I have a new motto. I heard it the other day when I was listening to Conversations on the Mormon Channel. This is a program that features one or two people being interviewed by someone else. The people being interviewed have an interesting story or perspective and are always admirable in some way.
Back to my new motto. I was listening to this conversation. It was Sheri Dew interviewing Elaine Dalton and her husband. Elaine Dalton used to be the General Young Women's president and I always enjoyed listening to her talks. Apparently the Daltons became runners after they had been married a while and now they run together a lot. (My husband and I have started running together recently so this speaks to me on a personal level.)
One day, they were running up a hill together. Elaine was having trouble keeping up and she was feeling discouraged since her husband was getting ahead of her. She called out to him that she was stopping and going back to the car. Her husband stopped and said something like, "Elaine, don't you know? You never make a decision when you're running up a hill." Personally I never try to run up hills! But in a metaphorical sense...
I've been thinking about that ever since. Don't we all tend to make rash decisions when we're in the middle of something hard? You have a really hard day or moment and you think, "I'm never doing that again!" And maybe that is true and maybe that is a good decision. But really, if you want to accomplish great things and make good decisions, you need to wait until you're not in the heat of the moment and can think more clearly and rationally and objectively about what it is you really want. What are your ultimate goals? If it's a good decision you'll still feel that way in a few days or weeks or months.
I thought of this yesterday when a friend told me about a relative who was in the middle of a crisis in her marriage and was thinking about divorce despite having a good husband. I don't know anything about this woman's marriage except that her birth family has a pattern of divorce so divorce seems like the thing to do when things seem hard. But is that what she really wants for her life, for her children? Hopefully she doesn't do anything rash in a really hard moment that she'll regret.
I can think of a lot of situations that I need to apply this to and I'm going to try hard to remember it. "Never make a decision when you're running up a hill."
Back to my new motto. I was listening to this conversation. It was Sheri Dew interviewing Elaine Dalton and her husband. Elaine Dalton used to be the General Young Women's president and I always enjoyed listening to her talks. Apparently the Daltons became runners after they had been married a while and now they run together a lot. (My husband and I have started running together recently so this speaks to me on a personal level.)
One day, they were running up a hill together. Elaine was having trouble keeping up and she was feeling discouraged since her husband was getting ahead of her. She called out to him that she was stopping and going back to the car. Her husband stopped and said something like, "Elaine, don't you know? You never make a decision when you're running up a hill." Personally I never try to run up hills! But in a metaphorical sense...
I've been thinking about that ever since. Don't we all tend to make rash decisions when we're in the middle of something hard? You have a really hard day or moment and you think, "I'm never doing that again!" And maybe that is true and maybe that is a good decision. But really, if you want to accomplish great things and make good decisions, you need to wait until you're not in the heat of the moment and can think more clearly and rationally and objectively about what it is you really want. What are your ultimate goals? If it's a good decision you'll still feel that way in a few days or weeks or months.
I thought of this yesterday when a friend told me about a relative who was in the middle of a crisis in her marriage and was thinking about divorce despite having a good husband. I don't know anything about this woman's marriage except that her birth family has a pattern of divorce so divorce seems like the thing to do when things seem hard. But is that what she really wants for her life, for her children? Hopefully she doesn't do anything rash in a really hard moment that she'll regret.
I can think of a lot of situations that I need to apply this to and I'm going to try hard to remember it. "Never make a decision when you're running up a hill."
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| All these pictures were taken on recent hikes up Y Mountain and to Stewart Falls. |
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