Sunday, October 4, 2009
Creating miracles
@2:53 PM
Whenever I tell people that I am attempting to cycle to China and India, they react with shock and awe, with an inevitably healthy dose of skepticism:
“What if you get robbed and mugged?”
“What if your bicycle breaks down?”
“What if you fall sick?”
All these are common responses to the plan, and the extreme scenarios of these possibilities are things I will not be able to adequately cover in terms of safety.
This is a world that I find strange. Every day, we look at the television and view the larger than life characters and drama, and each time, we wish that our life can be equally extraordinary and colourful. However, when I uncover a dream of my own, almost everyone turns into a skeptic. Now, I don’t deny that people who express their concern do so for my wellbeing, but I do think that we should look more on the possibilities rather than the drawbacks.
I am not much more average than the other fellows on the street. In many ways, my intelligence is average, so is my education, upbringing, achievements and character; none of them stand out that much in the environment of overachieving Singapore. My leadership is mediocre, I don’t learn very fast, my memory is sketchy, and I am no orator. I have little talent for either music or sports. On hindsight, that may be why I tend to emphasise my capabilities to make myself seem more than I am, not to impress others, but to deceive myself.
The only real virtues I have depended on since junior college has been a hyperactive imagination and a powerful determination to materialise these possibilities. I would dream of what may be, hours, days, weeks, months and years in advance, and I would take the dreams that I love most to turn into reality.
Cycling is a good example: two years and five months back, I had quit hockey and was looking at what I can do to replace the sporting void. Imagination made me long for a sport that anyone can participate in, with enough freedom not to be tied down by teamwork requisites, and the answer was cycling. Determination and near obstinacy got me a mountain bike, and subsequently a road bike which was eight sizes too small, but I never looked back since.
I do not think I am the only one in this regard; many others who people deem to be society’s movers and great achievers rely on little more than their strength of character to strive towards success. In this sense, our success in life can be measured by the battle we fight, not against others, but against ourselves.
I am an unordinary person attempting extraordinary things. Anyone can do it too; put your mind to it, and you will get there someday.
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