Thursday, May 7, 2026

Follow... (unpublished post from 2012)

Not many of us are natural born leaders. On the other hand, not many of us are natural born followers either. And I don't mean following a crowd like a herd of sheep kind of follow (because we seem to be pretty good at that, aren't we?), but following a particular leader and submitting to his/her leadership kind of follow.

In fact, I think we all want to be our own leaders. Or, to put it in another way, we don't want to be forever looking at someone else's back. After all, the view at the front is always much better.

I once gave myself a challenge: to test how long I can stay behind a car on a stretch of road given we were both travelling at or under the speed limit. I can tell you, it didn't last very long. The car in front of me wasn't slow, nor was he driving poorly in any way. There was no reason for me to overtake him, and yet, be it lack of patience or the fact that I just wanted a better view, I eventually ended up overtaking anyway. And the view was great! There was no car in front of me to obscure my view (not that it really did), and even though I travelled at the same speed as before, it meant I was no longer following the car that was in front of me.

Granted, this probably is a fairly poor example of the point that I'm trying to make. Yet I do not think the mentality of not wanting someone ahead of us is foreign to any human being. Admittedly, we don't really like rules, or maybe we just don't like the rules that someone else has made up for us. We don't want to be pushed to travel at someone else's pace. We just want to do things our way, as we see fit. And when great minds think alike, you get a following. Not following a particular leader, but just a set of ideals or ways of doing things.

Having said all that, we know for a fact that there has been, and still are, plenty of leaders that are worthy of following. 

Find them, or be one of them.

Epiphany

I had an epiphany today.

I do not like to 原地踏步 (literal meaning: stepping in the original spot). That must be why I don't like exercises that require being in the same spot the whole time (e.g. treadmill). I would much rather spend an hour walking outdoors in nature than spend 15 minutes doing HIIT.

And yet, 原地踏步 is precisely what I have been doing these past 10 years.

And yet, whilst I do not like being stuck in the same spot, I am also resistant to change. I have always hated moving houses, moving cities. If I had the choice, I would have stayed in the same organisation as long as I possibly could. Mostly because I'm fiercely loyal, but I can't help but wonder if it's also because I'm resistant to change. 

這也太矛盾了吧......

Too much for my little brain to deal with today, but at least I have an excuse of why I don't want to do exercises that require movement in the same spot! 

An unfinished poem from Oct 2015...

Oh! How fleeting it is!
To pour your heart and soul
Only to be trampled and thrown

Oh! How fleeting it is!