Test cricket tests you physically and skill-wise, but also mentally. And you have to be solid on all three to do well.

When things aren't going well it can feel like the world is against you and there's nowhere to turn.

The Australian approach to playing cricket in general is quite an aggressive one.

When you've got a team who are making a concerted effort to make a batsman feel uncomfortable it can look pretty ordinary.

Consistency in selection is great but it's a whole lot easier if you've got players who warrant that consistency through their performances.

But if you have got a batsman out three or four times in the same series then you are in business - all of a sudden you have got yourself a bit of a bunny.

If you have knocked over a batsman once - fine, it happens. Twice, OK. But more than that in the space of a few Tests then there is definitely something to work with.

The more you get a batsman out the more it becomes psychological. A batsman starts thinking about it and making something of it in his head.

I used to come out and say I was targeting certain players in the opposition team, particularly players I had had success against in the past: Gary Kirsten, Brian Lara and Michael Atherton, for example. It is a mental part of the game.

The Australian team that I was lucky enough to play in had a certain aura and sometimes you had teams beaten before you even walked on the field.

When you're playing in a good team where you're confident in yourself and your team-mates, when you've done the business before, it makes it so much easier.

As a bowler it's a strange feeling when you start running through a team. You get that one wicket under your belt and suddenly you start running in feeling loose, feeling relaxed and thinking about what you want to bowl rather than focusing on trying to force that wicket.

If you get on a roll - good or bad - it's hard to get out of it, but it's not impossible.

When I played in the Australia team the captains were all nerds. Allan Border was a nerd, Mark Taylor was a nerd, Steve Waugh was definitely a nerd and Ricky Ponting too.

That was how we categorised ourselves in the dressing room - you were either a nerd or a Julio. Julios have got to look perfect - the hair has got to be perfect, they've got to have the right gear on, it's all about their appearance. The nerds weren't bothered about how they looked.

An Australian prime minister once said that his job was the second most important job in the country - behind being captain of the cricket team. It's not a job you take on lightly.

If the batsmen can give the bowlers a day and half of rest then that is going to work in the team's favour.

One of the great things about cricket, and certainly something that I found helpful, was that as soon as you step over the boundary rope you can switch off everything that is happening off the field and focus solely on what is happening out on the pitch.

You're always going to get different personalities within a team.

Sometimes when things are happening outside the team, when forces are at work to try to break the team apart or cause issues, it can actually have a different effect - it can bring the boys closer together. They become more of a unit and they start to protect each other.

I loved playing at Lord's - I ended up with 26 wickets at 11.50 from three Tests there. Maybe the wicket, because of the slope, was perfect for my style of bowling.

The best thing about Lord's isn't the slope, it's just being there.

Umpiring is a tough job. Don't get me wrong - I wouldn't want to be an umpire. You've got a split second to make a decision.

Standing at the end of your run with the ball in your hand preparing to bowl the first ball of an Ashes series is an amazing feeling.

You know there is something a little bit special about an Ashes.

I had always had the same pre-match routine that I went through every day - get up, go down for a swim and a stretch, back to the room for a shower, then down for brekkie - the same routine every game, and it got me ready.

There's always a little bit of anticipation - some people call it nerves - the night before, and although I always slept pretty well before big matches, you want to be on edge a little bit to get the best out of yourself.

When I was playing that was the main focus - you knew what you had to achieve but you want to have fun doing it, otherwise there's no point in doing it.

You still have to enjoy the tour games. If you go out there and just go through the motions, you can easily get into bad habits, you lose a bit of rhythm or a bit of form and then things can go pretty bad pretty quickly.

If no pain, then no love. If no darkness, no light. If no risk, then no reward. It's all or nothing. In this damn world, it's all or nothing.

You can be shattered, and then you can put yourself back together piece by piece. But what can happen over time is this: You wake up one day and realize that you have put yourself back together completely differently. That you are whole, finally, and strong - but you are now a different shape, a different size.

I don't think that I'm broken at all. I no longer think that I'm a mess. I just think I'm a deeply feeling person in a messy world.

'Brave' is very specific and extremely personal. It can't be judged by people on the outside. Just can't. Sometimes brave means letting everyone else think you're a coward. Sometimes brave is letting everyone else down but yourself.

We all have this misunderstanding about heartbreak, which is we think we should avoid it. But what I think is that heartache is a clue toward the work we're supposed to be doing in the world. What breaks each person's heart is different - be it racial injustice, war, or animals. And when you figure out what it is that breaks yours, go toward it.

Parenting is the most important thing to many of us, and so it's also the place we're most vulnerable. We're all a little afraid we're doing it wrong.

We can be shiny and perfect and admired, or we can be real and honest and vulnerable and loved. But we actually do have to choose.

I think of love and marriage in the same way I do plants: We have perennials and annuals. The perennial plant blooms, goes away, and comes back. The annual blooms for just a season, and then winter arrives and takes it out for good. But it's still enriched the soil for the next flower to bloom. In the same way, no love is wasted.

Your body is not your art - it's your paintbrush. Whether your paintbrush is a tall paintbrush or a thin paintbrush or a stocky paintbrush or a scratched up paintbrush is completely irrelevant.

It makes no sense to me that my gay friends cannot get married to each other because a certain slice of Christianity doesn't believe in gay marriage.

We need to make friends with ourselves. We are stuck with our self all day, so let's be kinder, gentler, more amusing company. Let's take our own hand and say, 'There, there, sister. You're doing a good job. I'm proud of how you're handling all this craziness down here. Don't give up. Carry on, warrior.'

Life is a conversation. Make it a good one.

Integrity means there is not a real-life you and an internet you. The two are one and the same. If you're not kind on the Internet, you're not kind.

Life is not safe, and so our task is not to promise our kids there will be no turbulence. It's to assure them that when the turbulence comes, we will all hold hands and get through it together.

Compassion does not just happen. Pity does, but compassion is not pity. It's not a feeling. Compassion is a viewpoint, a way of life, a perspective, a habit that becomes a discipline - and more than anything else, compassion is a choice we make that love is more important than comfort or convenience.

Over time, I have come to believe that 'brave' does not mean what we think it does. It does not mean 'being afraid and doing it anyway.' Nope. Brave means listening to the still small voice inside and doing as it says. Regardless of what the rest of the world is saying.

Rock bottom is a crisis... and everyone wants to avoid crisis. But what 'crisis' means literally is 'to sift' - like a child who goes to the beach, lifts up the sand, and watches all the sand fall away, hoping that there's treasure left over. That's what crisis does.

Being a mother is a little like 'Groundhog's Day.' It's getting out of bed and doing the exact same things again and again and yet again - and it's watching it all get undone again and again and yet again. It's humbling, monotonous, mind-numbing, and solitary.

The amazing thing about love and attention and encouragement and grace and success and joy is that these things are infinite. We get a new supply every single morning, and so we can give it away all day. We never, ever have to monitor the supply of others or grab or hoard.

You need to remember that being rejected by church is not the same as being rejected by God. God did not kick you out of church, honey. The church kicked God out of church.

The hardest part of living without social media was remembering that my little life was enough, so I could just stay there and live it without asking for anyone else's permission or validation. I realized that for me, posting is like asking the world, 'Do you 'like' me?'