On Second Chances.

Watched a thousand day countdown until tomorrow.

So an incredible thing happened last weekend. I was supposed to be competing in my last decathlon and today should have had nothing left on my mind except to pack up and get ready to head home, finishing my 4 years here.

But instead, on Friday morning when I woke up, I sprained my neck getting out of bed.

Sounds ridiculous, but it’s true.

Sometimes in life, sh*t happens.

It was one of those injuries that you get once in a while but a couple of days after, you’ll be completely fine. It’s just that it happened with horrible timing.

I was incredibly frustrated at that time, but somehow now, I’m relieved.

You know how they say everything happens for a reason?

Somehow I was feeling quite tired and lost the past couple of months, I keep going through these cycles of ups and downs. Maybe it was a combination of the realisation that I’ve failed and that I’m not sure which way to go from here, but I was definitely feeling both physically and mentally exhausted. I felt like I wanted to end the season soon and have a break.

That then actually lead to a bad lead up to this decathlon, even though technically I’ve gotten more competent, I was struggling to keep myself mentally and physically there.

On Sunday, when my neck got better,I did a small session at the side of the track as I watched my friends compete. Then I could feel that I’m definitely not in my best shape and wouldn’t have been able to score something that would justify me to continue.

So somehow in a sense, I feel that my sprained neck gave me another chance.

I was watching Robbie on the high jump finals earlier and in the post competition interview he was saying how Fuzz, our coach, told him off a year ago and asked when is he going to start taking it seriously and actually apply himself. If he didn’t then he should stop wasting his own and his coach’s time.

And the truth is, I watched the thousand day countdown to this Olympic Games and I too have wasted a lot of my own and other people’s time.

Although it might not seem like it in my blog post and in person if you ever meet me, I waste a heck of a lot of my time doing nothing. Procrastination is a bad habit that I’ve had throughout my life and I still haven’t kicked it.

So many could haves, should haves and would haves, but I didn’t.

And the worst part is I’m to blame for a large part of it.

Deep down I know it’s true.

So I’ve decided to do the last decathlon that is available here this season, it will be on the 8th and 9th of September.

That will give me 4 weeks of training and 1 week to taper off for it.

My rent runs out on the 8th of September as well so that fits in nicely (will have to bunk at my mate’s place for a couple of nights when I get back before I fly home).

And in these 5 weeks, I need to sort out my life.

I need to earn enough money to keep going, get my apartment cleared and get all those work that I’ve been putting off done right.

I used to think that perception defined your reality, not any more.

Actions creates your reality.

Time to get productive.