To Reflect Or To Look Forward?

It is that time of the year to reflect, genuflect, ruminate and pause for a cause – before the festivities begin. I have learnt to appreciate recentness and recency, yet I prefer to look towards the future. Being a learned optimist (as I had to learn how to think differently), I rather work with possibility and purpose. I will also pretend that we will have another conversation next year on 31 December 2012. Humans make mistakes, and so could the defunct race called the Mayans. Choice or destiny? I rather take my chances. Be resolute instead of making an unending and unfulfilled list of resolutions.

Never rest on your laurels. Leave the past behind. You cannot change your past. Stop dwelling on the past.

Anticipate change. Tomorrow is another day. You can still change your future. Our future has not formed yet.

Here is my list of challenges for next year:

1)    Be more creative. Add ‘1’  (+1) to whatever I do, with whomever is with me.

2)    Add value to what I do. If I am not adding value, remove myself out of the equation.

3)    Shift and sift through some serious paradigms. Time to create a larger Ripple Effect that benefits more people.

4)    Apply totally and thoroughly my values to my actions and interactions.

5)    If it does not feel right, and my intuition backs me up, I will rather shy away from a project or business relationship. Money isn’t everything. Gain and value, are.

6)    Collaborate, commemorate and commiserate.

7)    Be more constructive and build on more possibilities with and for others.

8)    Do more acts of kindness and charity.

9)    Build a coterie of fishermen who will teach others to fish. This applies to my both my profession and pastime.

10)Share my ‘bucket list’ with others.

Thanks for sharing this journey with me so far (for the last three years). I do deeply appreciate your support, friendship and partnerships. Have an amazing 2012! Challenge yourself to make your next 365 days count for you, beginning tomorrow.

Gone But Not Forgotten

That was my bike – in the past tense. She served me well, and in fact, may have protected me till her untimely end. My full carbon armory may have absorbed a lot of the impact when I was, unfortunately, hit by a taxi.

Matthew said these words: R.I.P. Orbea Ordu. It is normal to humanize inanimate objects. We objectify things. We give it pronouns like ‘she’ and ‘her’ when we refer to our vehicles. She was supposed to join me in Taupo, New Zealand in early-March.

I have yet to collect the remnants (almost wrote remains) of my late-bike. I believe that I was watched over by powerful forces of nature on that day. My partner, Mel suggested that I collect whatever is salvageable from her and transplant it onto another bike. I’m still divided by my decision – should I leave her be and dispose her in an environmental-friendly way? Or, should I collect those parts that may have survived the ugly crash?

I have a few photographs with my Ordu, and these were non-posed, race-related moments. The main photograph you see on this blog was I on my bike in Ironman China 2009. She was road worthy and withstood the pressure of competition. In ways inexplicable, we mirrored each other. The one you see now was taken – ironically – that fateful Sunday afternoon, hours before the accident.

Fellow bloggers, Eve, Matthew and Reeves have encouraged me to reflect on this mishap. They believe that I will bounce back from it. John Bryant Hope described in his book Love Leadership a principle called 'Losses Create Leaders'. Even my cousin, Serene who is based in Perth said that our family tended to be determined, resilient and stubborn-headed. Her brother was involved in a bike pile-up during a triathlon several years ago and was injured; he now does extreme sports. Perhaps, we need to learn to hold back our enthusiasm and passion for sport a wee bit.

Boys just never learn!