A Lesson Learned from My iPod

I went for a run yesterday afternoon like I do most days, but yesterday I decided to put my iPod on shuffle instead of pre-selecting the music that would get me through the humidity, heat, and hills. Now, it probably won’t surprise you to know that I’m a serious planner. I like to prepare, organize, and plan to make sure whatever I’m taking on is positive and successful. So for me, running with my iPod on shuffle is kind of like running with scissors.

As I ran, The random songs popping up were an odd mix of vintage 80s (Level 42, The Smiths, Squeeze, and Oingo Boingo), which was working out just fine. I’d only skipped forward once or twice, usually when a song from my son’s lullaby CD or a track from an audio book came up.

But then it was time to face the HILL. The hill i’m referring to is about 1/2 mile of pretty serious incline. It’s towards the end of my run, and I’m pretty good at pushing up the hill without slowing down, but having the right music was key. So when, about 15 seconds before I turned up the hill the next song on my shuffle came up, I was hoping it would be the perfect running-up-a-ginormous-hill song. It wasn’t. But it wasn’t elevator musak either. It was a decent song…an Ani DiFranco ballad with interesting lyrics.

I had to make a choice. Listen to the rest Ani DiFranco song, even though it wasn’t the perfect song to get me up the hill, or, hit the skip button to see what was next. Normally hitting the skip button wasn’t a big deal, but on the hill it was. Who knew what would come up next? Depending on that day’s shuffle, I might end up running the entire hill in search of the perfect hill song, and never find it.

I decided to take my chances. And the next song on my shuffle was one of the best uphill running song I’ve got – Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire. Psyched and with a grin on my face, I cranked up the hill with power and speed, all the while happy that I pushed the skip button.

Then I got to thinking. How many times in life are we dissatisfied with something (a boyfriend, a job, a major, etc.), but not make a change because we’re afraid that what’s next might not be any better, or maybe even might be worse? When we accept situations that don’t fulfill us or that aren’t as great as we’d like, we’re basically 1) saying that we don’t deserve to have more and be happy, and 2) missing out on all the possibilities out there.

So next time you have a choice to make – shake things up and reach for more or stay static with the safe and familiar – I challenge you to say yes to life and take a leap of faith! Things may not always work out exactly as you had hoped, but when you follow your gut and your heart, you can’t lose.

For more on saying no to fear, check out this previous SGK post!