Elephants? Who wants to eat elephants? One bite at at time? Eww. I’ll take the chicken thank you very much.
We have all heard this little adage, no? “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” But I am not supposed to use such a thing as an adage in my writing. So, forget that for now.
What is the best way to get things done? How should a person approach a full day? A full schedule? A massive project with one maddening lingering deadline waiting to stab its unforgiving fingers into your eyeballs!?
Allow me to introduce the method of plodding. The act of doing a little each day over a long period of time. This for me, a chronic procrastinator, was a game changer (there I go again). I do things in a mad rush with the elegance of a bull in a china shop (sorry). It seems the deadline is my inspiration. But I have stumbled across this new way of doing things primarily through the likes of Doulas Wilson, a pastor from Moscow, Idaho.
Despite some of the controversy many have with Pastor Doug, I find him to be a breath of fresh air amongst the smog of most Christian thinkers and writers today (sorry again, it’s getting worse isn’t it?). His little treatise on plodding (title below) has inspired me to take swings at big projects in little blows each day. Like a man cutting down a tree but only making ten swings at it each day. Eventually the tree falls and probably while he is in the house eating toast. As if the tree fell all on its own, but he knows better.
I hope to write more on this subject as I have found it most helpful especially after reading Pastor Doug’s book entitled Ploductivity: A Practical Theology of Work & Wealth. Published by Canon Press.
In reality, this has been my method in Bible reading. A few chapters each day, consistent over a long period of time means eventually I have read the Bible cover to cover. Then I rinse and repeat (another one, sorry again). Not all giants fall at one stone’s throw (was that one?), but they sure tend to get lost or die in the midst of hailing rocks upon their heads. I have found this new way of doing things can translate in to all areas in life. I think of it as a drip of water on a stone. Eventually it makes its way into the heart of it. Changing it completely into a bowl full of, well, water.
Begin plodding today. Try it out. That massive project, that book, that novel you have been meaning to write, that room you need to clean out, are all waiting for you to begin. So take that leap of faith (…hehe) and begin plodding brothers and sisters. Time waits for no man (this is ridiculous, but fun)!
