By moving that pile, weekly progress achieves goals

Herbs. A dear friend and mentor once described it to me as “something whose intrinsic value has not yet been discovered.” Since my back and front yards quickly became overwhelmed with wild weeds that sprouted and spread, I completely agreed with that statement. If I were a deer that enjoyed munching on wild leaves throughout the woods in my natural habitat, I could probably find some value in 50 square feet of weeds. However, I am not a deer. I am a human being – I am a human being. I’m not sure weed tastes great or will do any good for my digestive system. So, I don’t need weed. This led to the “Weed Control” project.

Instead of mowing the weeds once a week or spraying them with a nasty weed-killing substance, I looked for alternative ways to mitigate the mental and emotional effects that the mundane task of weed control was having on me. Waking up one weekend morning to dig around in my shed to pull out my lawn mower, getting powdery debris of plant material on my skin and in my eyes, and sweating profusely was not at the top of my list after a long work week. I’d rather sit inside for a few hours and take a look at the inside of my house that I only see in the early morning and the remaining hours at dinnertime before I venture into dreamland. As a solution, she discovered that covering the weeds with wood chips would naturally suppress their desire to reproduce. Instead of waging chemical warfare by mechanically shredding its leaves to see the weed grow back to its normal length next week, I can remove the source that encourages it to grow: the sun. This meant that I had to remove the origin of the photosynthesis process by laying out the used cardboard and covering the area with a generous amount of wood chips. Best of all, the supplies were at the right price, for free.

After inquiring with freechipdrop.com, I had a dump truck’s worth of wood chips in my parking lot within a few days. It was a scary and powerful sight, as that pile of wood chips looked like a great deal of work on my part. I grabbed my metal shovel, wheelbarrow, and flathead shovel. It was time to start collecting, moving and spreading the chips to cover up the weed colony that had been disrupting my Sunday relaxation. After hours of filling my wheelbarrow and traveling to the next patch of grass destination to disperse the chips, I noticed that I had made a small hole in the pile. I saw what an hour’s work could do to this pile. I noticed the mound reduced in surface area by reducing the height and radius of the ground area it covered. This project will take a few days of hour-long work periods to complete.

Fortunately, I had a friend who offered to help with this project. Thank God for friends. I told him that if we met for one hour twice a week, we could get rid of this pile. This meant I had two hours of work to invest in this pile twice a week. Over the course of two weeks, my friend and I produced eight hours of shoveling, wheelbarrow and shovel use. Before we knew it, the pile was gone, and I had a driveway to park. Most importantly, I successfully got rid of those worthless weeds.

What was noteworthy was how setting appointments within realistic and manageable time frames to get things done has sped up my project completion. Wood chips on a small mountain can be intimidating and difficult to motivate yourself to grab the shovel and start moving the pile. One full scoop doesn’t seem like a lot. However, an hour of shoveling equates to a significant amount of progress.

This experience led me to think about the progress our personal training clients can make in their fitness goals when initially deciding to motivate and dedicate themselves to a fitness program. Whether it’s a package of 10 small group fitness classes or making a more significant investment to sign up for three- to six-month fitness classes at a private personal training facility, yoga or Pilates studio, it’s hard to see the needle moving toward progress. . Losing weight, gaining strength, or reducing pain doesn’t happen overnight. Like a giant pile of wood chips, it takes planning and time to progress and achieve your fitness goals. Fitness adaptations can only be seen if we consistently practice and adhere to weekly exercise sessions.

It’s amazing how much can be accomplished if we invest small increments of time in projects and goals. Sometimes, things don’t happen right away. However, if we plan our strategy and set weekly deadlines for completing tasks, we can see gradual progress until the task is completed.