The Importance of Pacing Yourself!

I have always been that kind of person, who, when given a job to do, I got right on it and worked my ass off til it got done. Life has always seemed that way for me and I long ago adopted this kind of ...well can I call it work ethic. I always get up, shower right away and head right into any of the chores I gotta get to that day. If I am working on a commissioned piece, that comes first...but then I will stay up to midnight if need be...to do the more mondane...yet necessary things. Mostly, I like to get the work done....and on to play time. I rarely sit on my butt with nothing to do.

I think I got it all wrong!

Have you ever passed a construction site where you didn't see...oh maybe one man working...and four or five more standing around watching him work. I am sure they must be discussing the more technical details of the job and not the great sports event they watched the night before, and they really can not help being totally distracted by every cute young thing that walks by...they are men afterall. But you can drive past the same site, hours later and you will see much the same thing, one working and four "supervising".

They know how to pace themselves!

When the foreman of the crew hired to build my neighbours fence, knocked on my door to introduce himself and inform me that he and his crew would likely need access to my back yard for two weeks...I snickered. Not at his polite manner nor his request for access...but at the fact he thought it would take two weeks to build a fence. Snort...I could build the fence in less than two weeks...and I'm a DIY nightmare.

Who's the fool....well that would me Moi!

I so forgot these guys know how to pace themselves. If you look at the picture, I hope you can see exactly what I mean. Sprawled out under the shade tree in all his glory...the fittest of the bunch. I am guessing he was in his thirties, his two counterparts...oh...I'm goin' with not a day shy of seventy. The routine quickly became, carry three bricks...and lay down...break time every ten minutes...from 8:00 am til quittin' time. I get it with the seventy year olds, good Lord they should be on a golf course....but the star ...completely decked out in his construction penny loafers and black socks, toting his knapsack full of mysterious beer - coloured water (yep uh huh...I'm buyin' that one). He set the pace.

I've been studying the work ethic all week. Maybe I'm the one who's got it all wrong! It works so well for them....they come...they lay...they get paid at the end of the day...no one's broke a sweat and it all looks so....so stress free (well okay...maybe the beer coloured water helps there!). I think I'm going to give it a try. Perhaps I should get my employer on board...so she knows the program and how to follow it. I'm thinkin she will want to know why that 10 hour job is suddenly taking a week...she does not know how to pace herself!

And incidently.....it has been three and a half weeks since they started the fence, and you guessed it....still not done.

But I finally know..the importance of pacing yourself!