Is it really too much?
In our culture, our instinct is to fill it up. We’re used to having a coffee cup that nearly reaches the rim or a level of debt that’s just below our debt limit. If we don’t want to risk spilling the hot coffee or be caught with not enough credit to handle an unexpected crisis, then we could just get a smaller “container.”
If we don’t want to do more of something, the path is just as obvious. If we have our bank automatically siphon off $10 a week to savings, we’ll discover that our checking account balance doesn’t change so much. And if we put a smaller scoop in the candy jar, we’ll take less every time!
Often the real problem isn’t what we have, it’s how big a container we’ve chosen. That’s why they suggest that if we want to eat less, to use smaller plates!
We all do know that we choose the size of our container as well as choosing what goes in it. So depending on whether we want to spend less money or lose some weight, we can remember that it isn’t so much the wish or resolution to do it that will make it happen.
We could just choose to eat our elephant in smaller bites. (or is it that frog we were supposed to eat?)
I really do get that for me:
- scheduling less into my day,
- using a smaller scoop,
- putting that small amount of money in my savings before I even see it,
means that at this time of life I choose a smaller container and experience the reality of the idea that “less is indeed more.”
So what size of container are you choosing for those projects in your life?