Wednesday, 03 January 2007
Doing every small task as well as possible        

I’m beginning to remember more and more, to make an effort of doing
every small bit of a task as well as I can.  One of the examples of this, is
that while we were fixing the house yesterday, I started realizing that just
moving the tools from one place to another, or taking them out and putting
them back, is a task in itself.  When I work in a hurry, I tend to just leave
things where I use them, or just pick up e.g. the power tools and drag the
cord to the next place.  The consequence is that after a while, tools are all
over the place, the cords get hooked on things and pull them over – and
so the place just becomes a mess and finding stuff becomes increasingly
difficult.  Working then becomes a frustration.

Last night, I would make a point of putting each tool back where it belongs,
before moving on to the next bit of the task.  I would pick up the cords, and
carry them with the powertools to the next place.  This takes a few seconds
at a time, but it created a sense of doing a deliberate, good job of the
smallest part of the overall task.

In the process, I suddenly found my frustration levels just decreasing
significantly, and I found these little tasks in-between the main task to be
extremely enjoyable, and adding greatly to making an enjoyable
experience out of what would otherwise just be a huge job.
Monday, 01 January 2007
Each task a stitch in the tapestry which is the picture
of my life

Every task I perform, irrevocably sits there as a little stitch in the tapestry
of my life.  I do not know the end picture, but I do know this.  If I work too
quickly, too hastily, and make the stitches sloppy, the end result is going
to be a dismal looking tapestry – no matter how beautiful the original
design.  However, if I perform every stitch carefully, to the best of my
ability, allowing myself to be closely guided by the Craftsmen, and putting
every bit of best quality into it that I could, then I could know that every
day will create a piece of tapestry that people could look at, and see that it
was a masterpiece.

I’d rather create half a masterpiece, than a whole piece of junk.
The Tapestry of My Life