The Art of Leaving Things Undone

“A wise man [Lin Yutang, 1937] once distinguished between ‘the noble art of getting things done’ and ‘a nobler art of leaving things undone.’ True ‘wisdom in life,’ he taught, consists of ‘the elimination of non-essentials.’ ”

“What are the nonessential things that clutter your days and steal your time? What are the habits you may have developed that do not serve a useful purpose? What are the unfinished or unstarted things that could add vigor, meaning, and joy to your life?”

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

The Lecture

The lecture on the way to school today was directed at the kids, but it was really for me.

Me: "We cannot live like this anymore. We cannot go to bed late, leave our stuff lying around, and lollygag all morning. What are you going to do tomorrow to get to school on time?"

Isaac: "We're going to start today by putting our stuff away when we get home, clean our room, do our homework and put it away."

Yea. How can I expect my children to do the things they should, when I don't? Up until 1 am sewing an apron and watching movies. My stuff lying all over the house. Me lollygagging around instead of doing the things that are expedient for the moment.

How many years must I struggle with myself before I conquer these silly habits? Will I ever grow up? Am I passing along the laziness and avoidance behavior to my children, multiplying it?

Addiction

It's a good thing I bought into all those standards I learned in Young Women, because I have a pretty addictive personality. I'm pretty sure I'd be addicted to coffee and alcohol if I ever had had the chance to develop a taste for them.

Constant addictions for me include chocolate and more chocolate. Doing "useful" things on the computer before much more useful things like housework. Nail-biting.

Then there's the sporadic addictions that come in waves, like Facebook, which I'm currently not all that interested in. That one was displaced by my latest addiction to the new FamilySearch. And right now I'm trying to supplant my chocolate addiction with clementine oranges, but my mouth is starting to hurt from that one, so I'll probably go back to chocolate soon. Sometimes I'm addicted to gardening, then I move on to reading, sometimes it's my calling, sometimes it's cooking.

Will I ever get to a point where I can let go of an addiction, instead of just replacing it with another? Will I ever find moderation and consistency with all the good things in life?