"Anticipate the Difficult by Managing the Easy"

"Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy."
Lao Tzu

Have you ever felt like you have "too much going on in your life"? Many people become overwhelmed when a big project comes up. There is a much easier way to live your life! Lao Tzu (an ancient Chinese Philosopher) had the answer long before you and I had the question of how to manage our lives, bussiness, relationships, and family. His words were very simple and quite Direct: "Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy."


Many of the eastern philosophies seem abstract or difficult to understand, but this one is quite simple. One must keep up with the small tasks so that when a big project comes along, it is not overbearing. For example:
--- If you were to have family come and visit from out of town, there can be much preparation needed, shopping, planning, meals, cleaning, etc. If your house is a total DISASTER, cleaning may seem like the most dreaded and time consuming task. But if we follow the philosophy of Lao Tzu then this will not be the case. The solution to cutting your preparation in half would simply be to keep your house clean. Do not procrastinate! When there are dirty dishes.... Clean them. When there is dirty laundry.... Wash it.---


If your life is a disaster; instead of trying to look outward for the solution (ie. work is stressful, this is happening, that happened, etc,), look at the way you are living your life. Is your house a wreck, are your finances organized, do you have a plan for tomorrow (or are you just winging it?). If your life is a disaster, it is your fault! Not your boss', Family's, etc fault. It is not beneficial to blame others when you can fix it yourself.


In bussiness, preparation is everything. Have you ever been to a restaraunt and had to wait forever because the kitchen did not have everything prepared yet. What might happen if a party of 10 were to come in to order? There would be Chaos! No one expects a party of ten to arrive at opening time, but when it does happen, would it not be better to be ready for them? Do you run your business this way? If you do not stay on top of the small things, then the big things will seem huge! If you only do paperwork once a week on Friday, what will happen if you get a surprise audit on Wednesday?  Would it not have saved you a lot of headache to have finished all of your tasks by the end of each day? Now this simple standard audit has turned into a big issue, which probably caused you even more work.


This ideal is much easier said than done! But it is easier to do this than its alternative. If you keep your life clean and organised, then you will avoid much headache. Keep your desk organised at work, Keep your house clean, keep your dishes washed, keep a stock of things you need so that you do not run out in a time of need. If you live your life without procrastination, then you will be happy, and probably have more time and money to do the things that you would like to do!