In the overall effort to try and do something productive for my health, I have been working on maintaining a gym presence. As I have come to realize, if you are already paying for a gym membership, it may be good to check in on your investment a few times a week. On this particular trip to the gym, I was engaged on one of the exercise machines and was striving to reach a goal of 45 minutes. During the effort, however, as I was taking a drink from my water bottle, the cap came out of my hand and fell to the floor. Of course, you have this urge to go and reach for it but at this point it is well out of position. Then the other subliminal suggestion comes over you to stop the machine, get off, get the cap and try to return to exercising again. Of course the bottle cap could have been a dropped towel, untied a shoe, drooping sock, or any of the hundreds of other distractions that can happen.
There was a time when myths and legend would refer to little creatures called Gremlins. These Gremlins would interfere with equipment, machinery, and other issues causing havoc and failure. Gremlins became the perfect scapegoat for bad engineering, poor maintenance, and lack of quality. I wonder if these same Gremlins are the ones who drop my cap, untie my show, break my headphones, or make any other effort creating a reason to stop my goal of exercising.
As I almost gave into the urge, I realized that all day long, these little things will always manifest themselves and get in our way to stop what we are on track to do. These tiny little distractions can work so much against keeping momentum. That bottle cap remained on the floor until I had completed my goal, and if this ever happens to you, I encourage you to do the same. In the end, you will find many of the little things can wait.
The goals and objectives you set for yourself will have challenges, distractions, and setbacks. Without challenge, the goals are meaningless. Take the challenges in STRIDE and accomplish the goals with PRIDE.
