Something struck my nerves this morning during a catalyst groupwalk/Jog. I met Claudia for the first time, she threw a challenge of getting to the “Top” fastest. The Peduase Lodge. Surprised yet excited I accepted. Certainly not throwing away a challenge. Soon enough we found ourselves tailing behind her when the climb started. She fired on, creating a visible gap. Upon arriving at the first steep portion of the hill, I noticed her pace dropped, her body struggled to handle the terrain; my chance to overtake! This was my immediate thought. I started jogging to close the distance between us. With her spirited effort I still got to “Top” with her quite a distance behind me, triumphantly I must say I made it. As though that wasn’t enough, while at the “Top”, I met Anero – A fitness coach who had started jogging before my team and I even started our climb. I joined him to jog towards Aburi Girls school.
He threw me right into a very tough challenge, my body was no where near prepared. His determination however pushed me, one foot in front of the other, with the sun making its entrance it became exhausting. Half way into the jog I gave up. Too tired to drag any further, I advised he continued jogging while I catch up at a slower pace. A minute or so after, an unknown jogger trotted by my side and said, “You can do it, let’s go!”. As much as I was dead tired and didn’t want any part of a jog, his charm and encouragement got me fired up once more and we jogged side by side for awhile. An interesting conversation started. My curiosity was at work, I asked how long he had been jogging for, noticing how briskly each of his steps were, almost effortless. He mentioned he had been doing it for close to 9 years. He jogs right from the base of the hill to Aburi Girls School. Truthfully I understood the need to pay attention to my body, it certainly wasn’t a 9 year expert. Advising him to carry on without me had him leave in disappointment, surely he understood. Finally I made it all the way to Aburi Girls, beating my previous week’s performance. The key lessons from this were;
1. You can’t get encouragement, support etc if you stay in bed or don’t participate.
2. You will always meet people in life who will challenge you and spur you on and you should take up the challenge when it presents itself.
3. God will always place helpers along the way to aid in your pursuits.
4. You will always discover a side of you, you never knew existed.
5. You will make new friends along the way and old friendships shall be strengthened.
6. It’s ok to take a pause, slow down etc but just don’t quit.
7. Rome was not built in a day so envy not when you meet people who are better than you, instead learn from them. knowing if they can do it, you can too.
