Sometimes you have to Change Plans to reach your Goals
I have found that sometimes it is necessary to change plans in order to meet my goals. In fact all my goals seem to have been arrived at using a different path then I originally anticipated. This is not such a bad thing because if life was too predictable it would get boring fast. The trick is to stay adaptable and be able to tell the difference between a change of plan that is needed and one that is just an excuse to give up. The ability to tell between these two reasons is important because otherwise I could end up spending a long time on the wrong path or never reach the goal because I kept changing direction.
I recently posted about my hopes to one day fight Muay Thai here in Thailand even though I’m now middle-aged. In order to reach this goal I have set some targets for myself and made a few plans; I want to make sure that I’m in good physical condition before going anywhere near a Muay Thai gym. Part of my plan was to go cycling every day, but this turned out to be harder than I expected due to a few recent run-ins with the local dog population (see my previous entry here). I have grown to really enjoy these daily outings, for the most part, but the dog problem is something I’m finding hard to deal with. I don’t want to go around kicking dogs, or hitting them with sticks, but that seems to be the only way to deal with them if you want to regularly ride a bike here. It has gotten so that I dread going out on the bike. I have never had any problems with dogs before, but for some reason I just feel more vulnerable on a bike.
Now I probably could go on with these daily cycles and view it as some type of test; beating my fear of these K9s. I don’t need to do this though. To reach my goal it is not necessary for me to ride the bike every day. I still plan to ride it occasionally but not as part of my fitness regime; my wife would not be impressed if this was another thing that I just allowed to gather dust. Other parts of my plan are going well and I’m skipping and working out on the punch bag six days a week; I’m also using some aerobic DVDs. I’m moving towards my goal but not the way I originally planned – not too much of a problem.
I sometimes can be a bit hard on myself but changing plans goes with the territory. I tell myself that as long as I’m moving towards the original goal that’s the main thing. If I was to abandon the goal altogether well that would be a different story; cycling a bike everyday was never my goal though.
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Hi to a fellow traveler.
I’m also a wheelchair user, and have had similar experiences with dogs. The solution I have found is to carry a shanghai (thai slingshot). Never have to actually fire it, dogs here know (from experience?) what it is, and become quite respectful if it is aimed at them. Funny, that!