Five For Your Hive: The Moments Before The Moment
Jaws, Chris Sacca, Don't Look Too Far, You Just Gotta Sit With It, That's The Beauty of It, Isn't It?
The Moments Before The Moment
In Jaws, the audience doesn't see the shark until one hour and twenty-one minutes into the movie. This was intentional. “Rather than seeing the shark in every scene,” Spielberg said, “I played a lot of the fear from people in the water, with your legs kicking, a point of view of the camera moving, or just seeing the surface of the water with nothing below.” Instead of focusing on a man-eating shark terrorising the beachgoers of Amity Island, Spielberg turned it into a two-hour exercise in suspense. Everything about this reminds me of what Robert Greene wrote about our fear towards uncertainty, “Nothing is more terrifying than the sudden and unpredictable,” the things that keep us on our toes in anticipation that something big might happen next. The moments before the whistle blows, before the stage curtains part, before your child is born, before the exam begins, before the job interview, in the anticipation of something that might just rock your world—at this crucial point is where you choose to either drench yourself in fear or fill your mind with composure. Confronting the moments before the moment and accepting them as the beautiful part of life—that’s the idea for today.
Tonight, I’ll Be In My Bed
In 2009, Chris Sacca, for 34 days straight, rode 100 miles a day as part of a charity event organised by Trek Travel. Though he was asked to participate on short notice, he agreed, knowing that it was going to be nothing but painful. “I was fat and definitely not in riding shape,” he writes, “I completely failed to assess how mentally and emotionally draining this ride would prove to be…I would wake up before dawn, and venture out into temperatures below freezing, knowing that I would be on my bike for another eight hours.” To help him through this, he had a little mental exercise he would engage in moments before he set off each morning. “I had a phrase I kept repeating in my head over and over again, which was, ‘Tonight, I will be in my bed. Tonight, I will be in my bed. Tonight, I will be in my bed.’…It was something I repeated to remind me that the pain of what I was going through was temporary and that, no matter what, at the end of that day, I would be in my bed that night.” Pain, to him, was the beautiful part of this cross-country journey, but no matter what, he was going to be in bed at night.
Don’t Look Too Far
The novelist E.L. Doctorow once said, “Writing a novel [or engaging in any creative endeavour] is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” You don’t have to see where you’re going. You don’t need to know where your destination is, and you don’t have to know what passes you by. Confront what’s in front of you. That’s all you need to see.
You Just Gotta Sit With It
Allie Ostrander was one of the most talented runners in the United States. In Alaska, she won ten state titles before moving to Boise State University, where she made the finals of the Olympic Trials in the 5,000 meters. From 2017 to 2019, she won three straight NCAA titles in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, went pro, and signed a sponsorship contract with Brooks, representing the U.S. at the World Championships. After the 2024 Olympic Trials final where she came in seventh, Ostrander was asked about her pre-race state of mind. “I’m always incredibly nervous for the Olympic Trials,” she said, “ It doesn’t matter how well-rounded of a perspective you might have, it’s a very high-stress event. And so, before the race I literally told my coach, ‘Is there anything you can say to me right now that’ll make me stop feeling like I’m going to throw up, pass out, and cry?’” “Honestly,” her coach replied, “you just gotta sit with it,” you have to confront it and not let those moments overwhelm you. It will be painful, it will be uncomfortable, but “that’s how it’s gonna feel. It’s all fine, it’s valid, and just channel that into your race.”
That’s The Beauty of It, Isn’t It?
What Ostrander felt was exactly how I felt last week when I was representing my home country, Singapore, in an international rugby competition against Thailand and Chinese Taipei—The butterflies in your tummy increasing in intensity with the clock ticking, just before you walk out of the dressing room and onto the pitch, pumped up and ready to confront your opponents in what seems like an eighty-minute battle of smashing each other into the ground. These moments—no matter how prepared or mentally strong you are—they nerve you down hard. But that’s the beauty of it, isn’t it? To just sit with it, confronting these moments, feeling your heart pumping through your chest, replaying mental reels of past training sessions that led up to this honourable moment of representing your country in the sport you love, and channeling all that energy into the game ahead. And no matter what the outcome was, you know very well that you’ll be in bed that night. That’s the beauty of it, isn’t it?