A bit of philosophizing

Y'know, it could get boring reading about nothing but me digging in the dirt and doing construction stuff. It's not boring to me to do it, though, and I've gotten a lot of work done. And all the exercise is paying off. I'm definitely in better condition. It's easier to move my body. I dress standing, including putting on my socks and shoes. I've also knocked off about ten pounds since my last doctor visit. I don't know if that Shangri-La diet works or not—I feel like I'm cheating on the diet a lot, but I can't deny what the scale says. Which leads me to tell you about something. I call it "non-zero," which I was thinking about this afternoon as I was digging and moving dirt, plugging away. It began with a magazine article I read while visiting my aunt (Hi, Aunt Bess! Thanks again for so generously opening your house to Bob and me) back when I was in high school. It was about how to get a project done by making a tool bundle and doing a little bit at a time, rather than putting things off because you didn't have time to do a lot. That article pretty much rested dormant for years, though I consciously followed the practice occasionally, especially getting through long books. Then I had some children, and I taught at the Jr and Sr. High School level, and I learned how little could be accused of counting as doing something on a project. "Kelly, have you finished your homework?" "No, but I have a good start," which turns out to be getting the book out of the backpack, then settling in for a long phone conversation. So we have two kinds of non-zero, good non-zero and bad non-zero. The good is doing something, anything, to get closer to the goal, even if it's only a little. The bad is doing just enough to be able to say non-zero, but the intent is to avoid accomplishing the goal without being caught in an actual lie. I believe you can get a lot done if you apply the good non-zero. Someone complained once that it would take ten years to get a degree, and a wise person replied, asking, "How old will you be in ten years if you don't get the degree?" In fact, this principle is even illustrated in the book of Joshua. He divided the land into small chunks and conquered one bit at a time. So don't decide not to head toward something just because it's a long way off.