How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything
Every Single Thing You Do, Do It Well
When I was growing up, the person who spent the most time with me was my grandmother. When I was a kid she was already past 65 and retired. She took care of raising me and taking care of the house while my parents worked.
The most amazing thing about her was her work ethic. Every single thing she did, she made sure to do well. The way she cooked. The way she folded clothes. The way the house was always tidy and spotless. From my point of view, her attention to detail was crazy. She’d yell at me whenever I didn’t shut the door of the closet properly, or folded something in the wrong way. This kind of work ethic was amazing — it was a gift.
Sadly, this didn’t rub off on me. The lesson was in front of me but I never learnt it.
Instead I picked up a different lesson — laziness. My mantra was always “do the job fast, and well enough to pass”, and that’s how I coasted through a very long stretch of my life. This impacted many thing in my life. School is one example. I was by no means a bad student — but I didn’t excel like I could have, and I knew it.
But, I always thought that once a real and serious task comes, something that I really care about, I’ll put all the effort that I’m not putting into it. I thought that I just didn’t care enough.
Alas, that’s not how it works.
When things that I did care about came, I wasn’t up to the task. I wasn’t good enough. And I’m not talking about just serious, important projects and goals. It extends even to mundane things, like housework. Half-assing things was so ingrained in my being that I couldn’t stop when I wanted to.
I was missing a key lesson, a lesson that my grandmother tried to teach me but I never learned.
And then I washed dishes. On acid.
LSD is an interesting drug. It changes your perception in a peculiar way, one that allows you to re-examine the most basic things in life and often come out with totally different outlooks.
This is a trip that I’ve done at home. At the time I was struggling with a tough decision, and took 200 micrograms at home to try and solve it. As is often the case with psychedelics, you take it for one thing, but end up resolving another, much more interesting issue.
While I was tripping I noticed how dirty my house way. Not on purpose — I just neglected to clean it for a few days. We’re talking about 2–3 hours of cleaning to set things right.
Usually this wouldn’t bother me, but LSD often shows you the meaning behind things. For example, that a dirty house is just an extension of your own being. It’s dirty because you are stressed. Because you haven’t been managing your time right. Because you haven’t been doing your job right. It’s a reflection of your inner state — dirty on the inside, dirty on the outside.
I now had the monumental task of fixing my problems, one dirty stain at a time. But under a decent dose of LSD, I found it really hard to do anything for more than a minute — my attention span was similar to that of a 4 year-old. It would shift to something else every 30 seconds.
I tried cleaning the toilet, sweeping the floors, cleaning the windows, but it felt like a losing battle. There was just no way I would be able to clean the entire house in any reasonable amount of time, alone.
Then I started thinking about all the other chores I had. Bills. Projects. Job. The weight of my entire existence felt heavy on my shoulders. It probably sounds like an over-exaggeration to you, but when under the influence of psychedelics one is much more sensitive to their own problems that usual.
Quickly, I found myself defeated. Sitting on my kitchen floor, crying, looking at the unfinished chores around me, I despaired. It wasn’t just the kitchen, or the house that was unfinished. It was life itself. There were so many things that I needed to do. So much responsibility, so many things I’ve neglected to do, and so little time. How does one do everything? How do you fix a life, when you’re acutely aware of all of your problems simultaneously.
It was then that I heard a tiny voice in my mind. A thought that came as if from nowhere. A glimmer of hope. It said a very simple truth.
If from now on, I promise to do every little task to the best of my ability, then I can move mountains. Any big task is just made of smaller, bite sized chunks. If one puts an extra effort, a little bit of flair, into everything single little task, the compounding results will net great rewards over a lifetime.
With this in mind I got up to do dishes, and I put my newfound discovery to use. I made sure to wash every single plate, fork and spoon with the greatest of care. And then I proceeded to clean everything else in the house.
That’s how I’ve been doing everything since. And it works.
Here is what I wrote right after the trip.
Your life is made up of tiny decisions that happen from moment to moment. What if from this point on, you will invest a bit more effort into every little thing you do? Every little thing you do, do it well. When you make your bed in the morning, take an extra effort to make it pretty. When you’re doing an exercise at the gym, go the extra mile to make sure you’re doing it right. Writing a sentence? Make it beautiful. Doing a task at your job? Put a bit more effort to make sure it comes out nicer.
That’s it. No cardinal change. No regiment. No master plan. And yet, the habit of putting a bit of effort and “flair” into every tiny task will yield you compounding results over a lifetime. It’s crazy how many of us are used to do a shoddy job in everything they do.
Stop half-assing your life and start giving a shit. The devil is in the details. It’s the little things that count.
How you anything is how you do everything.
*Disclaimer: I do not endorse the use of drugs in any way. Anything that I “discovered” on any kind of drug can be also discovered without any chemical assistance. This is just my story. Your story is different.
