small hard things

Here's what I found the other day in Alex and Brett Harris' book Do Hard Things: their top five list of why small hard things are so difficult:

1. They don't usually go away after you do them.

2. They don't seem very important.

3. They don't seem to make any difference.

4. They don't seem very glamorous.

5. No one is watching.

Then the five ways "we fail to do small hard things":

1. Procrastination

2. Inconsistency

3. Compromise

4. Begrudging

5. Cheating

While it's written for adolescents and youth adults, the principles are universal for all ages. It's the small hard things that get me almost every time. Washing another sink (and the counter and the other counter and the stove) of dirty pans and dishes. Finding a place for all those little odds and ends laying around the edges of almost every room of the house. Trying to exert patience at another round of insistent pestering by a small child about a treat or doing a project or reading a book while the dishes pile up, the clutter piles up or the unfolded clothes pile up.

But on my mind is the quote by Mother Teresa: "We can do no great things. Only small things with great love." And another: "We are not called to be successful, but faithful." She said lots of great things and backed them up with what she spent her time doing: things certainly less glamorous than my duties entail.