Thinking Out Loud, Volume CDVII

When a person has been at the same job for a while, there are some little tricks he learns that saves time and makes the performance of that job a little easier. I'm sure it would only take you a few seconds to think of some examples of what I'm talking about, but have you ever taken the time to question whether that same idea could be used in other areas of your life? I have, and I've been amazed at what I've come up with. There's one in particular I have in mind, and with the new year coming up, I feel like today would be a good time to talk about it. For most of my adult life, my career has been connected to the apparel industry. When I first started, I would watch the "seasoned veterans" at work, and I noticed how, if they were moving merchandise from one rack to another, they could move as many as forty-eight pieces of clothing at one time simply by squeezing them together, lifting them, and carrying them to the other rack. So I tried it. The first few times were a disaster. I could lift them from the rack, but when I started walking with them, the ones in the middle would start to fall and would soon be all over the floor, especially if they were made from fabrics like nylon or rayon. Then one day I figured it out....if I would continually try to squeeze a little harder, I could make it work. It dawned on me that if I didn't keep trying to squeeze harder, even without realizing it, I would begin to relax my grip. It has taken a few failed attempts at other projects in life to figure out that the same principle applies to practically anything I attempt if I want to become successful. Let's take a look at the most popular New Year's resolution, losing weight. So many people will set their goals and even stick with them until the goals are reached, and then they change the plan from losing to maintaining. That's when disaster strikes. They begin to relax a little, and then the entire program falls apart. There is a one word definition that describes the end of maintaining: Fat. That is the result of relaxing. A young man asked me recently, "At what age does a person reach the stage of life where he is no longer tempted to do wrong?" My answer: "I don't know. I'm only sixty-two." I think if he would've asked that same question of my father in law, his answer would've been, "I don't know. I'm only ninety-one." What I really believe he was asking was, "When will I reach the point to where I don't have to try so hard, and I can just maintain?" In that situation, the end result of maintaining is "doing wrong." There is a danger in "maintaining" that we seldom consider before we begin, because the entire premise behind maintaining is the privilege of easing up a little. I can't think of any area of life where that's safe. I remember one day as I was moving a big group of ladies' blouses from one rack to another, I said to myself, "I'm gonna squeeze hard enough to lift these blouses from the rack and make sure I just maintain the same grip without trying to squeeze harder." The result: Blouses all over the floor. I once heard a preacher talking about our walk with God, and he said there is no such thing as maintaining our spiritual life at the same level...we're either getting closer to God or we're drifting away. I've found that to be true in basically any area of life that requires effort. We must continually try to squeeze harder. Preston