Who Farted?

I know, for a fact, that you’ve experienced this.

It might have been in the car with your family.

Maybe you were in a movie theater, or you might have been at church.

The smell comes out of nowhere, and as the gas from a silent but deadly attack begins to invade nostrils, everyone starts looking around.

First, just out of the corner of their eye, but then as the smell gets worse, people start craning their necks and looking around, trying to figure out who violated the airways.

Not that the perpetrator will be found. He’s looking around with the same incredulous expression that everyone else has.

“OMG,” he might be the first to say, “who did that?”

I get it, though. Nobody wants to fess up. In the company of others, a smelly fart is pretty embarrassing.

(Unless the other company is your kids and you are in the car, in which case you lock all the windows before you fart and then laugh maniacally while they beg for mercy, but that’s another story altogether).

Kids or not, I like the kind of person who stakes a claim upon their fart.

Fessing up is an admirable behavior.

As I’ve mentioned, I recently joined a group of 64 other people who committed to a 28-day challenge. The rules were simple: complete the task each day in order to move on to the next. If you fail to complete it, you’re out.

On the morning of Day 2, we were already one man down. Without identifying him, a question was posed to the group. Is he really out, or should we allow a makeup task & penalty so that he can continue?

Quickly, it was decided that he was out. Rules are rules, and this is a go/no go challenge. You either did it, or you didn’t.

You’re committed, or you're not.

This man could have just quietly moved on. Our group of people in this challenge is a subset of a much larger group, and because it was the first day, no one would likely have noticed. Or he could have lied and said he did the workout and forgot to post it - for that, he may have been allowed to slide.

He did neither and, instead, raised his hand.

“Yesterday, I let my lesser self win a small shitty battle, and my word meant nothing.

I went back and forth in my own mind.

I'm too busy, it’s too hot, it’s too late, and I don’t want to.

And guess what? That shitty self won, and now I'm faced with the consequence.

I'll make it easy for everyone and hopefully set some precedence for the solidity of the group.

Go. No go. I’m out”

Now, let me be clear: this is NOT a group that you want to get kicked out of.

Many would not understand. Many would think it’s not a big deal. But for those of us who committed, the commitment means everything, and the reward for completion is only earned if everyone who starts finishes.

Because of this man, we lost that reward before we'd even started.

But because he fessed up, because he didn’t have a dozen excuses or blame someone else, I would welcome him to my team in a future challenge.

The truth is, I don’t really care if you farted.

But I do care if you take responsibility for your actions.