See the end in the beginning
The Portsmouth Naval Prison, in the town where my father grew up, has been closed since 1974. But to a person imprisoned here before that, their time must have seemed interminable.
My dad loves to talk about his adolescence and young adulthood. He’s got great stories of all of his early jobs, most notably working at his grandmother’s vacation cabins and shop, the Kittery-York Drive-In, and Mount Snow ski resort. But he decided to be proactive and enlist in the Air Force in 1966.
As much as my dad loves hard work, he did not love being in the service, although he made the best of it and has a lot of stories about that, too. His favorite one is to share his early mindset about joining the military. “I just kept thinking about 1970, when I’d be out. It felt so far away.” And then the punchline: “And now 1970 is fifty years ago!”
When you’re young, it’s hard to have this perspective. All we can do is borrow it from someone older, which we’re not always willing to do. “Just do this stupid assignment! It will only take ten minutes! You’ve already spent twenty minutes whining about it.” After another hour of tantrums, perhaps spiced up by some writhing around on the floor, the tear-streaked worksheet will be complete. “See? Was that so bad?” But the message is lost. In fact, it was so bad. It will be awhile before the child will see that an assignment doesn’t have to trigger ninety minutes of misery.
I was good about homework as a kid, but I was awful about doing chores and required many reminders to do simple tasks like emptying the dishwasher or folding the laundry. However, now I actually like doing these things. Why? I can see the end in the beginning. I like having a clean sink and clean, folded clothes. What’s more, I like seeing myself as a person who has these things. As a result, it has become far easier to be that person.
Long ago, I could have been that person who did what I was asked, when I was asked to do it. But I was selfish and immature. I didn’t get that it would make my mother feel good if I did my chores promptly or that it would make me feel good to have done so. All I could see was the pain of having to stop what I was doing and take seven hours to empty the dishwasher. No…seven minutes. But my dumb adolescent brain couldn’t tell the difference. So I balked and procrastinated and whined.
I remember feeling about college like my dad felt about the Air Force. Every semester, I wanted to quit. A few times, I almost did. But I stuck it out. My cousin Chris surprised me by showing up at my college graduation. He offered to drive the three hours home to my parents’ house, which was fortunate because I had been awake the entire night before. I snoozed in the front seat as we listened to Abbey Road. Every so often, I’d wake up and say, “Chris.”
“Yes, Casey?”
“Chris. I never have to go back.”
“Yes, you said that already.”
The agony I felt in facing each semester of college is now a long way back in the rearview mirror. I’m glad I was able to get through it and get my degree; in retrospect, it just doesn’t seem that hard. I’ve done a lot of harder things since then, with much less drama.
These days, I try to see the end in the beginning in most of my tasks and projects, and that’s what keeps me moving forward. No matter how difficult my work may seem, I know I can get to the end of it. What’s more, I can already envision what I will feel like when I complete it, and I like that feeling. That feeling is worth the discomfort of doing something hard. Sometimes, that feeling is so strong that it permeates the whole experience, meaning that I actually enjoy mundane tasks like sending emails, documenting procedures, and organizing project timelines. I can already feel the satisfaction of the finished product.
These positive feelings about work can even eclipse the shame of having procrastinated or dropped the ball on something. Once I’m underway on something I had been dreading, I feel relief. It’s as Mary Poppins (and Aristotle) said: “Well begun is half done.”
I don’t rely on self-discipline to get through my to-do list. Rather, I associate the work with the positive feelings that it will generate. I anticipate the sense of accomplishment that will follow my efforts. This bright future casts its glow into the present, just as the eastern horizon glows with the promise of sunrise. I have learned through experience that I can depend on these things.
If you could see the end in the beginning, how might it change your work? If you weren’t in it — if you were to look at this moment from the vantage point of twenty, thirty, fifty years in the future — what would you see that you can’t see now?
And if you think about who you want to be in that future, what choices do you make today in order to become that person? Where have you already learned this lesson successfully? You may be able to use your wins in one area to help you in another. Then, be sure to take some time to reflect on your success so that you will remember it next time. Wherever it is you’re going, you’re almost there.
