#8.1 The first three years. (part 1)

I have titled this post thus because as I sit here today, reflecting on times in the past, I know I am not the same person that I was before the crash.

I didn’t do any of this consciously, I didn’t sit down after counselling and write out a detailed list of what it was I wanted to accomplish and the kind of person I wanted to be at the completion of said tasks. Everything was instinctual, I was guided by the intuition we all have inside that brings us exactly what we deserve.

I was following the heart.

It is far too voluminous for me to detail all the experiences of the first three years, so I’ve focused on some key takeaways as a means of condensing the experience.

Change the setting – Change the result.

One’s surroundings can have a very large impact on who you end up becoming. As children we are influenced by that which surrounds us. Our elders, teachers and families all imprint upon us and the zeitgeist of socially accepted norms ends up becoming us in a multitude of variations.

I grew up with my family in New Guinea, and then from adolescence alone in Brisbane. Yet despite being removed from my family for such a formative time in my life (and for periods living overseas.) I still carry the mannerisms that my father has. I react the same way he does, I sit with my legs in the same manner as he and hell, I even groan the same way he does when yawning, its uncanny.

I didn’t want to be the person I had become up until that point, the person that Brisbane had created in me … so in order to effect change in me I decided my surroundings were a good start, and moved north to the Sunshine Coast.

This is where I found myself living in a top floor apartment overlooking the ocean, a perfect respite from my former life and opportunity to inflect change in myself. Being on the coast removed me from my anxieties, the same old paths that I had walked a thousand times and gave me a fresh start in a place where I wasn’t reminded of who I was or where I came from.

Try the tri

At the time I certainly wasn’t a believer in fate, destiny or anything along those lines. But I know now that there is an energy that moves through us, connecting us all together. You can call it what you wish but in my instance whatever 'it' was, started directing me in the form of signs.

Actually, it was more like a challenge, and instead of following the old path of saying, “Nah, its doesn’t interest me, or nah, too busy.” Or using anyone of the multitude of excuses that are available when feeling uncomfortable arises, I chose another path. To start saying yes.

So when an older sibling said to me one day ‘why don’t you give triathlon a go?’ , that’s exactly what I did. I gave it a go.

I would spend more than two years effectively exercising for this thing called triathlon, one simple suggestion that grew into me not only completing a triathlon but also an Ironman 70.3. Something I never would have considered me possible of doing.

The important thing wasn’t that I achieved it though, the important thing was that I gave it a go, I explored something I’d never tried before, opening my mind to new things, just as a child does. I was giving myself a chance to experience life.

Far too often people forsake their passion for life, most inadvertently, and replace it with the monotony of routine.

I began to understand that I wasn't embracing change, I was running, cycling and swimming headlong into it.

Continues on to part 2 ...