Take one more step

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. Winston Churchill

When we meet obstacles along the way, there always the tendency to for us to quit. We may think that it’s too difficult to move on and it's to much of a burden to carry on. We may think that our dream is impossible to achieve and we settle for less. But this is the point where we can see the difference between winners and losers. Though both of them face the same difficulties, there is one thing that makes the winners different: the courage to continue.

In difficult situations, I just want to focus on taking one more step forward. I don't even think about how to complete the race. I try not to think about how many more obstacles are waiting for me. I keep telling myself to just focus on taking the next step and reminding myself, it's not how we run the race that counts but whether we cross the finish line and everyone that does is a winner.

I'm also in awe of two people I've come to admire and respect, one a 78 year old man full of life and zest. We were together on a 4D3N fishing trip recently. I admire his courage and his physical strength to last the whole trip. He told me that he's going to continue to fish until his 80 years old and then take the next step. 

Another person I met just turned 60 years old. He climbs mountains every Sunday, trekking 5 to 6 hours everytime. Last week, it was Gunung Kutu, this weekend it's Bukit Belachan. The next two weekends climb will be Bukit Broga and Gunung Angsi. He wants to be the oldest person to climb Gunung Tahan when his 70 years old.

It reminds me of one of my earlier post, Are you a carrot, an egg or coffee?... about how we react towards adversity. Everyone of us face some kind of adversity in the journey of life before we face our Creator. Adversity and challenges are what makes life journey memorable. It's God's reminder to us about our weaknesses, about conquering our pride and about having faith in His Greatness.

So what's my excuse...have a great weekend guys

Letting go of the past

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Someone asked me recently how I manage to cope with all the challenges I'm facing. I answered, "I've accepted it and moved on and I leave my fate to God".

Too err is human, seems like a cliché but who doesn't make mistakes. I know I have my fair share of mistakes and bad misjudgements in the past. I've most certainly have disappointed and hurt some people including people dear to me with what I did.  It’s already in the past, it's over and done with and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Believe it or not, one of the best demotivators is your past. Our past can drag us down before we even realise it. Our past can be a burden on our shoulders that for some of us, it could be too heavy a burden to carry.  The good news is it’s a burden we don’t have to carry. Take it off your shoulder and leave it behind.

I remember reading somewhere about a man who was late to work. He sped through a traffic light and ran over a mother and her baby. Both mother and child were killed but the driver survived unharmed. Feeling guilty, the man became an alcoholic and a drug user and his life started spiralling out of control as his guilt was so painful. It took him almost 30 years but one day he realised that what was done was done and there was no way to change it. By destroying his life as well he was effectively ruining three lives.

By living in this past moment you are preventing yourself from actually fixing what you did wrong. You can never go back in time and you can never erase what happened. "Life has no rewind button", I love this catch line of an ad I heard on the radio while driving my other half to work in the mornings.

Every new day presents you with the opportunity to start again. No matter how bad your past might be, you still have a bright future ahead waiting for you. Just don’t let the burden of the past stop you.

Waiting for the silver lining