My daily workouts normally consist of a walk. I walk down the avenue behind my house and end up at the track for a few laps. When I’m going around my last lap I begin to mentally prepare myself for the toughest part of the workout: the hill.
I dread the hill, it is steep and wears me out. Each time I get to the bottom of it and I’m about to begin my walk up, I look towards the street on the left where there’s a smaller hill and think “Hmm, that route would also get me home, why not go that way?” But then without giving it much more thought and wasting precious time I choose the challenge of the steeper hill. I choose the challenge of the hill because though I know it will be the difficult path, it will also be the one with most rewards to my health and fitness.
Life is often like that hill. We are faced with choices at almost every turn of our lives, some more difficult than others. Oftentimes neither option before us is an absolute wrong choice. In fact the only wrong choice is not to choose, to allow ourselves to become so overwhelmed that we are left paralyzed, interrupting the flow of life. But in the midst of wrong or right, there’s another factor: better.
- Better redefines wrong or right, and makes one the optimum decision based on personal criteria
- Better is something only the individual making it can determine
- Better is what we should want to be
Better is just better. It results in learning, in growth, and a heightened sense of self-awareness. After all, how do we know what we’re capable of if we never choose the steeper hill?
January 17, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Yes, always take the hill!
So a year later, do you still walk this hill? How has the climb changed?
January 17, 2012 at 3:42 pm
This year is all about going up that steeper hill. Great post!