One of the first things that I did after purchasing our family cottage was to clean areas of the property that had been neglected for some time.
I sprayed and pulled a lot of weeds, then I reclaimed areas that ants and hornets had claimed as their own. I was amazed at how quickly nature could take over in the absence of man!
It took a great deal of time and effort to clean the beach of weeds, but after I had, it only took 10 minutes a week for the kids and I to maintain it.
It made me think about areas of life that we often become neglectful of.
What areas need to be reclaimed from the weeds and the nests that are slowly taking over?
- As leaders in our organization, have we neglected the people with whom we are charged?
- Have we allowed the weeds of procrastination or busy-ness to eclipse the development of others?
- Have we failed to maintain healthy relationships by broadcasting and not listening?
Are we intentionally and consistently maintaining our skills, our mental and physical health, our work/ life balance, and most importantly our relationships?
It took us 10 minutes a week to maintain our beach so that we could enjoy it for the summer. What if we took the same approach in other areas of our lives? How would our days look if we took 10 minutes to plan our day, 10 minutes to control our email inbox, or read 10 pages of a book a day (that’s 300 pages a month)?
Maintenance is an important part of our progress.
And it takes discipline to ensure that we are progressing everyday. But I’ve found that the pain of discipline is much better than the pain of consequences.