IN PLATES, SIZE MATTERS
Sunday, April 3, 2022
Some days – often ones that feel the most productive, I sense I accomplish more by what I stop doing than anything I start. I’m not on a spring-cleaning purge or anything like that.
The notion of ‘throw something out every day’ is a short-term and misdirected fix for what I’m talking about here.
Everybody has things in their life that waste time, distract our focus, waste money and dilute our effectiveness. Some reading I’ve done lately has helped me bring these issues to top of mind. If I try to eliminate some mediocrity every day, eventually, I should be out of mediocrity, right? Maybe that’s like Walmart’s motto of ‘reducing prices every day’ – makes you want to come back when all prices are down to zero.
Seriously, if something consumes five minutes of waste every day, why not eliminate it? Chances are we waste a lot more than that – every day!
If some old things/projects/ideas are filed away in a drawer or those recurring items on our to-do list that we excuse away with the label ‘do this when you have time,’ are things that never get done or attacked or concentrated on – not because we never have the time, but because they never rise to the level of importance when compared to everything else on our plate.
So, what is the solution?
Is it fewer items on our plate, or getting a bigger plate?
How about both – if we imagine our capacity as limitless on things that matter and recognize that unimportant things should be discarded …
Reader feedback:
One benefit of the discipline you apply to your daily routine is that you get to enjoy memories of people, such as Barry, who have been significant in your life. It’s easy otherwise to let those memories fade. Your writing remembers those who have left us in a very honest and touching way. Thank you for sharing, HM, Calgary, AB