When I got married 6+ years ago, my wife brought more than her tangible stuff into my life. She also brought her habits, her processes, her strategy, time-honored and -honed traditions that were second nature to her, but left me wondering what I had strolled into. This feeling is, no doubt, familiar to many. One of these subtle tactics has taught me a valuable lesson: the power of The Soak.
I am an elbow-grease guy, someone who has always subscribed to the mantra: 'To succeed is easy; simply work four times harder than everyone else.' You could say that working hard is in my DNA; hence, I have never met a dish that I couldn't clean. Sure, sometimes it would take a brillo pad or a razor blade, but no amount of dried-on ketchup, cemented-on cereal, or burnt-on whatever could stand in my way. Roll up the sleeves, get the water good and hot, and dive in. Apparently, this tactic is not universal.
Three days after our honeymoon, I walked into the kitchen and saw them: dishes. Dishes in a state I had never in my life encountered; they were not waiting to be cleaned, they were not already cleaned, they were in some sort of holding pattern, like someone started cleaning them and then just disappeared. I was staring at Dish Limbo, and it unsettled me.
I'll admit it: one night in the months following my exposure to The Soak, alone in the house, I broke down and tried it out. And it worked. Unbelievably well, in fact. The rice, it just rubbed right off; the ketchup just melted away. Apparently, I married into a 'work smarter' philosophy without even knowing. In the hard-scrub vs. smart-soak battle, letting the water do the work for you...well. that will win every time.
In my company, we work hard. We tag, upload, edit, market, sell, design, manufacture, maintain, create, link, manage, research, value-add, retool, improve, think, and rethink long into the night, oftentimes too long into the night. And that is not a bad thing.
What is potentially hazardous, however, is if we do not take the time to listen to others who might just offer up another way of accomplishing these same tasks. If we do not stop and breathe, pick our heads up and look around, notice that our partners do not have the same dishpan hands as we do...if we fail to capitalize on the power of the tools we rely on, be they water or CPU, then we are the ones who will ultimately tire out, which in our business means losing the race.
Oftentimes, business send out a call to arms, an active push, a fierce and forceful rallying cry. Just make sure that you take a breath between battles, take notice of what you are fighting with and what you are fighting against, and realize that perspiration is a good thing, unless it drowns you.
Sprinkle some smart-work amongst your hard-work, and let's take back what is ours, not only by rolling up our sleeves, but also by taking a good look at our hands. If you see more wrinkles than normal, maybe it's time to let things soak for a little while.
shanti,
mjh
