I recently met up with a friend to celebrate her birthday. After quite a lot of deliberation, we settled for dinner in a lovely Thai restaurant overlooking the docks in East London. The restaurant had excellent reviews and the ambience was welcoming and cozy. It  was the perfect spot for a lovely Friday evening in summer.


The celebrant had offered me a ride to the restaurant, which I joyfully accepted. We set off much later than planned and my friend drove in a haste. We missed a few turns here and there, due to our impatience. One of those missed turns was a major one that took us from the East to the South in seconds.


We drove for over a mile before arriving at a U-turn. As we turned, I noticed some parked cars by the side of the road. My friend suddenly stopped behind one of them. After waiting for about 5 mins, I gave in and asked, “Why are we waiting here?” Her response took me by surprise, “We are waiting for the cars in front of us to drive off.” I informed her that the cars were parked and empty. We drove off laughing about it. Though I teased her about it all through dinner; who waits behind a parked car on a bright summer evening – No Excuses.


As I reflected on the events later that evening, I couldn’t help but ponder on the similarity with my friend stopping behind a parked vehicle and people stopping whilst on their way to reaching their dreams. We embark on projects, set “new year resolutions” and stop abruptly. Often times the reasons are justifiable to us, because we see what seem to symbolise a stop sign. 


You may have read about the famous electricity bulb inventor, Thomas Edison. Well, contrary to popular belief, he did not invent the electrical light bulbs. It had been in existence for many years. Many other inventors had worked on prototypes to make it cheaper. Mr Edison however wanted to make electricity so cheap that only the rich would burn candles. He attempted this over 1000 times before he finally got his desired result. Even when his peers gave up, he carried on.


Often times we need to do an assessment of our abandoned projects. Doing this will give us an insight into why some things went in the right direction whilst others went pear shaped.

Set your sail and carry on if you are intentional about achieving your goals.

 

“And Jehovah answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.” – Habakkuk 2 vs 2

#carryon #dontstop #whydidyoustop #keeponatit #keepmoving #dontparkhere #nevergiveup #notgivinguponanydream #focused #visions #lifeslessons #birthdays #friendship #thomasedison #thaifood