Keep going just RECALCULATING

“The more challenging your goal, the more unknowns there tend to be. That means the more difficult goal you have, the more you’ll have to recalculate throughout the process.” Joel Runyon

 If you have ever used a GPS and missed the turn to your destination you would have heard the voice from the GPS say “recalculating”, and after recalculating you get the next way to your destination.

In the past month I got a “recalculating” to my dream and goal. Why you might think, well I got sick, I was unable to qualify for disabled swimming team for 2015 and I have to start recalculating my plan and process to still pursue my dream. The route might have changed slightly but the DESTINATION/DREAM/GOAL is still the same, although it has taken me some time to decide is the DESTINATION/DREAM/GOAL really worth it?

“You get a goal, make some plans and start working on it, but if you’re a human living in reality with any sort of ambition, it’s not long until the situation changes and you have to start recalculating.Plans change. Situations change. Life is a constant variable. The only thing that’s constant is you.

Learn. Adapt. Recalculate. But keep going.” Joel Runyon

BUT KEEP GOING – I have had to remind myself a few times the past weeks to keep going, reconsidering my options my dream my goals. Asking the question is it really worth it? And should I change my dream?

Yes it is worth it because we get one life to live, one life to dream, one life to inspire, and one life to risk all we can for all we believe we could possibly achieve even if the dream seems impossible.

No I shouldn’t change my dream, I just need to recalculate the journey and focus on the “road” I am on at the moment to the final destination. The “road” will be many and I have realised I might actually miss a few turns and need to recalculate a few times, but working towards the destination is worth the risk even if it seems impossible.

“In other words, I’m doing the best to do what I can, where I am, with what I’ve got. Just because you missed a turn, mile marker or goal doesn’t mean the trip is over and it doesn’t mean you have to start over. You can still keep going. You don’t have to give up. You just have to recalculate a bit. Most people don’t really fail, they just give up too soon.” Joel Runyon

My focus for the next few months is just getting back into the pool and train. Swimming length after length, pushing weights after weights and building on from where we left off. Yes we don’t have to start over we just have rebuild from where we left off to get back on track to the dream.

So let me encourage you today, if you missed a turn in your dream and decided to give up, DON’T, re-look at your options, recalculate the route and pursue the dream. You have one life to live, one life to dream, one life to inspire and one life to risk all for the hope of reaching your dream.

“Know also that wisdom is like honey for you: If you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.                                                                            Proverbs 24:14

“A lot of people spend a lot of time hoping, without putting seed in the ground. Hope is the most important thing, but it can’t stand on its own.

You’ve got to be planting. You’ve got to take action” Lewis Pugh

Today a year ago, I had hoped for something and it had become a reality, yes I got to compete in my first Triathlon. Remembering this time was as though it happened yesterday, BUT IT happened a year ago.

Looking back I realise it hadn't started a year ago, it started when I was born, it came with my heart, my spirit and my soul. What was that it was a hope that would see me through whatever life threw at me.

My planting began at a young age, I planted seed after seed, dreaming of competing in sports, dreaming of running like the wind, dreaming of taking my little hope and turning it into a reality.

Over time as my legs  became weaker and weaker and my balance became worse and worse, my seeds that had been planted stopped growing, they stopped dreaming and they stopped hoping. Life can throw some mean “weeds” at us, but it’s what we decide to do with these “weeds” that make all the difference. About 2 years ago I choose to start pulling the “weeds” out that were choking my DREAMS!

I might have competed in this triathlon a year ago, but it wasn’t as though I just showed up on the day. Oh no, the training started 6 months before, and then even 6 months before that. So let’s say I went and found my fork and watering can filled it up with water and began weeding the weeds and watering my seeds again, my dreams again and my hopes again. So even though the weeds might have tried to choke my seeds and they might have won for a time, my seeds were still there to catch the water, and as they caught the water they began to breathe again, to grow again, to show signs that no matter how far I had side-lined my dreams and hopes they were still there waiting for the day I would pull out the weeds, pick up the watering can and begin HOPING again.  

You might think what on earth am I talking about weeds and seeds for, well weeds are dream killers, and seeds are our dreams. Weeds will keep trying to come and kill our seeds, and pulling them out is tough, I know all about tough weeds and I know all about hard work and determination to pull them out, but as I said above what makes all the difference is when we decide what we will do with the weeds!

So today check in on your seeds, see how they are doing and water them continually, never allow weeds to kill them, trust me seeds are more beautiful than weeds!

Today marks a special day but tomorrow is another day of watering my seeds as we continue to dream.

Dreams are the seeds of change. Nothing ever grows without a seed, and nothing ever changes without a dream. Debby Bonne

 “Life isn’t a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, latte in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming ‘Woohoo WHAT A RIDE’!” Author unknown

  

Am I still swimming?  Am I still training?  Am I still working?

Am I still dreaming of crazy exploits?  Am I still drinking coffee?

Am I still eating chocolate? Is my body still being used up?

Am I still on a journey? Am I still physically disabled?

Am I still alive?

Those are easy questions to answer, and it only takes one word….YES.

I was wondering the other day about my future and what exactly it holds. Let’s say I had to write a letter to my future self what would I say.

Have you ever wondered that or ever thought what is it that you still need to do in this life and what do you dream about.

At present I am really silently training away with one goal in mind. I still have no idea if I will reach my dream of swimming at the Paralympics, but one thing I do still know, I AM STILL ALIVE, I am still swimming, I am still training, I am still working, I am still dreaming of crazy exploits, I am still drinking coffee, I am still eating chocolate, my body is still being used up and I am still on a journey, I am still disabled but I am alive.

Are you still…………………riding this journey of life full force into your future?

Are you still…………………following your own dreams?

Are you still…………………alive?

If I can say YES to my questions you can say YES to yours. Finish the race you started or begin to make the race count and finish in full force, skidding in sideways, hands held high, and thoroughly used up in every possible way

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” 2 Timothy 4:7

"I wouldn't say anything is impossible. I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and put the work and time into it". 

Michael Phelps

PROMISE - it takes courage

⁴⁵ Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her!” Luke 1:45

     

Meeting  Promise a little girl in Goma, DRC about 3 weeks ago, was just another reason to keep on pursuing ‘promises’ over my life and realising that there is always hope no matter in what circumstances we may find ourselves in.

This being the very reason why when the day came for me to race in the ITU Triathlon this past Sunday, I decided to dedicate this race to Promise. Promise has Cerebral Palsy, can’t walk, can’t learn like a normal child her age, lives in Goma, and probably has, in the world’s eyes no future hope. I have to believe differently, why? God is bigger and what we may see as a future and a calling, God might actually have a different idea. At least this is what I have been learning the past few years as I take on new challenges and new dreams in essence.

 Who would ever have thought that having a disability could allow me to ever do what I get to do, even fulfil promises I never knew existed a few years ago…

             

“The good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It’s your mind you have to convince.” Vince Lombardi

    

I know that finding the strength, the courage the determination, the perseverance to keep going when my body doesn't want to is not always easy but believing that Gods promises are bigger then my body, gives me courage to keep going and doing what pushes me past my limits to my dreams. swimming 500meters, cycling 20km and walking about 1km, is the courage I had to do on Sunday!

“When we place our dependence in God, we are unencumbered, and we have no worry. In fact, we may even be reckless, insofar as our part in the production is concerned. This confidence, this sureness of action, is both contagious and an aid to the perfect action. The rest is in the hands of God – and this is the same God, gentlemen, who has won all His battles up to now.” Vince Lombardi

        

I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man's finest hour -- his greatest fulfilment to all he holds dear -- is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious."

- Coach Vincent T. Lombardi 

Nothing great in the world
 has
ever been accomplished
 without passion 
George Wilhelm Hegel

www.avoice-enabled.blogspot.com
www.dreamshavenoborders.blogspot.com
www.hundredandonereasons.blogspot.com

The job of the peacemaker is to stop war, to purify the world, to get it
saved from poverty and riches, to heal the sick, to comfort the sad, to wake
up those who have not yet found God, to create joy and beauty wherever you
go, to find God in everything and in everyone.

- Muriel Lester
(1884-1968)

Start Unknown Finish Unforgettable

 

On the 8^th February 2013 I was standing on the edge of water waiting to dive into a mile swim, the Mid Mar Mile, my first entry back into sports competitions in over 15 years.

On the 8^th February 2014 I was standing on the edge of a pool waiting to dive into a 50 meter sprint to qualify for the Western Province Para Swimming Team.

Yes it was exactly a year, and so many things happened in that year and it all started with a small dream to swim a mile.

How possible is it to believe for a dream or desire in your heart... I have no idea but I tell myself it is worth the risk. Dreaming big is risking big. It is putting yourself out there and pursuing something that many will see as impossible. There is no guarantee of success or failure, there is no safety net to catch you if you fall but you know what it's ok to fall. I was chatting to a friend of mine the other day and she said as long as you falling forward and not backwards.

It's like me beginning to believe that I can reach my 47 seconds in the 50 meter freestyle swim in 4 weeks; I swam it in 53.70 seconds on Saturday and the Saturday before in 55.70 seconds, 2 weeks before that I was swimming it in 60 seconds.
I have no idea if I can do it, I haven't done it yet, and taking 7 seconds off a swim is huge. But we will just keep swimming, just keep swimming and believe that in the movie “Finding Nemo” Dory knew something about keeping on swimming no matter what.

The things you do to reach for a dream. This past weekend I had to swim in a junior league gala, I was swimming with kids between ages of 7 and 12. The weekend before that I was among teenagers. These were the only official races I could do at this time to get official times for myself to qualify for the Western Province Para Swimming Team.
I had to ignore my feelings of insecurity, stupidity, DIS ability, and age, because trust me you put all those feelings into me and it becomes a bit chaotic and at some point the only thing to really keep you sane is believing God has put you in the right place at the right time and put a dream in you that comes with being vulnerable and at risk. You know picking up a dream at the age of 34 is a bit late in some ways but I think age is just a number and doesn’t matter in the end anyway as long as I get to pursue my heart.

Here is the thing that I love about swimming....as soon as I dive into the water everything around me switches off and in the water it's just me, time and a dream.

Pursuing a dream is all about the process and the stepping stones of getting there. So I have hit some stepping stones. I get to swim for the Western Province Para Swimming Team on the 31st March and 1^st April at a National Gala.

Para-swimming classification is based on a system in which functional criteria are assessed. Athletes who have different physical disabilities may compete in the same class so long as their functional impairments are similar. My disability category is S7. This profile is designated for athletes with one leg and one arm amputation on opposite sides, double leg amputations or a paralysis of one arm and one leg on the same side. Moreover, swimmers with full control over arms and trunk and some leg function can compete in this class....

And I will be swimming the 50 meter freestyle and the 800 meter freestyle. The shortest and the longest two races!!

If you haven’t seen my little video clip of the past years journey

Here's a link to "DIS abled EN abled.mov" in my Dropbox:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wmzdtpn1th8slv4/DIS%20abled%20EN%20abled.mov

 

Otherwise I leave you with this

"when you have a dream or purpose in life, it keeps you going. and just as it's never to late to start fulfilling your dream ,its also never to early. don't look for other people to validate your dreams. if it feels right, just go for it."

 

Thank you to all for the support in what ever form it has come in!!

Catherine