If At First You dun Succeed, Try Tri Again: YEAR END STOCK TAKING and RESOs for 2014

It's coming to that year end time when we invariably look back at the immediate year past - all the days and months, people and events that made up 2013 and how it shaped and affected us. Stock taking is something we find ourselves doing as we cant help but look at all that has transpired that has added on to our psyche....

Looking back to learn from the past.....

We think about a similar time period one year before when we were on the precipice of 2013 and back gaze at what we hoped for then and made up as our own resolutions or aspirations for 2013. We wonder at how dichotomous those plans with how reality and fate dealt their unorchestrated and unexpected blows...and wonder why we never saw that coming...or how in the scheme of things we just moved along with the flow anyway and made it part of our reality....

Perhaps life is as unpredictable and should be as such. Too much planning takes away the joie de vivre and immediacy of life ....life can throw up oranges and lemons one day or protein shakes the other..and truth be told.. they are all drinkably gd enuf to make refreshing and sustaining drinks!

A team buddy of mine never likes too much planning and would rather just go with the flow with just a rough sketch of what he envisages to be the right thing to do to further his life. He trusts that his decisons along the way will be as best he can make, taking in all exigencies of that moment. I suppose some pple can do that and do that well, being able as they are to process things to the very last minute to come up with an immediate plan that is up to the date relevant and the best bang for buck...best fit for the opportune time. Yet another is quite methodical in his approach to get things done and incrementally worked out a plan for the marathon he is undertaking - adding on the km as we go along with each successive training. Yet another Team member jumps on the bike, spins, gyms and runs to keep on top of things just a few weeks be4 the big race only to taper down to relax mode post race..and start again - LOL.

Perhaps I am too much of a planner by comparison and put too much thought and anxiety into setting things and eventualities up - and when things dun come to fruition as meticulously and constructively planned (or even as wishfully planned in forethought ), it's such a bummer and I get all flummoxed because I cldnt control as it were the inputs and outputs. I recognise that as both a strength and a bad trait - overly planned and it reeks of control-freakdom-die-die-must-have-it-this-way-or-else ...and too little and its all decidedly too laissez faire...tikam tikam...Ok..ok... but some judicious planning is good - some basic parameters of what u would like accomplished; committed to and subscribed to. I think we can agree to some extent on that. Operative word is 'some'.

Things that happen ,happen for a reason and life shld never be lived with regret but looking forward we shld always learn from our failures and mistakes; from all manner of situations that can only shape us and make us stronger and more knowledgeable having experienced first hand whatever life throws at us. We should also learn to listen, and listen well.

Too often we pre-hear or qualify well meaning inputs and the very voice we hear loudest is our own ingrained opinions! We shld be be always open to 'good insights' and 'outsights' that we sometimes get to see when we step back and look at the big picture. Clouded as we are by our own ego-state-of-mind, we eschew the very checks and balances that are there from our friends and colleagues, family and loved ones...pple who care for us enough to tell us.

So the big thing in 2013 is getting the gumption and derring do to sign up in August for the 2014 Half Ironman..an act that to this moment I marvel at in my hungry foolishness. Maybe I was seeking some validation in life - to accomplish some pinnacle of endurance and fitness that I harbored deep within my soul; or it could be something simple as keeping up with my new found friendships with equally mad triathletes! But it is all good - life is unpredictable and its unpredictability makes for quick changes in our mindset and challenges and goads us to be bigger than our erstwhile safe day to day existence and mundane hopes - pushed the boundaries of our experience and hopefully shapes and transforms us to better, fuller characters with a zest for life .

To this end I also went headlong into the purchase and commitment of a high end super go fast full carbon P3 Cervelo c/w 404 Firecrest Zipps. But a man needs his toys, no? see later write up on P3 review and pimp my ride....but all this is posturing without affirmative action....

Pic: Go GETTER!! Out of the water...no more Child's Play - time to up the ante!!

Another embarkation is the need to fulfil my other talents which hopefully ...no - let me rephrase that...there shldn't be hope - that mindset seems to imbue a sense of passiveness - we need affirmative action to see thru to what we want in life - so the word i think that is apposite is wilfully....sees the professional light of day come the new year as I seek to push myself mentally and creatively to see whether I got what it takes. You never know until u try and one shld never fear trying . No regrets. Its all gd in the end as we can make it work any which way we like and still learn from it. Thank u to the powers and influences that be that have afforded the setting for the step up in heeding the call to create and do something worthwhile and entrepreneurial even!

So seize the day - carpe diem, I say , and here's looking forward to 2014 with renewed vigour and affirmative action; some careful judicious planning...a whole lot of guts and mental preparedness and a healthy attitude of go get to it. We dun live to work...neither do we work to live..but we live to LIVE! And live it abundantly!

Come join me in my 2014 journey of goal setting wilfulness, character building, soul searching and finding, in the enabling and encouraging company of like minded associates, good friends and good brothers and best mates who altogether help us live that life of fulfilling purpose!

Happy 2013 and happier 2014!!

Rupertinum