Nothing's a Waste of Time

As if we could kill time without injuring eternity! -- Thoreau

One of the most important lessons in life that I keep learning and relearning at each stage of my life is that nothing you ever do at work or to learn (learning about learning....love the layers...) is a waste of time. How many times do I use my skills of hooking up a horse trailer? How often do I utilize the tricks of jamming a post hole digger under a stone to jar it free?

Pretty safe to say never. At least literally. But those skills, those lessons -- they're still in me. They round out who I am in some sense. Certainly, those experiences help build the foundation of my character, whatever it may be.

And those lessons of working through the exhaustion. Getting up the next morning and dealing with the soreness. Turning those blisters into callouses over time. And eventually, hopefully some level of competency or even expertise develops. Invaluable.

It sounds funny, but to this day, I love mowing yards. The first business I ever launched was a partnership with my friend Robert called "Ro's and Mo's Lawn Mowing Service". The business ended when I shattered my ankle into 6 pieces in a pick up game....I'd been obessing over learning to dunk all summer and spent hours upon hours a day dunking on ever higher baskets...played through a few days' worth of "growing pains" or so I thought...turned out those growing pains were a break in the growth plate....shoulda, coulda, woulda listened to what my body was telling me...but I digress...

There's something primal and satisfying about the way the yard morphs in whatever pattern you designate until the whole thing delivers a beautiful finished product. You know what I'm talking about.