I have to admit that this year was not what I expected for
it to be.....
This challenge of many challenges was difficult, more mental
than physical. My roller coaster life did not lend well to this year’s “team
challenge”. To be a part of a team, I needed to be with the team. I had a great
team that tried to assure me on many occasions that I was around in spirit,
which was great to hear, but still I found it hard within to feel like I was
part of the team or that I had a part within the team.
While working in Brooks for the summer I joined another challenge
to help keep myself engaged within another team atmosphere. The challenge was
called the GCC (Global Corporate Challenge); it was a swim, run, walk, jog
challenge with a set daily distance of 10km/ day for about 3 months. The great thing
about this challenge is that my GCC team was within the office that I worked
out of; what this did was not only keep me engaged on this challenge but made
me even more aware of what I was missing while away from the kwoon. It made
things flow in a forward direction but didn’t really assist with what I was
missing with my I Ho Chuan team. Being away from the team was not easy!
Another challenge that I committed to early in the year was
the “Canadian Death Race”; the GCC and the Death Race worked well together for
me, because they complimented one another and definitely kept me up on my
cardio and kilometers. Rest had been lacking most days with the long hours at
work plus the evenings of running; if I hadn’t been a self motivated individual
these two challenges would have been a complete wipe out. But they weren’t, I
completed the GCC with a daily average which was well above the expected and
the Death Race was a blast, which our team completed and had the most awesome
time.
About a third of the way through the I Ho Chuan challenge, I
began to wonder where this challenge was going to take me. Mentally I was
beginning to deteriorate...I felt the pressure from every direction to be who
and what I’ve always been at the kwoon; I felt the pressure of not being a team
player, let’s face it this was a long distance affair that I really had no
control over. I had committed myself to a team event and had not thought the
whole process through....it just couldn’t all work the way I wanted it to.
I must say the year was not a total failure, I accomplished
a lot. I worked 65% of my year out of town (4-5.5 hours from home and my team).
I completed a large number of my goals but not all, even though on paper this
year was a failure, I did not quit and my team remained true to me. I had a lot
of support, which to be quite honest played a huge part in the success that I
had this year.
This annual test has really been no different than the last
10 plus years that I have been with SRKF. I have always been faced with extreme
challenges through my career and personal prioritization, but what made this
year different was the fact that it not only involved a team outcome; a team
outcome which depended on the participation of the majority of the team.... but
a grading year which involved a lot more than I could humanly make happen. There were definitely times of discouragement through
this test, but also moments of glory. In those moments of glory, I look back,
and see how my sweat and dedication paid off.
I consider my personal journey to be one of abnormality and
extraordinary direction. Knowing what I put myself through this year, with the
challenges and my earned accomplishments, I feel pretty good. The ball had been
dropped, but I picked the darn thing up many times and didn’t quit. This was
year number three for me and I won’t lie, my results each year were relatively
the same. I gave those years all that I had left to spare. My life will carry
on with the same determination and goal setting that I have put in place
through these tests.
All the best to the snake team! If there is anything that I can assist with I
would be glad to.
Darcy Regier
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