Challenges we set ourselves can be easy, or they can be hard. Generally speaking, the challenges that are worth setting, take us well out of our comfort zone. So what is the secret of success in such a situation?
Well speaking from my own experience, it is all about confidence and determination. My weight loss ‘regime’, if you can call it that, was set in motion through a determination to get into shape, both physically and in terms of my own self image. Now there is a further challenge, to stay that way for good.
It’s easy to put off till tomorrow, that which you should start today, and to give in today, promising that you will put things right tomorrow. Feelings like that are normal. It is our Fundamental Darkness talking us into wrong thoughts and deeds. The only weapon we have against it, and we all have those thoughts, is our determination to succeed. By imagining that our Dark Passenger, as I prefer to call it, is actually something outside ourselves, we can mentally argue our case and, through determination, change our actions.
Success is sweet, failure is bitter and the only difference between the two is determination. Any goal, no matter how large or how small, is only unattainable if you lack the determination to go on.
No cause is lost until you decide that it is lost. So ignore, or better still defeat your Fundamental Darkness, have confidence in yourself, be determined, and never, ever give up. In that way, you will always be a winner, will achieve your goals, and be forever tasting that sweet taste of success.
Four of us set off from Wimborne this morning on a fifty mile bimble around Dorset.
As I whizz around on my bike, in the lovely Dorset countryside, it seems easy for me to forget that I am in my late fifties.
As you all know by now, I’ve been on this fitness regime since May last year, and it’s been going really well. I’m keeping my weight around 12 stone and I feel terrific, but it’s so easy to get back into bad habits and undo some of the hard work.
Do you remember the day you mastered the art of riding a bicycle? Of course you do. For me, it was the culmination of a rather lengthy, and very frustrating process, and but for the perseverance of my father, I might never have learned at all.
For all I know, Daisaku Ikeda may well be a keen cyclist, but whatever his interest, these thoughts sum up exactly why we push ourselves till it hurts on an all too frequent basis …
Having cycled over 200km this weekend, much of it in glorious countryside, it really makes you appreciate the beauty of nature. 
As one who is yet to completely master the pitfalls of clip-less pedals, this wisdom from Sensei struck a resonant chord …
The Search For Enlightenment 
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