Friday, January 11, 2008

The Easy Way vs. The Hard Way

Watching Mark do his homework is usually a very frustrating experience for me. It takes him about 5 long, drawn-out hours to do about 30 minutes of work. And this happens time and time again. I wish he would listen to his mother's advice and just "buckle down" and get it done!

I recently read a story about a man who shoveled coal for a living. He explained that emptying a coal truck was a long, arduous process until a little crippled man said he would empty a truckload in record time. The crippled man was given the opportunity and was true to his word of finishing in record time. When asked how he was able to accomplish this great feat in such a short time he replied, "I just stay hunched over and shovel and shovel until all of the coal has been moved out of the truck. I never look to see how much coal is left because that just wastes time."

There is a great lesson here for me (and Mark). Work hard and stay focused until the job is done, and don't keep looking to see how much work is left to do. I think I'll give it a try!

2 comments:

Noelle said...

Sounds like a plan, just hope it won't leave you crippled and aching from back problems for the rest of your life. :)

Julie T said...

I love that story! I'm going to refer to it henceforth with my family as "Dig in! Can you dig it?"