Grant me wisdom to change course

It takes wisdom to know when you’re spinning your wheels and it’s time to change course.

Wisdom: the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment

I have some experience after about 7 years of running and 12 half marathons. I am always seeking to increase knowledge of running.

Good judgement? Sometimes; sometimes, obviously, not. I guess that’s human.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.
–Confucious

Reflection
That is what my Believe Journal is for. I’d like to say I record every workout, but life gets in the way, and there are some holes.

I look at last years journal: how was I running at this time last year? What sort of mileage was I running in the weeks leading up to my goal race? How was I feeling?

That reflection does help me learn some wisdom: when to back off, how much to run, and so on.

Imitation
This may be more knowledge than imitation, bur I may use the same workouts at the same point in my training cycle: because it worked well for me the first time. Sometimes I’ll try new workouts, because I crave variety.

I love to watch people run — I may try to imitate someone’s running form, or I may look at them and wonder how they ever complete 13.1 miles. I may do workouts or drills and try to imitate the correct form.

I may look at what my faster friends are doing, and think about imitating them. If it works for them . . . although more often than not I march/run to the beat of my won drum.

They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, but does it bring you wisdom? Sometimes; sometimes not.

Experience
Oh boy, Conficious, you gt that one right. I have gained a lot of wisdom through experience, and most of that hard earned wisdom was earned through a lot of pain and suffering: starting too fast, not slowing down to accommodate the temperature, not seeking help for an injury; I could go on and on.

Most of those lessons were learned the hard way, but in the end, yes, they did bring me a lot of wisdom. That doesn’t mean I won’t do something stupid in my next goal race, but it does mean that I am sure to learn from whatever mistake I make and gain a little more wisdom.

I hope that with reflection, imitation, and experience, I’ll have the wisdom to know when it’s time to change what I’m doing.

Tell me in the comments:

What wisdom have you learned from past mistakes?

What wisdom do you wish you’d learned sooner?

Do you still have your wisdom teeth, by the way? I was about 30 when I had mine pulled!