All I Really Need to Know I Learned from a Picture Book
Sometimes life lessons come in surprising packages. Working with children’s books on a daily basis, very few take me by surprise. Peter H. Reynolds’s collective work literally took my breath away when I discovered it. Of these, perhaps So Few of Me is my favorite.
So Few of Me is the story of boy named Leo who, like many other boys, has chores to do. He realizes he might get the jobs done more quickly if there were two of him, so he splits. But if two is good, isn’t three better? How about four? And once there are enough of him to do the work, well a few more are needed to handle the supervision, the cooking, the cleaning… the jobs never end! Now there’s more work than ever and no one’s having any fun! The lesson? “What if I did less—but did my best?”
What If I Did My Best?
Do you ever feel like Leo? I know I do, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one. I mean, if there were more of me, I wouldn’t spend free time cleaning the house. I’d keep up on auto maintenance, have more time to play with my dog, earn more degrees… Once you start thinking like this, this list never ends. What’s the result? We end up feeling like Leo–more worn out than ever and with little to show for it.
Counteract Multiplicity Syndrome
To keep yourself sane and (hopefully) happy, take Leo’s approach: a nap under a tree. Okay, maybe not a tree, but the point is to stop everything and just relax. Let go of your to-do list, turn off any background noise, and just breathe for awhile. Remember how good that feels?
Then, try the following:
1. Cross any “It would be nice if” items off your to-do list. Do you have to go to that meeting? Would you be okay if you didn’t find a new shirt for the concert next weekend? Guess what? You already need fewer of you to get things done!
2. Pencil in sleep, breaks, and commitments with friends and family. It’s easy to push these things aside when there’s so much to do, but keeping yourself and your relationships healthy is the only way you’re ever going to really accomplish anything. Give these items first priority and fit everything else into the time that’s left.
3. Think of ways to combine chores or tasks. So you’ve got to clean the house/cook dinner/air up the tires/take care of the yard/iron the kids’ clothes but you also want to keep up to date on that new personal development book you’ll be blogging on? Find the book in digital format and knock it all out! (A lot of libraries offer free access to a whole catalogue of eAudio Books if you’ve got a non-Apple mp3 player.) Be creative and try to combine things that only require your brain to focus on one thing while your hands do another.
4. Think of ways to minimize chores, or eliminate them completely. Maybe you can skip packing a lunch if you cook extra portions of dinner for leftovers. Would you have less laundry to do if you slept naked? Can you air dry clothes so that ironing isn’t even needed? (Or try a wrinkle-releaser?) What if you tried xeriscaping instead of spending hours on the lawn each weekend? Think hard about ways to reclaim your life from the chores you hate. Anything you’d pawn off on a hapless clone is a good candidate for reconsideration.
But Really, Read the Book
So Few of Me condenses a philosophy that can take years to learn into a few brief pages. It’s simple enough for children to understand (trust me, kids don’t always understand moralistic children’s stories), but profound enough to get through to adults. If you’ve been looking for a little inspiration to simplify, then you may want to check this one out from the library.
July 21st, 2008 at 3:02 am
[...] Doing things better [...]
July 21st, 2008 at 4:53 am
[...] Doing things better [...]