Moving Holes. How many of you have experience moving holes?
My Dad, Jay, was a great father. He passed just before the pandemic and I still think about him daily and miss him tremendously. He still teaches me today.
While on a walk I was thinking about Dad and how on summer days when I wasn't busy he would find me and assign me chores. Some of these chores made no sense to me at the time. I referred to these as moving holes.
The concept of moving holes is you dig a hole then dig another hole and fill the first hole with the dirt from the second and so on until you fill the last hole with the dirt from the first hole. It's an Army thing and my Dad was career Army, a World War II combat veteran.
Dad didn't like to see us idle. Dad also knew the inherent value of doing a difficult task even when the task itself had no urgency or immediate importance. Dad's chores made me stronger, physically and mentally, preparing me for some future challenges he could not have foreseen.
It took some time in life but eventually, I began to look at how the little things in life, daily disciplines that themselves had small impact but when piled one on top of the other, prepared us to do much greater things than if we never practiced "moving holes".
Now I look at people who are ahead of me in life, like my dad was, and I look at their lives to see where they practice moving holes, where the value of an activity is to their future capacity to produce and may bring no value today. Armed with that information I look at how I can apply the observation to my life.
Comment if you are currently a slave to the "Urgent" and want to develop new strategies to increase your future control and productivity in life.
Purchasing Manager at EIS Wire & Cable, Inc
2moWell deserved!! I am so happy for you and glad we got to journey together through the years! Enjoy!