As I turned on the car’s ignition, nothing happened.
The car should have started, and we should have been on our way home, but nothing happened. It was a few minutes before I realised that I had left the lights of the car on and the battery had run out of juice.
Not one to be easily fazed by problems, I set out to find a battery and a couple of wires to jumpstart my car. Without boring you with details, let me tell you that I arranged both the things within a few minutes.
Then, I remembered something else. A few days ago I was having trouble with the hood of my car.
Not hoping for the worst, I said a silent prayer and tried to open the hood of the car, and it didn’t open. There seemed to be something wrong with the spring that popped the hood. So, here I was with a spare battery and a wire, ready for use, but the hood wouldn’t open.
I now had another problem on my hands, and an even greater one than the first. The fact that I couldn’t even begin to solve the first problem until I had taken care of the second was infuriating.
I realized something that day.
Most people are really good at problem solving. But, how many are good at problem preventing?
I had known for a few days that there was a problem with the hood of my car, but I chose not to do anything about it and wait till it was time for the routine maintenance of the car. I had to pay the price for my error by spending more than an hour on a problem that could have been solved in about fifteen minutes.
And that is how it is for most things.
When we choose to ignore or postpone small matters because they, by themselves, pose no problems, we are inviting bigger troubles. When Emily Dickinson said, “if you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves. You can gain more control over your life by paying closer attention to the little things,” she wasn’t very far from the truth.
Whether it is personal life, or professional, there are little things around us that we tend to ignore and when crisis strikes these things make even simple problems seem insurmountable. It is best that the small things are taken care of on a routine basis, so that when a problem arises, our ability to deal with it is at its best.
So, look around you and make sure that you have taken care of the little things in your life, and, I am sure, the greater things will take care of themselves.
(Image Source: Daino_16 by freeimages.com)
What do you think?