Thursday, March 24, 2005

Heads or Tails?

I shared a situation with a friend, who suggested I share it in a post. Many in the Triathlete Alliance (look to the right hand side of this blog for the sidebar) have recently written posts concerning matters of the heart. Looking deep into their pysche, their soul, their reasoning mind, for the answers about the training program they have taken upon themselves to complete. Myself no less than the others, though perhaps less eloquently.

Questions in the quest for the perfect split come from all sides;
Is my program the right one?
Do I train enough?
Too much?
Should I do this today or that?
Should my legs/back/arms/head have this kind of pain associated with it?
Do I train for 3 hours or play with kids and speak to my spouse while the sun is up?
Ultimately as the final day approaches, "Should I really do this?"

All these questions are gut checks and perfectly normal. I think of how many wasted hours I have had lying in bed rolling the question or situation over in my mind. Do I do this or do that, should I stay or should I go? Then I was taught a valauble decision making tool and still use it often. Here is the story...

I once went to my Pastor to ask his opinion on something. He pulled out a coin and told me Heads is this decision and Tails is the opposite decision, (should I stay or should I go kind of thing).

He flips the coin high into the air and mid flip asks, "Do you want Heads or Tails?"
"Tails." I say.
He then caught the coin and put it back in his pocket, sight unseen.

He said it didn't matter what the two choices were, in this decision I had my answer. For better or worse its what my heart wanted.

1 comment:

Wil said...

This is a great story that will save me a lot of time in "negotiations" with myself.