I still have plenty to give. I am learning to give it differently.

Learning to do things differently as I get older has taken me longer to get my head around than I expected.

Over the past five years, I have been working through the realisation that having the desire to do something does not always mean I can keep doing it the way I once did. My mind is still full of plans, ambition and enthusiasm, but my energy and my body do not always keep up.

Learning to listen to both, rather than pushing through because that is what I have always done, has been a big part of this journey.

For someone who has always been an all in person, that can be difficult to accept. My instinct is to commit, take responsibility and give everything I have. If something matters to me, I want to do it well. If people are relying on me, I want to be there.

That part of me has helped me achieve a lot. It has also meant that I have sometimes kept giving long after I needed to pause and reconsider what I was asking of myself.

Last season gave me something to think about.

Last cricket season, I put everything into bowling, batting and captaining. We made the Grand Final, and there was so much to be proud of. I was grateful to be part of a team working towards something together.

But when I reflected on the season, I also had to acknowledge how much I had poured into it and how I felt at the end.

It is possible to be proud of an experience and still recognise that you do not want to repeat it in exactly the same way. That has been an important lesson for me. A good result does not automatically mean the way I got there was sustainable.

This year, I do not want to arrive at the end of the season feeling the same. I want to enjoy playing, contribute to my team and have energy left for the other parts of my life that matter to me.

For that to happen, I have to make different choices at the beginning, rather than hoping I will somehow feel different at the end.

I am changing how I contribute.

This season, I am stepping back from bowling and concentrating on my batting. I have a co captain, which means sharing the responsibility rather than carrying it all myself.

Those are practical changes, but the bigger change is happening in my thinking.

I am working on being someone who can be committed without being consumed. Someone who can care deeply and still recognise when I have taken on enough. I want to listen when my body and energy are asking me to adjust, instead of treating that as something to overcome.

That does not come naturally to me.

When you are used to being all in, doing less can feel uncomfortable. You can question whether you are letting people down or whether your contribution still counts. You can know a decision is right for you and still need time to feel settled in it.

I am learning to allow that adjustment. I do not have to feel completely comfortable with a change before I begin making it.

A friend helped me see another way.

A friend I played football with modelled this for me during the season, and I learnt so much from her.

Watching her find a different way to participate helped me recognise that we can adapt and still make a valuable contribution. We do not have to keep showing up in the same role, at the same intensity, simply because that is what we have done before.

There is something powerful about seeing another person make a choice you are still trying to give yourself permission to make.

Her example helped me look at my own situation with more understanding. Where I had been focusing on what I could no longer do, I began to see possibilities for what I could do differently.

Sometimes someone else shows us a way forward before we can see it for ourselves.

Accepting change can bring a little grief.

I am not able to do everything I used to do, and that is okay. But getting to the point where I can say that and mean it has taken time.

There can be a little grief in recognising that your capacity has changed. You remember what once felt manageable. You compare yourself with an earlier version of yourself and wonder why something now takes more out of you.

When being capable, dependable and willing to take things on has been part of your identity, changing your approach can feel bigger than a practical decision. It can ask you to reconsider how you measure your own value.

I am learning to stop using my past capacity as the standard I have to meet today.

The person I am now deserves consideration too. My energy, my body, my priorities and my needs deserve a place in the decisions I make.

I can respect what I have done in the past without expecting myself to keep repeating it.

I still have things I want to achieve.

Accepting change does not mean I have run out of ambition. I still have plenty to give, plenty to learn and plenty I want to achieve.

I am simply learning to find different ways to do it.

Sometimes that means focusing my effort rather than spreading it across every role. Sometimes it means sharing responsibility or allowing someone else to take the lead. Sometimes it means being honest about what I can commit to before I say yes.

My experience, judgement and encouragement all have value. So does the way I support others and the perspective I bring.

I do not have to exhaust myself to make a meaningful contribution.

That is something I am still practising, especially when my enthusiasm gets ahead of my capacity. It is easy for me to get excited about what is possible and only later think about what it will ask of me.

I am learning to consider both before I commit.

I want to enjoy the life I am working so hard to fill.

This cricket season, I want to walk onto the field with purpose. I want to improve my batting, support my teammates and enjoy being part of something we care about together.

I also want to finish the season with energy left for my family, my work, my friendships and myself.

Over the past five years, I have come to understand that adapting takes honesty. It asks us to notice what has changed, acknowledge what we need and make choices that support the life we are living now.

If you are finding yourself in a similar place, you may need time to get your head around it too. Understanding that something needs to change and feeling ready to change it do not always happen together.

You can feel grateful for what your body has allowed you to do and frustrated by what feels different now. You can be excited about what is ahead and still miss the ease with which you once took things on. There is room for all of those feelings while you find your way.

I am still learning. But I am beginning to see that I can remain ambitious, involved and useful while being more thoughtful about what I take on.

I still have plenty to give. Finding a different way to give it might be what allows me to keep enjoying the things that matter for years to come.

Ali 🤎