Anchors In Life

Do you know the “meaning” in your life? Of course, there is a seemingly endless supply of books on self-help, philosophy, religion, get rich quick, and so on. They all seem to try to define life for you. But the trick to finding “meaning” is that you have to find it yourself. Of course, that is what I always say I like so much about swimming, biking, and running alone - it gives me time to further and continuously define myself.

Unfortunately a large number of people kind of stumble through life and never really have any purpose. I tend to believe that your purpose is more of a choice or conscious decision. So, I think you either consciously decide what you are, or you unconsciously stumble forward.

I suppose you are getting older when you spend more and more time talking to older people (eg 65 yr old Dave-my good friend here) about your life options. I usually walk through a decision tree sort of process that significantly narrows down the options so that life doesn’t seem quite so daunting. This process always starts and ends with me thinking about the anchors of my life.

These anchors become the ongoing foundation for everything we do and what we are. We should actually live, breathe, and feel so strongly about them that we are able to bring our self to tears almost any time just by reflecting on them. Once we believe in them that strongly, they become our guiding lights on our path through life.

I have been able to describe my life anchors fairly specifically in four or five main categories. Mine are family, spiritual, professional, physical and friendships. I say “five or four” because to me spiritual and physical are interwoven internally in a way that they actually become one.

Once the anchors are defined, everything seems to fit better and “meaning” seems to come together much more readily. Then, everything in life is grounded by these anchors and they become the filters through which we choose life and all of its options and good possibilities. Moreover, it really makes most things a whole lot simpler because you have defined and know who you are.

As a closing thought, please remember that although you can certainly consciously define your “meaning,” life remains more of a journey than a destination. The journey simply has a map that makes the trip better.

Let’s give meaning to the journey,

Yuen

A Humbling Experience

It's been a pretty low weekend for me, with my 2nd 1/2 marathon race not going well at all after finishing my first 1/2 marathon of the year with good a 1:17 3 weeks ago. But as I said before, rather than looking at my achievements in my athletic life, I'd rather look at the failures and see what there is to be learned from it, as it is only after putting yourself through some tough situations, you then learn so much more.

In a nutshell, the race started off pretty well and I was tacking along with the top women and a few top non elite men until 10ks into the run when my stomach gave way. All I could think of then was to find a toilet nearby (couldnt find any!) and to get to the finish line as fast as possible. My mile pace dropped from about 5:50-6min/mile to 30s slower per mile as my whole body was suffering at that point from the stomach ache and the effort. In my athletic life never have I had so many people (women, old guys etc etc) overtake me during a running race. As each person passed on thoughts of throwing the towel came in but as I carried on, you realise that sometimes youve never truly achieved anything until youve been put through and lived through some humbling situations in life and to be honest, I truly learned the meaning of humbleness and humility yesterday as I struggled to get to the finish of the 1/2 marathon in 1hr 24mins when expecting a time 6-7 mins faster. As I struggled to take each step while looking forward to evey aid station as another beacon of hope, the story of rutger beke and his exploits in Kona 2007 came to mind (Link).

In my mind there was still miles to go. Yet, I was already tired, sore, depleted, with a stomach ache and suffering from the cold winds. I am dehydrated and suffering. When things get tough, when we are down, when we struggle to just get by - how do we respond? Using this race as a metaphor for our daily activities, we first just keep going. We put one foot in front of the other, keep going in the right direction, don’t give up and just keep on going. We don’t stop, we don’t give in. We simply move forward.

Of course, we look forward to the aid stations. Aid stations during the run become beacons of hope. They are incremental goals that we need psychologically in order to conquer the larger task. They keep us going. What are your daily aid stations? What keeps you going?

Just like rutger beke and the other pros do, we tough it out! I look forward to running the cap 10k at the end of march and doing well in the Galveston 1/2 ironman come April. This race hasnt been my best results wise but it teached me not to give up - always finish and how as humans, anything can change in the blink of an eye. Humbleness and humility was also the order of the day as now I've now learned the true meaning of those 2 words.

On the brightside, Im sure no one will improve as many places as me next year if I do the same race again! Or any other 1/2 marathon! =) Couldnt possibly have any other day (athletically speaking) as bad as yesterday again...I hope..On the other hand I hope to have days that are as spiritually enlightening as yesterday was everyday of my life!

To think of it. Endurance sports has been the source of most of the frustrations, achievements, happiness and sadness of my adult life so far and Im sure there's more to come!

Keep moving forward,

Yuen

Why Triathlon? Why Endurance Sports?

Ive been getting this question for such a long time (eg why the suffering), and I think now its time to share with you folks out there the reason for doing all that I do, and why its my passion, my life and my part time job! Hopefully you readers will find something that has the same effect on your life too!

Ever since I started running some 5-6 years ago, cycling some 4 years ago and triathlon plus swimming some 2 years ago I believe I am getting closer to the reason “why?” Of course, at first there was the typical “why do you climb a mountain….because it is there” attitude. Or, “Let’s just see how tough I really am……” However once we allow ourselves to move beyond that primal thinking deeper and more fulfilling exploration takes place.

Over the years I have evolved to now believe that there are at least 3 main reasons for such events/participation. These include: 1) displays of unconditional love that are many times missing (or ignored) from our modern world, 2) personal internal exploration into areas not typically revealed or evaluated in everyday life, and 3) the spiritual pureness and simplicity of the wonders of nature.

Having putting myself through some 20-25 hours of training each week and countless hard races over the years, my best memory is not the completion of the race or winning it but rather the very striking displays of unconditional love that escorted us all through the day. Throughout any event or training session that I've been to, there is just so much friendship, love and respect among all competitors, from the pros to the guy who finishes last. Sometimes, I believe every event and session Ive been to is just a metaphor for community, support, and love. We all work hard and laugh together as a big family!
Every event that I have taken part in, there has been countless number of people willing to sacrifice their day to help make the event a success. Why? Sure they get a T-shirt and have some fun, but the whole day?? and every year???My only explanation is love for fellow human beings and that the "event (eg ironman/marathon)" is simply an organized avenue of expression. What would the competitors do without volunteers, and what would the volunteers do without competitors? This is “community,” “support,” and “unconditional love” exchanged between strangers who have never met and may never see one another again. This display gives a renewed confidence in the goodness of humankind, and the most awesome power of love. What a joy and gift this is to experience!

Most of us have fears that keep us from fully exploring our inner selves. We usually do not fear our limitations - those are known. Rather we fear exploring our furthest abilities - those are unknown. When we take ourselves to our limits, whether it be academics, spirituality, social, parental, and relationships, etc, or in athletics, we are at the same time exposing ourselves to failure, and yet we don’t feel “complete” until we have explored that unknown area. When we do explore, we then develop a peace or calmness that comes from truly knowing who we are, and what we are capable of achieving. When we are tired, hot, hungry, thirsty, scared, and sore and the devil taps us on the shoulder to say it is ok to stop/walk/quit, what do we do and how do we respond? We can either give in and fail to discover our true power, or we can look fear right in the eye, keep putting one foot in front of the other, do what is right, good, and tough. When we persevere we therein find part of ourselves and our true character along the way.
Perhaps the words from Nelson Mandela’s inaugural speech in 1994 describe the power we possess but many times are afraid to obtain: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure……There’s nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of god that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” When we conquer our fears we not only become what we can become, we also give others permission to become what they can become. It’s magical!

Yours In Sport,

Yuen

Alternate viewpoints

Having just come off of watching Liverpool win a game in the dying minutes after having to come from behind twice (this phrase just sounds so wrong), I could go on about how we can all take heart from never giving up and always sticking to our guns. But of course the other team did that too and look how it worked for them!! Therefore, on the account of duality, this point is moot. I will however present you with an interesting morsel I stumbled upon online.

Yahoo's most recent top queries show us that people really are looking for jobs. I mean, literally, searching for jobs. Failing that, they look for online jobs because surely with the vastness of the inter-ma-net there's gotta be something out there. There is in fact a distinction between looking for jobs online and looking for an online job. Who'd have thought? If you can't find a job, why not download a pirated copy of Quantum of Solace and watch that in spite of it being shit. Stag parties are one way to combat the unemployment blues as well. Nothing makes being unemployed easier to deal with than going out and getting smashed with your also jobless best friends and splashing money you don't really have on strippers before the wedding that'll render that already quickly diminishing bank balance void. And why not shop for Christmas gifts early since most major retailers will be out of business by the time Christmas comes this year. These are pretty dark times we live in. The point of this post? I'm not entirely sure. If I had to look for one, it'd be that no matter how grim things may be, there're always different and oft funnier ways of looking at things. Doesn't change the fact that being broke still sucks though.

Cheers,
Harold

Boogaloo!!

For those who look at the title and it doesn't appear immediately obvious who is posting this, I encourage you to take a look at the right hand side of your screen and look at the recent addition to the contributors. This is my first time sharing a blog with anyone and I reckon only couples do it so Yuen and I should be just fine on that count.

Yuen's inspirational, motivational and teaching-ational posts are just fine by themselves but I reckon nothing could be better for them than a healthy dose of sardonicism (healthy is of course a relative measure) which I just happen to have plenty of. Of course the purpose here is not to dispute Yuen's wisdom. That would make me being able to post in here rather redundant because I do that on the chatbox anyway. I reckon our posts will have very little relevance to one another but the purpose should be nearly the same. I hope to offer you all a cynical and realistic yet hopeful view on the trials and tribulations of life and the ethos that surround us. I'll stop here for now and perhaps seek out some inspiration and motivation of my own for my first official post but I think we all know I'm just gonna be sitting here eating corn with butter whilst watching Two and a Half Men on a Saturday night.

Cheers!
Harold

The 10 Paradoxical Commandments

1. People are often unreasonable, irratational and self centered. Forgive them anyway.

2. If you are kind, people may accuse you of having selfish and ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

3. If you are successful you will win some unfaithful friends and genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

4. If you are honest and sincere you are vulnerable and people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

5. What you spend years creating and building, could be destroyed overnight. Build and create anyway.

6. If you find serenity and happiness, some will be jealous. Be happy anyway.

7. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

8. People really need help but will attack you when you help them. Help people anyway.

9. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.

10. Give the world the best you have even though it may never be enough, and you get kicked in the teeth. Give your best anyway.

10 paradoxical commandments found on the wall of mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta.
I'm sure in our lives we all feel that we have kept the 10 paradoxical commandments. I know I try to as I go through life. But I guess sometimes one of the key things to remember about it, is as humans, sometimes other people practice that 10 commandments on us too when we make our mistakes.

Let us all try to follow these 10 paradoxes and help make the world a better place. After all as I said in the previous post, its only a pale blue dot and we should deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

I know what I write no one reads or check this blog out. Write to try and reach anyway. =)

Always trying,
Yuen

Pale Blue Dot

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

This excerpt from A Pale Blue Dot was inspired by an image taken, at Sagan's suggestion, by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990. As the spacecraft left our planetary neighborhood for the fringes of the solar system, engineers turned it around for one last look at its home planet. Voyager 1 was about 6.4 billion kilometers (4 billion miles) away, and approximately 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane, when it captured this portrait of our world. Caught in the center of scattered light rays (a result of taking the picture so close to the Sun), Earth appears as a tiny point of light, a crescent only 0.12 pixel in size.

Its such an amazing sight, and I hope this reminds all of us that whatever we do, we have nowhere else to go other than earth. So let us all please take good care of it, cherish everyone around us and gift of life that only earth could sustain.

Always Looking,
Yuen