What I learnt today #15

Thursday 25 October 2012

This morning on my way to work, I took my regular route. 
I know best practice dictates you're supposed to vary your routes to avoid someone recognizing a pattern, but I think I blend in quite well with the other 50,000 cars going in the same general direction every morning. 

My route takes me along the Audrey Jeffers Highway, which has a portion referred to as the foreshore which puts you about 10 meters away from the coastline of the Gulf of Paria. 
This morning I saw a man wake-boarding in the Gulf. Now, for those of you that don't know this stretch of coastline, no one ever ventures into these waters mainly due to its toxicity levels. I always half expect to see a three-legged fish come up from the water and drag itself across the road. Other than the fact that this guy is probably going to become the latest addition to the x-men after his dip in that water, I was absolutely amazed what this guy had planned for his Thursday. I sometimes forget that not everyone lives in the rat maze. After all, practically everyone I know is in it.

Yes, in some ways I did envy this character. Now I know what you're thinking, "Ian you don't know how hard this guy probably worked so he could afford such leisure". You're right, I don't. But it's a sick construct that we have come to believe in that decades of toil are required, demanded even, from the world for us to deserve something great. I'm not talking about the fast track, or get rich dreams or anything of that nature. I'm talking about living the way we want, in the present. Ask yourself the "5 whys" to peel back the layers of why you're not living the life you may want. Look past the "I don't have enough money" excuse 90% of people would list as one of their first limitations. I would argue that the majority of things that we would list as constraints and limitations are self imposed. Yes you need to have a certain risk appetite to be daring enough to break the mold and not walk the prescribed path. But there is much more at risk if you live in a way that does not fulfill you. 

When you really get to the bottom of it, there is a reason we don't run after what we say we want. It's fear. And it's that fear that keeps people, myself included, from wake boarding on a Thursday morning. That and I'd prefer not to have my skin melted off and flesh eating bacteria reducing me to bones. Seriously that water is gross.