“Then we must appraise the actual things we are attempting and match our strength to what we are oing to undertake. For the perfomer must alwas be stronger than his task: loads that are too heavy for the bearer are bound to overwhelm him. Moreover, certain tasks are not so much great as prolific in producing many other tasks: we must avoid those which give birth in turn to new and manifold activities, and not approach something from which we cannot easily withdraw. You must set your hands to tasks which you can finish or at least hope to finish, and avoid those which get bigger as you proceed and do not cease where you had intended.
Seneca – On the Shortness of Life
This pretty much says it all. My personal sturggles with entrepreneurship and small business all seem to come down to the idea of mission creep. We started over here, and now we are way over there.
How did that happen ?
How did this meeting get so off the rails.
How did this project get so focused on this new idea that is not very important?
I wonder if many military commanders ask the same question when they realize the battle is lost. How did we get here? I wonder if General Lee asked himself how he ended up sending all of his troops on Pickett’s Charge, to their certain destruction, when 2 days earlier, there were simply light skirmishes outside of a town called Gettysburg. Did he think about it often, late at night in 1864 and 1865 as the war continued to go the wrong way?
I have asked myself the same question when looking at my person weight, or my personal development. How did I get here?
Normally its by starting down a path that creates more work than it solves. You swear you will just check out youtube for 5 miuntes, then an hour later you realize you are late for an appointment.
You swear that you can just have one drink, or one bite of desert. All lies we tell to ourselves everyday. But sometimes the biggest lie is that this task or project will make things better, when actually all it does is sink you deeper into stress and work.
Start by asking: “what will it look like, when it’s finished.” Then maybe you can avoid the trap of so many , where you can not easily withdraw from work that just creates more work.
Simpletition - Shawn D. Madden 