One Track Mind

Continuing the numbers game... Let me share with you a little secret. Probably the most important key to success, as I see it, is to have one track mind.

This is certainly important on, well, the track. The idea is "full speed ahead," not "some speed in several directions."



But having a one track mind relates to all aspects of life.

If you want dinner, that needs to be the one thing you focus on, completely and totally. Don't think about racing, walking, playing, or sleeping. Believe me, owners know the difference between a whippet that really wants to eat and a whippet that can wait. And wait you will, unless you have a one track mind.

Now, I am not saying you should be impatient. When I am ready to eat, I do indeed wait. I wait for about ten more seconds until I am consumed by a passion to eat. Only at that point do I then make my intentions known to my owner.

At that point, I make it my only aim to obtain my meal. My owners know I mean business when I come to them with my dinner whine. It used to be that I would allow my whine to start from my back toes and run up my legs, across my back, and then out my mouth - this was one way to give it my all. But I realized even this wasn't enough. So now I have found a way to insure that I whine with my entire being. My whine is now more like an aura all around me, radiating from my innermost being out into the room all around me. Dinner usually follows shortly thereafter.

Let me give one more example: sleeping.

Dogs have received a bad rap with this whole "sleeping with one eye open" legend. What's that all about? We're supposed to get rest by an indecisive sleeping method, just because Lassie did it? Look, if the locks on the doors aren't good enough to keep out the invading marauders, we'll deal with them soon enough. But trust me, sleep deprivation is not good preparation for fending off villains... villains in the neighborhood or Villains on the track, for that matter!

So when you sleep, put your all into it! Don't live one of the best halves of your life "half asleep," sleep with all your heart. What I do is close my eyes as tightly as possible, curl into a tight ball on the dog bed, and cover my ears with my front legs as best I can. No one's going to mistake my power nap for a tummy rub request.

I don't think there is anything that defines my personality and beliefs more that the secret I have shared with you today. But if you are reading this and thinking, "I will keep these things in mind," you haven't yet learned what I am trying to teach you. Don't keep "these things" in mind, keep one thing in mind - in your one track mind!

Now go take on the day.