90 DAY CHALLENGE EP #2 — PREQUEL TO THE 90 DAY CHALLENGE
PAST EPISODES CLICK HERE
When Mr Lee Kwan Yew passed away in Mar 2015, much of the country plunged into a period of collective sadness and contemplation. Wanting to play my part in this historical event, I volunteered to assist in crowd control along the route of his cortege procession — as it neared the NUS Cultural Center. As the rain poured, I saw on the faces of Singaporeans who lined the streets respectfully, their appreciation for a man who lived his life well, a life of discipline and principle — in control of his thoughts. It was a poignant moment for me personally. How will my own life end? Have I been able to harness and focus my purpose just a tinge to what Mr Lee had accomplished — or have I been just a hamster in a cage?
Following the funeral, I decided to further volunteer to be a polling agent when parliament called for general elections on 11 Sep 2015. I didn’t realise then that as a polling agent, I had to surrender my mobile phone for 4 hours to cast a wary eye to look out for trouble makers or irregularities.
It’s easier to find zits on a baby’s bottom than to find electoral irregularities in a Singaporean election. The first hour was pure boredom. By the second hour, my fingers were swiping imaginary screens.
As the 3rd hour dawned, I chanced on a scrap of paper and scrounged a pen. If I can’t read, I could at least write. The constant stream of Singaporeans coming to drop in their voting slips reminded me of… myself. I have been most of them before, the kid with parents, the teen, the yuppie and the middle-aged, and soon enough — the aged.
It dawned on me that at 47, I’ve reached a pivotal point.
I had to make my bucket list and hold myself ransom to that list. I had to take back control of my life if I were to do what I set out to do at the beginning of my life. So as I scribbled my list, I realised the first on the list was something I had tried and failed again repeatedly.
Bucket item 1 : Regain my Fitness. Make no mistake, I had made multiple attempts to reduce my weight over the past 20 years — but somehow, I had always ended up making excuses for myself why this aspiration is incompatible with my physiology as I grew older. I was genetically, programmed to be overweight, as were my brothers in the family.
Bucket item 2 : Write. Something I had wanted to do but never found the nerve or time to do so. I would love to put something down on the internet — perhaps even a blog. Why have I not done so over the years?
How do I make it different this time? How do I inspire myself to really carry out what I want to accomplish?
As my list grew, I realised that I needed something, a booster that will allow me to break free from the tyranny of orbital gravity 0f the daily grind.