Is your life a mess? Meditation for 1/28/14

Haig Point; Daufuskie Island SC

“Why is there always time to do things over but not enough time to do them right the first time?”  -  Unknown

“We rate ability in men by what they finish, not by what they attempt.”  -  Unknown

    

     A few years back I was watching a professional golf tournament on what I guess was a satellite tv hookup.  There was the dead space where there were no announcers but you could still see the match and hear the sounds.  One of golfing’s greats was playing, and he was down by six or seven strokes with a few holes to play.  “Finish strong.  Finish the match strong…” he was saying to himself.  This made an impression on me, because this particular golfer doesn’t need the extra money finishing a little higher on the leaderboard would bring.  He was simply reminding himself to do the best he could right now – this moment – regardless of how futile the effort seemed.

     The hardest parts of a project seem to be the first 5 % - getting started, and equally difficult is the last 5% - the finishing touches.  Once the goal is in sight it is all too easy to mentally move on to the next issue to be dealt with.  What one ends up with is a big mess – a life full of unfinished projects that all have a way of unraveling because of the neglect.  And this isn’t just projects around the house – it infects all areas of our life.

     When we promise others that we will do something and don’t complete it, they may be thankful for our effort but it will always be tainted somewhat by being unfinished.  When we cook a meal and eaten it is easy to get a bit lazy and leave the dishes undone – knowing full well they will be much harder to clean tomorrow.    When we buy things it is easy to write the check and neglect to enter the transaction in the check register and not place the receipt in the file where it belongs.  When we leave somewhere it is easy to leave somewhat of a mess behind – quickly forgotten because our mind is on where we plan to be next rather than where we are now.   And when we feel that the task at hand isn’t something that was our job to do in the first place finishing can seem especially difficult.

     There are countless examples of this, and equally countless examples of how much trouble it causes us to leave things unfinished.   But there are tangible rewards to be had by seeing things through.  When we complete things along with the finishing touches, we feel a bit better about ourselves.  We are more reliable, and we spend a lot less time in the long run going back and fixing things that have decayed.  Far fewer things are lost or misplaced – and as a consequence we save a good bit of time in the long run.  And as an unexpected bonus, when we force ourselves to take the time to finish the task at hand we seem to plan the next project a bit better.  We can’t do everything at once, but we can do something at once.  And finishing things that have been lying about is a great place to start if we want to get out of a rut and gain some momentum to start another project that needs done.  What can we finish today?  I bet every one of us has at least something we have neglected.  But if we start today, before we know it finishing well will become something we look forward to rather than something we struggle with.

Today, may I be wholesome.

All have a great Tuesday !!

David

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