Today I am thinking about the work of life.
The real work in life are the constant things you have to do in order to keep living. I call it maintenance.
The maintenance of life are eating, drinking, breathing, going to the bathroom, exercising, bathing and sleeping. Basically if you do these things you will continue to live.
All of these things must be done a little bit at a time. If you don’t do them for a month and then try to do enough all at one time then you will not live.
It is like cutting the hedge.
I have a lot of hedge to cut. What I have found is that the more often I cut the hedge the less of a problem it is. Basically, if I let the hedge grow 12 inches before I cut it then I have 10 times the work than if I cut it after it has grown 2 inches. There is less hedge to battle through, there is a small amount of clippings and the stress on my body and on my equipment is a lot less. But possibly the biggest difference it makes is the time it takes to do it.
Time. The great equalizer.
Really, the number one factor about time is that it is felt on a day to day basis. Our days have just so much time and so when we have to do things it is mostly measured by the time it takes out of any given day.
Cutting the hedge when it has grown just two inches takes me about an hour. If I let it grow to be 12 inches it takes me about 3 hours. Agreed, the total amount of hedge cutting time in a year evens out, but that isn’t the issue is it? The issue is how much time does it take out of any given day.
First of all, the hedge looks better the more often it is cut and if you leave it to grow then you see it everyday and the dread of doing it increases as the inches add on. In addition, it isn’t just about the hedge is it? It is also about trimming the yard or mowing the grass. The more often you do it, the easier it is, the less time it takes and the better it looks.
All of life is like this. Everything from exercise, book keeping to doing taxes. If the job gets too big overwhelm is sure to occur. The key to life is maintaining things at a small level so that nothing ever gets to be too big to manage.