Life’s Library.

I spent 20 years flying rather large aeroplanes around the world. I had a lot of fun, a few close shaves and somewhere along the way became an adult. I hung up my Ray Bans because as well as suspecting I’d used up one too many lives, I felt that the one I had left had other plans for me, and I didn’t want to miss them.

I wanted – and welcomed – a complete change. But if I thought I was leaving behind the piloty part of my identity, I was wrong. Because while ‘steely-eyed sky-god’ may not have been appropriate to the more creative path I’d chosen, there were other things baked in that have served me well in both writing and voiceover.

There’s the slightly weird stuff. Like always being clean-shaven and (relatively!) smartly dressed when I sit down to my laptop or limber up behind a mic. But actually there’s method to this madness. For me it symbolises a ‘ready to work’ headspace, a switch away from ‘lounge mode’ to ‘focus mode’ – because what’s ahead matters. Just like pilot Andy did when donning his uniform to get behind the controls. Technically, you can fly a jet in your pyjamas. But if you’re dressed for the sofa (or bed), your mindset will follow suit, which could cause issues – especially if things go ‘south’ and you need to react to the unexpected.

And let’s face it, in voiceover (or almost any other walk of life), things will go wrong. Technical glitches, mixed messages or being asked to do something completely unexpected out of the blue all feature in a performer’s daily life. Preparing for this can arm you – at least mentally – for when they do.

In aviation, we were encouraged to practice ‘armchair flying’. Which is to say we’d sit in a chair (pyjamas optional) and rehearse all our actions – including what our hands would physically do – in the event of various emergency scenarios. That way, if the worst happened, your muscle memory would take over and perform those first vital actions instantly to get the aeroplane out of danger.

Thankfully, there aren’t many things in voiceover that will kill you (along with 300 other people) if you screw up. But by constantly training and practicing when you’re not on the job – like the pyjama pilot in his armchair – you become more able to cope with curved balls. A fortnightly check-in with a coach who’ll put you through your paces, throwing yourself a weird script and delivering it in a dozen different ways – or just figuring out how you’ll centre yourself with your breath when you encounter a stressful moment can all make you ironclad for when the heat is on.

Everything we do – and everything we’ve been – serves us in some way for what we do next, however unrelated it may seem. We’re like libraries; we gather knowledge on our journey through life. There are a lot of books in my library that I’d considered throwing away. But then I realised how handy they could be in navigating my next adventure. And I’d like to bet that whatever your dream, you’ve something on your shelf that will help you get there, too.