Hi! Folks,
There is a translation of the Tao te Ching by Steven Mitchell that has guided me through my life for about twenty years. In there is one little line that can completely transform your home life for the better, and it goes like this:
“In family life, be completely present.”
This is a simple suggestion, but it is extremely difficult to follow, especially if you are an endurance athlete. There are times, as for me today, that a planned workout conflicts with needs of family members. I was not pleased this morning when my trainer ride was interrupted by an unplanned request for me to drive. In fact I was ‘mad!’ Not a very constructive response, but with a little meditation, based on tricks I learned in the Three Minute Meditator, I managed to let it go within about ten minutes. Not great, but not too bad. I then had to apologize for my anger.
The Three Minute Meditator
So! I let it go but my training was interrupted due to poor planning on the part of my family members. What should I do, just refuse to help and train anyway? Not exactly being present! OR Give up my workout because my family is more important? That won’t get me to Kona! No, that isn’t the answer either. The best approach is to both train my mind to minimize conflict and optimize my behavior, whilst I simultaneously train my family to plan ahead and consider my training needs. Basically, we should learn to respect each others lives. A family chat and a little barter will fix that, but what has that got to do with Akismet?
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had to close my blog comments due to a deluge of comment span. Never heard of such a thing, but now I have. I went on line, looked up comment spam, discovered the existence of the Akismet downloadable app for WordPress, and that fixed it. It was free if used only to protect my blog, but there is a fee if I need more, which I will when I finish setting up my online business, Old Dogs in Training. I liked the way Akismet drew me to their product with a little kindness (bait) that will bring me back with my wallet asking for more. I think the same will apply to my family, when I explain the advantages of their showing respect for my training. A little forethought and planning (the bait) will have me in the car driving them around with a happy smile on my face, instead of the hostile vibes I gave out this morning. Life is really all about barter, when you come to think of it. In this case, smiles in exchange for planning.
Thank you Akismet for protecting my blog from comment spam, and thank you Deb, Jess and Nick for putting up with my moods and training schedule.
Cheers,
Kevin