The Moment of Truth

Did you know there is an 11^th commandment? No, it wasn’t inscribed on the stone tablets and it is largely ignored but is very real none-the-less. It is, stated in the style of the King James Bible, “thou shalt not kid thyself”. We kid ourselves in so many areas of our lives that it would probably be easier to list where we do not. We know we aren’t going to live forever but we behave as though we will never die. We practice lifestyles whose consequences are basically a foregone conclusion yet kid ourselves that we will somehow dodge those consequences. We spend, individually and as a nation, as though the supply of money is endless and kid ourselves that the accumulated a debt not one day crush us. As I said, it is, by all appearances rarely heeded.

This post is actually not about this commandment but rather about “the moment of truth”. The relevance of the former should be evident shortly. Sometimes, when initiating a discussion on a topic, just for the heck of it, I will type the topic onto Google search and see what turns up. In this case, I entered “the moment of truth”. To my mind this expression, as used in the popular lexicon, describes a momentous point in time wherein some decision must be made which will determine the course of future events. At the risk of digressing from the topic of this blog, I was surprised to learn that this is the title of the report by President Obama’s bi-partisan national commission on the national deficit and debt, delineating the problem and offering solutions. Ironically, the president refused to accept his own commission’s findings and recommendations. There is a “Moment of Truth Project”, which grew out of this commission as a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to furthering dialogue aimed at implementing the commission’s goal of responsible deficit and debt reduction. I know I am tiptoeing through a political minefield in discussing this but regardless of one’s political persuasion, it is a mathematical fact that one cannot continue to spend more money than one takes in. This is the definition of going broke. To ignore this is to break the 11^th commandment on a monumental scale.

Closer to home, ‘the moment of truth’ actually comes up daily, in fact, multiple times daily in most of our lives, whether we realize it or not. We face innumerable decisions in the course of each day, some large, some small, and the choice we make will in some measure determine the course of our life from that point on. I face a moment of truth every morning when I step into a shower stall, which is getting ever colder as winter sets in, and have to turn the cold water on full. Despite all the benefits that I feel have accrued due to taking cold showers, it is still a moment that gives me pause and the temptation to say “the hell with it” and switch over to “hot” is ever present. So it is with contemplating leaving the comfort of my desk and computer chair to go for a run, heading to the YMCA at 6 AM for an hour of swimming laps, or resisting the urge to indulge in a sweet desert that I really don’t need.

For me to claim that I intend to do an ironman triathlon in 12 months and then not put in the effort and the hours necessary to prepare for this is breaking the 11^th commandment big time. And, so it goes, with any goal that we may have for which we are not willing to make the right decision when the “moment of truth” arrives, in its myriad forms. Don’t be surprised if that goal remains elusive.

This week was not a particularly good one for training. I do have a day job, after all, and it was a bit demanding of my time this week. In addition, family matters, including a father who is now in hospice and who deserves some of my time in whatever time he has left, further eroded my discretionary time. I used it for some contemplation and reflection, and to begin planning my strategy for training. There will be weeks like this along the way. It remains to be seen what I will do when the opportunity to train presents.

This weeks progress toward FI 2013- it was the first truly cold week of the year:

Swim- none

Run- none

Bike- 44 miles at 14.9 mph average.