For just over a week I’ve been laid up sick and had just enough energy to press the buttons on the TV remote control. Last weekend I found sleep virtually non-existent as the pain my throat from coughing kept me awake….but there was a silver lining to my incapacitation.

Being ill gave me a lot of time to do some serious thinking. This can be quite a dangerous activity when you’re wondering whether your lungs are about to shoot out of your mouth in yet another coughing fit but being a brave sort, I persisted with my mental dalliance.

Unlike Douglas Adams who wrote The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy I didn’t come to an epiphany that the answer to the ultimate question was 42 but I did realise a few things.

The first is that I’ve allowed myself to become a bit slack. This has nothing to do with work ethic (I work really hard) but more about being slack about how I've been thinking. It’s the old adage of working smarter rather than harder.

Understanding another person, whether they are a family member, work colleague or even a close friend is the first stage in developing the relationship further. It’s easy to gloss over issues when everything is going well but much harder when the rubber really hits the road.

I’ve found that in a tense situation the first stage in trying to understand someone is to really listen. Don’t just hear the words a person is conveying but try and listen to their intent. Is it to build up or to tear down? Even if the other person is yelling at you, they may be doing so because they really care.

The main reason why people try and engage in any sort of discussion is because they care enough about the situation or person and are willing to put themselves on the line. If you’re having a clash over an issue with someone at work then ask yourself the simple question, “Why?” It’s the rare individual that is just destructive and more often than not the other person just perceives the issues from a different angle.

For example, if you put a bottle of wine in the middle of the table and ask two people on opposite sides to describe what they are seeing you will get completely different answers. While both may agree on the shape of the bottle one will describe the beautiful artistic front label and the other the detailed legal notes on the back label.

Once again I find myself at Melbourne airport waiting for my flight…..but this time there’s a big difference. This time I’m heading to New Zealand to hike for five days with Roselyn and a couple of friends…..it’s going to be awesome!

While “walking” through the airport Roselyn constantly admonished me to slow down. I don’t know what it about airports but my legs seem to operate faster than normal as I weave my way past families and travellers that view walking to the gate as a part of their holiday.

I should say that traveling with other people is an educational experience for me. I’m used to doing whatever I can to speed my way through security and immigration but with others who are in holiday mode it can be a little bit of a challenge.

For example, my wonderful wife (whom I deeply love) forgot she had a bottle of water in her bag so she experienced the joys of a security officer rifling through her personals. The officer then forgot to return her boarding pass and so she had to go to the gate early to get another one.

When I was a young strapping lad, (I sound so old!) I attended cubs and loved it. As well as learning about bush craft and how to be a better person I had the motto of “Be Prepared” drummed into my head. Some people mistakenly believe that this motto only related to the outdoors, but they would be completely wrong.

“Being Prepared” was meant to be for all aspects of life. It was all about being prepared to do your best in every situation. For the past eighteen months, my wife Roselyn and I have been preparing for a five-day hike in the South Island of New Zealand. As well purchasing a whole lot of gear we instituted a regular exercise regime. Although it’s hard work it’s going to be well worth the effort.

Could you imagine embarking on a hike by just rocking up? You’d get to lunch and regret the food you left in the cupboard. This is how many people approach business meetings. They turn up without having prepared and expect a great outcome…..sadly, they will be mistaken.

I have a motto when it comes to business and that’s I always try and be more prepared than anyone else in the room. Given circumstances, this isn’t always possible but it’s an aspiration that I’m sure my cub leader would be proud.

The scout motto didn’t just finish with “Be Prepared” it continued on with, “Do our best!” Having a “best” mentality raises the standard not only for yourself but for all those around you. If you are leading a team and only put in your second best, then don’t expect those whom you lead to excel. They will look to you as their leader for inspiration and finding it lacking.

The other day I was out training with my wife and a couple of friends as we hiked through the Silvan forest in the Dandenong ranges. It's all a part of the training for a 5-day hike of the Milford Track on the South Island of New Zealand at the end of February.

Our friends had selected this day’s hike, and all was going well. Sure, we had some gentle ups and downs but even with a 5Kg pack on my back I thought it was more like a walk in the park. After about an hour of tramping through the wilderness we came to the base of a hill where the track effectively went straight up…..gulp!

When I say straight up, I mean at about a 50% angle. After about 100 meters I thought I was going to die. I couldn’t seem to get enough oxygen into my lungs and I would have been quite happy to sit down and “look at the view” for about ten minutes or so.

Up until this point I’d been going to the gym on a regular basis and Roselyn and I had been doing regular walks on relatively level ground. Being tested with the hill was quite a shock to the system as I realised that there was a new level of fitness that I needed to achieve. It was at this point that it started drizzling.

There was only one thing to it…..put up with the drizzle and just press on. But like they say, what goes up must come down. The other side of the hill was the equivalent downward stretch that tested my knees and proved to me that the tear in the meniscus in my left knee was either healed or about to rip again. I decided it was better to find out on this walk then on the one in New Zealand.