Atomic Snow #62: Complacency
Rage, rage, rage against the dying of the light
“They had made no progress at all. Despite all the planning and the study of the terrain they were to cover, they were stalled because Sol had been overconfident. Leading an entire village was a behemoth of a task, but he had treated it lightly. He should have broken them into smaller groups, and made them more agile.”
The year is ending. For some, it is just another turn of the calendar page. For others, it seems like a major event. A time to rush and wrap up all that is incomplete before the days run out. To gather resolutions and wishes and make plans for the new year ahead.
Where do you stand in this chaos? Does the spirit of the season that capture you? Or are you scrambling to finish the loose ends and sadly end up resigned to the fact that time is not enough?
The effects of being complacent are not immediate. You do not see the results of your minor slip-ups. A small delay here. An uncorrected mistake there. They go unnoticed. Until the time of submission. Of close examination. When it is put to the test. That is when the cracks become evident.
With each crack, the system becomes fragile, no longer able to hold it all together. Leaking at the seams. Gather enough cracks, and the whole thing collapses under the weight of the burden it bears.
Identify each crack early on, and patch it up. Then, you will not be blindsided by the collapse. It is better to prevent rather than to cure.
We push away those tasks, which are not a priority. Either because it is too difficult or requires too much concentration. But when we are hit by a looming deadline or the consequences of overlooking it, that is when we enter into the fixer mode. We have no choice but to take care of the task under the constraint.
A friend once told me that if you do not take good care of your health, when you fall sick, you will have no choice but to listen to your doctor. If only you had paid attention to your health, and given your body the required rest, your body will fight for you. Prevention is always better than cure.
It is done. Finally. A year and three months later, the final of the boxes have been sorted. The books that I want to hold onto have been put away, while the ones I want to give away, have been boxed and ready to be taken out. 15 months!
Stack enough for tomorrow, and you will end up with a pile too big to deal with today.
“Last night I lay on the frozen ground, staring up at a clear sky only somewhat ruined by light pollution and the fog produced by my own breath—no telescope or anything, just me and the wide-open sky-and I kept thinking about how sky is a singular noun, as if it’s one thing. But the sky isn’t one thing. The sky is everything.
And last night, it was enough.”
I believe we all crave for this enough. We seek it. The end of a project. The completion of work. The submission at a deadline.
The breath of relief.
But how often do we create enough space for us to just be there? Not be in a hurry to get somewhere else. Move on to the next piece of work. Catch up on piled up yesterdays. Always in a hurry to go, we never give ourselves time to stay.
Lists help maintain your pending tasks. It is always satisfying to check items off a list. At the same time, you can eliminate items off the list, if they no longer are a priority or even required. Always be pruning. Keep your list focused and short, and do not allow your to-dos to stack up.
Until the next owl delivery,
Avoiding complacency,
Gaurav G.
P.S. We approach the year end with a force. There was much to learn this year. Old challenges and new. Proactivity took a bit of a toss. Many good experiments, but not enough to push me forward. So, I make this commitment to be better next year.
P.P.S. It is most likely this is the last Atomic Snow of the year. I will however have a post up on godricsnow.com. So, see you there, or see you next year. Until then, have a happy new year!!
P.P.P.S. Fantasy. Self Governed. Non-complacent. Family.