Chasing Chickens

by | Sep 27, 2018 | Strategy | 0 comments

If you were to meet her you would never suspect it. She’s charming, has movie-star beauty, and is such a good listener that complete strangers feel compelled to tell her things they would only share with their closest confidants. But I’ll let you in on her little secret.

My wife is a crazy chicken lady.

Somewhere close to 80% of her free time is spent working for, or with, our three chickens: Nina, Penny, and Dolly. She’s pimped out their elaborate coop complete with chandelier and not one, but two fans. She also has a mirror in there for them, so they can make sure their feathers and combs look good before they go out for the day scratching for bugs and worms. She’s given “her girls” the entire run of our full-acre backyard for their foraging.

Sometimes, these very spoiled girls like to get up on our deck, which is the one area the crazy chicken lady won’t let them go. When they do get up there, one of us will chase them off. One day, after chasing them off the deck repeatedly, I got frustrated and started chasing them all over the yard. I looked like Rocky Balboa, only 15% crazier.

After I hounded the chickens back to their coop, they didn’t come on the deck again for the rest of the day. (They did on subsequent days; chickens aren’t known for their long-term memory skills.)

When my wife or I did just enough to get them one foot off the deck, they’d quickly come back, and one of us would have to get up and chase them off over and over again. When I channeled my inner Rocky, chased them all over the yard, and finished the job, neither of us would have to get up again. It took me a little more time and effort to do the job 100%, but then it was done for the day. I didn’t have to touch that job again.

And I entertained my wife.

When we do most of a job, but not all of it in an effort to save time and energy, we find ourselves coming back and having to touch that same job time and time again. But if we instead invest just a portion of that effort and energy up front to do ALL of the job – to finish it 100% – then we can move on to the next task, knowing the one we just completed is finished for good.

Otherwise, we spend all of our time chasing chickens.

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