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Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon had once again ended with a big BANG!! This year, they had about 50,000 runners running for them. Wow, can you image 50,000 people, the event has really  become one of the biggest running event in Singapore. How I wished I was one of the 50,000 runners on that Sunday.

Well, theoretically, I’m one of the 50,000 as i had already registered myself for the event many months ago, but on the other hand, I am not one of them and that;s because, once again I didn’t went for the run!!!

Ergh!!! that the 3rd time that I had signed up for a marathon and again I didn’t get to participant in it!!! To be frank, I’m quite angry about the whole situation, but at the same time I know that It can’t be help that I have to give it a miss again!!

Well, a man got to do what a man got to do, I really had to give it a miss this time as I was sick once again. I had been having this sickening cough for the past 7 days and at this point of the blog entry I’m still coughing. I had been looking forward for the marathon this year, as for the past few years I had missd it and it’s been 3 years since I told myself that I will finish a marathon. Time and time again, things will happened in the last min and I had yet to complete one marathon, once was due to job assignment the other two time which includes this year is due to sickness.

But this year, I really want to participant so much, that it was only at 3am on Sunday morning that I told myself that I should once again to drop the idea to run.  The main reason is that I really need to be responsible. Why? it is because, being responsible is not only for my own health, but also to be responsible to other people who cares for me.

A few days before the marathon, I had many people around me telling not to go as I was still coughing badly, and that includes my friends, my colleagues, my boss and most importantly my family members.

At first, I still want to go, but as the date gets nearer, and more people telling me not to go, even to the point at 3am in the morning!! There were a SMS asking me “”Hey! Are you sure you still want to go, If you are still coughing, better not go, dun be stubborn, is 42km man, and there’s always another marathon but there’s only one Jones!”  that was when that I started to realise that “Hey, what am I doing? how come I’m so stubborn that even I’m sick I still want to go for the marathon, can’t I see that because of my stubborn, I have put so many people in a worrying situation, How can I be so irresponsible.”

It was that thought that came to me that made me decided to give the marathon a miss. Althought, it still feels like a miss opportunity but then again this miss opportunity had made me realised that there are many people around me that cares for me, and I learnt that I should be more responsible, not only to them but also to myself to live well and rest well so that these people will not worry for me again. Thank you all for all the care and concern. I promised next time that I will only participant in the marathon only when I’m fully fit and not when I still nursing my cough so that, all of you will be supporting for me rather then worrying for me…..I promised!  

The title of this post was a quote said to me by one of my participants in a recent training camp. He said that, the statement just came to his mind when he was thinking how to summarise his learning from the camp. Kudos to him, as for me, this quote “Fate, doesn’t lies in the stars but it lies in you. You choose your Fate, nobody but you” really struck me big time!!

It just make me realised that whatever you do or where ever you are now has little to do with Fate but it got everything that is to do with yourself. Where you are or what you are today is hugely due to the choices you had made in life and it had nothing to do with Fate… just use my current situation as an example, it is not Fate that make me working as a trainer now, it is not fate that brought me a degree, it is not Fate that fails my business venture and it is not Fate that I am who I am today.

It is me, myself that make who i am today, Why?  this is because, at certain and different points in my life, I had decided to make a choice and made a decision and stick to it. Regardless, the results of the choice is positive or negative, I am the one that create my own results and I will be responsible for it .

When we are talking about choices we are always talking about options too, in any situations, there are plenty of choices and options , however, the challenge is, are we able to see them or not.

Many of time, people fails to be aware that they are the one who got themselves into certain situations, hence they seldom will take responsibility to their own life… and more often than not, they will push everything to the Fate, saying things like.. “this is destiny,i can’t change it, i’m fated to be like that” etc, etc.

Guess what, for people who always says those above-mentioned statements, things will never going to change for them, and that’s because they had leave everything to Fate, there is no need for them to take any form of action because they believed that whatever is going to happen to them is due their Fate! And not long from now, they will also forget that they actually can have choices to make a difference to their own life.

The good thing now is that I’m aware that I have not allow myself to let fate to decide who am I and what am I, I’m really happy to understand that where am I today is largely due to my choices that I had made in the past. I will not blame Fate for my downfalls,nor will I use Fate as an excuse if things are not moving smoothly for me.

I’m so glad that I have the awareness that indeed “Fate, doesn’t lies in the stars but it lies in you”, and because of that, I am able to be more clear of what I want and what are the choices and options available to me.

Now is really the time to take responsibility and ownership of my own life, so that I can design my Fate and not let Fate design me.