Never Let Anyone Tell You What To DO

New things week 16: Cinnamon Challenge. 

Last week while in college someone was talking about the Cinnamon Challenge. For those who do not know what the cinnamon challenge is, here is a short video to show you what it is. Basically you have to put a tablespoon of cinnamon powder in your mouth and try and swallow it. Much harder than you would think.

Well anyway we were talking about it in college and watching all the videos of people trying it. Most of them are fail videos and everyone decided it would be impossible to do. I said I could do it because it really isn't that hard when you think about it. No one believed me and told me I couldn't do it. Apparently there is no way in hell I could do it. Now I am a stubborn guy at the best of times, but when someone tells me I can't do something I think I can do it makes me more stubborn and actually makes me a little angry. No one knows if I can do it until I try, even me. So when someone tells me I can't do something it makes me more determined to try it. I don't know why. It might be because people used to always tell me I couldn't do things because they couldn't do it and they thought they were better than me so therefore I automatically wasn't going to be able to do it. For example I used to swim a lot up until the year before my leaving certificate and there was this challenge to swim 3km freestyle without stopping and backstroke without stopping. I told my swim teacher that I wanted to try it. She said I could try it if I really wanted to but it would be difficult. Other people told me I wasn't fit enough to do it and that I would get tired half way through. All of this just made me even more determined to do it. When it began to get hard I just thought about all the people who told me I couldn't do it and pushed through and completed it. I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of saying I told you so.

Anyway, back to the cinnamon challenge. I told them I would do it and they can watch me do it one of the days next week. So Wednesday came along and a spoon full of cinnamon was given to me. We went outside the college to try it just incase I threw up. Oh, I should also mention I hate cinnamon with a passion. I think the taste is disgusting. I even hate the smell. But I was determined to do it anyway because I am stubborn like that. I stuck the cinnamon in my mouth and tried to swallow, and as expected the powder stuck to the inside my entire mouth and wasn't going anyway, but that was ok. I could put up with the taste while I waited for the saliva to build up and breath through my nose. I did gag a couple of times because it was tickling my throat, but eventually I managed to get it all of the inside of my mouth and swallow it. It was easy, the worst part was the taste and the waiting. Everyone was shocked that I managed it, but I was delighted because I managed it and showed them that you never know what is going to happen until you try it. Sometimes being stubborn can be a good thing :)

So my message to everyone out there is never let anyone tell you what to do. Your life is yours and yours alone. You are the only person who can decide what you can and cannot try to do. Anything is possible if you try hard enough. Here is a video someone showed me that is truly inspirational and makes me want to try even more things and never give up on anything I try. Always remember that you will never learn from your failures unless you try something and fail at it. When you don't give up... You cannot fail. 

I would really love for people to recommend new things for me to try for my new years resolution. It's a lot harder to come up with new things than I thought it would be. If you have any ideas please post them below or on my FACEBOOK page. Thank you for reading this. I hope people like it :)

Stardansheil o7