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About 30 Winter Mornings
30 Winter Mornings is a short daily podcast for people who deliver complex live events.
Each episode is a ten-minute morning reflection that offers perspective, reassurance, and calm during the most demanding phase of delivery. Drawing on decades of experience in large-scale events, the podcast focuses not on the event itself, but on the people behind it, the professionals who carry responsibility, make decisions under pressure, and keep showing up.
This is not a training programme or a motivational series.
It’s a daily check-in.
A moment of company before the day begins.
Good morning. I'm Christiaan Page, and welcome to 30 Winter Mornings. This is a short daily podcast for the people who deliver complex live events. For the next thirty mornings, we're gonna be counting down to the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympic . Each morning we'll take a few minutes to slow things down to find a bit of perspective reassurance and calm during the most demanding phase of the delivery.
Christiaan PAGE:This isn't training, it's not motivation, it's just a daily check-in, a moment of company before the day begins. Twenty four mornings to go, gosh! As delivery intensifies, decisions multiply. Some are small, some carry weight and most arrive without much warning. And at this stage, the challenge isn't making decisions, it's carrying them.
Christiaan PAGE:So when we make a decision, we've got to carry it. So holding on to yesterday's choices, replaying conversations, and perhaps sometimes second guessing what's already been decided. I don't know about you, I have this tendency to ruminate even when I've made a decision, and I think I'm gonna play it over and over in my head, go, ah, was it the right decision? Is it the wrong decision? All of that mental weight adds up.
Christiaan PAGE:And as we've said in the previous mornings, good delivery requires judgment. But good judgment also requires that you release and let go. So once a decision is made clearly, proportionately, and with the best information available, it deserves to be let go. And as we've said, you already are making good judgment calls. You've got the experience, you know what it takes.
Christiaan PAGE:So in order to give space to further decisions and release a little bit of that mental load, as we're saying, it adds up, it's important to be able to deserve it, and it deserves to be let go. And I'm not saying we ignore it, and I'm not saying it needs to be avoided, but we need to trust it, and trust ourselves in the decisions that we're making. And honestly, revisiting every decision doesn't improve the quality of the decision we've already made. All it does is drain the clarity that we've already had. So it also means that letting go doesn't mean you stop caring.
Christiaan PAGE:It just means that you make room for the next decision that actually means you. And as we keep highlighting, you're being landed with decision making and prioritization every day. It's a heavy lift. And as this keeps happening daily and daily, it accrues. So it's so important that we find space and find ways to let these things go.
Christiaan PAGE:So before the day unfolds, everything starts landing on you and all these decisions that you need to make, let's pause for our short check-in. So first, what decision have you already made that you are still carrying? So it may be something that you made a call on yesterday, you made a decision. Perhaps it was a call that's already been taken, you've gone, no, that's done, and the direction that's been set. You've said, okay, we're going in this direction, Tim, or you've made a personal decision and said, alright, I'm going this way.
Christiaan PAGE:And it could also be that it's a message that's already been sent. We talked about that. The load involved in demanding those emails and WhatsApp messages or SignalRig, whatever the messaging has been sent, it's done, it's gone. So notice it and allow yourself to release it. Number two, where might re deciding be costing you energy?
Christiaan PAGE:So imagine, okay, so it's again, checking the same thing again. Over and over again, you've made the decision, you've had to let it go, but where could that re decide it? You know, you think, oh, if I'd actually done it that way. Again, it's replaying conversations. If I'd have said this or if I'd have said that to the person I was talking to, know, looking for that certainty that doesn't actually exist.
Christiaan PAGE:So it's really important to kind of pause. I want you to see if you can step away from that rumination loop, that internal loop and go, okay, I wouldn't have done it differently. Again, consuming the energy and the mental capacity that you have to make other decisions, and you've got a lot coming at you. So what is it that can help you step away from that loop? Third, what decision today deserves your full attention?
Christiaan PAGE:Remember that not everything does. So choose the one that genuinely benefits from your presence and your judgment. And honestly, let the rest wait because you've got a lot on your plate. There's a lot to be decided. Which one is and this gets back into judgment, your skills, your ability to make those calls.
Christiaan PAGE:So which one? So as we go in today, remember that delivery isn't about holding everything in advance. It's about deciding well and creating the space to keep moving. So decide, then let it go. Wherever you are, stay safe, stay healthy, and bye for now.
Christiaan PAGE:30 Window Mornings is a legacy group project produced and presented by myself, Christine Page. This podcast is recorded on the shores of Lac Le Mans in Lausanne, the Olympic capital in the canton of the Switzerland.