What Kind of Person Are You?
“So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way” Luke 19:4
During one of my business trips to China, my host and I started a conversation over lunch that led to the subject of duality. He explained that it is the underpinning concept of the Ying Yang sign in Chinese culture. I was fascinated by the concept, and my mind started noticing how this concept is prevalent in our everyday conversations.
So each week, I write about topics that are related to focus, vision and self-development by asking a pair of opposing questions. My goal is to use these questions to help you have brief moments of introspection that will uplift, inspire and motivate you.
So, let us delve into the question of the week using one of my cycling experiences.
My love for cycling has not dwindled since I picked up the sport in Tanzania about four years ago. Those of you who follow my blogs would have read a lot about my cycling experiences. Here again, I will share my most recent one with you. I call these experiences my lessons behind bars (the handlebars of my bicycle).
Cycling has transformed my life, literally. It was the central theme in the journey towards transforming my body from a sturdy, heavy 110KGs to 87KGs. What I am trying to say is that I was fat.
After Tanzania, I was not sure if I was going to be able to continue cycling when I moved to Yangon, Myanmar in late 2017. Although we might see cycling as an individual sport, it as much a team sport as, say, soccer. The Dar Active Cycling group gave me the motivation to keep cycling week in, week out. So moving to an unknown city, I was not sure if I would find another group like that. Also, I do only road cycling. Mountain and off-road cycling is not my cup of tea. Again, I was not sure if I was going to find suitable and safe road routes for cycling in Yangon. But despite these uncertainties, I took my bike with me. There must be a way, I said. True to my expectation, I found accommodation in a golf estate with fantastic paved roads which made a lovely, just under 10KM, loop. My fear of riding alone was also alleviated when I found another keen road cyclist living in the estate. We, inevitably, became very close buddies. We would put in 30–40 minutes of cycling every morning before work and about 60–90 minutes during the weekends. My perfect cycling world came tumbling down when, after a year, I had to pack up to move to Kabul, Afghanistan.
You will agree with me that even the most optimistic of persons would not think he/she can find a way of engaging in road cycling in Kabul. But hold that thought for a moment. Among my luggage heading to Kabul was my bike. Yes, I was taking it with me only to find out at the airport that I could not take my bike with me. I was crestfallen. I could not bring myself to pay the excess luggage cost that the airline was charging. It was one of the few times I was disappointed with Emirates. And looking back now, I wish I had paid the fee. I left the bike back in Yangon with an almost certain resignation at the prospect that my cycling days were behind me. I write it now as if it was easy, but it was not. It was like telling a kid that he/she cannot take his/her favourite toy on a vacation trip. The only difference I was too shy to throw any tantrums. So I finally arrived in Kabul during the last week of February 2018 without my favourite piece of equipment — my bike. During the first couple of months, I had almost accepted that I would not cycle anymore. Or at least not as regularly as I would have wanted. But one thing was certain; I will be reunited with my bike one way or another, Kabul or elsewhere.
Five months go by, and my bike had gone everywhere but be in Kabul. The courier services had to route the bike to Bangkok, then to Lagos and finally to Nairobi where my family was. After three months of trying to switch my exercise routine from cycling to the gym, I decided I had to get back to cycling no matter what. That decision was not because cycling was easier than the gym. I missed riding, that is all. There started an active pursuit to reunite with my bike. Another two months go by before I finally got the chance to kiss my bike in Dubai. I was over the moon. The first evening after the bike shop reassembled it I was off to a cycling track and put in an hour of riding. Yep!, I made a friend instantly. He is sixty-five years old Indian who has lived with his family in Dubai for over twenty years. But riding in Dubai is not a solution because I cannot afford to fly over from Kabul every weekend. The cost, my work and the hassle are not practical. There has to be a way of getting me on that bike every day other than a three hours flight every weekend.
I decided to get myself an indoor simulator which I flew over to Kabul after much difficulty with the weight of the machine and customs formalities. Now, my bike is neatly seated in my room. I am back on track with my cycling routine. I wake up at 0500Hrs every weekday morning and about 0700Hrs on weekends to set up my gadgets and “off I go”. The indoor simulator gives me the visual effects of any city I choose to ride in. The feel of the terrain is almost the same. I feel the tension of it the hills and relatively less tension on flats.
But what is the point of me sharing this experience?
You can make things happen if you want it bad enough; if you are passionate enough about it. I went to lengths to get my bike in Kabul. It cost quite a bit to get the indoor trainer. But I had to create the opportunity and environment for me to do what I enjoy as my physical exercise — cycling. At this point, you might be tempted to say that I could do all that because I could afford it. It is partly true that I could afford the costs. But the truth is that I had to forgo something else to get the indoor trainer. For example, I could have used that money for three trips to Dubai from Kabul. Offer me Dubai any day; I will take it. But in these circumstances, I valued having the chance to ride my bike indoor more than to take three leisure trips to Dubai. There is a price for everything. The cost is what you take out of the plastic you swipe at the shop.
Your passion will determine the price you are willing to pay, the sacrifice you are ready to make or the pleasure you are willing to forgo. It is never about how much money you have or what you can afford.
One day, I was watching a video on YouTube that Evan Carmichael curated as part of his “Top 10 Secrets to Success” series. The video was twenty-four minutes of clips of some of Les Brown’s presentation. Les Brown is an American motivational speaker and author. In the video, Mr Brown attributed the following quote to George Barnard Shaw:
“There are three people in life. Those that make things happen, those that watch things happen and those that don’t know what happened. The people that get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, they make them.”
Please allow me to nullify the last group of people and ask you this — are you the kind of person who:
1) Will make things happen? or
2) Will watch things happen?
What is it that you are pursuing but finding challenges in archiving. There will be difficulties, you may not have enough money, and the environment might not be right. I encourage you to go out there and create it. Get your “ bike”, get your “indoor simulator” and “ride”.
You can create your environment to realise your dream. Before I achieved my dream of becoming a CFO, I took opportunities to act as the CFO when I could. I put on the mindset of a CFO. And I am thankful to the bosses who gave me the opportunity to express myself and the chance to grow in the process. They give me those opportunities because they saw my passion, dedication and commitment to grow in my career.
If you do not have what you truly desire it is because you have not stepped up to make it happen. So, do not watch things happen, choose to make it happen. Choose to make things happen for you, choose to make things happen for your family and those that you can help.
It is said that “what you make happen for others, God will make happen for you.
