Monday, April 21, 2014

Quote-A-Day: Day 111

Remember that your  never fully gets completed.      

Yesterday was an interesting day for me.  I don't celebrate Easter, so I spent most of the day knocking off items on my "To-Do" list.  I've had a number of pieces of artwork that have had to go up around the house that I just haven't been able to get to.  That took a good portion of the morning, and I was finished by about noon.  I then started work on the backyard and deck, finishing that up with some grill maintenance.

When I add in time with the family and playing with my older daughter, pretty soon it was time to prepare for dinner.  It turns out that one item on my list (fertilizing the lawn) never got done.

At first, I was frustrated by this.  Why couldn't I have more time?  I really wanted to get this crossed off.

Then I started to wonder if I could, in fact, get it done.  Maybe I could do an okay job before dinner and just be done with it?

But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was okay that I had not accomplished this task.  To race through it would be a bad idea as I likely wouldn't do as good a job as I needed to, and to be frustrated that I never got to it didn't work either, as I had a great day accomplishing other tasks and spending time with my family.

The realization that came to me was this: Our "To-Do" lists never will actually get fully completed.

And that's okay.

There is always much and more to do, and when one task is completed, another one simply takes its place.  The good news is that this means we keep moving forward, reaching new heights as our lives continue.  The challenge is getting ourselves in a frame of mind where we're okay with leaving some items unchecked on the list.

The fact of the matter is that if we recognize the fact that we can never truly cross everything off the list (and would we even want to), we can come to grips with the fact that our list is parts aspiration, and parts realism.

And that's exactly how it should be.

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