Cork's Anna Geary: ‘Life is fragile... it can change so quickly’

IF you learn to change your mindset, you can change your life.

So says former Cork camogie captain Anna Geary, who has just written a book telling us exactly how to do just that.

Called Game Plan, she says the book was something she’d been ‘threatening’ to write for a long time.

“It was spiralling around in my head but I suppose I had a bit of imposter syndrome and I wondered would anyone even read it? But my main reason for going for it in the end was that it’s the kind of book I’d have loved to have read when I was in my teens and early 20s,” she said.

Even though Anna’s had a higher profile career than most – a lot of it in the public eye too, as Cork Rose, Cork camogie captain, coach on Ireland’s Fittest Family, part of The Sunday Game team, and contestant in Dancing With The Stars – she said her experiences are indicative of what others are going through and she wanted to share what she learned along the way.

The book is about helping people feel better about themselves, helping them to have that light-bulb moment.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a self-help book, but more of a practical toolkit to help people become more confident and be more in control. It’s about giving people courage to give things a go; and so what if they don’t work out, it’s about trying things to see if they are right for you.”

One of her first mindset challenges came after retiring from playing for Cork in 2015, aged 27, and after winning over 20 All-Ireland medals, when she struggled with her purpose and identity.

“I was aways ‘Anna Geary, the camogie player’ and when I retired it took a while to figure out who I was,” she admitted.

At the time she worked in a corporate environment, which she said was a great career... just for someone else.

“I didn’t want to feel that Sunday dread; having got so much fulfilment from sport, I wanted to feel the same spark that camogie gave me,” she said.

So her mindset had to change, she learned to release the fear of the unknown and started trying new things which included joining The Sunday Game team in RTÉ, becoming a coach on Ireland’s Fittest Family, and taking part in Dancing With The Stars. Surprisingly, Anna almost said ‘no’ to the latter two.

“We tend to say no by default so we don’t have to deal with the chaos and uncertainty that it can bring, but saying yes to Ireland’s Fittest Family probably changed the trajectory of my career,” said the 36-year-old.

I think we all need to get out of our own way, and the book is about saying yes to trying that new gym class and to the Tinder date, and flipping that mindset.

The book is packed with honest relatable stories from Anna’s own life, many of which she hasn’t shared before, like learning of her dad’s terminal cancer diagnosis.

“I only found that out dad’s diagnosis just before doing a radio show on bereavement and loss. I had to compartmentalise my own emotions but it showed we’re all stronger than we think we are and we only find out when we have to.”

Game Plan lays out five practical tactics – acceptance, purpose, consistency, challenge, and kindness – that Anna says will equip people to banish overwhelm and focus on what’s really important.

She’s tried and tested all her own tactics and has revisited them recently, including when she lost her dad Michael in 2022 and only sibling, younger brother Thomas, last November to illness.

“I’ve been engulfed in grief after losing my dad and brother so close together,” she said.

Every day is different. Some days it’s like a cloak of grief where you’re literally just putting one foot in front of the another.

Anna’s learned a lot through her grieving, including compassion: “I tend to try to deal with things head on, but when it comes to grief it’s really a collective thing, it’s my mam’s grief, my community, my friendships and I’ve realised that people grieve in different ways and at different paces. That was a lesson to me, respecting how people grieve.”

The same applied when it came to becoming a parent: “People do it differently. Both experiences have helped me become more empathetic, and understanding, more compassionate, because none of us know what others are going through.”

Her seven-month-old son Ronan, as well as being a joy, has given her a purpose as she’s grieving. She had no choice, she said, but to get up every day and look after him.

Ronan and Thomas had formed a “great bond,” Anna said.

“Those are lovely memories to have and to drive me on, that’s all you can do,” she said.“So much can change so quickly. 

Life is fragile and can change just like that, which is why I want people to ask what would happen if they lost their fears of being judged that’s holding them back; what would their life look like then? You owe it to yourself to give it a go.

Anna has just celebrated her first Mother’s Day and said becoming a mum was among many things a “really humbling experience”. She loves being productive, and said it took a while to get used to the fact that things didn’t always go according to plan when a small person had their own ideas!

“I’ve a new-found respect for people who might have three kids under four!” she said. Her own mum Ellen Ann has been a huge support and they’re on the phone to each other multiple times a day.

Anna has just finished the latest series of her health and wellbeing radio show Supercharged which will be back on air after the summer. She’s really proud of the series and adores the intimacy of radio (“when it’s just you and the mic”) and next up for her is a new series of dating show Love In The Country. Growing up in the country and being a farmer’s daughter helped her ‘get’ the challenges people experience meeting people in rural Ireland.

“And I’m also a hopeless romantic!” she said.

How she met her husband, Dubliner Kevin Sexton, is a tale of chance.

“We met in a bar, Flannery’s in Dublin in 2014 but we were both unavailable at the time and then we met in different circumstances the following year and that was that!” she said, and they married in 2019.

He teaches English and Geography in a secondary school in Kildare, and Anna said it helps that his work is structured, whereas hers is not.

“You have to say yes to opportunities and you can’t plan too far ahead,” Anna said, adding that she went into labour with Ronan 14 hours after being part of Up For The Match on RTÉ!

Cork, specifically Milford, will always be home, and she says Sallins in Kildare, where they moved to before Covid, has the same village vibe. It helps that’s it’s on the road to Cork too and her Cork friends enjoy the fact that it’s just 15 minutes from Kildare Village!

“I was home last week and I know I might be biased but I do think Cork people have something about them! Down the line, if it made sense to move to Cork, I’d have no problem with that and neither would Kev’.”

Finally, Anna insists Game Plan is not a coffee table book – instead she wants it dog-eared and covered in coffee stains.

“If you’re struggling to find your purpose, to get back your confidence, or are in a transitional phase of your life, this book will help. 

If you learn to change your mindset, you can change your life, and I’ve learned that. It sounds bigger than it is too, sometimes you just need to make a few tweaks.

“I see myself as a wing-woman, taking the reader by the hand, showing what I’ve tried, what’s worked and what’s not worked, making people feel at ease because we all feel vulnerable when we try new things.

“What I want people to realise is that your life story doesn’t have to be written yet, if you want to change, you can.”