Space for Renascence: with Lynda Slack Shifting Mindsets and International Exploration

 In this episode of Space for Renascence, host Felicity Williams speaks with Lynda Slack, MBE. Lynda is a positive psychology coach and project management professional who was awarded an MBE for her inspirational leadership.

The conversation focuses on how a period of serious illness and near-burnout served as a practical turning point in Lynda’s life. She explains how she shifted from a cycle of constant professional and voluntary busyness to prioritising her own wellbeing and personal interests.

Lynda shares the specific story of how a magazine advertisement in a car park led her to sign up for an international cycling challenge, despite not having ridden a bicycle for decades. We discuss her experiences cycling across the globe, from the Nile in Egypt to the rural villages of India, Cambodia, and Vietnam and the lessons she learned about asking for help and enjoying the process rather than just the destination.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Recognising Burnout: Lynda describes the physical and mental signs that led her to realise her lifestyle was no longer sustainable.
• The Power of 'Yes': How responding to a single advertisement led to a decade of international exploration and charity fundraising.
• Overcoming Fear: Practical strategies Lynda used to manage her fear of cycling on roads and tackling steep terrain.
• The 'Sassy Snails' Philosophy: Why setting off early and taking a slower pace can lead to a more fulfilling experience.
• Giving Permission to Pause: The importance of accepting help and using resources (like the support bus) when faced with physical challenges.
• Life in Saudi Arabia: How Lynda’s renewed sense of curiosity led her to relocate and work abroad.

About Lynda Slack, MBE:

Lynda is a project manager and positive psychology coach who specialises in leadership and community impact. She has dedicated much of her life to voluntary service, including work with Childline, the Vaccine Centre, and various school organisations, for which she received her MBE.

Connect with the Podcast:

• Host: Felicity Williams
• Podcast: Space for Renascence

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello and welcome back to Space for Renaissance. I'm Felicity Williams and I'm so glad you've joined us today. This is a space where we explore the courage it takes to change, to lead, and to keep moving forward, no matter where we are in our lives. Today we're looking at how a shift in mindset can lead to a lifetime of impact, both for ourselves and the communities we serve. I'm honoured to be joined today by Linda Slack, MBE. Linda is a positive psychology coach and a project management professional whose career and voluntary work have been so impactful that she was awarded an MBE for inspirational leadership. Linda, thank you for stepping into this space with me. With all the adventures you've had and the many people you've led, how are you feeling in your world today?

SPEAKER_01 0:45

I'm feeling really, really, really good this morning. I'm currently in Saudi Arabia, and obviously there's the conflicts ongoing and it's all a little bit like when your sleep gets interrupted. But we're still carrying on, still going. I've managed to get out of my run this morning. I've I've been listening to my music, which always lifts me up, and been busy getting ready for an Easter egg hunt tomorrow morning for the children that I'm in charge of organising. I've got a plan for today, and I'm feeling really, really positive today. The sun's out, and it's always nice when the sun's out. Yeah, I feel good.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

The sun's out here as well for the first time in a very long time. We've actually got some sunshine. Yeah, it's lovely. I'm so glad to have you here, and I'm so glad to hear your story. We had a little bit of a chat the other day around what you wanted to bring. If you'd like to start with how did one magazine advert and your brother's throwaway comment change everything for you?

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Well, it was it's going back, uh um gosh, it's almost like must be it's coming up for like 10 years now. I was really, really poorly and very, very close to burnout with with my job and everything. And I think my body was just saying, No, Linda, this is enough, there's too much going on, and you really need to it really did pull me up short and made me think about what I was doing, where I wanted to go with my life and what I wanted to do. And I was to be honest, when I was first really poor, I didn't really think about it, I just wanted to get well again. And someone said, Oh, what do you want to do when you get out? So I think I run a half marathon. It's like, yeah, right. Just something to keep me forward thinking, which I did actually manage to do, even though I couldn't run. Um, but it was more that that was a little start. That was the first time I suddenly thought I need to think about what's what's right for me and what do I want to do. My husband is in the Royal Navy, he was away most of the time. So when my girls were little, it was just me and the two girls. Don't get me wrong, it was absolutely brilliant. But it was, you know, it was it was hard sometimes when I was on my own. I did love my life, I loved what I did with the girls, I loved my job. I was working in a complaints department and child support agency, which if everyone knows like the history of it, it wasn't well received. It was challenging, but I absolutely loved it because it was an opportunity to help other people work through some difficult times, and I got a lot out of that, so I've got a really good buzz. And to be honest, that was one of the reasons why I got my MBE. It was because of the work I did in the complaints department, turning everything around, you know, things and that was fabulous. Alongside that, I was doing lots of volunteering, I worked for child line, going into schools, I was on the PTA, and to be honest, my children are now 23 and 24. I'm still on the PTA, even though I'm living in Saudi, still a signatory because can't quite quite get away from it. And I was doing girl guiding, I was doing loads of stuff, but everything was about really helping other people and not really looking after myself. So I think the pooriness was a bit of a wake-up call. But I mean, you know, being seriously ill, you think that was a really wake-up call. But I went back to work after my illness, probably went back to work too soon again because I like to be at work, I like to be busy. But I realised that actually my job was causing me a bit of anxiety because you know it was I was just giving too much and the days were getting too long. So I asked for a move and I was very lucky to move to projects, so I wouldn't have the leadership of quite a large number of staff across the country, across the UK. It was just going to be me looking after myself, and it was brilliant. I absolutely adored the job, but it didn't take long, and again, I was starting to work long hours voluntarily. Nobody forces you to do these things, but you just do that because you're confused. Busy with being alive. Oh yeah, look at me. I'm really, really busy. I'm doing this, I'm doing that. But I didn't feel all the time I was doing this stuff, I didn't feel like I was actually doing anything for me. Then comes COVID with all the joys that that brought. So, again, not wanting to be stuck indoors and wanting to help. I went and volunteered at the vaccine centre in Blackpool. And that was brilliant. I got my jabs early. So that was a real good bonus. But yeah, doing that, meeting people, reassuring people, speaking to people, that those people connections are vital. And I think during COVID, I think it was really, really vital for me because I was missing everything else I'd done. One day we got put on car park duty, me and my friend, and it was raining, and the wind was coming in off the sea, and it was really miserable. So I can still remember it now. We were walking around the car park, the rain lashing down, trying to get how many steps we could in. And I said to my friend, Oh, let's try and read my running magazine whilst we're walking, that'll be a challenge. Um, and we did, and the page opened to a picture of, and I can never remember the name of it, it's the the treasury in Petra. You know the scene where Indiana Joan comes out with Sean Connery and he's like, Junior, you know, and they're out. And I've always looked at it and thought it fascinating. And this was a challenge to walk the desert and end up there. Well, it was like, Gody Makespeople, it was like everything just went, Oh my god, that's for me. That's like for me. And I said, I'm doing that. And my friend's like, What? So no, I'm I'm signing up for this. It's not until you know, it's not until the beginning of 2022. Loads of time. I am doing this challenge. And she was like, Okay, you know, we're tipping it down with rain, covert here. We don't know who we have to travel, but I just said, I am doing it, and I'd found something for me. It was something that I thought I can do. This it's different, it's exciting, and it's for me, and it's somewhere where I've always wanted to go ever since I saw Harrison Ford get schoolgirl crush on coming out of there and Sean Connery. It was just amazing. So, as you do, because it was like, you know, in the olden days, you don't download everything to your phone. So I ordered a brochure online and the cane, and oh my god, there was just so many exciting challenges in there. Not just my desert trek, which would be camping under the desert for five nights, cycling. I haven't ridden a bike since I was like 15, but I was just looking at the places, these places they were going to Costa Rica. There was a couple of boring ones around the UK. I thought, no, I don't want that. I want to go somewhere completely bonkers. And I saw one for cycling the Nile. I went to see my mum and my brother was there, and my younger brother, and I was like, Well, which one shall I do? And it just went, Well, and do you need to cycle because you're not getting any younger? And that was it. I thought, right, I'm cycling the Nile, and I'm gonna do it. And the very next day I rang up and I booked my trip cycling the Nile, and that was the start of everything, really, for me. That was just yeah, it was gonna be Linda time doing my things for me and just my space. And since then I've not really looked back.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

That's brilliant. I like that you said you don't want to do any boring ones in the UK, you just want to go into foreign countries and explore. So tell me more about your love of exploring.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

I don't I love learning new things. I love reading books, and I love learning new things, and I do like meeting new people. That's brilliant. But I think because my husband worked away for 20 odd years, when he came home, he never wanted to go anywhere. I remember being when I was 15, 16, at 18, I just left home and went to work in London. And I'm like, you know, bye mum, we'll see you tomorrow. I'll see you in a couple of weeks, I'll come back. So okay. So I always like to go and explore and do things new. And I did that when I got married. I moved around quite a lot at the start with Adam's job. We moved from Dartmouth to Plymouth, you know, I was in Stroud, it was all over. I loved the the learning and seeing new things, and I think for the 20 odd years, while the girls were growing up, I hadn't realized that that's what I was missing in my life was the new thing. But since since doing the cycling the Nile, I have um I've cycled the Nile. I've been to the Northern Triangle in India, and all of these things have got incredible moments that I will remember for the rest of my life. I did actually do a coast to coast in England under sufferance, but it was for charity, so I didn't quite mind. And like the sassy snails, as we were called, because we were the slowest group of cyclists. We had an amazing time. Whilst all the other cyclists are coming out and they're cycling really, really, really fast, get in there, we would set off three hours before the other groups, start cycling, we stopped for afternoon tea, we stopped for lunch at the pub, we did all of that, we took loads of photographs, and then we would get back. I could two, three hours after everybody else, but we'd have had a great time, and I think that's the sign of all my trips that I've done is I'm always the one at the back, I'm always the one hoofing and puffing up the hill because I'm always the slowest. Because I stopped to talk and I stopped to take the pictures and everything. But we did scare Gness to Livham. I've done Cambodia to Vietnam, which was incredible. They've all been incredible. I can't I can't lie. India, goa to Hampi. I actually did cry on that one because some of the hills were really, really hard, and I don't think I'd put enough like of my own training in. And then this year I'm doing Kilimanjaro to the Indian Ocean, and next year I'm actually booked on the Petra Desert Trek because they finally reintroduced it. Whether it will actually go ahead now with this current conflict, I don't know because it's right at the top. But I am booked October 2027. I will get to do the trekking. All the rest have been cycling, and I'm still no better at cycling.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

That's a wonderful insight. I like the way that you're the sassy snails and you set off three hours before and you just enjoy the journey. It's not about getting to the end, it's about the journey that you take, and that is actually a true reflection where you started off early, you enjoy the scenery, you enjoy the company with your friends, and it's about getting to the end destination. Tell us some more about some of the things that you've done.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

So when I signed up to do Cycling the Nile, I actually had, as I say, I had been on a bike since I was like about 15, 16. And and when I used to stop myself on bikes, people remember me, I used to use my feet, I used to use my shoes. My mum would go mad, she was ruined. Because I never and I had an old bike when I was like 15 that didn't have any gears, but just stop and go. That was my bike. So when we well, I can remember now, when I first signed up to it, I had a bike that my husband had bought for what to go out with the girls when they were little, but I never went out on it because the bike I don't like riding on the roads, I find it really quite unnerving. So I was a bit scared. So, anyhow, when I first realised I was gonna have to ride a bike, I thought, oh, okay, how am I gonna do this? I was very, very lucky that I was so excited about this this trip that I went and I was part of a I was a run leader for a group of jolly joggers, and I used to look after the couch to 5K ladies because I'd be always at the back, motivating them along, and we would have a great time again at the back, going at our own pace, chatting. Some people would want to talk, some people wouldn't. I would talk to the ones that didn't want to talk and keep them going. And now one of the ladies at the back, because I'd be going on about it for about two weeks, because I was so excited, she said, Can I come with you? Yeah, okay. Off you come. So Lindsay then signed up as well. She couldn't ride a bike, she had to go and buy her bike. Then we we both got these bikes, and we're like, Where are we gonna ride? Well, luckily we live near Blackpool, so we could get to the front, and then we'd had about three miles on a quiet road, and then we would hit Blackpool Prom. And when we got to Blackpool Prom, we could literally cycle, avoiding the tourist, and getting knocked over by the wind, and we would just cycle up and down the Blackpool seafront ourselves together, still not knowing how to work gears. I was two and three, two and three, that was all I knew. If I got into two and three, I was okay, no idea, up, downhill. There was no hills in Blackpool, so that was really cool. So we taught ourselves that and we went off. Um, we got a training plan. Apparently, we were supposed to do 50 miles back to back. We never did any of that. We just rocked up because we thought we can't be that hard. So we turned up, we got to Egypt, and the first days we were leaving from Cairo, we were going on the Cairo motorway. I don't know if anyone's been to Cairo, but cycling on a motorway is not what you think you're going to be doing when you go on a cycling holiday. But the police didn't want us to ride out too far. So we were there, and at one point, and this was probably the first day I can remember being at the top of the motorway, like on the top of a bump. And the lady that I've met called Dana, she just said, right, let's go Goonies style down the hill. And we just went down the hill as fast as we could. The wheels were just going, and we were just screaming our heads off with delight like being on a roller coaster. And my Strava actually caught me doing 42 miles per hour down the hill on this motorway with an armed guard in a car by the side of me, trying to keep up. Who's trying to keep up? We meet down again so fast down the hill. And I just thought at that moment, from the moment in the car park to get into there, I challenged myself to ride a bike again, which it's it's not that hard, but it is if you're scared. So every time I was on that road, even though for two or three miles, I had to keep thinking, I can do this, I can do this. Other people have done it before, so I can do it. You can do this, Linda. And Lindsay was the same, we can do this, we can do this. We're not cycling bots and stuff. But I remember just writing, oh my god, this is incredible, absolutely incredible. And I just thought, this is it. All my busy time at home, this is what I'm here for. This is like amazing. So we did two days on motorways, and then they allowed us to go off piece. So then we started to go through the back streets and like villages where the people, you know, we were the circus coming to town because there was a hundred people on this bike challenge of all ages. The oldest lady was 72, and she did it all without even wearing padded shorts. I mean, that was amazing. It was just incredible. We did see all the pyramids as well. It was full on, so we got to see all the pyramids, but we also got to see some really awesome things that you wouldn't normally see when you're just in the tourist place, and it was incredible. And when I decided to do that, you know, just that one small yes of saying yes to the advert, yes to the bite, yes to just getting there, yeah, yes, Lindsay, come along as well. It's gonna be brilliant. It was like a catalyst then for others. As soon as I got back, as soon as I got back as there, I booked another one. So this one was India, and then another jolly jogger came and said, I wanted to do one with you. So, okay, come on, you come to India. So we went to India and we saw the Taj Mahal. And I will never forget standing there, and we weren't in front of the Taj Mahal, we were a couple of miles away in a fort or something, and me and this were who we called Mad Angie because she was bonkers on this trip. We were looking through this window and I was just crying, and she was crying because it was just it was just beautiful, and it was just, oh my god, here I am again. I'm in India. I'm looking at the Taj Mahal. Was it was just incredible with another bunch of nutty. This was all women this time, so it was a bit even more nutty than the last lot. And this one was we were raising money because some of these challenges that I do, I went the first one, Safe in the Nile. I fundraised for Safa because I thought, well, I might as well, you know, I'm gonna be doing something that's really challenging for me. So I spoke to the Soldier Sailor Air Force Family Association, and they'd looked after us when we'd gone to welcome Adam home sometimes for a safe. I thought they're not a well-known charity, really, in my mind. So I did fundraising for them, but this one was a council charity, so it was loads of women on it. It was just incredible. But we were stood there just crying because it was just so beautiful, and these challenges, actually, we've seen all these beautiful things, but you are up every morning at like half past five, you're having your breakfast at six o'clock. Well, I don't eat normally till eleven, so that was a challenge getting over the food. I don't like spicy food either, and I don't really like meat. So I'm in a country which is renowned for curries and spice, and not so bad because there were a lot of vegetable curries. I was always at the back of the line again because people were going in front of me and they were testing all the food. You won't like that, Linda. Don't eat that, Linda. That's not nice for you. All the way through. But the whole challenge, people looked after me to make sure I got enough to eat, which was brilliant. That trip as well. When we came away from like the Taj Mahal and we were out in the wild, but again, seeing people and you know, riding through villages on mud tracks. One point we went up to the top of a hill, and it was hard work getting to the top of the hill. Again, I hadn't really learnt my gears, so I'm there doing my best to get off, and I'd stop halfway up and cheer everybody else on, and then that gave me a rest and I'd get up. And we got to the top, and the guy said, Oh, you need to go down. But what he didn't tell us going down was it's a dirt track on the side of a cliff. It was scary. We were cycling, trying not to go too fast in case we fell off because it was a sheer drop. I thought, someone's risk assessed this, so it can't be that bad. And I could and it was gravel and it was track and it was stones and it was bumps. I remember thinking as we got to the end when it flattened out a bit, oh my god, I would have thought again two years ago that I would be in the middle of India cycling down a track. If I fall off, I'm gonna be dead. And then someone videoed me at the end, and I didn't realise they were videoing me, so I was really swearing an awful lot. That was so scary because it was really scary. But again, it was just incredible because I just thought, wow, wow, you know, this is just amazing, and this is for me super scary because I don't like riding on the roads in England because they're so scary. And here I am doing trail, like equivalent of a trail bike run with a cliff down that end. And I thought people are so proud of me being brave. So then we I did that one again. Come back. Lindsay wants to go on another one, so we booked Cambodia to Vietnam, and this time my eldest daughter wanted to come because she's got a travelling bug. She has a bit of an issue with her back from a gymnastics injury, so she's got a bit of an injury. So for her, like bike riding was a challenge as well. She came, I was a bit worried. We booked her an e-bike, thought she can have it. She didn't use it at all. Loads of other people use the e-bike, but she didn't. Loads of grit and determination. So for her, it was a massive challenge. It was just so nice because I thought, you know, I've gone from being we're in our little house at home to here's me and Ellie, the other side of the world, together cycling. Vietnam to Cambodia. We shared a room, we only fell out once over the toilet, so that was an achievement, and it was just incredible. Don't really like the food, but we did find a pizza hut, so that was alright. And I just kept every time there was something different about all these different trips that just kept challenging me. And I just kept saying, you know, you can do it. I've I'm not a professional cyclist. And then this year we did injured. This is the first time I've actually cried whilst I was cycling because their hills were so hard. So, so hard. But fortunately, I had been taught how to use gears now by a friend who I played paddle with. He took pity on me when I kept saying that he's like, This should be easy. I can't even use my gears. So he took me out a couple of times on the roads to show me how to use my gears. It did make a difference, but it didn't make a difference to the fact that the hills were like very, very steep. It was something one of them was 4,000 feet over, I don't know, it was about 8k, which sounds out okay, but it's not, and it was winding. So on that one, I did actually cry and I did take a turn on what we called the love bus, which is the bus that you go on if you're not feeling so well or if you can't do it. And I think there's always a stigma on these trips that you shouldn't go on the love bus because you know you're not a good cyclist. But actually, I saw it as a quite a brave thing of me to actually. I don't think I did half of the hill, the first hill, and I just thought I can't get on, I can't do the rest. I'm gonna hold everybody back, and I don't want it to do that. And I just thought if I can't get to the top, I'm gonna feel like I've let myself down, but I'm not gonna enjoy it. I've already been crying for the first half because it was hard enough. And I thought, what am I trying to prove? I don't need to try to prove anything to myself because I'm already here halfway across the world. I'm already, you know, I've been brave. I'm giving myself permission to be brave to come and do these things. And it's okay to be brave to go on the bus. And it's surprising when one person goes on that bus, then I can say, come on the bus. By the end of the trip, because I went on it a few times because I also got a puncture that they couldn't fix. I'd been on the front bus and witnessed the two drivers and the doctor having arguments, which was hilarious. Then I'd been in there on the back bus, which was a bit more comfortable because it actually had seat belts. And then I'd also been in the bike van, which nobody else got to go in the bike van. So I'm having a conversation with a guy who can't speak a word of English, and we we were I was able to communicate to him how excited I was, how grateful I was that he was there with his with his van and everything through through hands and smiling. And I just thought, yeah, I'm making a really brave decision to realise that actually I'm a little bit too much out of my comfort zone now, and it's okay to take the help when it's offered because I think and that's a key thing for me is I don't like to accept help. I've always seen that as a sign of weakness, you know, because you've got to be busy and you've got to be this, but actually. The help I had when someone said, Do you want me to teach you how to use your gears? Oh, do you mind? Because I don't like asking for things for myself so much. But I've now realized that actually that's a really good thing because not only do you harm yourself, but you help them because I like to help people, so I made them feel good. And realizing that it's okay to just say, I can't do this at the moment, and it's brave. And I realized that getting the help then made that journey much more pleasurable for me because I didn't kill myself on the first day. The next two days were still just as hard. So I had a couple of times on the bus, but people came on with me and it was great. So we had a little bit of fun on the bus as well, motivating people up the hill. But the last hill on the last day was equivalent to the first hill. And I got up it because I'd had the experience. So I think if I hadn't had the really bad hills at the start, I probably would have done them all. But I got to go on the bus and had a really, really cool time. And loads of people on the trip really helped me to get up because you know you would think that doing all this exercise and cycling that'd be like a pencil because I'm not like a pencil. I'm like, you know, I'm huffing and puffing at the back all the time. Although this year we are doing, say, from the bottom of Kilimanjaro to the Indian Ocean. It's a mixture of hotels and camping out somewhere. I try not to look too much at the plan for the event. I I don't wanna I don't want to think that's gonna be really hard. I'm not gonna be able to do that. I don't think about the hills that are coming, I just take everything in my stride now because I'm on one of the early trips, someone go, we've got a hill like like going up like Mount Everest, and we've got this, and this is really long, and I would be scared of it. Whereas I've soon thought, hang on a second, I don't know what's gonna happen. I don't want to know, I want to enjoy every pedal as I'm going. And if it's really hard, I will deal with that hardness at that point in time. So even when the bike leaders in the morning will say, This is what we're gonna do, I'd like to put my fingers in my ears because I want to know. And some people might say that's a bit silly, but actually it works for me. It's it works for me not knowing what's coming too much, I can really enjoy it when I'm there. Because I think sometimes you look forward to something so much that when you get to it, it's like an actual anticlimax. So I I try not to I know I'm going, I know the dates I'm going, and my daughter sends her what I'm doing because she's coming again on this one because she's got a real bug now. This will be the third one we've done together, and it's just going to be incredible. Some of the things we've we've just done have just been amazing. I also have to tell you before I forget on the trip in India, there was a bit of a detour on one of the routes that are mapped out, you know, and they are right out of the country. We were cycling through streams, you know, with your legs up, you know, just cycling through the rivers and everything. We went to this one village, and obviously, I don't even think that some of them had seen white people because this baby, every time we looked at them, they just cried. They just cried. I was just thinking, there's these people coming, all these lunatics with bike helmets on, and like, you know, we were probably just frightening them to death because we were so far off the proper trap. And it added an extra 10k onto the journey, which we were best pleased about because it was already long enough. It was just incredible. Some of the sites that we've seen whilst we've been out there are just yeah, just unbelievable. And I've made some really, really good friends. The ladies that have been on two trips an hour are coming out to Saudi, hopefully at the end of the year, sort of doing a cycling challenge, and then we're also going on another cycling challenge next year together. The ones who I did the first India trip with they're all coming on the Kilimanjaro trip as well. So I won't see them for a couple of years. We get to see them again. It's just incredible, absolutely incredible. I just absolutely love it. Scary every time, but keeps you alive, doesn't it? And we've got loads of other plans as well to do things.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

I really like the bit where you said you got to the first hill, and it was a real challenge, and you were crying. And so you went on the bus. And then the second time there was a hill and you gave yourself permission to go on the bus. And then on the third hill, you made it. But that's the beauty of asking for help and giving yourself permission to actually learn. The first time you might not succeed, the second time you do it slightly better, and you know what's coming. And then the third time you know that you do have the ability to put yourself into these situations and actually achieve what you've set yourself out for. It's just giving yourself that permission to actually enjoy the process and carry it through.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

It's knowing you say the more you do things, the better you become at them. And I think that's true. And I've definitely learned that over the challenges and everything. And I think other people seeing that you're taking a step back and saying, Oh no, I can't do that just yet. I never believe there's anything I can't do if I train hard. There's a couple of other ladies on the trip who were very similar to myself, who were struggling, who then the second day got on the bus, and then by the end of the trip, because we were building ourselves up, and then the guys at the front, the the proper professionals, they like to zoom off. But then a lot of them then started spending more time at the back with us because we were having a lot of fun, even though we were crying sometimes, we're having a lot more fun, and they helped us get up. They would go in front of us so we could go into their slipstream and stuff because some of the mileage we were doing we were doing like 100k some days, and you're up early and cycling in quite warm weather. People give yourself permission, and then other people do follow, and it's though that ripple effect where they see it's okay to take stock, it's okay to put yourself out there and go and do this daft challenge. You're not gonna die, you're just gonna go out and do it. And the challenges that I've done, and this desire to go and see things, and my love of learning and my curiosity, which I talked to my mum about it a couple of years ago, she's saying I was always a curious child. I love learning new things, I love reading, I loved exploring. And I think being poorly was my thing. Saying, No, stop, Linda, you're not being a curious self. Now I'm able to go out and try new things, and this is the reason probably why we were living in Saudi Arabia. One of the things around COVID time was I decided that my job was brilliant, I loved it. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved my job and I took great pride in doing it, but I wanted to do something different. I wanted to go and live abroad. Don't know where it came from. So the cycling challenges then fell out of that because it was a bit more of a practical way of doing it. And then by saying it to my husband, because I did actually start looking for jobs abroad, and he's like, Well, what are you gonna do with the children then with me? He said, Well, it's up to you. You're all enough to look after yourself if you're a grown man, I'll come back, you know. It's like, oh, okay. And at that point, then and with the position that he's in, he said, Well, let me see if there's anything I can do because there's not many postings for his branch and rank in the navy. Some of the other military are more mobile and more bases out, but the navy is ships and everyone goes on a ship. So we came up with a couple of options in Saudi Arabia, the one that fitted in, and it was a no-brainer. I was there before he was there. Took 18 months to pull it all together with everything, the visas and lining up with Adam's job. It's just been amazing, and it came at the right time for me as well because I was getting very, very close to burnout, and I could feel it coming this time. Because even though I was having my me times when I'm going off doing my cycling, I knew that I was wearing myself out again. So we've been here two years now, and I can say the two years I've spent learning about myself again and giving myself permission to reset. And it has been really challenging because I've never lived abroad before. Getting to know different people, we're on an international compound, getting used to not working at the pace which I was because I'm fortunate I don't have to work whilst we're out here because I can't, I'm not allowed because of my visa. First, I came in, I was like, I've got to keep doing everything at the rate of knots that I was, and I have spent two years rolling it back, looking after myself and trying to make myself a priority while still satisfying my need to do things with people, to help people and be part of a community. I need those connections with people to, you know, they give me joy, and that has enabled me to take time back to myself and think about myself, more what I want to do, which is why I then started retraining different qualifications, ready for when we go back to the UK in probably a year to 18 months' time. So the Saudi thing has come because I just realized that I needed somewhere to go and be new and to not reinvent myself but get myself back to the person I was because work took over and family and children and everything just took over. I've been very fortunate in that, but I always believe as well. Like I never even think about how I'm paying for my trips or anything like that. I just book them. The universe will provide, and it's provided in some very bizarre ways, you know, and some not very nice, but it has provided for me to be able to do my trips. And you can fundraise and pay for them, you can do volunteering and pay for it that way. There's ways and means to do everything. And I say I just think, right, I want to do that now, and I do it, but I have got the mindset where I I can now adapt and I don't get disappointed if things don't work out. So, like, I've got a really bonkers story and that I want to do a half iron man. Don't ask me where it came from. I just decided I want to do a half iron man. And there's one in Bahrain, might not be one in Bahrain this year now, we don't know. But I also realised that I needed to improve my swimming, so I've been having swimming lessons, which the kids think is absolutely hilarious. When like when I'm going for my swimming lesson now, and they're like, You're too old to have a swimming lesson. But I just say no, I need to improve my swimming, need to learn how to swim in the sea. So now some of them have been coming and they've been teaching me things so I can now do a tumble turn in the water, which I could never do before, because kids think it's brilliant to teach me all their little things. But I kind of think I want to do a half-arm run. I know I'm gonna do it, but I might not do an official one. I might just do it on the compound, but just rope in a few people to be my water pit stops and do it. So that's like my little future challenge, and that also helps me by looking after my health as well.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

That's brilliant. Children are the best teachers sometimes because they just have no fear, don't they? I can remember when my two were little and oh, they used to rope me into all kinds of crazy things. So if someone else was kind of where you were at the beginning and they wanted to change their lives and they wanted to bring something new in. You know, maybe something small or even quite a big thing like you've done with the cycling, what piece of advice would you give them so that they could start their journey?

SPEAKER_01 32:08

No dream is too big, nothing is too big, it's not silly. If it's something you want to do, then it isn't silly. If it's important to you, it's not silly. And also you're never too old, you're never too old to do these things. I mean, I was in my 50s. I'm still in my 50s when I first decided to do this. And I think some people think, oh, you know, and I'm like, no, now is the time. I'm not too old to do these things. Well, it might be a little bit harder for me, but nothing is too hard. If somebody else has done it and you want to give it a try, you can do it. You might need to adapt your plan. You might need to tweak it a little bit and make it a little bit easier for you in some respects. But there's no reason why you can't just do it. You just break it down into little tiny steps. Have that goal in the future, and then just think about well, what do I need to do first? So, like with me, I think I said before, I'm gonna get my bike out, I'm gonna ride on my bike, and that'll be my first step. And then I know I'm gonna do a bit more training. And there's always people around, but don't be afraid and don't be afraid to ask for help. And I think we see it as a weakness to ask for help, you know, but it's not I think it takes a really strong person to realise that they need help because we're not all experts. I'm not an expert in fundraising, but there's people out there who help you raise the funds to be able to pay for things. If you have an idea of where you want to go, get a vision board, put the picture up there so you can see it every day. Just think and just break it down. And I'm happy to go on any challenges that anybody wants to go on. So anyone just drop me an email. It might feel a bit scary, but that's really good when it feels scary because that means you're alive. You're alive, and so many people will be looking at you and thinking, I want a piece of that, you know. Some people say to me, Oh my god, you're an exceptional person. No, I'm just this person who had an idea that just wanted to take it forward and just have a go at it. And if it don't work, if you're a team leader in a work and did something, it didn't work, you want to really tell them off. Well, what went wrong? What can we learn from that? Okay, let's start the next thing. And it's like doing that with your own life. Oh, that doesn't work. Okay, well, I'll try something else. I wanted to walk the Inca trail, but then my friend said to me, Linda, you need to lose a lot more weight and be able to get a bit more lung capacity before you do it. And at the time I was a bit okay, but she was right. So that's something that in more couple of years than I can't cycle, I'll be walking. You know, you sort of think, Oh, okay, right, I'll just adapt and I'll change and I'll do something different. So just give it a go. You'll be surprised if you put it out there, you'll be surprised how many more people are secretly thinking, yeah, I want to do that, and people will come and they will help, and your one decision to do something will have such wide reaching, you know. So many people will be, yeah, I want to do a bit of that. And it's just remember that curiosity when you were a child and your excitement, and just you know, bring that back in and give yourself permission to do it. And if it didn't work, you've had a go, and that's brilliant. You'll have learned something, and just pick something else instead.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Gorgeous. It's about having fun, it's just looking and thinking, is that fun? And then trying it. And if it's not fun, try something different, just bring fun into your life. And I can see how you light up and you're so excited about this, and that's the energy that you take into it. And so that's why other people want to come and do it with you. And I suppose that's the message that I would like to share. Go and have fun, meet people you want to have fun with and fill your life with fulfilling richness that brings you all this joy and love and happiness.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

This morning, well, delivering all my parcels for the Easter egg hunt. He just said, Oh, and what you're doing. I said, I'm delivering all this stuff for doing the Easter egg hunt tomorrow. I said, Oh my god, I said you're living your best life, aren't you? And I went, Yeah. He said, and it was really nice as well. He said to me, he said, he said, you've just got so much energy and enthusiasm. And I was like, Yeah. I said, I just love like what I've done and helping and making people happy. It makes me happy. He said, really, take so much from your enthusiasm. It makes us feel enthusiastic and gives us energy. And that really made me feel really good today. I was like, oh, that's really nice. Because you know, it's just go and have fun. And if it don't work, it don't work. Kids don't beat themselves up, it don't work, don't they? If they fall off, that's how the Olympic people get so good at things, just keep falling off the skateboards and then they have another go. But they have fun whilst they do it. Life needs to be fun. Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Life does definitely need to be fun. And I think that's a brilliant way to end this session. Thank you so much for being here. And thank you so much for sharing everything that you've just shared. Um, before we part way, uh, I'd just like to share my usual general reminder that the stories and insights we share here are deeply personal and meant for inspiration and reflection. We invite you to listen with an open heart, but please only take what truly resonates with your own life and well-being. Every journey is unique and it's always important to lean into what feels right for your own path. And to all my lovely listeners, thank you for your time and your presence. I hope Linda's journey has given you a little more room to reflect on your own potential for change. But we'll be back soon with more stories of beginning again. Take care.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

Bye.