I'm in bed banging out the Zzz's when I hear an excited shout to tell me someone is looking for a medic to join an Everest summit attempt. I spring out of bed, alarmed, dazed, looking for an intruder, clueless as to where I am, am I dreaming? I look at my phone: 'Medic required for an all-expenses-paid trip to support an Everest summit attempt, leaving in 3 weeks' BOOM! This is it! The dream job for any mountain-obsessed medic. This is a job I've been dreaming of for a decade, so to say I'm excited is an understatement. How many paramedics can say they've worked on an Everest attempt? How cool is it going to be to experience Nepalese culture? To meet the Sherpas and porters, learn about their way of life, and do some cool mountaineering with the opportunity to go up to camp 2. Those who know me know I don't get excited often, and I show it even less. I reply as fast as my blurry eyes and fat fingers allow: Yes! I'm in! I get the OK and am provide
Follow the signs. I have recently put myself in what I like to call a position of “yes”. This is the ability to say yes to opportunities at short notice and look at the good that can come from these opportunities. It is a very fortunate position to be in but this has made a huge difference to my mindset and my positivity. For so long I had too much of a negative mindset and outlook on life. I got stuck on the negatives and was struggling to see the positive aspects of life. These feelings crept up on me, making me risk averse and less confident, I didn’t like it. I would often find myself looking at the worst-case scenario or thinking about all the terrible things that could happen, overlooking any positive aspects of a situation. Since negative events are usually by nature more complicated and powerful than the positive events, we require more brain power to minimize the consequences of the event and deal with the experience, making it a more memorable and intense experience (Ta