Relative Something

This is what life is like sometimes. I am at the lake-place this morning, but I almost didn’t make the trip.

I woke up early yesterday, and quickly decided it would be to my advantage to get to the day-job early, with the goal of then being able to depart for our paradise sooner than the usual quitting time.

My work-place is overworked and currently understaffed. There is a lot of stress to be had, and I am well-practiced at feeling the burden of all that stress. We tend to make feeble stabs at creating a plan to address the issues currently dominating our operations, but actual solutions are hard to accomplish, and until we get past that hard part, the stress hangs as heavy as the heat and humidity that is oppressing our region lately.

I was making laudable progress on my to-do pile of tasks, and then received a whammy of a message from a customer, which put a big dent in my plans to get out early. In the moment of hopelessness, I called Cyndie to suggest she head to the lake without me. That would free me up to work all day, and open up Saturday for additional work-hours that might help me feel less stressed by the demands.

Since I wasn’t planning to work the full day, I hadn’t brought any lunch to eat. Cyndie would need to come up to get my car, so she offered to bring me a sandwich. I put my head down and dug in on a list of 163 items that needed analysis, line by line. The clock ticked, I worked, my stomach got ready for lunch.

When working a long list, or any long task, the beginning can seem daunting, but shortly after you start, it seems to gain in aspect, growing increasingly formidable. I went through that feeling of doom that we didn’t stand a chance of successfully accomplishing all that we need to do.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

I just kept working away, and fell into a rhythm of progress. There is a psychological reward to reaching the half-way point, and I fed off of that. My lunch hour appeared, but Cyndie hadn’t arrived, so I stayed on task and began to challenge myself to keep after it until she showed up. On this day, I can be thankful for her methods of operation, because I ended up completing that task before she had even left the house.

I called to check on her status, and since she hadn’t left yet, was able to change my mind again and return to our original plan for departure to the lake. What a mental exercise the day turned out to be! I delegated a different chore that was on my list, delayed plans on another, and was able to head out only an hour and a half later than I had originally intended.

We were pleasantly greeted by comfortable temperatures and reduced humidity when we climbed out of the car at the lake. We arrived at our paradise in time for dinner.

This morning, it is time to prepare for the games of the day!