A challenge nobody has ever done comes with fear and anxiety attached, always.
For myself, problems beyond anything my previous way of living, thinking or acting could have imagined come at me like an avalanche, and every day is a fight against the conflict inside my own heart — and still I go one step at a time.
The first Japanese person to enter the great adventure: Kiichiro Yokota
There are a great many people in the world who have taken on great adventures and challenges. I am lucky enough to have a senior figure nearby who can tell me, first-hand, about adventure and challenge.
The Paris–Dakar rally, known asthe Dakar —the first Japanese person to take it on was Kiichiro Yokota.
Now 81, he has still not given up on dreaming, or on taking things on.
Yesterday I went to see him.
Hearing, from the man himself, the vast route across Eurasia and the story that led to it, poured fresh excitement and passion straight back into my heart.
Anyone can take on a challenge; not everyone finishes it
Mr Yokota shared a great deal of his experience with me, holding nothing back.
A challenge is not simple, but there is a world you cannot see until you take that first step — and once you do, you meet failure and setback again and again.
But there is a great deal to learn from it, he said.
It leads, without fail, to growing as a person.
“A challenge nobody has ever done will grind you down more than once. Call me any time.”
With that, he left, striding off just as he must have looked setting off on the Dakar itself.
When I said “blue sky and a car — good photo”, he told me: “things live or die by their background and their light. So prepare yourself to suit whatever comes.”
I feel every day how far from simple it is to change the way you live.
But I will go on, driven, without thinking too hard.
Believing there is a world I will surely be able to see, I will keep going without giving up.