Challenges come along in very different ways. I have shared a few that came my recently, they may seem humorous but there is a key message here.
Some of you will be aware that earlier this year I did a sponsored bike to raise money for Victim Support in Yorkshire and Humber cycling to each area office in the region, a total of 170 miles.
After completing this challenge I thought what could the next one be?
Well I have a very close friend who had just started going to the gym and really would like to lose some weight but on occasions forgot to take the action to go to the gym and therefore motivation became an issue. I called him and said something to the effect "How do you fancy a challenge of doing a 10k run on Christmas Eve"?
Oh this was late September when I called him.
My friend said he would think about it and came back to me a day later saying, "I am up for this but do not fancy the cold or the date. How about we do it on the 5th December on the treadmill at my gym As it will be a bit warmer and we can watch the television as each treadmill has its own screen "?
What could I say but YES. I should point out that I am not really a fan of running or treadmills so this was a challenge for me.
Training started, my friend building up the kilometers and really looking leaner. The challenges for me are the boredom, I feel like a hamster on a wheel !!!! My gym has no such luxury as a television screen on the treadmill so initially I focused on a white dot on the lawn outside just to take my mind off the constant pounding. I have now moved on to listening to Enigma on the Ipod but the ears keep dropping out of my ears (another challenge)
All was going well until about two weeks ago then it happened, I fell over my lap top bag, cutting and badly bruising the toe next to my little toe.
I rang my friend, who after he had stopped laughing said, "I hope you will still be able to do this run as you have really got me going and I am looking forward to the challenge"?
I said I would be there, albeit with a toe looking decidedly dodgy I did not really feel that good about it.
Here was the next challenge. I could not run or put much weight on the foot but I really did not want to lose the momentum I had won, nor did I want to feel sorry for myself (it would have been nice though). Then it came to me, get the bike out and do some miles, this is just what I did. Just as I felt ready to go back to the gym came the next challenge.
Now you will like this.
I burnt my nose on our wood-burning stove. I know you are thinking how on earth did you do that? Simple really it does not take much practice !!! I had just put on a couple of logs, as I was shutting the door one began to fall out. I opened the door leant forward to push the log back in and my nose touched the top of the door. It hurt a little but nothing could have prepared me for what followed.
The next day the tip of nose was bright red in the shape of a circle. How could I have seen looking like this and dealing with the looks and no doubt the humorous comments that would come my way? After all I needed to get back into the gym !!!!! Now, not only did I have a slight limp I had a nose end that could light up any room.
Well I saw this as just another challenge to deal with; There was not much point in staying in. I saw the funny side. Yes people did stare and yes those close to me came out with the humorous stories. The really funny bit was when I was doing a seminar. The majority of people were transfixed by the nose really not sure what to say or do?
In the end they enjoyed me telling them about the wood-burning stove.
Some thought I had been beaten up, some even thought I had been bitten by a snake,
Imagination what a wonderful thing !!!!
We all have challenges it is how we deal with them that matters.
Oh, my sympathy goes out to hamsters everywhere.
Enjoy November.
If you would like to follow the progress towards the 10k challenge visit my blog