Do the Little Things

On New Year’s Day 2012, I spent a whole day making what I thought was an executable plan for the year.

For the first five days, I stuck to the plan. Kept regular hours, balanced work, study, and entertainment. Tidied up as I went, kept the house clean. Cooked, made baked fish, grape juice, and even cut myself a fruit plate. Life was good, orderly. On the big scale, I had ideas for product design; on the small scale, life was flavorful. My faith was in a good place too.

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On the 6th, I met with investors to discuss funding and starting a company. The premise was that this product had to be reliable, so I had both the responsibility and pressure for the product.

That’s where my New Year’s plan fell apart.

My focus shifted entirely to product design. I couldn’t be bothered to do anything outside work (some might approve of this state). But my life began to unravel. Couldn’t be bothered to clean up or organize, even though it only took seconds. Couldn’t be bothered to cook, ate whatever, let alone wash dishes. Couldn’t be bothered to brush my teeth or wash my face. Couldn’t be bothered to take out the kitchen trash or toss laundry into the washer. Couldn’t be bothered…

Everything was a mess.

Life was a mess, my mood became restless. Even though my mind was wrapped up in work, there was no progress. I became anxious, worried, lost confidence.

Obviously, there was something wrong with my life and mindset. I was putting too much importance on work.

Work is a way of worshipping God, but work is not the object of worship. In other words, love your work, but not more than God.

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Tonight at 7:30, though I was hungry, I was too lazy to make something to eat. It was raining, didn’t feel like going out, didn’t know what to eat.

Really hungry, I scrambled three eggs with leftover rice from lunch. Lunch was the same, but with two eggs.

After eating, as I placed the plate in the sink, I couldn’t help but laugh. The sink was piled with plates, there were no clean plates left.

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Why did life turn out this way?

I tried hard to suppress the thought of “wasting time,” deciding to clean everything up.

Actually, cleaning doesn’t take much time; in fact, the process of washing dishes, wiping counters, cleaning the microwave inside and out, and wiping the rice cooker allowed my brain to relax and rest, made my mind calm, and I really enjoyed that time.

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Then it hit me, it’s precisely these small things I couldn’t be bothered to do that humbled me. The human heart is prone to pride, always thinking spending time on “big things” shows one’s value, especially for ambitious men.

Doing a little thing every day is a good thing. :)