Skip to main content

Life Changing Move




Extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner landed safely in the eastern New Mexico desert minutes after jumping from his capsule 128,000 feet, or 24 miles, above Earth. His free fall is said to be faster than the speed of sound.


Baumgartner, who was born in Salzburg, Austria, on April 20, 1969, believes that “Everyone has limits – but not everyone accepts them”. He has been preparing for this for five years and he has always believed that he can do it.

Shortly before leaping, in footage beamed live around the world on a crackly radio link recalling Neil Armstrong's first words on the Moon, Baumgartner had said: "Sometimes you have (to go) up really high to (understand) how small you are."

In our lives, we make life changing decisions that we can never take back. It's done and the repercussions are already there. However difficult to accept, we have to learn to live with it and move on.

Felix's phenomenal jump from outer space is a decision he had to make and despite the uncertainty of success or failure, he pushed his limits and risked his life to achieve a goal. He's blessed to have succeeded. 

In reality, it is not always the case. Success is not always there waiting for us. Painful it may seem but it's God's way of molding us to be better decision-makers.

Felix's fall was faster than the speed of sound. He is now a record holder.

Sometimes our fall because of our bad decisions is also fast and deep. They say that the higher you are in life, the lower you'll find yourself buried when you fall. That's no different from what we know in physics. But there's always a way to get back on our feet and climb again. Believe that God will always make a way.

Felix Baumgartner's feat teaches us to dream big and to have the courage to execute it. The irony of his amazing move also reminds us that sometimes, in order to succeed, we must fall!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Abdominal Epilepsy?

The other day, I encountered an uncommon medical diagnosis, abdominal epilepsy. Maybe I was absent when this was taught in med school or maybe it was mentioned but it just didn't register in my memory bank. Anyway, for those colleagues who haven't heard of this as well, here's what I found out about it, so that next time you are faced with a weird abdominal pain, you will think of abdominal epilepsy as a differential. There are many medical causes of abdominal pain; abdominal epilepsy is one of the rare causes. From a medical perspective, the term epilepsy refers not to a single disease, but to a group of symptoms with numerous causes. The common factor in all forms of epilepsy is an excessive electrical excitability of the brain. The increased excitation is called a seizure and may manifest as a partial or total loss of consciousness and muscle spasms or other involuntary movements. Many conditions can produce epilepsy. For example, a genetic predisposition is...

"Ganacity"

If there's one word that I will never forget from my AGSB experience, it's "ganacity"! A word frequently mentioned by our FinMan professor. What does it mean? It's a combination of the tagalog word "gana" (appetite, zest) and the english suffix "city" which converts an adjective word into a noun. 'Ganacity' therefore refers to one's state of desire or interest in something. I am sharing this because I feel that my 'ganacity' for what I am doing now is spiralling down, and it is so difficult to reverse it back up or just to keep it at a maintained level. It is becoming a struggle on a day to day basis. I am hoping that night and day will alternate fast so that this battle will end soon.

The Beauty of Giving

It is heartwarming to read how people are coming together to help and support all those involved in this war against the corona virus 19. Indeed, the blessing in this crisis is the transparency of people and the willingness to help those in need without a second thought. We have proven once again that we can care beyond ourselves. Hopefully though, this selflessness goes beyond the end of this pandemic. Giving sincerely is powerful not only for the heart but also for the mind and soul. It provides an intrinsic reward that’s far more valuable than the gift.   It’s ‘finding one’s self by losing it in the service of others. As we nest in the comforts of our home, let us continuously find ways to help others in even small and meaningful ways.