I arrived in a classroom the other day to find some lab equipment left as a tangled mess. As the agent of order that I often find myself to be, I set to unraveling it. While doing so, I had time to reflect on what I was doing, why I was doing it, and thinking that this is a decent metaphor for clearing the chaos in other aspects of our lives.
There were ten groupings of four strings each; one end of all four strings was tied to a large ring, while the other end of each string was tied to a small ring (not connected to the others). It appeared that they must have all fallen to the floor, and someone had tried to pull them by the large rings - which tightened the tangles into knots, rather than getting them free. A couple strings were freed, but not much progress was made before the project had been abandoned.
At first, I picked a small ring and tried to get its string completely free of all the other strings - so that with one fewer string in the bundle, the rest should be a little easier to deal with. But, since there were 40 strings tangled together, I didn't get far before that became very challenging. It was tempting to give up, since this wasn't really my mess, and I wasn't going to be using this equipment anyway.
I reflected on what I was doing. My goal wasn't really to get that one string free of the rest - it was to untangle the whole bunch. And I had the time to help, and noticed that help was needed. So I changed my strategy: rather than sticking with a single string until it was done, I looked for strings that would be easy to untangle, at least a little bit. I got each of those as clear as I could until it got to a tougher knot - and moved on to another group that was easier.
For a while, it wasn't clear that things were getting better. But little by little, things got more and more clear and organized. Then one big ring of four came clear. And another. And another. Then there was another challenging stretch, but now that I had a routine that I knew would work, I wasn't discouraged. So eventually, it was done.
While I was working, I found that much of it wasn't truly knotted, just tangled. And that's because it was an accidental drop, not someone maliciously trying to make it as hard to fix as possible. Most of the messes we encounter in our lives (literal and metaphorical) are caused by accident or neglect - so clearing them often ends up being easier than it seems like it will be when we first spot the problem. Even those messes from intentional malice are usually caused by people who aren't diligent in their efforts - diligence, patience, and attention to detail are virtues, and virtues usually come together. If that weren't the case, then just a few mean people would cause civilization to crumble.
Some other lessons:
- When engaged in any activity, it's good to reflect on what you're doing and why you're doing it. And, considering whether there's a more effective way of working toward your goal.
- Do helpful things where and when you see the opportunity.
- When you have a big project in front of you, tackle one small piece at a time. As long as you're always making progress, it will be accomplished.