A Kiwi looks at 55 and is the juice worth the squeeze.

 Been just under 5 years since I have put pen to paper here - just seems like not much has happened since March of 2020 that is worth writing about :)

But in honor of my birthday and because Aimee made a comment on the book of faces let's see if we can start banging out a few more of these - as long as they are at least half decent to read.

Firstly a Kiwi looks at 55 (less the 50 that I wrote about 5 years ago (link at the bottom of this if you care - so technically A Kiwi looks at 5) - well 2020 sure was fun. We did a roughly 3,200 mile road trip in June 2020 to see friends as the kids and the chick needed to get out some, so it was St Pete Beach, Pensacola, New Braunfels, Dallas, Nashville then home - rented a Denali for very little as no one was travelling and had a blast. We have also been to Thailand for 2 weeks with the kids and the chick, to NZ for 2 weeks with the kids, Thailand, Hong Kong and NZ with the chick and probably some other places (do not go to Universal in FL around New Years). Kids are now both in college so don't get to spend as much time as I want with them, Chick wants to turn the Monkeys' room into a guest/sewing room - I am protesting :)

In the past 5 years I changed jobs to build something for someone, got 'restructured' out of my job due to religious differences (he thought he was a god and I was a disbeliever - the 'god' got fired soon after as a note). I then started my own company, luckily HR likes me, I can get away with swearing at the CEO and clothing is optional, so I think it is a good spot for me :) I am back selling some, buying some and learning some every day.

The Chick and I bought the house we were renting in 2020, Monkey and I worked Ruggerfest a few times, were offical scorer and time keeper at an MLR game, with LG we went to Eden Park for a test match, had a water spitting match with an elephant in Thailand and have made some amazing memories Hopefully I get to remember then, if not I have lots of photos :) I have been lucky enough to help coach at Venom, a D1 womans team and a quite amazing group of people who I consider myself incredibly lucky to be able to work with. I also have Caps playing over winter (great group of young men), help organize youth rugby in the area and also help with our All Stars - plus Haka Rugby camps, the Crusaders etc :) We spend a lot of time being at home (when I am not at rugby), cooking, working, being low maintenance so I can afford the kids college fees, mortgage, and the best part, creating memories - the juice.

The juice is worth the squeeze

One word changes this idiom into something that we probably need to ask ourselves more often - is, ie Is the juice worth the squeeze.

Quite often I ask that of myself, particularly thinking of the time and effort that so many put into rugby in the area. The time, sacrifices, travel and money can be quite daunting - and even more quite annoying for the partner. Is the juice worth the squeeze?

It depends on what juice you are looking for, are you doing it for the trophies, the shiny medals, the accolades of being number 1......or is your juice seeing the impact you have on the players that you have helped. Funnily enough often those 2 things co-incide - good people make good rugby players (not the other way around Razza). I was reminded of this last Saturday when an ex player, now working a law degree, wanted a hug from Coach Kiwi :)

Sometimes the squeeze brings no immeadiate juice but future juice - and we need to decide if that is enough to put in the squeeze now. Some decisions we make do not care factor in the squeeze; such as putting kids through college, travelling to see family, driving 3 hours each way for a rugby game, not puching someone in the face who desperately needs it but definitely cancelling the LinkedIn connection and being nice to puppies and babies - easy decisions to make.

But x hours of work for $ reward, playing the long game versus the short, knowing the knees/back will hate you for 4 days if you commit to reffing those rugby games or playing Pickle ball (whichever you can relate to) - is that time and effort worth the reward, is the juice worth the squeeze? Sometimes you have to ask yourself how much juice do you need from that squeeze, or do you actually need any at all? That being said I am sure some of use love a good charity squeeze :)

Probably the best example right now would be was it worth reading all this crap to get to something you already know?

Many years ago I was trying to sell real estate in Tweed Heads/Coolangatta on the big prison island, couldn't sell anything, read a 'sales technique book' which taught me nothing new but put everything back into place and next day, sold a house. Sure it might have been a coincidence but I like to tell the story to infer that people already know almost all they need to know. Sometimes you just need to get it the blocks  back in order and sometimes you need to ask yourself, before you commit to something, before you leap off the bridge (option to have a bungee attached), before you spin sales cycles, operational time and commit the cusotmer service team.....is the juice worth the squeeze.

As a reminder and this is relevant it you think about it - just as a customer can fire you, you can always fire a customer.

Well it has been 5 years - definitely a bit rusty writing this crap but feels good banging one of these out after such a long hiatus - who knows, this might be good for my soul, blood pressure and general mental health :) Maybe this juice is worth the squeeze again :)

Work hard, play hard and earn your inspiration

Happy Poets Day

Here is the Kiwi looks at 50 blog

https://poetsdayus.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-kiwi-looks-at-50.html