Skip to main content
  • Corporate
    • Corporate
    • Adviser
    • Get Advice
    • Apply Online
    • Make a Claim
    • About AIA
    • Contact Us
    • MyAIA
  • Search
  • Home
  • Life & Disability
    • Life Insurance
    • Trauma Insurance
    • Total Permanent Disablement Insurance
    • Income Protection Insurance
    • Business & Rural Insurance
  • Health Insurance
    • Private Health
    • Cancer Care
  • Home Loans
    • New GO Home Loan Customers
    • Your GO Home Loan
    • Working with a registered adviser
    • Mortgage Protection
    • GO Home Loan Interest Rates
  • Help & Support
    • Contact AIA
    • Claims
    • FAQs and Forms
    • My AIA
    • Get advice
    • Earning Airpoints Dollars™
    • Investment Products
    • Past Insurance Products
    • All our locations
    • Vulnerable Customers Support
    • COVID-19 Support
    • Complaints - AIA
  • AIA Vitality
    • What is AIA Vitality
    • Our Partners & Rewards
    • Apple Watch Benefit
    • Content Hub
    • Already a member? Login
  • Content Hub
    • Move Well
    • Think Well
    • Eat Well
    • Plan Well
  • COVID-19 SUPPORT
  • EARNING AIRPOINTS DOLLARS™
  • ABOUT AIA
Menu
  • Corporate
  • Adviser
  • Get Advice
  • Apply Online
  • Make a Claim
  • About AIA
  • Contact Us
  • MyAIA
AIA New Zealand AIA New Zealand
  • Life & Disability
    AIA Living

    Life & Disability

    The most important things in your life are your family, your lifestyle and your future. This is what life, trauma and disability insurance are there to protect.

    For Individuals

    For Business

    • Life Insurance

      Protects your loved ones’ future if you're diagnosed with a terminal illness or die.

    • Trauma Insurance

      Supports you and your family while you or your child navigate a serious illness or injury.

    • Total Permanent Disablement Insurance

      Secures your future if a serious illness or injury leaves you permanently disabled.

    • Income Protection Insurance

      Safeguards your ability to earn if you’re unable to work due to illness or injury.

    • Business & Rural Insurance

      Protection for new and existing business owners if a key person becomes seriously ill, is injured, or dies.

  • Health Insurance
    AIA Health

    Health Insurance

    Having good health is invaluable. Remove the worry around unexpected medical bills, focus on the right treatment when and where you need it, and start your recovery sooner.

    • Private Health

      Takes care of your medical expenses for a range of health conditions and provides faster medical care that suits your needs.

    • Cancer Care

      Specialised insurance that covers costs associated with the diagnosis, treatment and recovery of cancer.

  • Home Loans

    Home Loans

    GO Home Loan - make your house a home.

    • New GO Home Loan Customers

      Find out more about the home loan that works harder for you.

    • Your GO Home Loan

      Learn more about managing your mortgage and how to pay off your GO home loan faster.

    • Working with a registered adviser

      GO Home Loans are available exclusively through our independent network of Advisers.

    • Mortgage Protection

      It’s a good idea to have mortgage protection to protect yourself against all eventualities.

    • GO Home Loan Interest Rates

      A GO Home Loan offers a wide range of competitive mortgage interest rates.

  • Help & Support

    Help & Support

    We strive to assist you for all your inquiries with high touch customer service.

    Contact AIA
    • Contact AIA

      We strive to assist you for all your inquiries with high touch customer service.

    • Claims

      Get help with making a claim.

    • FAQs and Forms

      Updating policies, moving house, changing names... our FAQs section has all the answers and forms.

    • My AIA

      Previously called MySovereign - our customer portal

    • Get advice

      If you're interested in talking to an insurance expert, we can put you in touch with an adviser in your area.

    • Earning Airpoints Dollars™

      You can earn Airpoints Dollars™ with AIA New Zealand. Find out more.

    • Investment Products

      The latest Sovereign investment performance information, as well as a list of closed and terminated investment products.

    • Past Insurance Products

      Policy and enhancement information for policy holders of closed AIA and Sovereign policies.

    • All our locations

      Details of all our office locations across New Zealand

    • Vulnerable Customers Support

      A list of some of the services available in New Zealand that offer support, information and help.

    • COVID-19 Support

      Supporting our customers through Covid-19

    • Complaints - AIA

      If you have a complaint, we’ll do our best to resolve the situation.

  • AIA Vitality

    AIA Vitality

    AIA Vitality encourages and supports you to live a healthier life, while giving you access to great rewards along the way.

    • What is AIA Vitality

      AIA Vitality’s approach can take you on a journey to better health

    • Our Partners & Rewards

      Learn more about the amazing partners and rewards you'll have access to with AIA Vitality

    • Apple Watch Benefit

      Earn an Apple Watch Series 6 by reaching your weekly physical activity targets

    • Content Hub

      Your go to for science-backed, health and wellbeing inspiration and advice.

    • Already a member? Login

      Check your AIA Vitality points status and get access to the tools you need to help improve your health

  • Content Hub

    Content Hub

    Our Content Hub is brought to you by AIA Vitality, the science-backed program that helps you learn more about your health, offers ways to improve it and motivates you with rewards along the way.

    • Move Well

      Finding your further when it comes to exercise and fitness.

    • Think Well

      Tools and information to help cultivate a healthy frame of mind.

    • Eat Well

      Caring for your body with food that makes you feel good.

    • Plan Well

      Improving financial literacy, because a good tomorrow starts today.

  • Search
  • Contact Us
    • Chat with us

      Available Mon-Fri, 8am to 6pm

    • Call Us

      0800 500 108 on Mon-Fri, 8am to 6pm

    • Send us a message

      via our online contact form

    • Talk to an adviser

      Get free expert insurance advice

    • Apply Online

      via our trusted partner, KiwiCover

    • Log in to MyAIA

      (Previously called MySovereign)

Plan Well
Prev | Next
Contact Us
Talk to an Adviser
Back to Top
  • {{title}}

    {{label}}
  • Ian Jones: The importance of balancing your buckets

    AIA Vitality NZ - 5 min read

    23 September 2020

    When AIA Vitality Ambassador Ian Jones hung up his rugby boots, he was looking forward to finally having a normal life. But stepping away from routine turned out to be the worst thing for him. Ian opens up about the importance of finding balance, and keeping your buckets full. 

    I played professional rugby for nine years and first-class rugby for 14 – but I must admit my mind started to wander over the last six months, dreaming (foolishly as it turned out!) of a normal life once I hung up my boots. 

    You know: not having to go to the gym every day, not having my days all mapped out before I’d even woken up, not having to wear a uniform, basically just not the life of a professional sportsperson. I thought this would all be wonderful for me and my family – to come back to New Zealand (I had been playing in the UK for a few years) and to live a life like that, with no real structure or plan.

    And then it happened – I got that supposedly normal life. And it was the worst thing for me.  

    Physically, I started to get a lot of aches and pains. But mentally, I was just drifting and not really achieving anything. I’m not sure I was a great guy, father and husband to be around, and it was clear that something had to change.

    So about six months after I finished playing rugby, I decided to make some changes that were designed to bring back some structure into my life, and get me back to the physical and mental strength I’d lost along the way. (I should also mention that I’m certainly no mental health expert – all I can talk about is what I’ve done in my life, and what’s worked for me!)

    Keeping track, setting goals

    First, I started keeping a daily and weekly diary. I’d make plans for the week – places I had to be, tasks I needed to get done, training I wanted to do – everything would be mapped out. Of course, plans can always change, but it gave me a base to start from and a sense of control where I could clearly see what was on the horizon. Personally, I found having that direction made me a lot more productive.

    At around the same time, as I began to up my training, I started to enter into events. This gave me a focus and an end goal for the training I was doing. It meant I had to get out of bed and train, and it really gave me something to start working towards. With just those two things – journaling and setting goals – I started transforming back into the guy I had been, a guy with a clear path, goals and direction. I learned that structure is what was normal for me, and that I needed it to function properly both mentally and physically. Everyone’s normal is different and that’s ok. 

    All for one, one for all

    Along that journey of getting my ‘mojo’ back, if that’s what you want to call it, I realised how much I missed the camaraderie of team sports, so I worked some of that back into my life. I might not have been organising big recreational games of rugby, but I’d meet my friends for a swim, a run or a bike ride, which gave me so much more of that social life I was missing too. And when you make those commitments, you’re less likely to come up with those excuses because you don’t want to let your friends down. It’s a win-win.

    As life goes on, I think we often lose some of those connections we had when we were younger. Life gets busy, work gets in the way, kids and family responsibilities can take up so much time – but I think it’s so important to create that time and place to be with your friends, and to talk about whatever’s going on in your lives. It can be like a pressure release valve, and you all end up helping each other, whether you realise it or not. 

    Pay it forward

    Another big thing that was important to me when I was putting this “routine” together was including some time to help out in our community. My wife and I feel like we are truly blessed, and so we want to share those blessings with the community around us. We set up Eddie’s Meals – you can look it up on Facebook – a community food kitchen, and we spend those Friday afternoons down at the kitchen, helping dish up food to between 30 and 50 people.

    It might seem like a selfless thing, but volunteering our time like that really fills us up too. It makes us feel good, and it gives us a sense of purpose beyond whatever we’re doing day-to-day I think, when we’re looking at doing things to help us in life, we often look at exercise, eating well, making sure we’re spending time with our friends and family, connecting with people – all of those types of things. I think we can forget just how good it is to just volunteer your time or services to help other people. It’s such an important aspect of life that often just gets lost in the shuffle of the day-to-day.

    Balance the buckets

    Which brings me to my last point. In my family, we always talk about buckets: fitness, family, work and community. In my view, all of those buckets need to be balanced and full. When you prioritise one over the other, it all gets out of kilter.

    It can be difficult to achieve, there’s no doubt about it. But for me, that holistic approach to life has helped me physically and mentally – even emotionally. I think, in our attempts to “improve ourselves”, get out of a rut, or reach that ‘next level’ of whatever we’re striving for, we can often go all-in in one thing – whether it’s fitness, work, family – and we forget that we need to take care of all those other areas too, at the same time. I’m not saying it’s the hard and fast answer, of course. But it certainly works for me. 

    This is general information only and is not intended as financial, medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a financial adviser, or medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstances.


    By AIA Vitality NZ
    AIA Vitality Staff writer

    AIA Vitality is a personalised, health and wellbeing program that supports you every day to make healthier lifestyle choices. Visit aiavitality.co.nz

    FOLLOW



    You might like these

    01 March 2020

    Watch our AIA Vitality TV advert featuring AIA Vitality ambassador Ian Jones

    AIA Vitality NZ - 1 min read


    "I've played at the very top of elite sport. But for me, my sport has never defined me. My family is what defines me. Being a father and a husband, helps to put things in perspective."

    01 May 2020

    'Squat'

    AIA Vitality NZ - 2 min watch


    It's important to keep moving, so why not try doing some squats to help you move well.

    19 November 2019

    What happens to our bodies when we don’t drink enough water?

    AIA Vitality NZ - 3 min read


    We find out how dehydration affects your body.
    Contact Us

    0800 500 108

    Live chat

    Mon-Fri 8am - 6pm

    AIA New Zealand Limited
    AIA House, 74 Taharoto Road, 
    Takapuna, Auckland 0622
    New Zealand

    Request an Adviser Call
    Apply Online
    Make a Claim
    FAQs
    View all contact options
    CONTACT US

    0800 500 108

    Live chat
    Mon - Fri 8am to 6pm
    AIA House, 74 Taharoto Road, Takapuna, Auckland 0622, New Zealand
    Request an Adviser call
    Make a claim
    Update my details
    View all contact options
    About AIA
    About AIA New Zealand
    Careers
    News and Press
    Sovereign joins AIA
    Anti-bribery and corruption
    Vist AIA.com to learn more about AIA Group.
    Why AIA
    AIA Vitality
    Airpoints™
    Our Financial Strength
    Our Commitments
    Useful Links
    Home Loans: GO Online login
    MyAIA login
    Investment Products
    Past Insurance Products
    Popular Products
    Life Insurance
    Health Insurance Cover
    Income Protection Insurance
    Business Continuity Cover
    ABOUT AIA
    About AIA New Zealand
    Careers
    News and Press
    Sovereign joins AIA
    Anti-bribery and corruption
    Rainbow Tick
    Visit AIA.com to learn more about AIA Group.
    WHY AIA
    AIA Vitality
    Airpoints™
    Our Financial Strength
    Our Commitments
    Useful Links
    Home Loans: GO Online login
    MyAIA login
    Investment Products
    Past Insurance Products
    Popular Products
    Life Insurance
    Health Insurance
    Income Protection Insurance
    Business Continuity Cover

    Copyright © 2020, AIA New Zealand Limited (Company Registration No: 352806), and its affiliates and subsidiaries. All rights reserved.
    Terms of Use | Privacy Statement | Cookie Policy | Duty of Disclosure

    This website uses cookies for the purpose of enhancing your user experience. You can find more information on the types of cookies we collect, what we use these for, and how to manage your cookie settings in our Cookie Policy and Privacy Statement.