festival in Sully, South Wales.
After a tentative start, I got into the game. The more I got into the game, the more I began noticing the mistakes I made.
I had a one-minute coaching conversation with myself that went like this: “You are making more mistakes because you are trying more things, not because you are too old, or too rusty to play this game. Relax.”
That was it.
After that, I played with a freedom that I associated with playing with my mates when I was a kid. That’s a feeling few of us ever want to lose, and for the next 30 or 40 minutes of the game, that’s what I had, and it was magical.
I share this because I’m aware that there are so many more possible experiences I could have had that day, both negative and positive – it’s worth recognising how hard it is to give yourself fully to an experience.