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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.

 

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