One of the things I enjoyed while growing up and even till now is a period of adventures and then I went miles to do some crazy unimaginable things in the spirit of adventure.
One morning, it was the right time to finally solidify the foundations of the thoughts my best friend and I had been ruminating on the last few months.
Ebenezer, as he was called, was just the right sparkle needed for me to explode. With the way he keyed into the plan, there was nothing on earth that would stop us. But then, we had limited resources at our disposal and we practically knew nothing about mechanics and physics, but we had our wills and determination.
It is such a weird thing to tell the story of what you could not achieve not because you don’t have what it takes to fulfil it but that you didn’t even make the attempt or you gave up along the way.
In essence, there is a difference between what you cannot actually and what you wouldn’t attempt. And the only test for what you cannot achieve is having to make the attempt, then fail, try again, fail, try again, then fail again, then repeat the whole process all over again.
We were naive, I remember having to get advanced physics books already and planning with my friend on how to get the required materials. It sounds weird remembering that I knew what “payload”, “fuel tank”, and “rocket propulsion” meant in a rocket already at that time. This I owe to our research books about how the aircraft works.
Now I begin to think we were about to build an airplane that works like a rocket or vice versa. How ridiculous! So stupid and intelligent at the same time. I loved every bit of the experience, except only one part which I will share with you shortly.
We had made arrangements with the principal of our school and some few teachers we had some connections. It was quite easy for us because Ebenezer’s mom was a vice-principal at that time. So after presenting our plans to the principal, she consented and gave us an approving facial expression signalling that she believed in us. It couldn’t have felt any better, I tell you. So we had no political hurdles to climb like we thought but I just hate to say what happened next.
After a while of continuous planning, we were able to recruit more people into the project and we were on our path to building the first rocket-aeroplane, at least, so we believed.
Don’t you ever think, it was all a flawless ride? We had out challenges that proved insurmountable. How do we even get the equipment in a country that lacked such tools for advanced engineering production? Even if they were available, they may not be as cheap as we thought them to be. So, the time extended until Ebenezer had to leave to another school leaving me behind and making the work more difficult to bear. He left with our blueprints because I thought they would be safer with him and as I didn’t see him say goodbye, I couldn’t get them too.
Does it make any difference? After all, we didn’t build it as proposed. But are you sure there is no difference? I think I found some already. What are they?
Things I Learned From That Experience
- We Were Determined
- You may call it childhood foolish determination but that is something even some adults lack. When you make your plans, it is the determination to achieve is that makes the difference between anyone else and you. We saw the odds, but we did not let them get to us and make them discourage us. Many people give up even before they started. This is a lesson my present self would want to learn from the past me.
- We Started
- Planning is beautiful but executing is more divine. It is natural for determination to always give way to starting up what you have planned. And the earliest sign of non-determination is the lack of force to begin. Getting started is beautiful like I have said, but is that all there is?
- We Lacked Continuity Plans
- How could a mere relocation of one member of the team, though a key member, totally truncates our vision forever? The simple answer is the lack of continuity plans. We didn’t even have a copy of our very amateur blueprints. Only one person carried the written framework of our plans and when he left, that was all. This is the same problem that many people still face today. But you can do it better now.
- We Didn’t Want To Start Small
- I just imagine how massive our project was. Building a structure that MIT may not have even conceived at that time. It is not out of place though. Sometimes, you have to let yourself invent something new and complex to the world, but almost all the time, it begins as a small idea, then a small product, until the largest and yet larger outcome is seen. We were planning of making a mini-space craft as you would otherwise name it, but we had not even built a parachute. Oh, we started our parachute project anyway. I just remember how fun it was but I can’t be shedding tears of nostalgia now.
Dealing With Unexecuted Tasks
That was not the only task I have had to abandon prematurely. So you are not alone in this matter. But here are a few tips on how to rightly deal with unexecuted tasks. I know you do not worry much about them, you may probably just laugh over it or consider it a childish act like mine was. But little did you know that some of such tasks would have uplifted you if you had executed them.
The best thing to do when you have unexecuted tasks or projects that you cannot go back to is to look forward to your new projects and ensure that they do not follow the same path of rejection and abandonment as your long-gone unexecuted tasks.
By now you should have known better the precautions to take to prevent tasks from remaining unexecuted. If you cannot remember any precaution at all, you must always be bold enough to just start when you may have made the plans, and never allow procrastination rob you from the fulfilment of your goals.
