You have to be very pragmatic, because you walk out to bat at the best time to bowl, with a brand new ball, against the best bowlers, who are fresh. And their job is to get you out, so when you fail there's no point beating yourself up.
I have achieved more than I could have ever imagined and feel very privileged to have played for such a long time alongside some of the greats of the English game.
I have loved cricket my whole life, from playing in the garden as a child, and will never underestimate how special it is to pull on an England shirt.
People like Mo Ali, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Joe Root, they are looking to take attack to the opposition and that's when they play their best.
No matter how much cricket you have played you are always learning.
You want to score runs at the highest average you can. That's what motivates you to keep driving the standards.
The captaincy thing is brilliant, and I love it. But I didn't start off playing cricket to captain England. I wanted to score runs and stuff.
I made my debut in 2006 and absolutely, there was the pressure of the cricket, but there was no social media. There was no direct feedback to your phone. If you wanted to, you could avoid it.
You're never as good as people say you are and you're never as bad as people say you are. You're always in the middle at some stage.
When I first came into the side as captain, I was accused of being quite conservative, quite negative, and just doing what Andrew Strauss did.
Many people have helped me during my career and without them and fantastic team-mates and coaches it would not have been possible to achieve all that I have.
The battle between bat and ball is a one-on-one thing. I love that stuff, but you play it in a team.
I love the individual sport stuff but the experiences I've had with some great people over 12 or 15 years are what makes is special. That individual thing: me versus the bowler is great but you get that team feeling as well and that's why it suits me so well.
You don't get to the top in professional sport without being hard and tough, but I do that in my way. I don't shout or scream, but I am determined and I will push harder than 99 per cent of cricketers in training.
I'm not some little soft touch. I will never take a backward step when batting, but I want to be respected as a nice guy, too.
No disrespect to county cricket but when you're playing for England it is the ultimate, it is what has always driven me to push myself above and beyond.
When you give up something as big as playing for England there are going to be moments when you miss it.
Test cricket gives ultimate satisfaction that I don't think any other type of cricket does due to the nature and longevity of it.
The England captaincy job, after 50-odd games, has found out what kind of leader I am in terms of a person. It's made me feel far more confident in terms of talking to a group in any situation. But it has taken me a long time to feel like I've been doing it naturally.
My stubbornness helped me for the first half of my career; I had that real determination to do it my way - I know the best way. That helped me from a 14-year-old to 25 in getting me to where I got to.
