F e a t u r e s
adventure training and deployment. Both take the individual away from their comfort zone, both involve challenge and both can, if the objective and subjective dangers are allowed for, create a deal of personal growth in the individual. Take high ropes, for example, potentially very dangerous but with the right equipment and instruction all the actual and perceived dangers can be minimised to a reasonable level.
Troops injured in battle had a great deal of fear when placed in a hospital made of canvas and in a few instances railed against the fact that they could not retaliate when the rockets exploded around the hospital. They had been taken out of their comfort zone and placed in a new environment where inactivity was the greatest form of defence. It proved to me that everyone can be challenged when moved from their comfort zone – even battle hardened squaddies.
Only by regular challenges to ourselves will we become slowly and inevitably comfortable with change and challenge, inevitably it will be seen more as an
opportunity for growth rather than a threat. War is rather an extreme for this experience hence adventure training is a more incremental way of taking people and allowing them to experience life out of their comfort zone and involving themselves in challenging activities. The reality is that when deployed self-awareness and reflection allow you to recognise when you are being stretched and draw upon your previous experience; consequently, it shouldn’t surprise or unnerve you.
I have a comfort zone on tour, it’s a building block for the whole tour I mentioned it at the start of the article. It’s my sleeping bag! My bed area is set out the same whether I’m in my basha in Otterburn, my tent in the Scottish Highlands, a hut in the Alps or a tent in the desert. My area is kept simple – the more you remind yourself of somewhere you would rather be the more you want to be elsewhere.
By being exposed to risk it can be minimised by reducing it to subjective and objective dangers. It lets you rationalise perceived
and actual risks/dangers. Change and challenge happen to all of us, impose it incrementally and allow others their own space and time to accommodate and become autonomous. Battle hardened squaddies have adjustment reactions just as any nurse to their new environment – accept it and don’t become complacent.
Accept challenge and change as everyday opportunities to expand your self-awareness and grow. Accept the insecurity of the journey you will inevitably experience when you are challenged but use the experience to build on in the future. Assess the transferable skills gained and use them appropriately.
Whether through operations or adventurous training, experience has shown me that the Service and individuals appreciate and rise to challenge; the added value of adventurous training being that they will be accustomed to working outside of their comfort zone when on an operational tour and not be a burden to others.
Summer 2008 13
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