Former oil rig worker SUMEDHA JAYASINGHE shares his story, a new lifestyle journal and how it’s helped him stay both physically and mentally resilient…
Project ElevatE provides men a safe space to express their desires and emotions without judgement, while refocussing their attention, internal narrative and actions to produce productive results. This lifestyle journal was derived from over a decade of mindset coaching and executive leadership training.
As a kid I grew up watching my late father and action heroes like Arnie and Indiana Jones. My call for adventure pushed my body and mind to the limit in my 20s, working on oil rigs around the world with ex-military personnel in some of the harshest conditions on the planet. To survive 20-hour days in the sweltering deserts of Abu Dhabi and the freezing snowfields of northern Canada, our bodies had to be in peak physical condition. The company’s hiring policy was to hire single males in their 20s because 90 percent of people outside that demographic would quit within the first year.
As the guy responsible for the rig during my watch, one mistake could mean the loss of millions of dollars and the deaths of everyone on it. Those who made it past the first year could look forward to 3a.m. phone calls from dispatch to drive trucks through the Canadian wilderness under the green glow of the northern lights hearing the howls of coyotes every night, before rigging up in minus 35°C temperatures. It didn’t bother us getting calls at ungodly hours as the Canadian-winter sun rose at 11a.m. and set at 1p.m.. The next day we got dispatched to balmy Bogota, Colombia!
Side story: I once collapsed from fatigue whilst arming a radioactive device on an oil rig in Northern Canada after working more than 22 hours straight. I woke up the next day in Edmonton Hospital, realising that was my first day off in eight months! I went to Las Vegas to chill the next day.
My passion for finance meant trading my oil-stained coveralls in the wilderness for tailored suits in the concrete jungles of Australia and the United States. My first day in a corporate office was as short lived as a fire alarm. Instead of gathering in our muster point in Martin Place, Sydney, my boss directed me to the CBD Hotel, where we stayed meeting brokers, clients and reinsurers till 10p.m.. What a gig! I found myself charged with qualifying million and billion-dollar deals before the firms I worked for made bets on their clients for a return on equity.
Later on, I headed up the client partnerships themselves. I was extremely lucky to have mentors who exposed me to business owners, senior executives and central bankers in my late 20s and into my 30s. Little did I know, at the time, that it was these relationships that would enable me to start one of Australia’s first Tech-Based Risk Engineering Consulting Firms.
Your mind is like a muscle. You need to train it every day because what you think about, and the story you tell yourself, influence your emotions and the way you feel, which influences the way you behave, which influences the results you create, which influence your beliefs, which, in turn, influence the stories you tell yourself.
All of my mentors, including Buddhist monks and senior executives I had the privilege of working with, all gave me the same advice – cut the problem at its source. Get your head right. Learn and practice better thinking! Start your day thinking abundantly, continue the momentum throughout the day and measure and track your attention levels, internal narrative and productivity. Improve incrementally day after day and you may not recognise yourself in six months. Hence Project ElevatE’s tag line “Unleash a greater version of you.” Journalling has helped me curate and achieve my highest highs, thrive under immense physical and mental pressure, whilst overcoming my lowest lows – including the death of my father and divorce. My hope is that it helps other men do the same, having a positive ripple effect throughout their loved ones and community.
Project ElevatE is available online at www.projectelevate.today $50 RRP. Use ‘MAXIM’ for your 10% Christmas discount – just in time for your new year’s resolutions!
Photography by OSCAR COLMAN
Creative director WILL BAGATCHOLON
Model FARIDA RAKHMANOVA
Hair & make-up by JESS MAAS
For the full article grab the December 2022 issue of MAXIM Australia from newsagents and convenience locations. Subscribe here.
