1…The response was fantastic…..
We had the second Mount Kinabalu climbers meeting and the turnout was really good. We tested the group and we were so pleased to see this group in fairly good condition. The home exercises were demonstrated and the climbers encouraged to consistently do the exercises at home. So what else did I share?
2…Friendships that may last a lifetime…..
I told the group that besides the excitement of reaching the peak, many of the climbers will become friends for life. I also told them that if they were to continue this life-style of goodness, they will see a significant change in their level of healthiness. It is a great joy to experience “great” health. Why settle for a life that the chickens live when you can be an eagle.
3…The wonderful story of renewal – the way of the eagles
Do you know that eagles pay a price. Eagles live a lifespan of about 70 years. However, they can reach this milestone only if they do something when they are at the age of around 35 to 40. This is when they must make a decision. This decision embodies the “renewal” of life.
4…The process of renewal – paying the required price
At this juncture, the eagle must decide to find a place in the craggy hills where it must spend at least 150 days. If it doesn’t spend this time in renewal, it will never live its full span of life. During the 150 days, a few things happen.
1. It’s beak has grown too long for it to be effective. It must break its beak against a rock until the old beak breaks and then it waits for the new beak to grow and strengthen. This is a painful process but it is something that must be done.
2. Once the beak is strong enough, it will use the beak to break its nails which has grown too long such that it cannot grasp its prey anymore. It will break off its nails and claws and wait for the new ones to grow. This again is a painful process and it is something that is not an option.
3. Once the new claws and nails grow, together with its new beak, it will tear off all its old feathers. The old feathers have grown too thick and heavy and it must be shed off. All the old feathers will have to go and new feathers grown. When the new feathers are all grown, the eagle is now ready to take off on its “new” flight. With the lighter and new feathers, the eagle will now fly and soar higher than it has ever done before.
5…The flight of renewal
It is the flight of renewal and its latter 30 years will be more fulfilling and enriching than its earlier 40 years. What an illustration of the process of life. Today so many people think that their aging is set in cement and when they cross the threshold of 50, they should retire and just wait for death to come. How wrong they are!!
6…You have the best years ahead of you – never look back
If we take the model of the eagle, I want to say this to those who are 40, 50, 60 and even 70 that there is much living ahead of you. You can lead still fulfilling lives of tremendous achievement if you constantly renew your life and your existence. It is a principle that resets your body clock and helps you find new horizons in your existence. You don’t need to look back because you can look forward with vigor and vibrance.
7…New qualities come….. It will make you better
I am telling you that you can climb many more mountains in your life and where you have lost out in a bit of flexibility and speed, you can more than make up for it in wisdom and strategy.
8…It’s the determination and purpose that counts
Yes, you can climb Mount Kinabalu at whatever age with whatever pains you have so long as you understand that you should always move forward with determination and purpose.
9…SEE YOU ALL AT THE TOP!!
___________________________________________________________________________________
10…Featuring climb Personalities - Sam
Today I feature Samantha, my wonderful Assistant who is helping me to organize this climb. Young and vibrant, she specializes in event and project organization. She has done many adventurous outings and she is climbing Mount Kinabalu for the second time. In her time with me, she has learnt many new skills. Today, she is also a reasonable diver and she can execute front and back somersaults with ease.
She loves the outdoors and is game for anything that requires some degree of difficulty. She loves dogs and has two of her own. Engaged to a wonderful guy, she finds the outdoors something that gives her fresh motivation on each trip.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
The climb is on....
We had the first meeting of climbers for the 4-8 April 2008 Mount Kinabalu climb and the response was great. 10 people came and together with the others who have made the commitment, we now have about 43 climbers committed. There are more who will decide shortly and the 50 places is expected to be all taken up by next week.
This is a record of sorts - usually the full climb places will only be taken up about a month before the climb. We are still 3 months before the climb and the time for preparation is more than enough.
Somehow I feel that the climb will be a great one. The last climb we did in August 2007 was a fantastic one. The comments were really complimentary and although there some small glitches, everything generally went well. We would like to make this climb equally fruitful and rewarding. The whole purpose is to get all 50 people right up to the peak
At the meeting yesterday, I made this appeal to all those present. Help me to help you to reach the summit. There was whole-hearted agreement. Mount Kinabalu will always be a personal mountain to ascend for each climber. On the trail, every effort will be personal. When you suffer in some pain, only you will know what you are going through.
The whole climb was detailed at the meeting and each stage of the journey was shared. What to bring, what to wear, what to do and what to prepare were all covered. Those of you who are reading this blog should find the same answers if you read down to the key parts.
What was highlighted was the training schedule. I said that there is much time but time as we know passes by so quickly. For those who do not need the exhortation to train, time will fly by and then the climb would have descended on us. Don't wait and say, "I have three more months..." Start now to train and you will be in fine condition to overcome every difficulty that will arise.
My challenge to the climbers is that they should prepare and condition themselves well. So I left them with two clear exercises that they should do (if possible, everyday) - 1...the step exercise (see earlier blog posts below) 2...the stomach exercises that should strengthen your back. This is training that you can do in th comfort of your house.
the other training is to atttend the training that we will call for. It is at these sessions that we will continue to share with climbers additional things about the mountain climb.
I ended by sharing with them 2 stories about past climbs.
Usually a husband and wife who makes the climb end up really loving and caring. They will wait for each other, encourage each other and help each other up. However there are exceptions. There was this seemingly loving couple who were Indians and friends of mine (I hope they don't read this) - the husband was huge and he had not trained for the climb. The wife was obviously fit and she was abounding with energy.
Right from the start she was ahead and he struggled to keep up with her. At the first shelter, I saw the first signs of problems. She seemed impatient as she waited for him to come up. As he huffed and puffed his way to that shelter, she looked at him and said, "Darhling, you arr too selow. You shudd da lissened to me and terrained with me." There was no response from the husband as he was too tired to talk.
Then at the second shelter, she waited much longer and it was only 10 minutes later that he struggled up. When he reached that shelter, she was rather irritated. She said,"Don you know that you rarrr a nudesens. You rarrr zlowing everybody and I yam tirrred of you. Your problam is you neffer neffer lisssened to me. You rarrr uzelesss!" And she walked on.
At the third shelter, it became more interesting. He took longer to come up and when he did arrive, their historical issues all came up. "I shouud not have marrried you. Why I borderrr with you, I can neffer anderstand. You are derrribal. I haf enouf of you!"
At Layang Layang where lunch is taken, the whole problem came apart when after he had recovered some energy, he shouted at her and told her to "shaaaddapp!"
After that they walked a mile apart and I understood they did not speak to each for a week afterwards. Talk about love and closeness. So husbands and wives who are climbing on this trip together, remember this story and try not to walk that same path. I still laugh aloud when I recall what happened.
the second story covers people who come expecting all the facilities to be there. One of my Senior Managers in the Bank that I worked for climbed with me. On the second morning, just as we reached that part that had a cliff on the right and another cliff downwards on the left, she turned to me and said,"Mr Ong, I have a bad stomach-ache. Are there toilet facilities that I could use as I can't stand it anymore.
I then looked up at the star-lit skies, looked right at the straight-up cliff, looked left at the sheer vertical drop into hundreds of feet and wondered how I am going to find a place for her to "unload". "Toilet", I said. "We will be lucky to find a place for you to squat. And that was what I did. finally I found a ledge that protruded out and I called her to that spot and asked her to do it there.
Then she said, "Can you please fgo a little further?" Which was what I did. After long moments of silence, she said,"I can't do it, Mr Ong." I said "What?" I was incredulous. Just a while ago she said that it was all coming out. Now she says that it cannot come out. I couldn't understand. "Why?" I said.
In a sheepish voice, she said that there were little prickly things poking at her bottom. So at 3-30 in the morning, I told her to wear back her four layers of bottoms and there I was; "Plucking grass and clearing the spots of weeds for her." I told her I don't even do this for my mother.
Then she went back to the spot and in no time at all, I heard some really loud explosive sounds and everything came out. "Full of shit, eh," I said.
More next posting!
Tee Chee Keong
Wong Huey Min
Lee Choy Cheng
Cheng Wai Cheong
Ho Kim Faa
Chee Yan Soon
Leny Painan
Chia Eng Huat
Julius Cheah
Grace Ngoo
This is a record of sorts - usually the full climb places will only be taken up about a month before the climb. We are still 3 months before the climb and the time for preparation is more than enough.
Somehow I feel that the climb will be a great one. The last climb we did in August 2007 was a fantastic one. The comments were really complimentary and although there some small glitches, everything generally went well. We would like to make this climb equally fruitful and rewarding. The whole purpose is to get all 50 people right up to the peak
At the meeting yesterday, I made this appeal to all those present. Help me to help you to reach the summit. There was whole-hearted agreement. Mount Kinabalu will always be a personal mountain to ascend for each climber. On the trail, every effort will be personal. When you suffer in some pain, only you will know what you are going through.
The whole climb was detailed at the meeting and each stage of the journey was shared. What to bring, what to wear, what to do and what to prepare were all covered. Those of you who are reading this blog should find the same answers if you read down to the key parts.
What was highlighted was the training schedule. I said that there is much time but time as we know passes by so quickly. For those who do not need the exhortation to train, time will fly by and then the climb would have descended on us. Don't wait and say, "I have three more months..." Start now to train and you will be in fine condition to overcome every difficulty that will arise.
My challenge to the climbers is that they should prepare and condition themselves well. So I left them with two clear exercises that they should do (if possible, everyday) - 1...the step exercise (see earlier blog posts below) 2...the stomach exercises that should strengthen your back. This is training that you can do in th comfort of your house.
the other training is to atttend the training that we will call for. It is at these sessions that we will continue to share with climbers additional things about the mountain climb.
I ended by sharing with them 2 stories about past climbs.
Usually a husband and wife who makes the climb end up really loving and caring. They will wait for each other, encourage each other and help each other up. However there are exceptions. There was this seemingly loving couple who were Indians and friends of mine (I hope they don't read this) - the husband was huge and he had not trained for the climb. The wife was obviously fit and she was abounding with energy.
Right from the start she was ahead and he struggled to keep up with her. At the first shelter, I saw the first signs of problems. She seemed impatient as she waited for him to come up. As he huffed and puffed his way to that shelter, she looked at him and said, "Darhling, you arr too selow. You shudd da lissened to me and terrained with me." There was no response from the husband as he was too tired to talk.
Then at the second shelter, she waited much longer and it was only 10 minutes later that he struggled up. When he reached that shelter, she was rather irritated. She said,"Don you know that you rarrr a nudesens. You rarrr zlowing everybody and I yam tirrred of you. Your problam is you neffer neffer lisssened to me. You rarrr uzelesss!" And she walked on.
At the third shelter, it became more interesting. He took longer to come up and when he did arrive, their historical issues all came up. "I shouud not have marrried you. Why I borderrr with you, I can neffer anderstand. You are derrribal. I haf enouf of you!"
At Layang Layang where lunch is taken, the whole problem came apart when after he had recovered some energy, he shouted at her and told her to "shaaaddapp!"
After that they walked a mile apart and I understood they did not speak to each for a week afterwards. Talk about love and closeness. So husbands and wives who are climbing on this trip together, remember this story and try not to walk that same path. I still laugh aloud when I recall what happened.
the second story covers people who come expecting all the facilities to be there. One of my Senior Managers in the Bank that I worked for climbed with me. On the second morning, just as we reached that part that had a cliff on the right and another cliff downwards on the left, she turned to me and said,"Mr Ong, I have a bad stomach-ache. Are there toilet facilities that I could use as I can't stand it anymore.
I then looked up at the star-lit skies, looked right at the straight-up cliff, looked left at the sheer vertical drop into hundreds of feet and wondered how I am going to find a place for her to "unload". "Toilet", I said. "We will be lucky to find a place for you to squat. And that was what I did. finally I found a ledge that protruded out and I called her to that spot and asked her to do it there.
Then she said, "Can you please fgo a little further?" Which was what I did. After long moments of silence, she said,"I can't do it, Mr Ong." I said "What?" I was incredulous. Just a while ago she said that it was all coming out. Now she says that it cannot come out. I couldn't understand. "Why?" I said.
In a sheepish voice, she said that there were little prickly things poking at her bottom. So at 3-30 in the morning, I told her to wear back her four layers of bottoms and there I was; "Plucking grass and clearing the spots of weeds for her." I told her I don't even do this for my mother.
Then she went back to the spot and in no time at all, I heard some really loud explosive sounds and everything came out. "Full of shit, eh," I said.
More next posting!
Tee Chee Keong
Wong Huey Min
Lee Choy Cheng
Cheng Wai Cheong
Ho Kim Faa
Chee Yan Soon
Leny Painan
Chia Eng Huat
Julius Cheah
Grace Ngoo
Sunday, January 6, 2008
IT'S ALL IN THE DECISION
DOING SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY IS MUCH SIMPLER THAN YOU THINK.....
When you want to do something different in your life or if you want to do something extraordinary, it's actually much simpler than you think! All you need to do is to decide. There is great power in the act of making the decision. Time and again, I have found that if I am willing to make a decision, things actually will fall into place.
CLIMBING MOUNT KINABALU EAST
Mount Kinabalu East is a serious mountain climb where you have to use ropes and ladders to make the climb. The trail follows the same West trail (where most people make their climb) until you trek past Gunting Lagadan and almost hit the ropes. That's when you turn right and trek down past some waterways and ravines. Then it is a straight-up climb which stretches for almost 2,000 feet.
NEVER THOUGHT I COULD DO IT
Although I love adventure, I am not an out-and-out Adventurer. When the suggestion of climbing Mount Kinabalu East came to me, I dismissed the thought thinking it was crazy for me to consider it. Still, the thought won't go away and it became a small obsession for me. "What if I trained hard for the climb; what if I did regular work-outs to build my strength; what if I focussed on getting assistance on rock-climbing techniques" were some of the thoughts that stayed. The "What ifs" came fast and frequent. if I had dwelled on the what ifs, I would probably have never climbed Mount Kinabalu East.
JUST MAKE UP THE MIND.....
As with every other major undertaking I have taken on in my life, I knew I had to just make a decision. And that's what I did!!! I told everyone I knew that I was going to climb Mount Kinabalu East. It was a blind and crazy decision and that's how it was done. I JUST MADE THE DECISION!
EVERYTHING ELSE FOLLOWS THE DECISION
Everything else did follow the decision and the plans started taking form and format. Even though the planned trip was 6 months away, I started moving. The plans, the preparation, the training, the focus, the determination all came together. The excitement soon followed and although there were plenty of doubts, there was no turning back
AND THERE WILL BE DOUBTS.....
Everytime, we make a decision to do something that seems somewhat crazy, there will be plenty of doubts that will follow us. I had my fair share of doubts but because there was now also purpose in the whole scheme of things, every doubt I had was quickly dealth with. As the vision of reaching Mount Kinabalu East grew stronger, the resolve and the dedication grew bigger.
THAT'S WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT.... WILLINGNESS TO PAY THE PRICE FOR EXCELLENCE
Success is all about making clear commitments and then when the decision has been made, we should be willig to pay the price required for that success. Those of you who have made that decision to climb Mount Kinabalu with me will understand what I am talking about (after the climb has been made). I have no doubts that all of you will make the climb successfully!!! The lessons for life that we will learn will help fortify us for the future. WE will learn that with faith, hope, courage and resolve, we will be able to tackle most things that come our way.
When you want to do something different in your life or if you want to do something extraordinary, it's actually much simpler than you think! All you need to do is to decide. There is great power in the act of making the decision. Time and again, I have found that if I am willing to make a decision, things actually will fall into place.
CLIMBING MOUNT KINABALU EAST
Mount Kinabalu East is a serious mountain climb where you have to use ropes and ladders to make the climb. The trail follows the same West trail (where most people make their climb) until you trek past Gunting Lagadan and almost hit the ropes. That's when you turn right and trek down past some waterways and ravines. Then it is a straight-up climb which stretches for almost 2,000 feet.
NEVER THOUGHT I COULD DO IT
Although I love adventure, I am not an out-and-out Adventurer. When the suggestion of climbing Mount Kinabalu East came to me, I dismissed the thought thinking it was crazy for me to consider it. Still, the thought won't go away and it became a small obsession for me. "What if I trained hard for the climb; what if I did regular work-outs to build my strength; what if I focussed on getting assistance on rock-climbing techniques" were some of the thoughts that stayed. The "What ifs" came fast and frequent. if I had dwelled on the what ifs, I would probably have never climbed Mount Kinabalu East.
JUST MAKE UP THE MIND.....
As with every other major undertaking I have taken on in my life, I knew I had to just make a decision. And that's what I did!!! I told everyone I knew that I was going to climb Mount Kinabalu East. It was a blind and crazy decision and that's how it was done. I JUST MADE THE DECISION!
EVERYTHING ELSE FOLLOWS THE DECISION
Everything else did follow the decision and the plans started taking form and format. Even though the planned trip was 6 months away, I started moving. The plans, the preparation, the training, the focus, the determination all came together. The excitement soon followed and although there were plenty of doubts, there was no turning back
AND THERE WILL BE DOUBTS.....
Everytime, we make a decision to do something that seems somewhat crazy, there will be plenty of doubts that will follow us. I had my fair share of doubts but because there was now also purpose in the whole scheme of things, every doubt I had was quickly dealth with. As the vision of reaching Mount Kinabalu East grew stronger, the resolve and the dedication grew bigger.
THAT'S WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT.... WILLINGNESS TO PAY THE PRICE FOR EXCELLENCE
Success is all about making clear commitments and then when the decision has been made, we should be willig to pay the price required for that success. Those of you who have made that decision to climb Mount Kinabalu with me will understand what I am talking about (after the climb has been made). I have no doubts that all of you will make the climb successfully!!! The lessons for life that we will learn will help fortify us for the future. WE will learn that with faith, hope, courage and resolve, we will be able to tackle most things that come our way.
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