ONE

Going totally wishy-washy here, I will admit that my personal jury remains in chambers on this subject. I am not 100% convinced either way. There is no quorum nor a unanimous side on which to stand. There are a few shades of gray. Sometimes it feels like the way to go other times I scream heck no. Like this bike desk. Hummmmm. Good, or off the rails? Dunno.

I am speaking, of course, about multi-tasking. The performance of more than one task simultaneously. As a practitioner of the "Be Here Now" school of thought, I rile against anything that claims to make my life easier as a result of working smarter by stacking assignments. What do I get when I try to cook breakfast and edit video at the same time? Out of focus blackened eggs the consistency of rubber. It has been my experience that when I try to combine efforts the quality of each diminishes in direct proportion to the importance of the outcome. If I have a deadline and try to do ANYTHING but the task at hand, I am late.

I guess if it just a matter of getting the mundane over and done with you can wash clothes and upload jpegs of your goldfish to FaceBook, but anything other than that, for me, it's one at a time. With focus, with attention, with respect and with all I can bring to the chore.

And then the next.

I cannot do two things at one in the same way that I cannot spin fully in the present angry over some event that took place yesterday. I cannot enjoy my trail run today anxious about the outcome of my race in three weeks. I can only truly grow, learn, work and love in this moment.

Have you surfed the web or read e-mails while talking on the phone? Is there any quality in either? Have you (as I ) done stupid and dangerous things while traveling 55mph in your car? When you train do you do it with full attention and presence or are you a million miles away thinking about (pick one) sun, sea, food, wine, sex, money, a new car, status, glory, fame, The Beatles, Australia, turquoise, VanGogh, cheese and mushroom pizza, skiing, skydiving, scuba diving, hangliding, surfing, fish, Joyce Carol Oates, Bill Mazeroski, Chief Bromden, Colonel Blimp, Seargent Saunders, Private Pyle, Citizen Kane, US Blues, silk, burlap, Obama or Howdy-Doody?

Do one thing, do it well with focus, then move to the next. That noise I just heard is the washer going to spin cycle. LIke I said the jury is out. What works for me is ONE.

Pic is from the Nations Triathlon in DC. Right now you have ONE thing to do, get off your bike. (then go run).