At a Loose End

Loose ends are tricky things. Life is full of them. You don’t know what I mean? Think about all of those things in life that take a whole lot of effort, are really appreciated by others, and not often done.

Did I phone all the people who had my family over to dinner in the last week and thank them, or least send an SMS? Did I call that old guy I saw in church last week, and go and have a cup of coffee with him, for no better reason than he would love to chat with me? Did I follow up on any of the things that I noticed just yesterday; the one or two mates who are unwell, my mates that are far away, mates that are suffering through hard times? Did I spend an extra couple of minutes planning how to make my wife feel special?

Well a resounding NO would be the answer to all of those questions. And these are but a few of the loose ends in my life!

I did however spend a massive amount of my time on a consulting project. I also managed to find time for a couple of runs, a judo session, dinners with mates, and a whole lot of football watching.

The loose ends get me though. If I could only follow through on a couple of them every day, I would probably make a massive difference in the lives of those around me. Whether I phone the old guy at church today or next week will probably make little difference to him, so long as I phone him. What will probably happen though, is that the idea will sit around until I feel I have waited too long and then I will abandon it.

Life like most things follows the 80:20 rule, where we can do 80% of it with 20% of our effort. The problem is that the real value lies in the last 20% but it takes just about all of our effort. In business this rule is wonderful as one can exclude the last 20% as being too expensive or too difficult. If we do the same in life, chances are that we will miss out on all of the most fantastic opportunities that life has to offer! Then again, we probably would not know, or even care!

Being a lazy slob is easy. Tying off loose ends with intricate knots is far more difficult, but there is enough evidence that it is massively worthwhile!