Life is short - JUST DO IT

Read the news this morning that a 29-year-old PE teacher died of heart attack after his regular jog. Apparently after finishing his 10-run around his estate, he suddenly fainted and went into convulsions. He was brought to Tan Tock Seng Hospital where he died. A post mortem confirmed he had heart attack. In April, a 26-year-old IT analyst died during a lunch-hour workout in a gym.

Whenever I read such news, it always brings to mind how fragile our lives can be. No one knows exactly when we would go. Only God knows. While it is true that there seem to be things like we can do to take care of ourselves, like eating, sleeping and exercising right, we do know that some of the healthier and fitter ones are not "spared". One of my classmates died while swimming out at sea in Australia this year. The waves were too strong for him, even though he was a strong swimmer. Another classmate passed away years ago just after we left university, from leukemia.

But yet, all is not lost. There is no need to be pessimistic about the whole issue. Lets pick ourselves up and move on. With ups and downs, our lives become exciting. Imagine everything is the same throughout our lives. I was telling some friends to imagine if our lives were liken to batteries. When the battery power runs out, it is dead, and so would the human, just that perhaps we have a longer battery life. Hey, but how about rechargeable batteries? Well, in some ways we are already behaving like rechargeable batteries. These batteries also have a life span. When the power runs low, we recharge, much like when we sleep or try to recover from an illness. Then we are up and running again, till the next recharge, or when the life span is up.

Many a times we talk about the process being more important than the result itself. So while we are still alive and kicking, lets make best use of our time here on earth. I remembered sending out a mail to some friends telling them about my friend who drowned at sea. My question to them was "Life is short and sometimes our decisions/actions may result in something undesirable. So is this contrary to the 'Just Do It' attitude???????" I received varying replies but one message was clear though. "Every decision involves a risk. Will you regret if you give up the chance to try?" "Since life is short, why think so much now when we might regret later that we did not do it, provided you are able to assess the risk involved...."

For me, I assess the risk involved in almost everything I do. My risk threshold will usually depend on my physical and mental condition at that moment. But I must admit that sometimes my threshold gets way too high . I once swam far out to sea against the big waves in Hawaii, in order to overcome the fear of the sea. I plunged into the cold fast flowing Dart River while in New Zealand, and sat on the bridge above the Kawarau River to watch other people peform their bungy jumping stunts. Yes, these were some of the risky things I have done before, and God has been merciful to allow me to return safely from each risky (or stupid to some) thing that I do.

So if you ask if I would do any of those crazy things again, I guess my answer would still be a YES. Sometimes we do things in order to show that we dare, or to impress or to prove something. For me most of the time, I do it because I simply want to. So "JUST DO IT"!