DO OR DIE
Having the strength to leave a fun environment, to then embark on an arduous 3hr bus replacement journey back home from Brighton at 6am after having no sleep - to sit in a hot classroom for 5 hours and try to learn with a foggy hangover - all felt pretty tortuous this morning.
Most would think this was a nightmare endurance feat. A lot would likely not do it and even if they did, would struggle to get themselves back on track for days after. Yet here I am back on the train, ready for the next two nights of drunken debauchary and actually feeling ok.
I'd made a commitment to take on a massive 4 day stag-do with my first yoga instructor lesson falling slap bang in the middle. The timing for these two opposing events couldn't have been any worse but I'd made a commitment to myself to get the best of both worlds. I couldn't let down my yoga teacher or my best mate. I'd also be letting myself down and I couldn't live with that so I opted for a day of struggle instead. It was tough, but there are far tougher challenges in the world. All it took for me to accomplish this feat, was to keep a can-do mindset.
Marathon Monks
The Marathon Monks have a very real life or death commitment to keep. They need to stick with their decision to take the challenge of running the equivalent of about 1000 marathons over seven years. Because they either complete the arduous challenge which escalates their status to that of a supreme enlightened guru - or they must take their own life if they fail.
So what does it teach us about commitment? Most of our decisions are hardly life and death matters but if they matter that much, then we need to stick to them. And if it means enduring a few hours schlepping across country on our poor public transport services or getting through a day or two of feeling ropey, one needs to think of these monks running marathons daily and how easy we have everything in relation to all those who have hardships daily in their lives.
