Rio de Janeiro: 25 degrees, warm, sunny, and slightly overcast.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are my busiest days, as I’m giving presential classes to Dona Vera in Copacabana while also trying to complete my dental treatment before travelling.
I had a one-o’clock appointment with Dr. Thomas, the dentist. I like him very much. He clearly takes pride in his work and enjoys what he does. He’s the only dentist I’ve stayed with for such a long time, so he must be very good.
Today I should have finished the treatment for three implants, all in the upper part of my mouth. I have gaping holes on each side, I have lived with for the last seven or eight years, and only now have I managed to resolve this.
The colour of the implant teeth didn’t match my teeth well enough. Doctor Thomas was not pleased with the match; the colour difference was too significant. As a result, he had to send them to be recoloured for a better match so that the laboratory could redo the teeth.
I was a bit disappointed, as I had expected to leave the clinic with a mouthful of teeth, or at least some new ones. The teeth will be recoloured and repainted in one week. One week, compared to eight years, is nothing serious and part of life. Nothing goes exactly the way we would like. Perhaps our results will always be the same, but the journey there usually differs each time.
Sometimes, what we expect and the final result are completely different and getting there is different, too. But at least we have the tenacity and the perseverance to want to finish what we began in order to get there. In life, we always have to finish what we start, even though it’s not what we expect, both in the journey and the final destination.
It is a little like reading. Sometimes we start a book and may not like the first few pages or the first chapter. Even when we persist in reading, we might not find ourselves engaged with the story, so we give up. Then perhaps we seek out another book. We begin that new one, only to discover it does not meet our expectations, and we give up again.
In hindsight, we often find we have a multitude of unread or unfinished books. I have frequently told my daughters that when you start something, you should see it through to the end. So, like a book, even if we do not enjoy the story or the writing style, we should still finish it. There is always something to learn from a book, whether we like it or not.
This is a basic rule for life: Whatever we begin, we must finish. I know many university students who began with one subject, and after two or three years, they stopped and went on to another and another and another, and now, eight years in university, they still haven’t finished.
It sounds so simple and obvious, yet many people commit this error regularly, both consciously and unconsciously. Perhaps it is because we live in a society that constantly offers immediate pleasure. With cable TV, you can switch channels instantly. With social media, you can move from one account to another instantly. Everything is immediate, and if you don’t have immediate pleasure, well, we can simply switch.
Again, we need to be self-aware to police ourselves in such situations and not be pulled into the hamster wheel of repeating the same mistakes with ourselves all the time. We must break the pattern of errors that we create for ourselves to grow, improve, and be a better person. One of those is to finish what we begin.
I did a strenuous exercise on Monday: squats. I always hurt myself doing squats. Every time I do them, the results are very good, in relation to my whole body, tightening up all the muscles, etc. But the next day, my legs are really sore and aching to the point that sometimes it is difficult to walk properly or just trying to bend down to pick something up from the floor.
So, for the whole day, I have been walking around like an old man of 90. I have heard that squatting is one of the most effective exercises, and probably because of this, the next day, I’m a mess.
Last week, I opened a new bank account. Now, I will have three cards to travel with: two credit cards and a Wise debit card. If one doesn’t work, I can use either of the others, so there should be no problems when I travel.
One of my main materialistic goals for travelling is to buy one or two cameras for content creation and some long-sleeve jumpers/pullovers, Steve Jobs style. I love these pullovers; you can wear them normally at any occasion, or, when it is cold and the weather is not so nice, wrap them around your shoulders on top of another shirt, jumper, or jacket. It is simple and stylish. The women love it.
I’m going to bed—all broken up from the day before; but no problem. I will try to exercise tomorrow morning, even if it is not how I usually do it, because I cannot stop; I have to finish.
In bed by 10.00 pm.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading this blog post. Please explore my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Richard
