Training, life & music

For the first time in I don't know how long, I turned off the shuffle on my ipod this morning and enjoyed the simple pleasures of listening to a whole album. It's not all that noteworthy in so much as I will put an album on at home in the background when I'm creating some paleo monstrosity in the kitchen but it did spark a thought.

There are some parallels with life and training. We have more means of accessing variety than ever before. So much of our experience is like a butterfly. It probably does lead to a tornado in Azerbaijan but I was thinking more of the constant flitting. The briefest of touch-downs on and then off to something else. As a species I think we like choice and variety and there's plenty of it out there. But, like many other things, toxicity is dose specific.

We start a task and then something shiny "demands" our attention and we're off. In training we are appealed to by the latest gimmick or the new packaging on an old idea and we are away. Potentially the variety and availability of it all is really positive, but all too often we don't get to experience the depth or the full benefit of what we have started, and change before we get the real results.

Of course, like the album, if you stay the course there's a better than evens chance that you'll have to endure a track or two that you really don't like. But that's all part of the experience!

I'll grant you that the variety and the change of pace and movement keeps it fresh and entertaining, but once in a while just commit to seeing one thing through to the end. It will be entertaining but in a different way to the constant quest for instant gratification. The odds are that you'll find a forgotten gem in there too.

Just a thought. Rock on!