Where will the journey lead us?...

Reading the comments that came back after my last post it seems that many of us have been in or know someone who has been in such a situation...

Life is a bit like this picture in that we can see that the track goes off into the bush but after that who knows where it will lead us.

In lance Armstrong's book he sought many opinions until he found someone who was prepared to try alternative procedures and the rest is history. Now I am not saying that we are all Lance Armstrong nor am I saying that all outcomes will be as fortunate but the point is that if you are not happy with something then you need to look for an alternative solution. This is very true when it comes to diagnosis of issues that we will all face from one time or another.

I have seen athletes perform well above what people thought they were capable of just because they decided that today was the day. Life is like that and running or sport in general for that matter is one big example of life. In my own case running taught me about work ethic. What you put in is what you get out. That is if you don't run you don't improve (simple version)

I know that it is a cliche but at the end of the day we are not on the planet for a very long time so I feel it is important that we enjoy life and work to achieving what ever potential we have in what ever pursuit we choose to follow. Find your passion and pursue it. That alone takes great courage because along the way you will always find someone who is prepared to knock what you are trying to do or put up blockers for you. At the same time there are people who want to come along for the journey because it looks like it could be fun and they want to be a part of it.

I always try to surround myself with positive people and people who are about having fun ( not at the expense of others or others rights but fun in the sense of they are getting on with life ) and in this way when the going does get tough I can use some of their energy to get through the tough patches and visa versa I can feed them when they need to be propped. I remember talking with Deeks once and he spoke of there being three kinds of people:

• Floaters


• Suckers and


• pumpers.

The floaters are people you spend time with who are nice to be around you can be with them for a whole day but not really get anything out of the encounter while at the the same time the encounter does not take anything out of you. The suckers are those people that draw the energy out of you , you spend an hour with them and it feels like you have been with them for a week, they just drain you. Then there are the pumpers, these are the people who you spend time with and come away from the encounter feeling like you could conquer the world...

When I was a young wombat and only starting out as a runner I was told by a person, whom shall remain nameless, that I would only every make a good club runner and not do much more, poor form wrong style. Fortunately for me I enjoyed running so continued on my merry way and went on to represent my country in the very sport I was told I would not do well at. (passion more than talent are the essential ingredients to achieving success). Fortunately also I met a person who gave me guidance and a program that let me develop myself and from that I progressed. In other words they gave me the tools to reach my potential but the rest was up to me in terms of doing the work....

Charlie Brown once said "The heaviest burden in the world is great potential"

Each of us has potential and its up to us to realise that potential in our own way , at our own pace and in our own time. What that actual potential is or what the ceiling on an individuals potential no one knows but hey, I bet it would be fun trying to find that out , isn't that what life is all about?

Barrel on Wombats...