A Singaporean Decathlete

Back in 2011, floating around the dead sea.

What just happened?

How the heck did I let these two weeks just slip by?

How did I end up so far away from where I want to be?

Did try to start training, but then with the overwhelming work and my tendency for insomnia, I quickly fell sick.

And work, gosh, I don’t even know how to explain.

Sometimes being born in a family business has both it’s blessings and it’s curse.

At times I do want to walk away, knowing that this isn’t ultimately what I want to do and that the enjoyment I get out of it is very, very minimal. I did it once before and that was the best decision I made 4 years ago.

Now though, I know it’s not just about me.

Staff in the company are dependent on me to carry this forward and through.

I guess that’s what growing up is about, you realise it’s no longer just about you. The decisions you make has far reaching consequences that affect many others, hence the weight of the world on your shoulders greatly increases.

So do I just give up? Resign to my fate?

I choose not to.

This is gonna require all my strength to turn my life and the company around, but I’m not gonna just let my life as a decathlete go just like that. I gave too damn much just to give up now.

One way or another, I’m gonna figure this out.

How do I get back to the beaches of Malibu?

How do I go back floating around the Middle East?

I still believe.

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Whoa.

I mean, whoa……

I really forgot how fast and punishing the pace of life can be back in Singapore.

There I was back in Loughborough, living a nice and easy life in the English country side, next thing I know I’m stuck back into the thick of things back in Singapore.

I must apologise for the lack of updates in the past two weeks, it has been one heck of a hectic ride.

Came back finding the family business needing a bit of sorting out.

I guess I can’t shun away from my responsibilities, but at the same time I see the endless possibilities.

Singapore’s pretty crazy, very energetic, a little bit too much tension, but loads of money flowing around which equates to plenty of business opportunities.

Funny thing is that even though my degree was in Sports Science and Management (which has almost nothing to do with the nature of business), somehow what I’ve done over the past few years armed me with something much more valuable than a degree.

It taught me that it can be done, and that the world is for your taking.

1 more week of ‘rest’ before I have to start fitting in my winter training phase along with my crazy working hours.

It can be done.

It has to.

Let’s see what I’m actually made of.

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Heathrow Airport, en-route to Singapore. Better Never Stops.

So I’ve come full circle, back to where I began.

You know how they say, when you’ve gone one round and get back to the start, everything will feel the same, yet everything has changed.

And then you realise that it actually is you who have changed.

Got back to Singapore on Thursday evening and pretty much got back to my old life pretty swiftly.

Back to meeting my old friend, staying in my old home and heading back to do the same stuff before I left 4 years ago.

But somehow, I can feel that this time I doing it as a slightly different person, and that I’m heading towards another slightly different direction.

I think what has changed in the past 4 years is that somehow I used to think that it was possible to do anything in life, and so I tried.

Now I know that it is possible to do anything in life, and so I’m working towards it.

I wore that band around my right wrist during my last few training sessions in Loughborough and during my last decathlon to remind myself, Better Never Stops.

And I can’t stop now.

3 more weeks of rest, winter training begins.

p.s. thought I’d have a change in theme to reflect this next chapter of my life, something lighter now to reflect the brighter days ahead =)

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The older you get, the harder it is to keep holding on to your dreams.

Reality has a harsh and very effective way of beating you into submission, trying to force you to accept the limits of today as the limits for your tomorrow.

And speaking of tomorrow, it’s the day I intended to fly back home, bringing an end to these 4 years.

But somehow that freak neck injury 3 weeks ago changed my plans and there is still one last decathlon to go.

Being still uncertain about what to do next, I did a dreamlining exercise as mentioned in the amazing book ‘4 hour work week’ by Timothy Ferriss (highly recommended book for everyone).

Basically you ask yourself what exactly you want to be, have and be doing in 6 – 12 months time, and then you work your way backwards on how to achieve it.

I realised that I still do have very big dreams, but somehow I find myself a little more hesitant now. Perhaps the experience of failure has wisen me up to the the very real possibility of not achieving what you set out to do.

Do I dare to once again make big plans for the next 5 years of my life and pursue it as naively as I did 5 years ago?

I don’t think I can, I’m a very different person now.

But I do think I can pursue it a whole lot wiser and more focused than I did 5 years ago.

It’s almost like, yeah you got me there life, but you know what? Let’s go on and play the second round.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill

I think life is a series of figuring it out.

You never do quite get to a static point where you find ‘the’ answer, but all you can do is to keep going forwards and keep figuring it out as you go along.

So, keep going, and keep figuring it out.