Back on the horse

It’s a long time since I have been on a horse. It could have been either in my thirties or even in my teens. It’s not something that I get much chance to do. Apart from a brief flurry with my daughters when they were young, the closest I have come to one recently is stroking its nose over a fence.

Not that I did in my brief career, but I am told that should you fall off your horse then you should get straight back on it. Any delay will allow your fear of falling off again to grow and make it less and less likely that you will ever ride again. I suppose it’s the same with riding a bicycle or having  a car crash. I have fallen off my bicycle too many times to mention and have had a fair few crashes in my time. 

It is in this context that I tweeted on my first day back to work this year that I was struggling to get back on the horse. It’s an expression I have used many times before.

I’d managed to clear most of the deck over the festive break and had little left to do on the Tuesday. I had a few meetings lined up yet the first two were no-shows, due to illness and my lack of planning. I was at a bit of a loss and left feeling that I had somehow fallen off the horse and was struggling for motivation to get back on. The feeling hung over me all day and into the next but by the end of Wednesday things were starting to imoreve. Thursday was a good day and I felt back to normal, at least as normal as can be.

So many people I have spoken to following the break have said that it was nice but that they are glad to have got back to normality. Whilst it is nice to have time off I always feel that the festive break is somehow forced upon us and a significant disruption to life. 

Perhaps that’s the point. It gives us the chance to stop and the chance to learn to ride again. Giddy up!