belief and faith

Following on from '...its all in our heads', todays incident highlighted faith, belief and ..... let me explain....

The dictionary defines faith as 'trust or confidence' (in the unseen), belief is 'to judge or the to have faith'. What we need to constantly be aware of is that both are choices; conscious, deliberate choices.

I did a cycle race this morning as part of my training. It was extremely windy and I was on my way to Cape Point, where I knew that I'd need to sanctuary of as big a group as possible. (by riding in a group, one can save up to 30% of your energy; which is why it is not allowed in IronMan). I was riding really well and had ridden away from the last big group, and was now riding with a small group of 5 other riders who were going really well too, I believed that they would help me to find the next big group up ahead, but I could not see a big group around all the curves in the road. Then I hit a bad patch; my legs suddenly felt like I had attached a couple of bricks to my feet.

I had a choice ; hang in through the pain, with this group 'in faith' that they would help me find that elusive big group that I was looking for, and then rest; or, drop off and pedal lightly through the pain, while my legs came back.

I chose the latter; then after about 3 minutes around a bend in the road, I saw that big group ahead! If I had stayed with my small group through the pain, I would have been with the big group in 10 minutes! But now I was alone pedalling into that headwind. And this thought became very vivid; before my legs went bad, I believed that my little group would help me to find the big group, then I lost faith in that in that, I let the pain in my legs affect my choice, I had suddenly become subconsciously negative! And now I had to pay, big time! It took me 40 minutes to catch that group by myself (instead of 10 minutes!).

On the positive side, I had 40 minutes to reflect on my poor decision. And my conclusion; we have to choose to believe that what we are doing will move us forward in whatever we are doing, and as difficulties challenge us, we must have faith that our initial choice was right, be aware that beliefs and faith are positive conscious choices. This one negative thought cost me 30 minutes of self induced pain! Just a reminder; negative thinking is just simply, not an option!

And as I type this, I think that this is actually what this blog is about; I have chosen to believe that it is going to help someone, maybe only me, but its a step forward.... to what? I have faith that it will lead somewhere....