Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

How many goals do we have... ?

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Lakshmi Kothaneth  -


lakshmiobserver@gmail.com -


Are we able to identify and set goals for ourselves? There are people who master this talent. If it is easy to set a goal, that is short term but imagine you have been selected for a challenge and you have two years to prepare for it.


That is what Anisa al Raisi did when she was selected in 2016 for all-female, cross-cultural, Euro-Arabian expedition to the North Pole. By April 2018 she became the first Omani to ski to the North Pole.


Every day she trained for three hours. If the gym training could give her strength to the body muscles, and yoga the flexibility, there was something that would still surprise her when she actually skied to the North Pole.


But I just could not imagine how it must have been to sustain the focus for two years and stay not being distracted as well as being engulfed in self-doubts.


How many of us would choose a physical challenge? How many of us take membership at fitness centres and then attend for hardly a week or two? What about the work-out equipment that is laying idle in the house?


How many of us have even thought about the real potential of our body and mind? How many of us would even dare to move away from our comfort zone and challenge our mind? Why would we endure something that is so challenging that would be a threat to our own existence? Yet there are people who would challenge their physical capacity and it probably for more than adrenaline rush.


As for Anisa even otherwise she is busy walking the Sharqiyah Sands. Except in April 2018 she is walking through endless landscape of another nature — the North Pole. She is quick to admit it is not physical part that was tough, it was actually the mind. Imagine what is going on in a particular rhythm for hours together.


How often do we have the urge to exchange words and comments to someone? Anisa and her team members went on for long durations focusing only on their destination for the day without an exchange of word.


And here she is back in Oman after one of the most unique adventures!


The next question obviously would be ‘what next?’ That might take an instant decision or an in depth plan. But the important matter is to take a peek at the sheer determination she had to prepare for two years and complete it.


There we just came across one of the most important elements of life — preparing oneself.


Most of us are on the reactive mode. We are even afraid to plan at times or at least hesitant to share the plans lest it might never happen.


So the ones who are preparing are already making an open sentence and then taking steps towards


it which highlights another quality of life that is being fulfilled and that is — confidence.


Knowing what you want in life itself is sheer blessing compared to many who are still trying to know the right path that would be appreciated by others. It is not about just impressing others in fact it is about learning something new in life, which could be shared to others, especially to the youngsters.


As a matter of fact, when the going was tough one of the images that came to Anisa’s mind giving her determination to complete the challenge of reaching the North Pole was a face of a young girl student who had gone up to get an autograph from Anisa after her talk at a school prior to her journey to the top of the world; looking up to Anisa the young girl had said, “I want to be like you when I grow up!”.


She had to complete it to inspire the little girl and many others by proving and setting an example that every individual can when they set their mind and body to it, especially women.


One of the duties Anisa enjoyed the most during her time at the North Pole was ensuring that the tent is well secured each night. She is back in Oman. The weather is in stark contrast. And she is glowing — the glory of achieving that she had set off to do!


It could be the perfect time to learn few things from her journey to the top of the world. Anisa would begin with, “How small we are in this universe.”


 


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