A long time ago, I found myself sitting in a required computer course with a stack of punch cards in front of me and a confusing flow chart of boxes, circles and arrows on the board. The course lasted a semester yet I only remember one thing from it. Whenever a student’s program failed to run, the teacher would announce, “Garbage in, garbage out.”
This morning, I got a bit behind and headed out later than usual to my acupuncture appointment. In my haste, I selected the wrong address in my GPS system history and hit “go”. If you read my blog, Coaching~GPS System for Your Life, you know I LOVE my GPS system. But today, our relationship suffered from some severe miscommunication.
As I neared my selected destination, I realized I was at the wrong street. I corrected the street, let’s say it was 10th Street, and hit the road again. It wasn’t long before I felt like I was past where I should be. I stopped again and double-checked the address only to discover I had input the right street, but in the wrong city. This time, I corrected the city, re-entered the street and double backed with barely enough time to be on time.
Within a few minutes, I arrived close to my destination but not quite there. In my haste to correct my city error, I had chosen 10th Place instead of 10th Street. It took one more input, a right turn and a left turn to be able to park at my real destination. The entire time, I had to place my faith in my beloved GPS system. Coming from my new place instead of my downtown apartment meant I had lost my sense of direction. I didn’t know how to get from where I was to where I wanted to be.
As I hurried up the path to the sanctuary-like setting of my acupuncturist, Dr. Kathleen Sankey*, I wondered to myself what all those wrong turns were about. Why head to three different destinations instead of going directly to the correct one? I had a desire to get to my appointment, but I didn’t take the right steps to ensure I would arrive there.
Then I realized, “Garbage in, garbage out.” It wasn’t enough to have a vision and to have faith in my GPS. I had to be responsible for inputting a precise destination. Without that, my GPS could get me in the vicinity, but not right on target. To be successful in reaching my goals, I am responsible for inputting the information into my guidance system and I most likely will end up at whatever end point I choose. Having faith is important, but it is not enough.
It goes against my nature to be late, so thankfully I wasn’t much behind my scheduled appointment. I am also pretty much over beating myself up when things don’t go quite as I planned. Instead, I got the insight of the experience and let it go so I could take advantage of the always relaxing and healing session Kathleen provides. I still love my GPS system…I just needed to be reminded that ultimately, I am in the driver’s seat and heading to the right destination is my responsibility.
