The End of a Thing

 

Why is there such joy in problem solving?

Probably because when tasks seem daunting there is a need to want to get help. Whether car repair or new plumbing, the beginning of a project is like looking up at a mountain you have to climb.

 It’s all stress and insecurity and unknowns. Two questions hang loosely in the air like a fine mist--How long is this going to take and do I know what I’m doing?

Two years ago I decided to tile my kitchen floor. I did a little research (YouTube) and talked to the guys at Lowes. I made multiple trips to pick up equipment I’d missed the first time. I rented a tile cutter after the hand one proved useless. I bought cement backer board to lie down under the tile. My neighbor owed me a favor so I asked him to work off his debt by helping. He had done it once before and I needed someone with experience.

I would describe the finished product as decent, just don't look too close. It wasn’t pretty and we made some mistakes measuring and cutting the tiles but it came off right. I didn’t figure it out completely. I had help but the bulk of the work was me and my neighbor talked me through some of it. The planning and execution felt good and some of the insecurity I initially felt washed away with the cleanup.

Seeing a project to its end brings a reward unlike anything else.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to use WordPress. Trying to get my business going is a challenge for a lot of reasons but mostly, it’s my lack of knowledge with WordPress. I don’t think I realized what I was getting into but that’s a gripe for another day. Time spent trying to figure out how to make the website colorful, put borders around text or add images is not my idea of fun.

Someone has to do it though. I can’t keep paying some freelancer to do aesthetic stuff. Yesterday I sat down and just worked it. I opened every box, clicked every clickable icon, edited every piece of text and previewed the results a hundred times. It seemed ridiculous to spend so much time and energy on such a simple task. I’ll spend hours writing and not notice the time but 5 minutes on an image, outrageous!

 But I figured it out. The process dogged me until I nearly broke the screen in a fit of rage, but I figured it out.

Solving problems (even little ones) is rewarding because we see ourselves differently. An exclamation mark replaces the question mark.  Often, the actual problem isn’t that tough but my attitude works against me. My lack of will to start in the first place puts a lid on the whole ordeal. It’s probably the single biggest roadblock to progress. I’ve noticed this in all types of scenarios. Whenever a difficult or unwanted task demands attention I make it worse with my lack of enthusiasm or just plain loathing.

Self improvement is this way too. From fad diets for weight loss and CrossFit for muscle, if our attitude is less than enthusiastic we’ll never see it through. King Solomon wrote “The end of a thing is better than its beginning; the patient in spirit is better the proud in spirit.” (Ecclesiastes 7:8) I imagine he saw a lot of efforts fail due to attitude or neglect. He must have known the troubles that creep in with building projects. He is responsible for the temple which took 7 years to complete. Building anything requires patience and diligence. It also requires a flexible, resilient attitude to all the changes that come up. How often does a plan that takes 7 years to complete go according to script?

Solomon doesn’t strike me as a rotten attitude kind of guy. I don’t mean he didn’t get angry and shout at the builders on occasion or kick the unfinished walls after a fight with the designers, I am talking about his passion for the job. His commitment saw the project through no matter how bad the day to day alterations were. The finished work of the temple wasn’t just a load off his shoulders, it was a standing testament to diligence.

Beginnings are easy. I begin projects all the time. Sometimes I even begin longer term ones that take weeks or months, like online classes and landscaping jobs. In between starting and finishing is a whole world of problems to solve that knock people out. That middle bit gets tricky. But challenge yourself to see the next one through and you’ll know what Solomon meant about the end being superior to the beginning.