I have discovered a remarkable formula for productivity:

nothing + anything = something

Profound? Well, perhaps abominably obvious, but this was the conclusion I drew when undertaking post-graduate study some years ago. Life was busy – as it is for us all. Pressures and demands snatched what spare time I might have had, such that I found myself writing much of my assessable work between the hours of 10pm and 2am.

It probably wasn’t always the best work I could have done and it certainly wasn’t as easy as it had been many years before when I’d do an ‘all nighter’ of study as an undergrad. Life was different. I was no longer that carefree girl, but a wife, a mother, a full-time employee, a team mate, a home renovator and more. Time was precious.

At some point in that lengthy journey I had to decide whether to keep going or to give it away. Was it worth the cost? Many things had changed since enrolling in the program and when it came to productivity, I was largely beating against the wind. But then, nothing + anything …

During those odd hours of night, I realised that something is always better than nothing. Even if what I wrote wasn’t that great, I could always rewrite it, but I could never reclaim that time. If I was to complete the course, I had to squeeze from those opportunities what productivity I could. And, finally, I made it to the end.

No, I’m not advocating mediocrity, but I think that sometimes when it seems we’re stuck in time or facing impossible odds, we need to set a little goal and do something, even if it seems insignificantly small. And if you start, you often gain momentum. With time being such a rare commodity, I often have to remind myself that every choice defines what is important in my world; and sometimes I make a poor call. Sometimes I forget the cost of my choices. Time can never be reclaimed (and as a parent that becomes increasingly apparent!). We need to choose where to spend our time wisely, even if it’s a matter of something being better than nothing.

Perhaps I’ve been struck with a touch of Olympic fever, but have you ever thought how easy it is to run downhill? Every stride is strong and long. The world rushes by and you feel like a super athlete – until the next hill …

Just as ‘what goes up, must come down’ so must every downhill path have an equal and opposite uphill track.

Sometimes life feels like those downhill runs: easy, fast, with the wind in your face and lots of friends willing to run with you. When we hit an upward incline, often the friends that were happy to scoot down can drift off – either digging in and running ahead of us, or lagging behind. It takes deliberate effort to make progress. Your heart has to work harder, you often have to run alone and you might even be tempted to just go home and eat chocolate. (Not that there’s anything wrong with eating chocolate! 🙂 )

The reality is that if you ever want to see the best views or breathe the purest air, you have to go uphill. If you want to get out of a valley, you have to brave the rocky slope of the mountainside (and where I live, there is good opportunity to find a track like that!). Often the only option to sitting in the valley forever is to put on some weather worn joggers and start that upward trudge towards your next destination.

Are you running a hill? Perhaps you have blisters on your toes and you feel like you’re running alone. Remember that for every hill there is a crest and then a downhill stint to enjoy. And the fascinating thing I’ve discovered about running uphill is that the more often you do it, the easier it gets. Then you can take on the mountain!