actions speak louder than words...

This past week I went to visit Beijing and naturally one of the things on my to do list was to climb the Great Wall. I did not want to go to the tourist infested part so I chose a hike that went to a not so popular part of the wall and on arrival I was like WOW! This is crazy, what was I thinking! I mean you know the Great Wall is steep but until you get there, you don’t really know. I was faced with this big challenge and it looked tough. I’m not a sporty chick. I mean I can do the 15minute Taebo workout from the Billy Banks home videos but that’s about it. As I stood there looking at the wall that stands 70 degrees steep, I realised in that moment that it is so easy to say you have a dream but it is another thing to actually do something about accomplishing that dream. I finally understood the meaning of actions speak louder than words. Talk is talk and talk is very cheap, it is in actions that dreams are realized.

First I’ll give you a description of the hike and then the illustration will come after.

Description of the hike
One of the things I love about myself is that I enjoy challenges and I at least want to give things a try. As overwhelming as it was I told myself, you are already here and so just get on with it. The start was rough I don’t want to lie. I quickly realised how unfit I was. So, as you know the Great Wall extends for thousands of kilometres but this hike was a10km one and in total there were six towers on the hike. The goal was to get to the sixth tower. To get to the first tower alone was painful for me. By the time I got there I was panting like a dog and I had all sorts of pain in my body. I started thinking, “Should I just forget about it. I mean I have seen the wall; it’s more than most people in the world get to do. Do I have to climb 10kms on it too?” Then something in me just said, “C’mon Fadzi, keep going, I bet you can do it”. So I listened to my inner voice and I kept going; much slower than most people. I would look ahead and see all these people at even greater heights and at first I was like “I can’t do that, these people are crazy, they probably just eat salad, work out 2hours everyday and do this kind of thing for a living, how could I even catch up to them”. Then I decided to change perspective and use the people ahead as targets. So I would tell myself my next target is to get where that guy is. And of course when I got there he had moved on and I would use his new position as a new target. When I got to the second tower I took a break. It had been really tough to get there but looking back and seeing the wall behind me I was like “Hey! Look how far I’ve come!” That inspired me. So I kept moving. Some people just looked at the beautiful view and turned back. Getting to the third tower did not feel as difficult as getting to the second one had felt. The wall got steeper and steeper and one had to watch where they step because some of the stones were out of place and a misstep could lead to a devastating fall. I kept telling myself when I felt like giving up that I could do it and I went all the way to the sixth tower. I did it! I felt so proud of myself.
The view from the wall is spectacular; you can see part of the wall just stretching out into the mountains in a distance. The air is so fresh and there is this silence in the mountains that forces you to be at peace with all that is around you. Time stands still when you are on the top taking in the amazing scenery around you. Nothing matters, there are no problems. You just look around and witness the intelligence of all nature, how it seems to be in sync always. You hear the birds chirping and you see the blossoms from the trees blooming. It makes you wonder how nature just is what it is, flowers don’t try to bloom they just bloom, trees and grass don’t try to grow, they just grow. I was in awe of that intelligence because it reminded me how as human beings we tend to try too hard to be, instead of just being what we are. We tend to talk too much and do very little. If only we could be more like nature, speak less and act more.
Getting back down was also a challenge, gravity just pushes you into a jog because of the steepness of the wall and so one has to be careful not to slip and go tumbling down. I was very happy to have gone on the hike. Granted the next day walking around felt like my legs had turned into big wet logs, they were sore and heavy but it had been worth it.

Illustration
While I was looking back on my trip I realised that I could relate it to our lives in the following way-:

1. Goal - To climb the Great Wall when in Beijing: We all have aspirations in life. There are things that we desire to accomplish and we get excited just thinking about them. We talk about how if we had the opportunity we would do A, B, C and D. It’s great to have goals. They give life meaning and purpose. They get us excited about life and we spend our days planning how we could possibly achieve our goals. Almost everyone I know has goals and talks about them with excitement, but many of us just talk about our dreams but never do anything to achieve them. A dream only talked about and never worked towards, is a dream unfulfilled.

2. Arrival at the wall and getting the true picture of what it really means to climb the Great Wall: Those of us who decide to do more than talk about our dreams get opportunities in life to go ahead and start working on them. It is only then that we realise how much work it really is to accomplish goals. It is not a walk in the park. It seems overwhelming and if we are feint hearted, this is where we stop trying. When I arrived at the wall and realised how steep it really was I was scared. It overwhelmed me and I wondered if I was crazy enough to even give it a go. It’s the same with all the other dreams we have. We size up the task and when see how overwhelming it is we may get so discouraged that we don’t even give it a try. We come up with all sorts of excuses such as “I’m not that fit”, or “no one in my family/neighbourhood has ever gotten the chance to get this far” or “my kind of people just don’t do this sort of thing.” We turn back because we are afraid of the overwhelming challenge ahead of us. We watch others start to climb the wall and we decide to just get back to the way we are used to doing life. Another dream goes unfulfilled.

3. Climbing to the second tower: Then there are those of us who will start to climb the wall no matter how overwhelming it seems. We take the first few kilometres and they are so very difficult to climb because everything in the body is in pain trying to do this new difficult task. It feels like you have stepped into the unknown and it was a lot more difficult than you had anticipated. You tend to ask yourself a lot of questions during this phase because you are full of self doubt on whether you are good enough to accomplish anything. Many of us also walk back at this phase. We tell ourselves, “It’s impossible!” so we walk back down to the lives we lead before. Another dream goes unfulfilled.

Then there are those of us who make it through all the self doubt, who persevere and get to the second tower. We look at how far we have come and realise that dreams can come true. We are filled with inspiration and want to keep going. The dream starts to take shape for those of us who keep moving towards it even though we may face big obstacles along the way.

4. Getting to the third tower: As I was going to the third tower I noted that the steepness of the wall was no longer a shock to my system. I actually anticipated that it would get steeper and so I was more mentally prepared for a big challenge and that made it easier to overcome. It was at this point that I also started to appreciate the scenery around me. This happens to many of us. Once we get over that initial shock of how much work we have to put into our goals, we know what to expect and so we become more prepared to work harder. Surprisingly at this stage, it does not feel so hard and we start to appreciate the perks that come with the accomplishments we have made thus far. In the same way that I started to appreciate the scenery around me at this stage, many people start to appreciate that they have reached a good place in their lives but to see even better results they understand they have to climb even higher. It was here that I understood the statement, “To him who has more even more shall be given.” Have you ever noticed that people who do well in life just keep getting better and better? It was like that when I climbed the wall, the first few kilometres were difficult but once I knew what to expect, the hike got easier even though the wall got steeper. Once you start to exercise your talents and start to accomplish your dreams, I guarantee you more and more doors will be opened for you to get even better.

5. Don't hate the player, hate the game: Many times when we see other people doing better than us we have a tendency to hate their success. When I first looked at the people ahead of me on the wall, I was jealous. I was like, “I bet they work out all the time and I can’t do what they do”. But they were just regular people like you and me. You may have heard people say, “Oh that person is so arrogant they think they are better than everyone else because they have achieved this and that”. Only to find out that no, that person is not arrogant, they are just focused on their goal and they work hard towards it. Instead of comparing yourself to them, have them inspire you to do better. My grandmother always tells me to admire people who are doing great instead of despise them. Look to see what it is they do so well that allows them to have such discipline to stay on task. If you find it, have it inspire you to do better on your own path. It took me changing perspective to actually be able to climb the wall. I told myself I would use the people ahead as inspiration, if I could get where they were, that would be sweet. And as I reached the sixth tower, some of them were on their way back. They didn’t look down on me because I was behind, they didn’t act as if they were better than me because they had reached the top before me. They cheered me on! They were like, “Don’t give up now, you are almost there, the view gets even better at the top; keep going”.
We don’t make it to the top on our own. We have many people around us to help inspire us to achieve greatness. Instead of comparing ourselves to them lets have them encourage us to overcome challenges. Don’t hate the player, hate the game!

6. Getting to the sixth tower: When I got to the top I was so proud of myself. I had done it! I had overcome giving up, I overcame being jealous of others ahead of me, I overcame being overwhelmed and I made it to the top. It was beautiful. The impossible had become possible. Isn’t it the best when you finally reach your goal? To look and see how far you have come. To reap the rewards of all the hard work you put into it. You didn’t just talk the talk, you walked the walk. You won’t just say, “I went to the Great Wall”, you will say, “I climbed 10km on the Great Wall.”

I hope this inspires you to talk less and act more towards whatever it is you have on your heart to accomplish. Whatever phase of life described above you may find yourself at, you have it in you to turn things around for the better. Don’t just be a talker, be a doer, and be an achiever of dreams. Don’t give up! Behind all the hard work, behind all the doubt, behind all the confusion, behind all the pain, behind all the chaos, behind all the mess is victory and it is sweet and it is waiting for you to take it. You too can get to the top. Stop talking, start ACTING!

Be Blessed,
with love…fadzi