Perspective

Perspective. What is it?

According to Websters, perspective is "the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance". In life this means that the important things are important and the unimportant things are not. Sounds really simple. Life lived in perspective is a life that makes sense. Somehow, I think I may have drifted.

In an effort to manage time more efficiently, our family is fully in the digital age. Each of us has a Microsoft Outlook calendar with our appointments and tasks on it. Yes, even our 4 year old. I've commissioned a laptop, whose sole purpose is to sit on the kitchen counter and display this information full screen in an "overlayed" mode - where each of our appointments are viewed in all their colour coded glory. What is happening though, is a little unexpected.

I now find myself rushing headlong through life "checking off tasks" as I complete them. Meeting downtown? Check. Pond field trip? Check. Work document edited and distributed? Check. Make an appearance at daughter's last roller blading? (hopefully) Check. Specialist appointment? Check. Sports Day? Check. Do dishes? Check. You get the idea. My focus is on getting the scheduled stuff done on time. The goal? To check off everything before it becomes past due. To quote a pathetic excuse for a hockey team "Git 'r done". I'm missing the whole point of the exercise - which is in the doing of the stuff.

I finally got a handle on this concept this morning. It has been rattling around in my head for a couple of weeks now, and I just couldn't make sense of it.[1] I was listening to a "sweet" sermon this morning by Kevin, and he made me think. One of the experiences he related from his life was watching one of the charter members of the church power wash the parking lot one day. John was doing the whole lot, not just the sidewalks and stuff. Anyhow, after watching him work on this all day, getting soaked with gritty dirty water, Kevin asked him if he enjoyed pressure washing or something. John's reply stuck with him. He said (something like) "I get more satisfaction from completing something truly worth doing than I would from simply having fun."

What wisdom. What perspective.

Satisfaction doesn't come from doing it all. Satisfaction comes from doing that which is truly worth doing. I need to take a step back from it all, and look for satisfaction in the doing. This means that while I drop in to see Samantha roller blade - she will have my undivided attention. I won't be on a conference call, or counting the minutes until I need to leave. I will be in the moment. That moment may not be very long (as I don't see a short term solution to the busyness), but for that moment I need to block out all distractions.

If it's truly worth doing, then it is truly worth doing well.


[1] I guess I should have scheduled some time to blog, eh?