Confession, Good For the Soul?

There are certain “truths” each of us has grown up believing, for no other reason then our parents told us it was “true.” One such truth is, “confession is good for the soul.”

I’m reminded of a story about my dear Aunt Paula who was getting up in age having problems with her knees. After seeing her doctor it was determined she needed to exercise her arthritic knees and that a stationary bike would be a good therapy for her. She solicited my help in finding “such a contraption” and off we went, to Sears of course, to purchase her bike. Mind you, this was 35-40 years ago, the bike was beige, hard front wheel that could be cranked down to make it more difficult to rotate the tire, one speed, and an analog speedometer complete with an odometer. After assembling the dinosaur, I took my leave and challenged my Aunt to bike 5 miles a day...not all at once, but 5 miles a day total. She agreed...

A few days later I called her to see how things were going. “Ach Ronnie, this is much easier than I thought, I’m doing my 5 miles a day in one sitting!” Amazing I thought, but not surprising, as she was a “stout German.”

That weekend I was in the neighborhood and I went to check on her and the bike to make sure the bolts were still tightened appropriately. She was so proud of herself and she really believed that biking the five miles a day was really helping. As I was checking the bike, I noticed the odometer read 4.5 miles exactly. Then it hit me...she was biking .5 miles a day thinking it was 5...I didn’t have the heart to tell her...:-)

My “confession” is there have been times in my personal life as well as my professional life where I’ve embraced “selective seeing and hearing.”  I have found that at times the truth can do more damage than good. As leaders we need to keep our objective in mind, which needs to be the focus over “being right.”

In my Aunt’s case, I applauded that she was accomplishing that rigorous ride each day and suggested that she push herself to 10 miles a day…she made it up to 20 before her passing…no one knew, up until today, that it was only 2.0.

Hmmm…it appears confession IS good for the soul as it forces us to remember and reflect on yesterday to help us prepare for tomorrow…

What is it you have to confess…come on now, you KNOW “confession is good for the soul”… just sayin…

Be good to yourself…