When you choose to live the THPL life you do so at your own peril. It is when we push to our own limits of what we think it possible that we then have to live with the issues that come from it. Now, to be clear, for all of us on the THPL journey, many of the so-called “”issues”” we face are “high class” problems. They are the result of too many good things, not usually anything else. That stated, we are human after all, and there are times when the “push to the limit” feels more “rough” than other times. My most recent 48 hours are just an example of how THPL can play out.
I left Chochin, India, and flew to Abu Dhabi, from there to London (and looking back it would have been a good idea to sleep on one of those flights). Upon arrival at Heathrow I rented a car, drove 100 miles north and within five minutes of my arrival jumped right into the amped up version of the Tough Mudder, called the Rat Race. 20 miles, 200 obstacles, a lot of mud, and a nice stiff wind greeted us. Seven hours, later the race was completed and I got back in the car to head to London. My two hour drive turned into four because the M25 was closed. Arriving at the hotel late (now 11 pm) was problematic as they decided to give my room away. Two more hours later I was finally moved to another hotel back at the airport and summarily “passed out”.
Throughout the process it was a series of decisions to live “bigger” that caused a bit of strain and with this the potential for these issues to crop up along the way. But even after all of them I realized I would rather live the THPL life and with it the “issues” that I encountered. A bit less sleep, lost time and some frustration were good tradeoffs for experiencing life more fully, in this case literally crawling through the mud. Life does not always have to be pretty but it has to always be fully engaged. And today was a reminder that THPL is a great framework for making choices to push the limits and it the way that our life stories are written and fulfillment is satisfied.
Loving life, crawling through the mud