An Cosantóir

21 INTERVIEW WITH RAY GOGGINS ers taught me, that's all the book is about. Obvi- ously, there was a lot of stuff I couldn't put into it because of operational security. The stuff I could put in, I did put in and I danced around the edges with the stuff I couldn't. I got great support from the DF on it, and I cleared it with my former em- ployers to ensure I wasn't embarrassing anybody. Q. In your book, you refer to "lessons learned" what would you say was your most valuable les- son? I found as a young soldier overseas when we are all hyped up, getting shot at and shelled, if you can stay calm, really calm, while stuff is going on, it's like a superpower; It effects everyone around you in a positive way. They become calm. If someone gets hyper and loses control, it has a knock-on effect. Whereas, if you can stay composed and calm, you are on the pigs back. Q. In your book you speak about "qualities to per- form". What quality should people work on first? We are always trying to project onto others what kind of leader we are, before we get it right inside ourselves first. The big thing for me is, get yourself squared away first, before you do anything else. Most of the mistakes I made as a young soldier was from jumping first without thinking of listen- ing. Q. Congratulations on all your charity work, can you tell us a bit about your most recent charity work? I am doing a brilliant thing this summer with Tem- ple Street, Tallaght and Crumlin Children's hospital it's called "Dare to be Brave" so it's corporate, regu- lar people taking on challenges... We did an abseil the other week, off the Hogan stand. I did it with a group of women who were all afraid of heights. They were all normal women and just went off and did it. Next week we are doing a survival thing out in Laragh. What we don't realise, is those 3 hospi- tals, that look after all our sick kids, the number of kids that go through their doors in a year, would fill Croke Park 4 times. That makes it very real. Q. Going forward, what's next for you? There are talks about another book. I don't know… But it will have to be something different. Maybe more into the mindset or something, that's proba- bly next. I set up my own training company during lock- down where I do a lot with corporate and schools, on mindset and coping techniques, dealing with stress, dealing with being anxious etc. and it's all stuff we learned in the Army over the years. We do it all the time in the Army, every day. People ask me am I a motivational speaker? But I am not. I teach people how to be disciplined and set hab- its. If you do that, it makes you better and more effective and you become less stressed. When you have the bad days, you have the habits already formed and when you have the good days, its easy and that's what we do in the Army. Q. Is there anything you want to add in the article? If you told me 3 years ago that I would be standing in front of school children, helping them to cope, I would think… brilliant! It's great to see. Would I like to still be in Army? My answer is "yes" absolutely, I would still love to be in the Army. But we are also taught to move forward and not look back. So that's what I do! Ray Goggins

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