All or nothing?

What you give may be what you get.

I have been rolling this over in my mind this morning as I was kicking myself in the butt. Why was I kicking myself? Because I found myself in a situation of having to do something when it could have been done already. Months ago as we finished off projects around our condo before we listed, I was told to not paint the basement....there was so much other things to do. I knew there was lots to do,but the way the basement looked was a HUGE turn off for me being left in such an unfinished state SO close to being done......especially in contrast to the rest of the space. I went through many sleepless nights pondering the things we needed to get done and I decided to get out of bed and head to the basement and paint. I finished off the mudding and sanding in the stairwell and primed and painted the walls and the stairs as I thought about the other things I had to get done in other areas of the house and my life. I couldn't do much else while others were sleeping and in the end, it turned out well. But one thing lingered on my mind...."I really should finish off the walls in the living space as well.....it just needs a little sanding and I could prime and paint it while I have the stuff out. WELL.....I didn't. I didn't give it the couple hours of attention to just finish it off. I know I did something, but I didn't do it all and now I am back at having to finish it anyhow. It's taking more time as it is now a furnished instead of an empty room and I have to shuffle around and move furniture in order to get at the walls.

In all this I thought about applying myself to anything I want to do it life. I shuddered at the fact of doing anything with a half-attempt, not really caring how I do it or not or doing the work grudgingly. Where is the satisfaction in that? If I am going to do anything, I am going to give my all (or whole heart) to it....regardless if it is something I think I won't like. Because I realized, that regardless of liking what I do or not, it the getting it done and done well that I get a KICK out of. Every clean up dog doodoo in the spring time......not fun. However, after cleaning it all up off your lawn,you know that you can enjoy taking care of your lawn and going onto it without worrying about rolling in a dog's leftovers.

I also thought about wanting to get something out of what I put into it. If I am all or nothing, and I put nothing into it, what am I going to get out of it? NOTHING! If I put my half-effort into doing something, how much do I expect to get in return? I should expect half. But if I put my ALL and full effort into doing something, then I can hope to expect a whole lot in return. As I did my workout this morning I gave it my ALL. I didn't finish it all, but for what I did do, I got the most out of it. I did do something as opposed to nothing, but in the SOMETHING I did, I gave it my all! I have muscle awareness all over the place HAHA and it is soooo satisfying. I know that my example of giving my full effort to whatever it is I do, will be seen and hopefully lived out in my children, in my friends and family too. I AM going for ALL as half or nothing doesn't sit well with me. =D