Redo Landscape

For the last couple of months, well, ever since inches of water decided to fill up my basement, these words have been at the top of my personal 'to do' list. And someone who makes such lists and loves to cross things off of them, these were annoying thorn as it seemed like I never got to cross them off. I would go through multiple lists, a couple legal pads (those who work with me know I love the legal pad!), and every time I'd start a new list or worse, begin a new pad, I'd have to carry those words over onto the new list. In truth, these two words weren't merely something to cross off a list, they were a series of things, of steps if you will, and once those steps began to be crossed off, then I was closer to the goal. I had to remove old rock, remove dirt, rework the dirt into a (hopeful) grade that would flow away from the house (what a concept!), lay down plastic, etc, etc. The truth is, these steps took time. A lot of time. And lots of rock, but that was an earlier post.

The guys who wrote Made to Stick and Switch likened two sets of goals or to do lists. The first are rather simple- get groceries, fill up with gas, etc. The second are harder- like deal with tax issues. Sometimes I have personal or work goals that are in the second category (though I don't currently have tax issues!), and I find that a it;s helpful to write down the steps that are going to get me closer to that goal. Had I done that with the landscaping project, I would have perhaps felt some success earlier on. And so while I set some work goals each year, some are in that second category, so I've found it helpful to look at those goals and then think through the next six weeks (I thank Bill Hybels for this tool) and identify what are the 6 most important things I need to get done in the next 6 weeks? When I do this for several 6 week periods of time in a row, I find that I move closer to my annual goals? Coincidence?

And, within the last couple of weeks, I was able to cross 'redo landscaping' off of my list. Now onto 'finish basement'!