By Darius Boyd
55 comms Presenter
For the last few months, I’ve been asked many times: “How does it feel watching the footy this year?”
It’s the first season I haven’t played in the NRL since 2005, when I was at school and wondering what was coming next.
I retired at the end of last season so the question about watching on from the stands is a good one.
But the answer is easy: “I feel grateful.”
Grateful for the many good things that happened for me over the years: grateful that I could play for 15 seasons; grateful that I met so many good people; and grateful that I had a serious mental health issue midway through my career.
If that issue hadn’t occurred then, I could have been in real trouble now. I was lucky to learn about positive mental health while I was still playing footy rather than when I finished my career when the challenges would have been more testing.
We all go through adjustments in life – changes in career, changes in personal relationships, even changes in home cities.
I’ve found that a good routine is very important. I had a preview of that when the NRL season was temporarily shut down last year with no ability to train together as a team and no guarantee that we would return to the field.
I’m pleased to be working with the Broncos’ community programs, visiting schools and listening to younger Queenslanders.
And I’ve started mental health programs for corporate clients, going into workplaces and advising on ways to get the best outcomes from teams.
The workshops are called The “I” in Team because it’s important that individuals are functioning at their best levels to contribute to team performance.
It’s been inspiring to hear some of the challenges from workplaces and how teams have responded. There are so many similarities between the corporate world and professional sport.
One thing is common to both – the need for gratitude.
It’s helped to drive me for many years now.