We make assumptions daily. I walk down the stairs in the morning because I assume I’ll make it to the bottom upright and alive. You drive to work every day because you assume you’ll dodge all the other cars on your way there. We take a first sip of coffee because we assume it won’t burn us, even though it’s done that before.

But we go further than that, don’t we? If you think about it, the majority of relationships we enter don’t end well. I.e., it takes several breakups to achieve one happily-ever-after, right? So in some arenas, we continue to assume it’ll work out, even when statistics aren’t in our favor.

For the record, that sort of assumption is a good thing. It’s called hope.

But to creep closer to the point, I saw an assumption this weekend that made monkeys out of quite a few people…

It was 73 degrees and shafts of sun warmed the last green leaves of summer. The cool air under the trees beckoned, and I couldn’t resist a run at the Meeks Trails. There is a long gravel road, which I walk to warm up, and when I arrived at the trail heads, I was surprised to see a small festival. There were tents and awnings, cars in neat rows on the grass, the smell of barbecue, booths bursting with handcrafts… and a random guy talking loudly to a group of people about dinosaur skin...(?)

Unless they were barbecuing triceratops, I have no idea what the festival was about.

Anyway, I ran up into the hills and enjoyed a few miles of rocks, trees, and solitude. But when I returned a while later, I found out that the festival had something I hadn’t noticed. A PA system.

As I emerged from the trees back to the trail head, the PA system roared to life and somebody boomed loud enough to wake up a fossil: “And here he is ladies and gentlemen, your 2024 Teays Hilltop Run Champion!!!”

And nearly 200 people burst into applause and cheers. Enthusiastic ones. I still don’t know why the festival was there, but they were excited about it.

Their cheers took a slightly confused tone as I followed the gravel road out around them. Their applause began to trail off as I left them behind and ran on down the road. By the time I disappeared around the bend, their enthusiasm deflated with the quiet squeak of a balloon losing the last of its air.

Just because I was running didn’t mean I was Their Runner. Just because I came out of the woods first didn’t mean I won First Place. Some assumptions are necessary, because otherwise, we’d never get anything done. Some assumptions are funny, like me “winning” a race I didn’t enter. (The only race I’ve ever won, by the way.)

Other assumptions aren’t funny at all.

If you assume the other person will wait at the stop sign, even though it’s not your turn, you could end up in a wreck. If you decide that the slight tightness in your chest and mild pain in your left arm is something you can ignore, you might end up having open heart surgery.

And if your open-heart surgeon decides he doesn’t need to measure flow in the vessel that he’s just grafted to save your life, then consider how badly that might go. Believe it or not, that’s still true for most CABG surgeries. The entire purpose of CABG surgery is to restore flow, but the majority of surgeons don’t measure that flow when they’re done. They just assume, and close you up.

Some assumptions are good.

Some aren’t.

Click here to help eliminate one of the bad ones.

Thanks for reading,

               Transonic Systems, Inc

                    The Measure of Better Results